Solar Panels in Parellel Problem...I think

Well, there are other measurements that you can make, but my first impression is that your new panel is defective OR it was designed to charge cell phone batteries at 5VDC instead of a 12V battery.
Second is that with the battery going dead overnight either the battery is toast, the charge controller is also defective, or the generator controller is drawing a lot more power than it should. Or some combination of more than one of the above.

You can do an additional test on each of the panels by hooking up a DC ammeter to the output of each one by itself. You should get 7 or 8 amps from the old one, and the same from the new one unless it is a 5V panel, in which case you might get as much as 17A and you may blow a fuse on your ammeter.

The CC will not work when there is no voltage on the battery side, even when the panels are connected. To reset properly it must always be connected to 10 or more volts on the battery side before the panels start to produce input to it.
I would try using just the old panel, after you have charged your battery with the AC charger first.

1A DC 24/7 is far more than I would expect a good generator controller to draw, but this may not be a good generator controller in the first place. That corresponds to almost 300 watt-hours, an amount that it would be hard to replenish in one day of the poor sunlight you describe.
24AH over the course of one day would require 10A over about 4 solar hours to make up. Not 4 hours of sunlight, since at the early and late hours you will not be getting anywhere near full output.
What size is the battery, and is a vented (FLA) battery or a sealed AGM? If it is not an AGM and the 24AH drain was enough to kill the battery, it is very unlikely that you would be able to safely recharge it during the few hours of good sun that you get no matter how many panels you use.
If it is an AGM, you might be able to recharge it over a 4 hour period. But if one days use drains the battery, you will kill the battery in a few months that way.

Please give us more information about the battery.

First it does not take much panel wattage to keep a generator starter battery charged up, and honestly there is no reason to have any kind of charger on the generator battery if you exercise properly once a week as the alternator will keep it charged up. If paranoid or refuse to perform a proper exercise cycle all you need is a 10 watt panel to keep the battery fully charged up. No controller required, just a Blocking Diode.

On another note the charger that comes with generators should never be pulling more than 1 amp at 120 volts. That sounds like a heater to keep the coolant and oil warmed up for instant start in cold weather.

On a Kohler 14KW it comes with a controller on board that shows dates, run hrs, exercising schedules, auto start, and a bunch more detailed info for backup generators. It also has a AC charger built in with the controller. NO alternator on these models. I was wanting to possibly keep the batteries at full charge to prevent the controller charger from kicking in so much. Just keeping a 10 watt panel on it will not work because (not in charge mode) will pull about an .5-1 amp 24/7. Therefore the small panel could not keep up.

I appreciate both of your answers and hope that this is a work around for me.

The panel I have is about the same as the other, made for RV and boat battery charger. I really think that it is going to show that some cells are not working.

Thanks,

At what voltage?

Voltage

The voltage pull is at 120 V.

Yes. the generator pulls about 300 watts/120v with the controller/charger both in play (all in one unit). About 100 watts leans toward just the controller when the charger is not in charge mode. To me that is a lot. That is my reason for wanting to support the battery with alternative power.

The way I have it setup at the present is with a constant 120 feed to the generator/controller from my inverter. If the battery dips then the charger comes on and supplies a charge. Luckily, thou, my inverter (Aims 6500 Low freq) is designed where it will remain in a safe mode to save power until more than 25 watts (ac) is detected on L1 side) and then it will automatically come on. I have the controller/charger on L2 side. Therefore, when my refrigerator cycles on the L1 the inverter comes on (enabling L2 as well) and the charger begins its job to charge the generator battery.

With the refrigerator, controller, and charger all in demand, I get about 600 watts of pull for the minutes the refrigerator is cycling. When finished the inverter shuts down cutting all power to the gen. controller/charger. The generator is then at the mercy of the battery and what remaining power it has built. That works pretty good but again I would like to keep the generator isolated from my battery bank.

Thinking...I may to get a deep cell battery to replace the Walmart small engine battery that I am using. it's new, but if I bring it up and down a lot it will only last so long. I destroyed the first on in 1 year. I replaced it this summer.

Thanks,

Something is wrong very very wrong with this picture. 1 amp at 120 volts is 120 watts x 24 hours = 2.88 Kwh

That would require something on the order of a 1500 to 3000 watt solar panel, 2 or 3 very expensive 80 amp MPPT charge controllers, and a battery weighing in around 800 pounds to handle 160 to 240 amps of charge current. Do you see a problem with this picture?

Not that it makes the end result particularly good, but it is possible that the amp draw of the transformer(s) in the charger and control power supply that scheek is measuring is primarily reactive current, with a very low overall power factor. He could confirm or refute that by using a KillAWatt meter instead of a simple ammeter, and it would be worth the investment to buy one.

But even 600 watt hours of real power would be troubling.

Panels

I found that the diodes were blown in both solar panels. (2) diodes in the new and (1) in the older. I removed them and replaced. That fixed that problem and I'm sure that is why the battery was sucked dry.

As for the wattage of the gen/ctrl, I do know for a fact that cycling the refrigerator (approx 200 watts) thru a 24 hour period along with the gen/ctrl, I use a total of 1.4-1.7 Kwh per day ( I have meter /w history). That is with no one at home, just the refrigerator cycling and gen/ctrl on. So you can do the math and tell what you think.

Thanks

Scheek what is the current draw, or better yet the power the charger is using? Earlier you said 120 volts @ 1 amp which is 120 watts.

If it is truly 120 watts, you got a major problem on your hands.

Controller/charger

Well...I think I do have a problem with it. Even the service tech verified it should pull somewhere around 1 amp. I will do more experiments to figure out more but I've have been seeing this from the beginning. The controller in the gen is pretty demanding. You would think something digital would be minimal. I might just hook my trickle charger up that I have at home to see what it pulls.

I remember when I first installed it that it pulled the battery down in about 10 days. I had no idea it was pulling that much. That's when I knew I needed to do something as an alternate power. At that time I had not finished my solar array or installed an inverter. It was running solo. I was just using it for service to pull saws, etc. to build cabin.

As I said before, these units are meant to be maintained by on shore power until a storm comes along. I suppose, it may work like a trickle charger after the battery is fully charged but I haven't seen evidence of that.

Probably only seems like a lot when you have a solar system. Otherwise, a homeowner would never realize it on their bill.

Anyway, if you want to investigate it then here it is: 14KW-RESA-Kohler. I called once but could not get a definite answer. Maybe you being a PE could get more info.

Thanks

Spec sheet

Here is the spec sheet for the controller: http://www.kohlergenerators.com/common/pdf/g4209.pdf

Is this the one?

I know Kohler line up pretty well and this one has an alternator like most generators.

No alternator on this model

The generator has a smart charger in it and no alternator. No belts or anything like that on this model. Air cooled V twin.

Not sure what to tell you other than the spec calls out an alternator in every model. And every model comes with a smart charger. But here is what I am driving at. The factory battery called for is BCI Group 51 battery which is mumbo jumbo for a small 500 CCA 51 minute RC translated means about a 12 volt 35 AH 25 to 30 pound battery. If you were to pull 120 watts out of it would take less than 3 hours to turn it into a boat anchor.

The largest panel wattage you could use on it without frying it is 50 to 60 watts and would be overkill. I am just guessing here but by chance does this generator have an oil or coolant heater? No way in hell otherwise you should be supplying 120 watts around the clock. At 24 hours is almost 3 Kwh which would require a 24 volt, 625 AH, 800 pound battery, with a 2000 watt solar panel and 80 amp MPPT controler.

You need to figure out what is going on because nothing is adding up.