Can I bypass the charge controller?

[Lee72]

Hello All,

this is my first post in this forum

I started running my fridge on solar during the day and this works very well. My question is about the efficiency of the charge controller, battery and inverter. I have a pretty standard setup:

340W Panels --> Morningstar 20A 24V PMW charge controller --> 24V battery bank. directly to the batteries is my inverter hooked up.

Here is the question:
when the batteries are fully loaded and my panels are in full sun producing about 300W and my inverter is drawing 200W, where is that power taken from?

a) Is it coming from the batteries? meaning the controller does not charge because it senses the batts are full?
b) Is the controller smart enough to sense the need and lets the power thru?

Would it make sense during daytime to hook the inverter directly behind the panels with a voltage regulator?

Thanks
Markus

[Naptown]

The controller will sense a voltage drop and the power will come from there also.

[Sunking]

Lee everything is always in balance and equal. But to answer your question; Assuming the batteries are fully charged, a 340 watt panel in noon bright sun, and the load is demanding 200 watts, the panels are only producing 200 watts. There would be no demand from the batteries. If the load demands more than the panels can produce, the batteries supply the shortage.

That is one of the problems with battery systems, they are very inefficient and if designed correctly you can never utilize all the potential power the system is capable of generating. It is one of the reasons why solar battery batter is on average 10 times more expensive than commercial power. It is a net loss all the way around it can never generate more energy that it took to make the system, and will never produce an ROI. It is money down the drain, and extra emission in the air that need not be there.

[Lee72]

Thank you both for the answers.
BTW my name is not lee - it was assigned to me by the admin for unknown reason.

I agree that battery based systems nowadays do not pay off but if the grid goes down for whatever reason it is the only way to have some power at night. (besides a gas generator which will run out of gas at some point)

On the other hand I see the need for more decentralized renewable energy power plants and solar/wind is just a great source of power in south/west US states.

The more projects people start the more demand will be noticed in the market and prices will drop. Keep in mind that even the 1st nuclear power plant did not even produce enough energy to keep itself running. There will be more efficient solar panel and batteries in the future. (For example is the NASA already using panels with an efficiency around 40% - well they are really expensive)

I think people are passionate about the fact that they can collect energy from the sun, be independent and do not contribute further to burning off fossil fuel.

Markus