Victron 100/20 and FLA

[Johnjayjrv]

What settings should I use for 2 6v GC2 US batteries in series connected to the Victron 100/20? I have it at 14.4 Absorption and 13.2 float but it seems to stay in Bulk forever. Here are suggestions of battery.

 

[Rich585]

Your spec sheet recommends 14.7 v Absorption and 13.0float.

The AGM setting gets you 14.7v and manually adjust the float down to 13.0v as 13.8 v is default which normally should be fine if your cells are FLA.

Having it set to 14.4v will move it to adsorption faster from bulk than 14.7 v which could be used in cold temps.

Are the batteries drained?
What’s the voltage prior to charging?

Typical GC2 200 aH at 50 % = 100 aH

100 aH/ 20 A= 5+ hours and are you getting 20 amps out continuously?

If you are averaging 10 A charge for 8 hours it won’t get you out of bulk until the next day.

HTH

 

[Johnjayjrv]

this morning they were at 12.4.

I'm only getting at max 10A when in Absorption or bulk. I'll leave it at 14.7 Absorption, 13.0 Float. I was trying to change expert settings but for some reason they don't stick. Is there a trick to saving them?

edit: Forgot to mention they are 232AH batteries.

 

[Rich585]

12.4v is 75% so 58 aH charge / 10A = 5.8 hours at best, take longer in real life which is based on how sunny it is and where you are.

To change settings, need to be close as the Bluetooth is weak farther than 20 ft. Press the value, click on + or - then click ok and it should take.?

I am using user defined setting for battery type . There is a chance the presets don’t let you change.

if after a week or two you don’t get to float, then you may not have enough solar to get yourself fully charged or not enough direct sun for long enough.

I am learning myself and I find I need to add more panels because 3 days of rain and it takes me all week to get the battery back in my small shed project using a 75/15. I have had to shut my loads off for a few days to let my system catch up.

If you are getting 10a, you could double your solar and cut your charge time down in half if that is option.

 

[Johnjayjrv]

Its in float now. Showing 12.7. So I'm satisfied with that. Thanks all.

 

[Johnjayjrv]

Now I'm confused, it's showing at 12.54 and not going into absorption or bulk. Been there for a while. I have trail set to .4v so not sure what I'm doing wrong.

 

[Rich585]

How much bright sun is hitting your panels? I found that clear blue sky, no clouds and you might get close to 90-100% of you panel output. If there is hazy sky, it looks bright but when I look at Victron Connect, I am only at 40 % output. Any clouds and I am less than 10 %. Any partial shade on the panel (I only using 1 right now) and output drops to nothing. I attached a couple of screen shots.

See if any of these apply to you. Watch the charging for an hour on Victron Connect software or set up a trend on amps and see if they are dropping off. My battery did not charge up today and will probably be down to 12.3v by tomorrow morning. I hope another day of sun to get it to float. I am using the basic settings in Victron for AGM.

If you look at the trend of my system. If it is not clear blue sky, I am struggling to keep the battery fully charged.
4 days ago, I hit float as I was not using any power in the shed. Just the inverter on. 42W max on panel to produce 120 Wh.
3 days ago, I used some power for a few hours and SCC was in bulk all day. Produced 320 Wh as it was sunny.
2 days ago, it was cloudy off and on all day, even though my 80W panel was 79W, I only produced 100 Wh
Today, if was raining on and off, and the highest I got was 35W out of the 80W panel and produced 90Wh all day.
The second screen shot is after dinner at 7 pm. Even though it looks bright and sun is still up in sky, I have a tree casting a shadow over 3/4 of the solar panel and I basically have no output.

I realistically need to add a second panel to get more watts when panels are only producing 50 %. Victron allows to over panel.

100/20 you can have 260W of solar.

 

[Johnjayjrv]

There's sun. It just doesn't go into bulk.

 

[Rich585]

Also check to see if you have any shading on. Don't underestimate a tree branch. Even 25% shade or cloud will drop you output to almost nothing. That adds up over the day.

 

[Rich585]

Your solar is producing nothing - 0 amps.
I am using an AGM battery, but I took a screen shots of my battery settings.
I hope this might be of some help and at least something to compare to. I clicked on expert mode to get all the settings. I myself and still tweaking the values, but it is basically working for m.

On the Solar section, the current (now zero) should be close to the IOC (max amps) when in full sun. Might want to check your MC4 connectors if you have more than one panel to make sure they are connected properly.

Also, if you panels are connected in series, shade on one panel takes your entire system down.

Try running them in parallel as a test, and see if you get more overall output.
HTH