HI all -
Newbie here. I purchased an off grid summer place two years ago that had a full solar system installed and new batteries. It's worked well but I still have a lack of understanding of what's actually happening in regards to storage and usage from day to day. The setup is:
12 Trojan 105RE 6v batteries - The house has both 12V and 120V fixtures so I'm assuming it's wired in series to make six 12V batteries (the batteries are rated as 225ah).
Trace Engineering DR2412 Inverter
Blue Sky Solar Boost 3024i charge controller
Solar Panels but I have no idea what their specs are.. I think it's 4 panels based on the dimensions but honestly I'm not sure and there was no documentation about the panels that I could find.
So my question is around battery voltage and knowing when they're getting low. I've had a general rule of trying not to let the charge controller go below 12.2 volts and if it starts getting around that low I"ll run the generator to charge the batteries. The house had a 240V line from the generator to the system so it's simple to charge things back up safely.
I notice as dusk is approaching (and/or the panels start going into the shade of late afternoon) that the charge controller will say be in the 13.x volts all day (sometimes all the way up to 14.4 if it's perfect sunny day) and then as soon as even approaches it drops to 12.7 or 12.6. What I don't understand is why there's that almost immediate drop but then I can be on the computer, have lights running, TV going, etc and the voltage never goes below 12.4. I mean there's never a heavy load in the evening but it seems like the voltage holds a lot longer as it approaches 12 volts vs when it's up high from the solar panels it drops as soon as the sun goes away.
One other question somewhat related is can I just leave the inverter on all the time? The previous owner had suggested that he turned it off every night as he didn't need it for anything but I wasn't sure if that is increasing or decreasing the life of the inverter. Either way I'm contemplating doing an upgrade in the next few years in order to get an electric refrigerator as the propane refrigerator is pretty ancient and getting propane tanks to my location is non-trivial.
Thanks for any help!
Mike
Newbie here. I purchased an off grid summer place two years ago that had a full solar system installed and new batteries. It's worked well but I still have a lack of understanding of what's actually happening in regards to storage and usage from day to day. The setup is:
12 Trojan 105RE 6v batteries - The house has both 12V and 120V fixtures so I'm assuming it's wired in series to make six 12V batteries (the batteries are rated as 225ah).
Trace Engineering DR2412 Inverter
Blue Sky Solar Boost 3024i charge controller
Solar Panels but I have no idea what their specs are.. I think it's 4 panels based on the dimensions but honestly I'm not sure and there was no documentation about the panels that I could find.
So my question is around battery voltage and knowing when they're getting low. I've had a general rule of trying not to let the charge controller go below 12.2 volts and if it starts getting around that low I"ll run the generator to charge the batteries. The house had a 240V line from the generator to the system so it's simple to charge things back up safely.
I notice as dusk is approaching (and/or the panels start going into the shade of late afternoon) that the charge controller will say be in the 13.x volts all day (sometimes all the way up to 14.4 if it's perfect sunny day) and then as soon as even approaches it drops to 12.7 or 12.6. What I don't understand is why there's that almost immediate drop but then I can be on the computer, have lights running, TV going, etc and the voltage never goes below 12.4. I mean there's never a heavy load in the evening but it seems like the voltage holds a lot longer as it approaches 12 volts vs when it's up high from the solar panels it drops as soon as the sun goes away.
One other question somewhat related is can I just leave the inverter on all the time? The previous owner had suggested that he turned it off every night as he didn't need it for anything but I wasn't sure if that is increasing or decreasing the life of the inverter. Either way I'm contemplating doing an upgrade in the next few years in order to get an electric refrigerator as the propane refrigerator is pretty ancient and getting propane tanks to my location is non-trivial.
Thanks for any help!
Mike
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