Hi guys,
In the spring I installed two 3 panel arrays on a cabin. One on the east facing roof slope, one on the west facing roof slope. They're comprised of matching Canadian Solar 310w 60 cells, connected to the batteries via Tracer 5415AN charge controllers. Aside from the physical placement, they are identical. Both charge controllers are connected to the same 4S 6V battery bank with 6awg wires.
Ok. So during installation I ran the batteries down a bit and ran only one string at a time for a few hours. Both strings happily produced 20+ amps in sunlight. (To me this seemed good since batteries were only about 80%SoC and panels do not face south at all)
Once i was satisfied everything was working I turned both strings on and let it run, but right away I noticed that the East facing string seemed to generate a lot more power than the West facing array did. And it's not just in the morning when the batteries are lowest (I'd expect that sort of higher charging current in the bulk phase in the AM). Even in the afternoon when the West array should be at a much better angle to the sun, the east will generate more. If I switch off the panels, the West array will jump up and start generating better.
Both tracers are setup identically in terms of parameters/settings (I set one up, saved and then loaded the save file onto the second).
It's been cloudy/stormy the post couple weeks and it seems like the West isn't pulling it's weight.
Any suggestions/ideas?
Thanks in advance for the help
In the spring I installed two 3 panel arrays on a cabin. One on the east facing roof slope, one on the west facing roof slope. They're comprised of matching Canadian Solar 310w 60 cells, connected to the batteries via Tracer 5415AN charge controllers. Aside from the physical placement, they are identical. Both charge controllers are connected to the same 4S 6V battery bank with 6awg wires.
Ok. So during installation I ran the batteries down a bit and ran only one string at a time for a few hours. Both strings happily produced 20+ amps in sunlight. (To me this seemed good since batteries were only about 80%SoC and panels do not face south at all)
Once i was satisfied everything was working I turned both strings on and let it run, but right away I noticed that the East facing string seemed to generate a lot more power than the West facing array did. And it's not just in the morning when the batteries are lowest (I'd expect that sort of higher charging current in the bulk phase in the AM). Even in the afternoon when the West array should be at a much better angle to the sun, the east will generate more. If I switch off the panels, the West array will jump up and start generating better.
Both tracers are setup identically in terms of parameters/settings (I set one up, saved and then loaded the save file onto the second).
It's been cloudy/stormy the post couple weeks and it seems like the West isn't pulling it's weight.
Any suggestions/ideas?
Thanks in advance for the help
Comment