diy solar

diy solar

Little help choosing mppt

As I was curious, I had to look it up;

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That is Canadian Dollars (to be clear)

Not sold by Victron ,,, but Victron answered my questions directly

& then I never installed it ?.

I will probably throw it into my Cabin system & experiment with it & might buy a 120vac fridge

??? One thing Starts Pushing Another

Either that or a 12vdc fridge ,,, decisions decisions
 
Either that or a 12vdc fridge ,,, decisions decisions

What little I've looked into 12vdc fridges is they just don't make sense. They're extremely expensive. Sure they're more efficient. But with our 91% efficient inverter (less so if ambient temps get too warm), that 9% loss is very worth the cost savings. We paid $275 for our 7.4cf AC fridge (retails for $600 but we got it on sale and then as a scratch and dent (cosmetic) ). Panels are cheap. Fridge uses 500-1200Wh per day, depending upon the ambient temps, so our 12v 200Ah battery is more than enough and provides some buffer on cloudy days. We thrive on 300W of solar in summer and have another 300W of portable solar if we need more production due to clouds. Our electrical needs are small...no A/C, microwave, heat, cooking, etc, everything else is propane and basic RV 12v needs.
 
I didn’t know that. Huh. Does this result in shady Victron sellers who won’t support their customers then passing the baton to our w sellers who didn’t make the sale?

Not really. Victron won't allow a bad dealer to remain a dealer unless they have no other choice, i.e., like it's the only one in a region/foreign country.
 
What little I've looked into 12vdc fridges is they just don't make sense. They're extremely expensive. Sure they're more efficient. But with our 91% efficient inverter (less so if ambient temps get too warm), that 9% loss is very worth the cost savings. We paid $275 for our 7.4cf AC fridge (retails for $600 but we got it on sale and then as a scratch and dent (cosmetic) ). Panels are cheap. Fridge uses 500-1200Wh per day, depending upon the ambient temps, so our 12v 200Ah battery is more than enough and provides some buffer on cloudy days. We thrive on 300W of solar in summer and have another 300W of portable solar if we need more production due to clouds. Our electrical needs are small...no A/C, microwave, heat, cooking, etc, everything else is propane and basic RV 12v needs.

Yes, I might take the chance on a 120vac fridge.

I know my Victron states 93% efficiency, but that is max.

I currently have pretty light loads, so the inverter would be a large load % in relation to what I have now ( on top of a bigger fridge load ). 250Ahr AGMs & 600W Solar

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That is today as I showed up here yesterday @ 4:30pm.

The charge starts pretty early in the morning ( this morning around 6:20am ), so after after 9:30am it was in absorption.
 
Yes, I might take the chance on a 120vac fridge.

I know my Victron states 93% efficiency, but that is max.

I currently have pretty light loads, so the inverter would be a large load % in relation to what I have now ( on top of a bigger fridge load ). 250Ahr AGMs & 600W Solar

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That is today as I showed up here yesterday @ 4:30pm.

The charge starts pretty early in the morning ( this morning around 6:20am ), so after after 9:30am it was in absorption.

Deleted my previous comment due to I made a poor assumption. Is your Wh production so low because you have low loads and your battery is basically always charged?

If so, then you are in a good position to power an AC fridge just fine, with more than enough to operate the inverter and charge the batteries. You will likely produce more energy than you can use, unless you have other loads not mentioned or you upgrade/increase your battery bank.
 
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Victron inverters are peak efficiency at 30% of rated. It can drop off dramatically when very low power is used, and it tapers from peak to about 89% at full rated power.

My 10kW pair are only about 65% efficient with my 200W background load.
 
Victron inverters are peak efficiency at 30% of rated. It can drop off dramatically when very low power is used, and it tapers from peak to about 89% at full rated power.

My 10kW pair are only about 65% efficient with my 200W background load.

Huh. Good to know. Glad to have a resident Victron expert like you on board :)

Is there any Victron documentation/chart of this curve? Our loads are usually pretty darn low. Average of 70W from a 1200VA (1000W) Victron Phoenix 12/1200 inverter.
 
Huh. Good to know. Glad to have a resident Victron expert like you on board :)

Is there any Victron documentation/chart of this curve? Our loads are usually pretty darn low. Average of 70W from a 1200VA (1000W) Victron Phoenix 12/1200 inverter.


I haven't seen these in a while, and my memory missed some of the numbers. There's a peak efficiency range that ends at about 30%. Looks like it starts at about 15%.

Peak efficiency is about 87% @ max rated.
 
Deleted my previous comment due to I made a poor assumption. Is your Wh production so low because you have low loads and your battery is basically always charged?

If so, then you are in a good position to power an AC fridge just fine, with more than enough to operate the inverter and charge the batteries. You will likely produce more energy than you can use, unless you have other loads not mentioned or you upgrade/increase your battery bank.

In Short - Yes

I went with what I believed are good quality AGMs. Canadian EH? ?? If I didn’t have to worry about 32F I would have gone Lithium.

So, I can discharge those AGMs to 20% SOC. I discharge them nightly to about 83% maybe 70% SOC. If the propane furnace is running most of the night in October. Hence the 0.5 to 1.0 kWh harvest per day.

I went the way of conservation rather than harvest & storage ,,, every 12vdc load I have is very efficient. The Cabin has morphed over 6 years, but this year we finally insulated the walls ?. Still need to insulate the floor.

My energy consumptions with an inverter falls closer to @sunshine_eggo perspective ,,, but I penciled 85% efficiency not 89% ,,, There Is No Replacement for RWE “Real World Experience”. That being said, I thought the 85% was quite conservative.

You can see when I am away from my cabin it uses 80 Wh per day ,,, that is the Composting Toilet Fan, parasitic drain, & efficiency loss ,,, but mostly the toilet fan.

Once when I was away, I deduced a moth turned on one of my proximity sensor to one of my led lights, praise Victron, it recorded it & the light I am sure I turned off when I locked up the cabin was on a few weeks later ,,, history showed the date the moth turned on the LED. Victron history, math, & a burning light told the tale. Now I pull the fuse when we leave.

12vdc loads; Propane Furnace, ARB Fridge, LEDs, water pump, usb outlets for devices, composting toilet fan, that’s it Bro !!

Conservation.
 
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Hello everyone!
So long story short I ordered the non Bluetooth one and had to send it back so today was the first day we used it!
By this time the batteries were fully dead. Barely enough to light up the strip light..

So we produced 1kwh ?
Which is fine, but how come two 260w panels only managed 1kw in 6 hours?

I could do with some help understanding this please..?

Max watts was 260, with both panels connected…
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I guess that could be it.. there’s trees along the canal which explains why only started producing after 12, but I didn’t remember the clouds..
Are there no clouds outside London? ?

So to be clear (or not clear in this case), cloudy winter days will not even produce enough for our lights..?
 
I guess that could be it.. there’s trees along the canal which explains why only started producing after 12, but I didn’t remember the clouds..

Sounds even more like 1kWh is pretty good.


Are there no clouds outside London? ?

Even AZ gets clouds. This is an EXTREMELY cloudy day for us:

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So to be clear (or not clear in this case), cloudy winter days will not even produce enough for our lights..?

Winter production is commonly 30-40% of spring-summer-fall production. Based on other UK forum members, it can be worse.
 
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