Something wrong..

[Truck driver]

Ok.. RV (trailer) came with a small system. I have upgrade all the hardware (panels, controller, inverter and batteries) but not the wires.

system consists of: 4 400w Trina panels, 4 100Ah BB lithiums, Victron 150\100, BMV712 smart, CERBO with touch 50 and a Xantrec 200 ProWatt. Everything works and does charge the batteries, BUT only once ever (last summer) it peaked at 1012w. I wasn't working on it or had made any recent changes to it. There are 1600w of panels, but they don't get much over 800 in any one day.. Could smaller gauge PV wires slow down getting more watts\volts..? The inverter wires heat up (after a few minutes of trying to pull 500w) because they're too small. (original inverter was 1200w) I'll share some pix. PS. The Lower controller and the Multiplus are NOT connected. I NEED an electrician to install the MP.

 

[Tomthumb62]

Are the panels always setup leaned against the rv like in your photo or were they usually roof mounted?

If the latter, the flat angle could be your low output alone.

What AWG wire are the panels using? Are they wired in series, parallel or some combo?

 

[Truck driver]

Are the panels always setup leaned against the rv like in your photo or were they usually roof mounted?

If the latter, the flat angle could be your low output alone.

What AWG wire are the panels using? Are they wired in series, parallel or some combo?

Yes.. Always there and tilted. OH..! I tilt them like that because when the sun crosses the sky.. they are pointing at the sun when there's no mid day shading.. Today's input.. Panel AWG is 8ga I think.. Wired in series right now. Panel at the front is also connected into a branch connector for the morning sun, even though it's well shaded.

 

[Tomthumb62]

Wired in series right now.

Have you tested each panel individually with a multimeter?

Panel at the front is also connected into a branch connector for the morning sun, even though it's well shaded.

Not sure what this means. Do you mean you connect the panel in front only when it has full sun? And the rest of the time it’s shaded and therefore disconnected? If so, then you only have 1200w of panels most of the time, but even still 800w seems a bit low.

AFAIK, it’s rare to get full 100% output even under ideal conditions. This is why people over panel to make up for this reality.

 

[Truck driver]

Have you tested each panel individually with a multimeter?


Not sure what this means. Do you mean you connect the panel in front only when it has full sun? And the rest of the time it’s shaded and therefore disconnected? If so, then you only have 1200w of panels most of the time, but even still 800w seems a bit low.

AFAIK, it’s rare to get full 100% output even under ideal conditions. This is why people over panel to make up for this reality.

Yes. Each one is putting out full voltage..44.? on all. Front panel is always plugged in.. all on one array, just turned it to capture morning sun. Does not get over voltage error.. I don't expect 1450 watts.. but at least 1000 to 1200 constantly.

 

[SparkyJJO]

In that pic I see what looks like scattered shadows from tree branches. Are there always some shadows on them?
How far north are you? That seems like a very steep angle.

 

[Truck driver]

The front panel is a Trina 250w. 4 smaller panels are just a battery maintainer for the battery behind them. NOT connected to main system. Panel by back door is also 250w and keep my Ecoflow Delta charged.

 

[rhino]

Is something actually using the power?` If the battery is full and you aren't using any power from the inverter it isn't going to show any power coming from the panels.

 

[Truck driver]

In that pic I see what looks like scattered shadows from tree branches. Are there always some shadows on them?
How far north are you? That seems like a very steep angle.

Yes.. shading for most of the day.. enough to matter.. until mid afternoon.. then it's DIRECT for about 2 or 3 hrs.. see the pic of the chart. I will add more tilt to them as summer is almost here.

 

[Truck driver]

Is something actually using the power?` If the battery is full and you aren't using any power from the inverter it isn't going to show any power coming from the panels.

Yes.. A laptop and a couple of low power devices. Batteries are at 100% now and getting topped off.. but will turn on laptop in a couple of hours and SOC will be about 75 to 80% in the morning.

 

[Truck driver]

In that pic I see what looks like scattered shadows from tree branches. Are there always some shadows on them?
How far north are you? That seems like a very steep angle.

S. Oregon..

 

[Ryujin]

I would suggest reading this:

Series string shading summed up in 4 pictures

Each row is a string. These two strings of panels are in parallel and connected to victron MPPT. You can see that the last panel is shaded: 420VDC. So plenty of voltage and the last panel in the string is shaded, but only producing 200W for both strings! Now wait 30 minutes.. The shading...

diysolarforum.com

And consider putting yours in parallel, it seems shady where you are.

That being said I have about 1000 W of panels in parallel in sunny colorado and have only seen them peak around 700. Probably going to throw another one into the mix.
Really though for lithium batteries being at 70-80% inn the morning isn't bad. Do you turn off your inverter when you sleep?

 

[Truck driver]

Are the panels always setup leaned against the rv like in your photo or were they usually roof mounted?

