POWMr 5kw 110v Black and Orange AIO inverter charger charging issues

[rcmaster12]

Hello all, I have this AIO charger/inverter listed in the title of this discussion. I am having a charging issue with my current unit. I purchased this unit to start really getting into solar. Anywho I have had 6 250watt panels connected to this unit and when I go into the display where Pv is showing it’s output it says was only charging around 800watts which I thought was reasonable considering 4 of these panels were used. I recently purchased 54 unused solar farm panels which are first solar series 6 panels which produce advertised 440watts at 220voc many of which have cracked glass but still output a lot of power; but at 14.75 each I had to buy some. I connect two in series and connected them to my inverter and pv said charging at around 700 watts which was great until I connected two more and was only charging around 700-900 watts, mind you this is with roughly 2000 watt load on the batteries. So I have come to the conclusion that my inverter charger seems to not want to charge higher than 800-900 watts. The first solar series 6 panels are connected two sets of two in series and both sets in parallel. I’m not sure if I’ve got a setting screwed up or if the cheap inverter is my problem. Please help and thank you

 

[Bud Martin]

Hello all, I have this AIO charger/inverter listed in the title of this discussion. I am having a charging issue with my current unit. I purchased this unit to start really getting into solar. Anywho I have had 6 250watt panels connected to this unit and when I go into the display where Pv is showing it’s output it says was only charging around 800watts which I thought was reasonable considering 4 of these panels were used. I recently purchased 54 unused solar farm panels which are first solar series 6 panels which produce advertised 440watts at 220voc many of which have cracked glass but still output a lot of power; but at 14.75 each I had to buy some. I connect two in series and connected them to my inverter and pv said charging at around 700 watts which was great until I connected two more and was only charging around 700-900 watts, mind you this is with roughly 2000 watt load on the batteries. So I have come to the conclusion that my inverter charger seems to not want to charge higher than 800-900 watts. The first solar series 6 panels are connected two sets of two in series and both sets in parallel. I’m not sure if I’ve got a setting screwed up or if the cheap inverter is my problem. Please help and thank you

Please provide the spec of the panels and the SCC.
" connected two more and was only charging around 700-900 watts" How are the 'two more' are added to the existing two? If you test the second set by itself do you also get 700W?

 

[rcmaster12]

Please provide the spec of the panels and the SCC.
" connected two more and was only charging around 700-900 watts" How are the 'two more' are added to the existing two? If you test the second set by itself do you also get 700W?

The attachment is the label on the back of the new panels I purchased. I connected one at first by itself and got around 350watts which I’m happy with. I connected two together in series and got about 700watts which makes sense. I then connected two more in series parallel (total of four) with the two and am getting around 700-900 in direct sun. Because of the Voc I have to connect them in pairs of two because the max voc of the powmr is 500 but research shows max of about 450 so at 440 voc is should be fine

 

[Bud Martin]

But did you verify that the two more you connected are OK or not by themselves?
" I then connected two more in series parallel (total of four)" what is the exact connection? 2S2P?

 

[rcmaster12]

Yes 2s2p, I just finished checking voc and amperage of each panel all good there. I just connected just the two together and getting hardly 50 watts still very sunny. Then connected the two original that were the ones that originally made 700 watts and also getting around 50-100 watts. As of now I’m blaming it on bad connectors just because of how irregular everything is acting. I’m going to buy some new mc4 connectors and go from there. I do have one concern, in the manual for this inverter it has a boost charge duration of which I don’t understand exactly how it works, I’m wondering if this timer ran out and now it is trying to float charge only. What are your thoughts? I’m not sure when this time starts and ends but an explanation would be much appreciated. Thank you for your time.

 

[rcmaster12]

But did you verify that the two more you connected are OK or not by themselves?
" I then connected two more in series parallel (total of four)" what is the exact connection? 2S2P?

Yes 2s2p, I just finished checking voc and amperage of each panel all good there. I just connected just the two together and getting hardly 50 watts still very sunny. Then connected the two original that were the ones that originally made 700 watts and also getting around 50-100 watts. As of now I’m blaming it on bad connectors just because of how irregular everything is acting. I’m going to buy some new mc4 connectors and go from there. I do have one concern, in the manual for this inverter it has a boost charge duration of which I don’t understand exactly how it works, I’m wondering if this timer ran out and now it is trying to float charge only. What are your thoughts? I’m not sure when this time starts and ends but an explanation would be much appreciated. Thank you for your time.

