Unbelievable performance increase!

[Justin B.]

Just got back from out cabin in the OK mountains and while up there reconfigured my solar setup. Although I am still running 12V I reconfigured the panels from 6 in parallel to two 3 panel series strings in parallel. I went from only 300-400 watts (~ 20 V OC) indicated on the MPPT controller to 500-600 (~60 V OC) watts and even noticed spikes over 600 watts! I had no idea... I am assuming that the wattage indicated on the controller display is computed from the charge going into the batteries since I can see no way to get that much wattage out of the panels.

Just thought I'd share this experience.

[Sunking]

You discovered something we already know, the higher efficiency of higher voltage. That is the main reason to spend the extra money on MPPT controllers so you can run them at higher voltages and obtain higher efficiency.

[Justin B.]

From reading I knew the MPPT controller was the way to go but I had no idea the difference between 20 V and 60 V would be that great!

[RenewablesRock]

When I first started, I spent $31 on a Windy Nation PWM controller. I later spend $175 on a MPPT charge controller. It seemed to work well keeping us out of the dark after the hurricane knocked out the power.

The Windy Nation one I have would be perfect to put inside of a shed just to have a battery in there to turn on a light switch. I saw a video tonight of a guy living off grid on only 350 watts and he runs tons of stuff on that. I wish I could find the video for that one.

I'm amazed at what Andrew Glover did with only 60 watts. Amazing what you can do in an apartment. See Andrew Glover's video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aRQcQvq134

[Mike90250]

When I first started, I spent $31 on a Windy Nation PWM controller. I later spend $175 on a MPPT charge controller. It seemed to work well keeping us out of the dark after the hurricane knocked out the power.

The Windy Nation one I have would be perfect to put inside of a shed just to have a battery in there to turn on a light switch. I saw a video tonight of a guy living off grid on only 350 watts and he runs tons of stuff on that. I wish I could find the video for that one.

I'm amazed at what Andrew Glover did with only 60 watts. Amazing what you can do in an apartment. See Andrew Glover's video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aRQcQvq134

Depending on how minimalist you want to go, 60w of pv could be a godsend. But in my case, wife would leave. 60w means you wash clothes in a stream by hand, or at a laundromat, carry water in jugs etc..

[Justin B.]

Sooo, with this newly found charging capability I just turned off the inverter and left everything connected when I left the cabin. Before I had cranked up the generator and charged in conjunction with the solar until about noon, unhooked everything and then hit the road. Hopefully I will have a fully charged battery bank when I go back up there in two weeks.