If the latter, the flat angle could be your low output alone.

What AWG wire are the panels using? Are they wired in series, parallel or some combo?

Found a tilt angle app. Panels are now at 45 degrees. Panels have been tilted beside trailer for the past year. I also just changed a battery setting in the Victron connect app.. was at 85 and now set at 100. We'll see what change happens tomorrow. Not my land, so I'm limited on what branches I can cut.

 

[Truck driver]

I would suggest reading this:

Series string shading summed up in 4 pictures

Each row is a string. These two strings of panels are in parallel and connected to victron MPPT. You can see that the last panel is shaded: 420VDC. So plenty of voltage and the last panel in the string is shaded, but only producing 200W for both strings! Now wait 30 minutes.. The shading...

diysolarforum.com

And consider putting yours in parallel, it seems shady where you are.

That being said I have about 1000 W of panels in parallel in sunny colorado and have only seen them peak around 700. Probably going to throw another one into the mix.
Really though for lithium batteries being at 70-80% inn the morning isn't bad. Do you turn off your inverter when you sleep?

Did you see the picture of the panels that got just over 1000w ONE day..? Mine SHOULD still get 1000w consistently.. which is why I'm here. Yeah.. not bad.. BUT.. it shouldn't take all day to recharge from 80 to 100%. Todays max was 727.

 

[Mattb4]

While you likely not reach more than 75% of panel ratings except in rare occasions I do see one aspect of the panels placement that can reduce output. Being placed on the ground allows the bottom edge to easily have things shade it. Your two pictures illustrate this of snow in the Winter and grass in the Summer. It does not take much shade covered areas to really reduce what you can get.

 

[SeaGal]

What I love most about that RV picture with the panels, is the tiny solar panel for the camera right next to its big brothers!

 

[Supervstech]

Ok.. RV (trailer) came with a small system. I have upgrade all the hardware (panels, controller, inverter and batteries) but not the wires.

system consists of: 4 400w Trina panels, 4 100Ah BB lithiums, Victron 150\100, BMV712 smart, CERBO with touch 50 and a Xantrec 200 ProWatt. Everything works and does charge the batteries, BUT only once ever (last summer) it peaked at 1012w. I wasn't working on it or had made any recent changes to it. There are 1600w of panels, but they don't get much over 800 in any one day.. Could smaller gauge PV wires slow down getting more watts\volts..? The inverter wires heat up (after a few minutes of trying to pull 500w) because they're too small. (original inverter was 1200w) I'll share some pix. PS. The Lower controller and the Multiplus are NOT connected. I NEED an electrician to install the MP.


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Can you post the specs on the panels?
What gauge wire feed the controller?
500W in series on those panels should be under 6A, so shouldnt be heating up your wire.

 

[Truck driver]

Can you post the specs on the panels?
What gauge wire feed the controller?
500W in series on those panels should be under 6A, so shouldnt be heating up your wire.

PV wire gauge is 10 awg, so the wires are a bit smaller (as seen in one of the pix) I'm guessing 12..? I have touched the PV wires coming from the controller when it was charging before (500+ watts) and they weren't warm..

 

[Pi Curio]

Ok.. RV (trailer) came with a small system. I have upgrade all the hardware (panels, controller, inverter and batteries) but not the wires.

system consists of: 4 400w Trina panels, 4 100Ah BB lithiums, Victron 150\100, BMV712 smart, CERBO with touch 50 and a Xantrec 200 ProWatt. Everything works and does charge the batteries, BUT only once ever (last summer) it peaked at 1012w. I wasn't working on it or had made any recent changes to it. There are 1600w of panels, but they don't get much over 800 in any one day.. Could smaller gauge PV wires slow down getting more watts\volts..? The inverter wires heat up (after a few minutes of trying to pull 500w) because they're too small. (original inverter was 1200w) I'll share some pix. PS. The Lower controller and the Multiplus are NOT connected. I NEED an electrician to install the MP.


View attachment 148682View attachment 148681View attachment 148683View attachment 148684

2S2P?

I would suggest trying mounting the panels a bit higher. You could use your trailer for a simple mount structure to lean onto and retain the area occupied and the panel's angle while keeping the panels dry and away from near-ground shading.



Edit: missed the part with PV voltage screenshot.

 

[MisterSandals]

Wired in series right now. Panel at the front is also connected into a branch connector for the morning sun, even though it's well shaded.

The second pic in post #3 shows that you have 2 panels wired in parallel, twice. There are 4 wires going into the RV from what i can see.
Are these 4 wires then connected in parallel again in the RV?

Panel at the front is also connected into a branch connector for the morning sun, even though it's well shaded.

Is this also connected in parallel to the 4 panels on the RV side?

I think we'd need to know exactly how you have these wired to recommend a better/best configuration. With so many parallel connections, you may be doing some serious voltage clipping (a result of connecting mismatched panels/arrays in parallel).