 

[rcmaster12]

Okay so I have narrowed down the wiring and connectors as not being the problem. At the panels I measured voltage with all four panels being connected and got 420v. I check the short circuit amperage and got 3.57amps, so the panels and wiring are confirmed good and the inverter should be receiving around 1400 watts. This morning with the batteries at 50v (8 6vlead acid) the inverter is only charging at 200 watts. Not sure what’s going on.

 

[Bud Martin]

Okay so I have narrowed down the wiring and connectors as not being the problem. At the panels I measured voltage with all four panels being connected and got 420v. I check the short circuit amperage and got 3.57amps, so the panels and wiring are confirmed good and the inverter should be receiving around 1400 watts. This morning with the batteries at 50v (8 6vlead acid) the inverter is only charging at 200 watts. Not sure what’s going on.

Something has changed big time. So the what is the Voltage reading at the SCC input terminal? Do you have clamp-on DC meter to check the PV current feeding the SCC? What is being display on the SCC display panel right now?

 

[rcmaster12]

Something has changed big time. So the what is the Voltage reading at the SCC input terminal? Do you have clamp-on DC meter to check the PV current feeding the SCC? What is being display on the SCC display panel right now?

Unfortunately it’s very cloudy now

 

[rcmaster12]

Something has changed big time. So the what is the Voltage reading at the SCC input terminal? Do you have clamp-on DC meter to check the PV current feeding the SCC? What is being display on the SCC display panel right now?

These attached voltages and amperage’s are while connected to the mppt. Short circuit amps while connected to charge controller. During very cloudy sky

 

[Bud Martin]

Please look at your picture #1 that shows 168.6VDC, and # 2 showing 0.992A , do you see the issue of your meter probes connection to the meter? Please see the meter user manual.

 

[rcmaster12]

Please look at your picture #1 that shows 168.6VDC, and # 2 showing 0.992A , do you see the issue of your meter probes connection to the meter? Please see the meter user manual.

Thank you for pointing that out. These reading are while the mppt is operating not sure if that makes much of a difference.

 

[Bud Martin]

The picture #1 that shows 0.03W looks to be for the AC output power being draw from the inverter, it is showing low due to no AC load connected.
you have 0.697dc A and 351Vdc of PV = 244W of power being drawn from the panels.
Your SCC should be able to display the battery charging current and Voltage, PV power, etc.
Where did you see the 700W of power before on the SCC display?
Since you had the meter connected wrong, you need to re-verify your panel Voltage and shorted current again, also may want to verify that the meter is not damaged.

 

[rcmaster12]

The picture #1 that shows 0.03W looks to be for the AC output power being draw from the inverter, it is showing low due to no AC load connected.
you have 0.697dc A and 351Vdc of PV = 244W of power being drawn from the panels.
Your SCC should be able to display the battery charging current and Voltage, PV power, etc.
Where did you see the 700W of power before on the SCC display?
Since you had the meter connected wrong, you need to re-verify your panel Voltage and shorted current again, also may want to verify that the meter is not damaged.

These are all new readings after fixing the placement of the leads. The first picture is for pv showing it’s output in kw. The second picture of the scc is showing the voltage of pv as well as amps drawn from panels. I will go out and check isc with another meter.

 

[Bud Martin]

Are you 100% sure that is the PV power output of 0.03KW (that is only 30W) when the incoming calculated power is over 200W?
Put AC load and see if that Wattage will go up.

 

[rcmaster12]

Are you 100% sure that is the PV power output of 0.03KW (that is only 30W) when the incoming calculated power is over 200W?
Put AC load and see if that Wattage will go up.

That is why I am confused. Earlier today sun couldn’t have been better directly shining on panels. It got no higher than the previous 700ish watts. I have put loads as high as around 3000watts with no change in wattage from the panels. I believe something may be wrong with my unit. I also do not know how the short circuit data I got relates to actual working power from the panels.

 

[Bud Martin]

At this point you may want to disconnect everything from the SCC for about half an hour then reconnect every thing and see what will happen.

 

[rcmaster12]

At this point you may want to disconnect everything from the SCC for about half an hour then reconnect every thing and see what will happen.

Tonight I will disconnect everything for the night and see what happens.