good sydus
New Member
- Joined
- Apr 8, 2021
- Messages
- 10
Hi all,
Now that the days are getting short and cloudy in the northeast, every amp of solar I can get counts. I’m finding that the voltage on my BigBattery Hawk (24v, 170ah) is dropping a lot over night with no significant load on the battery end (one small exhaust fan and a small diesel heater).
I’ve noticed that the light bulb symbol on my MT50 turns on periodically, even though I keep turning it off in the settings. It’s on the manual setting, so there shouldn’t be any timers or anything turning it on. But what’s even stranger is that it shows a small load even though there is nothing plugged in to the load terminals on the MPPT. Most of the time it just shows voltage but no amps (no actual load?), but every once and a while it will even show some amperage (usually just 0.1). I keep trying to get a picture to share, but the phantom load knows how to disappear whenever I pull out my phone…
Is this normal? Is there any way I can prevent this, assuming it’s actually somehow dumping power to nothingness? This seems to violate my very limited understanding of how electricity works, but I’m probably missing something.
I’m really hoping this, and maybe programming the MT50 for a LifePo4 battery will help me get and retain more power. Otherwise, I’m going to have to start disconnecting the DC breakers to see if one of my devices is drawing more power than I think which sounds very tedious.
Now that the days are getting short and cloudy in the northeast, every amp of solar I can get counts. I’m finding that the voltage on my BigBattery Hawk (24v, 170ah) is dropping a lot over night with no significant load on the battery end (one small exhaust fan and a small diesel heater).
I’ve noticed that the light bulb symbol on my MT50 turns on periodically, even though I keep turning it off in the settings. It’s on the manual setting, so there shouldn’t be any timers or anything turning it on. But what’s even stranger is that it shows a small load even though there is nothing plugged in to the load terminals on the MPPT. Most of the time it just shows voltage but no amps (no actual load?), but every once and a while it will even show some amperage (usually just 0.1). I keep trying to get a picture to share, but the phantom load knows how to disappear whenever I pull out my phone…
Is this normal? Is there any way I can prevent this, assuming it’s actually somehow dumping power to nothingness? This seems to violate my very limited understanding of how electricity works, but I’m probably missing something.
I’m really hoping this, and maybe programming the MT50 for a LifePo4 battery will help me get and retain more power. Otherwise, I’m going to have to start disconnecting the DC breakers to see if one of my devices is drawing more power than I think which sounds very tedious.