Hey Everyone!
I'm reaching out in regards to my Solar setup behaving not quite as expected after an upgrade was done.
Hoping to have to some like minds help me decipher where I may have made a wrong turn, or what I could do differently.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Currently I have two Solar Arrays.
The Old:
5 - 100 watt, 12 volt, 5.72 amp Mono panels.
60A EPEver Tracer 6415AN MPPT Charge Controller
10 gauge solar wire.
Wired in Parallel (attached image for connection types).
The New:
5 - 200 watt, 12 volt, 10.75 amp Mono panels.
100A EPEver Tracer 10415AN MPPT Charge Controller
EPEver MT-50 Remote Meter
10 gauge solar wire.
Wired in Parallel (same connections types as original panels)
Battery Information:
4 - 12v 200ah Deep Cycle Sealed Lead Acid
Inverter Information:
1 - 4000w Giandel Heavy Duty Pure Sine Wave Power Inverter DC12V to AC120V
Wiring Information:
The Panels all run on the provided 10 gauge solar wire down to their respective MPPT charge controllers. The 100A mppt charge controller runs two 2/0 gauge wires to the battery bank from the controller. The 60A runs something smaller like a 6 gauge I believe.
The Batteries are all tied with 2/0 gauge battery wire, and the last wired battery runs 2/0 gauge wires to the Giandel inverter, which runs 3 - 6 gauge wires to the 30 amp breaker, and 30 amp plug socket.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Physical Location Information:
Located approximately at: 40.963, -74.593
Approximate Sun Angle: 45 (degrees from horizon)
Load Test Information:
At first I was running a lighter load on the system for a solid hour, approximately 1000 watts (dometic fridge, computer electrical, motorhome aux batt charge controller).
The system was maintaining full batteries like this for the one hour, producing the following numbers.
New System:
18.8 Volts
8.4 Amps
Old System:
Did Not record
Did not record on start
Batt Indication:
Start: 14.2
End: 13
After seeing virtually no change, and lower solar input than expected I decided to increase consumption by adding another 1500 watts to the mix. I thought that by doing this the Charge Controller would open more and allow more throughput to go to the batteries.
New System:
16 Volts
16.1 Amps
Old System:
18 Volts
6.4 Amps
Final Thoughts and Concerns....
The wires run from the solar panels down the roof of our RV (by fridge) 10ft then under vehicle approximately 9ft to the mppt charge controllers.
I really have no idea why the input is looking so low, seems like each array is only producing 1/4 of the power they are rated to produce.
Before adding the new panel configuration the old configuration had been running 400+ watts pretty easily on a full sun day.
Really seriously appreciate any and all troubleshooting, input, or other help you all may be to provide...
I'm reaching out in regards to my Solar setup behaving not quite as expected after an upgrade was done.
Hoping to have to some like minds help me decipher where I may have made a wrong turn, or what I could do differently.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Currently I have two Solar Arrays.
The Old:
5 - 100 watt, 12 volt, 5.72 amp Mono panels.
60A EPEver Tracer 6415AN MPPT Charge Controller
10 gauge solar wire.
Wired in Parallel (attached image for connection types).
The New:
5 - 200 watt, 12 volt, 10.75 amp Mono panels.
100A EPEver Tracer 10415AN MPPT Charge Controller
EPEver MT-50 Remote Meter
10 gauge solar wire.
Wired in Parallel (same connections types as original panels)
Battery Information:
4 - 12v 200ah Deep Cycle Sealed Lead Acid
Inverter Information:
1 - 4000w Giandel Heavy Duty Pure Sine Wave Power Inverter DC12V to AC120V
Wiring Information:
The Panels all run on the provided 10 gauge solar wire down to their respective MPPT charge controllers. The 100A mppt charge controller runs two 2/0 gauge wires to the battery bank from the controller. The 60A runs something smaller like a 6 gauge I believe.
The Batteries are all tied with 2/0 gauge battery wire, and the last wired battery runs 2/0 gauge wires to the Giandel inverter, which runs 3 - 6 gauge wires to the 30 amp breaker, and 30 amp plug socket.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Physical Location Information:
Located approximately at: 40.963, -74.593
Approximate Sun Angle: 45 (degrees from horizon)
Load Test Information:
At first I was running a lighter load on the system for a solid hour, approximately 1000 watts (dometic fridge, computer electrical, motorhome aux batt charge controller).
The system was maintaining full batteries like this for the one hour, producing the following numbers.
New System:
18.8 Volts
8.4 Amps
Old System:
Did Not record
Did not record on start
Batt Indication:
Start: 14.2
End: 13
After seeing virtually no change, and lower solar input than expected I decided to increase consumption by adding another 1500 watts to the mix. I thought that by doing this the Charge Controller would open more and allow more throughput to go to the batteries.
New System:
16 Volts
16.1 Amps
Old System:
18 Volts
6.4 Amps
Final Thoughts and Concerns....
The wires run from the solar panels down the roof of our RV (by fridge) 10ft then under vehicle approximately 9ft to the mppt charge controllers.
I really have no idea why the input is looking so low, seems like each array is only producing 1/4 of the power they are rated to produce.
Before adding the new panel configuration the old configuration had been running 400+ watts pretty easily on a full sun day.
Really seriously appreciate any and all troubleshooting, input, or other help you all may be to provide...
