Hello from Ohio,
I have a sprinter van conversion with 450 watt pv panels and an epever 40 amp mppt charge controller.
It has always seemed fine until now.
pv array shows 19.4 to 19.8 volts at the circuit breaker when breaker is off.
flip breaker on wired to the epever mppt 40 amp charge controller and after a minute the
incoming voltage reads 14.2 to 14.3v raising sometimes to 15.0 both at the breaker and the controller.
The lifepo4 battery bank will read 13.3 on some days never higher.
Does the charge controller throttle down the incoming voltage?
The charge controller settings are what has been accepted on here.
I am trying to understand here if I have a problem.
THis is the second year for this system. For the first year the mt50 meter would read incoming voltage
ranging upwards to over 20 volts at times but always over 15 volts even on cloudy days and the battery bank
would read up to 13.9 volts on many evenings generally settling down to 13.3 or 13. 4v overnight.
The only draw on the system lately is the mini fridge and there have been some times lately when the voltage drops low enough
to shut off the charge controller altogether. First time was frightening but if I goose it it will start up again.
I do not know if somehow the charge controller is damaged or what.
Not being an electrician I am assuming that if a good solid 19+ volts is coming into the charge controller throttling it
down to 14.2 volts that that 14.2 volts is a solid 14.2 volts if that makes sense.
BUT why is it losing 5 volts??
Any thoughts that a lay person can understand??
Thanks in advance gary
I have a sprinter van conversion with 450 watt pv panels and an epever 40 amp mppt charge controller.
It has always seemed fine until now.
pv array shows 19.4 to 19.8 volts at the circuit breaker when breaker is off.
flip breaker on wired to the epever mppt 40 amp charge controller and after a minute the
incoming voltage reads 14.2 to 14.3v raising sometimes to 15.0 both at the breaker and the controller.
The lifepo4 battery bank will read 13.3 on some days never higher.
Does the charge controller throttle down the incoming voltage?
The charge controller settings are what has been accepted on here.
I am trying to understand here if I have a problem.
THis is the second year for this system. For the first year the mt50 meter would read incoming voltage
ranging upwards to over 20 volts at times but always over 15 volts even on cloudy days and the battery bank
would read up to 13.9 volts on many evenings generally settling down to 13.3 or 13. 4v overnight.
The only draw on the system lately is the mini fridge and there have been some times lately when the voltage drops low enough
to shut off the charge controller altogether. First time was frightening but if I goose it it will start up again.
I do not know if somehow the charge controller is damaged or what.
Not being an electrician I am assuming that if a good solid 19+ volts is coming into the charge controller throttling it
down to 14.2 volts that that 14.2 volts is a solid 14.2 volts if that makes sense.
BUT why is it losing 5 volts??
Any thoughts that a lay person can understand??
Thanks in advance gary