New Solar Array Question

[Jay-Rus]

Have 3 100w Renogy Mono Panels. Roof Mounted (home). East facing (but very slightly southeast). Havent seen more than approx 40 or so watts from each panel. Live in Oklahoma. Does this typical for this time of year and full sun?

additional info: using windynation 10awg cables, and only about a 20 ft run to charge controller.

any input?

 

[snoobler]

Charge controller?

 

[Jay-Rus]

sorry, left that out. Epic PwrGate from west mountain radio. Allows for DC power supply input, battery, and solar. input data on the interface seems to match the renogy shunt data as well. The epic is an mppt

 

[snoobler]

Per the product page, while it's rated to take 40A at the input, it's only rated for 10A of charging.

Due to the current limit, the MOST you'll get is about 140W at peak battery voltage/solar conditions.

Assuming 95° facing and 20° tilt, I would expect you could achieve 140W sometime between 10am and 12pm. It will drop off pretty hard after 2pm.

 

[Jay-Rus]

Thank you. Yes, I realized this weekend about the max 10a charge current. Will probably use the pwrgate for another application and install an epever

 

[snoobler]

I would still expect you to see a peak near140W sometime between 10 and 12 even with the 10A controller.

I forgot to mention it, but if your batteries are in absorption phase, they are VOLTAGE limited and will only pull whatever wattage they need to maintain absorption voltage. Might be worth applying a 200W load between 10 and 12 to see if your peak power is higher than the 40W you previously observed.

 

[Jim Burrow]

My panels are facing into the sun, which is south for me (the sun rises in the East and sets in the west). The output of your panels only puts out what the load is asking for in watts. If your load requires 1000 watts to run, then under ideal conditions, your panels will only supply 1000 watts. With that being said, and neglecting the length of the cords from each panel to the controller, my panels under ideal test conditions should be pumping out 1800 watts Pmax. But the most I have been able to get out of them is 1100 watts. - That's with the hot water heater pulling 900 watts and the rest of the house pulling 300 watts. The only other thing I could connect to the system for testing would be the microwave, but it pulls 1800 watts and overloads my controller which is supposed to handle 2300 watts.

Anyway, what I'm trying to get at is don't be surprised that your solar panels can't deliver the power the spect sheet says under lab testing.

 

[Jay-Rus]

Thank you for the replys. Appreciate it