I need help trouble shooting my new “not working” solar panel kit!
I purchased a 500w system which includes 5-100 Watt Mono Panels with z mounting clips, cables to parallel all 5 panels, a 40A Midas Y Series Charge Controller (MY40), and cables to connect the charge controller to the batteries. These items were a kit from Amazon purchased 2 weeks ago. With all the snow we were having it was impossible to build a rack and install the system outside upon arrival. It is to be stationary for off-grid emergency medical power and lights.
I also purchased 4 deep cycle lead acid batteries which are 100Ah each for a total of 400Ah.
I also purchased a Renogy 3000 Watt Pure Sine Wave Inverter. Bigger in case I want/need to expand the system with more panels and batteries.
I connected up a small test system in the house. I only tested one panel and the charge controller in this test. I used a smaller working battery bank of 2 12v batteries in parallel that have a 1000w pure sine wave generator. The test was to set up to use 1 100w panel and the charge controller to see what charge rate I could get. The panel was positioned vertical in a south facing window. The open circuit voltage of the panel was 18.3 volts. I tested another panel and it was almost exactly the same. The panels says 17.9 volts printed on the back.
Test system did not charge. The charge controller always displayed the panel voltage at 0.1volts less than the battery voltage, except at night when the panel voltage dropped to 0 volts. I ran inverter current all night and it brought the battery voltage to 11.5 volts as measured by the controller and a portable voltmeter. The controller flashes its screen saying battery was low. Oh Really, then charge it!
Anyone have any ideas? Nothing smells, nothing is hot or making any noise. The display on the controller seems to be working but it would surely appear that the controller is not functioning. All wiring has been double check. All 4 wires! Two from the panels, correct polarity. Two to the batteries, correct polarity. Nada! Two different panels were tried to eliminate the possibility of a bad panel.
I purchased a 500w system which includes 5-100 Watt Mono Panels with z mounting clips, cables to parallel all 5 panels, a 40A Midas Y Series Charge Controller (MY40), and cables to connect the charge controller to the batteries. These items were a kit from Amazon purchased 2 weeks ago. With all the snow we were having it was impossible to build a rack and install the system outside upon arrival. It is to be stationary for off-grid emergency medical power and lights.
I also purchased 4 deep cycle lead acid batteries which are 100Ah each for a total of 400Ah.
I also purchased a Renogy 3000 Watt Pure Sine Wave Inverter. Bigger in case I want/need to expand the system with more panels and batteries.
I connected up a small test system in the house. I only tested one panel and the charge controller in this test. I used a smaller working battery bank of 2 12v batteries in parallel that have a 1000w pure sine wave generator. The test was to set up to use 1 100w panel and the charge controller to see what charge rate I could get. The panel was positioned vertical in a south facing window. The open circuit voltage of the panel was 18.3 volts. I tested another panel and it was almost exactly the same. The panels says 17.9 volts printed on the back.
Test system did not charge. The charge controller always displayed the panel voltage at 0.1volts less than the battery voltage, except at night when the panel voltage dropped to 0 volts. I ran inverter current all night and it brought the battery voltage to 11.5 volts as measured by the controller and a portable voltmeter. The controller flashes its screen saying battery was low. Oh Really, then charge it!
Anyone have any ideas? Nothing smells, nothing is hot or making any noise. The display on the controller seems to be working but it would surely appear that the controller is not functioning. All wiring has been double check. All 4 wires! Two from the panels, correct polarity. Two to the batteries, correct polarity. Nada! Two different panels were tried to eliminate the possibility of a bad panel.