Battery Configuration
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Sorry. I thought your batteries were 200Ah at 12v. If you only have a 200Ah bank using 2 x 6v then you have more then enough solar panel wattage. Actually you may have too much depending on the amount of charging amps you get during the day.
Basically you want to have about a C/10 charge rate where C = the Amp Hour rating of your battery system. So with a 200Ah system you would need 20 amps to meet the C/10 charge rate. So right now you have more than enough panel wattage at 400 to get that 20 amps or more.
Depending on what you need for a daily watt hour use should determine how big a battery system you have. With a 12V 200Ah you can safely generate about 600 watt hours a day.
If you need a bigger battery system then you need to match it with charging amps to meet that C/10 charge rate.
the Midnite Classic, when used in conjunction with the Wizbang Jr., can be set to limit charge current to the batteries while making full panel output to your loads.
I hope to try this out on my RV some time this winter. I am installing 1800 watts of panels and a 24v - 400a/h battery bank. I spend a fair bit of time in Western Washington and it gets cloudy there sometimes...Comment
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You may have too much charging amps for that battery system IF all of the panels are facing due South and producing nameplate amps. Your batteries should be able to handle a C/8 charge rate which would be about 25 amps but if you get more you could cook the batteries with a C/7 or C/6 charge rate.
If you can measure the charging amps it would help determine if you have too much panel wattage but in most cases panels will never produce their name plate info.Comment
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Unfortunately you then run the risk of having different batteries in the same system which leads to unequal charging and discharging.Comment
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Powerfab top of pole PV mount (2) | Listeroid 6/1 w/st5 gen head | XW6048 inverter/chgr | Iota 48V/15A charger | Morningstar 60A MPPT | 48V, 800A NiFe Battery (in series)| 15, Evergreen 205w "12V" PV array on pole | Midnight ePanel | Grundfos 10 SO5-9 with 3 wire Franklin Electric motor (1/2hp 240V 1ph ) on a timer for 3 hr noontime run - Runs off PV ||
|| Midnight Classic 200 | 10, Evergreen 200w in a 160VOC array ||
|| VEC1093 12V Charger | Maha C401 aa/aaa Charger | SureSine | Sunsaver MPPT 15A
solar: http://tinyurl.com/LMR-Solar
gen: http://tinyurl.com/LMR-ListerComment
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