Hi,
I have recently installed a solar system and found it to be straight forward. However, I am noticing some behavior that I do not understand. System details are:
16 Canadian Solar 195 Watt panels..total is 3120 watts. 2 Panels are connected together.
Schneider Charge controller XW-MPPT60-150. The maximum it can do is 60 amps at 48 volts = 2880 watts.
APC UPS 5000va
165ah each batteries 4 in 48 volt configuration
I live in a Pakistan where we are facing severe energy crisis and have the power company supply power for 12 hours a day. The electricity is available for one hour on and one hour off.
The total load during the day is about 7 amps times 230 volts = 1610 watts.
I feel that I should have enough to drive the load and also charge the batteries. This is what is happening. I look at the output and it shows around 1500 watts and the batteries charging shows bulk. I know that the load is more than the output so the batteries are being drained and that is what is happening. I put more load and the output increases only for the increased load and not extra is produced to charge. The strange thing is that when the grid power comes back on the output from the panels drops and sometimes comes down to zero. I know that the batteries are not charged as the battery status on the UPS is showing only one light out of 5. I check the individual battery voltage with the power off - load off- and the charge controller disconnected and the voltage is barely 12 volts each. The only time the batteries are being charged is when the grid power comes on...the panels output pretty much goes down to zero during that time.
Question is why is the charge controller only providing output based on load and not extra to charge the batteries? What could be the issue. I have checked the wiring and the voltage from each panel and it shows a total of 75 volts...37 volts is the rating of each panel.
The ambient temp these days is 47 C (broke 59 year record) so I can assume the panels will never go to 2880 watts. Yesterday I put a load of about 3,000 watts and the charge controller peaked at 2100 watts. So it is capable of going to 2000 watts...I feel it should give me 1600 for load and 400 for battery charging but I am only getting the load (1200-1500) and nothing extra.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Ali
I have recently installed a solar system and found it to be straight forward. However, I am noticing some behavior that I do not understand. System details are:
16 Canadian Solar 195 Watt panels..total is 3120 watts. 2 Panels are connected together.
Schneider Charge controller XW-MPPT60-150. The maximum it can do is 60 amps at 48 volts = 2880 watts.
APC UPS 5000va
165ah each batteries 4 in 48 volt configuration
I live in a Pakistan where we are facing severe energy crisis and have the power company supply power for 12 hours a day. The electricity is available for one hour on and one hour off.
The total load during the day is about 7 amps times 230 volts = 1610 watts.
I feel that I should have enough to drive the load and also charge the batteries. This is what is happening. I look at the output and it shows around 1500 watts and the batteries charging shows bulk. I know that the load is more than the output so the batteries are being drained and that is what is happening. I put more load and the output increases only for the increased load and not extra is produced to charge. The strange thing is that when the grid power comes back on the output from the panels drops and sometimes comes down to zero. I know that the batteries are not charged as the battery status on the UPS is showing only one light out of 5. I check the individual battery voltage with the power off - load off- and the charge controller disconnected and the voltage is barely 12 volts each. The only time the batteries are being charged is when the grid power comes on...the panels output pretty much goes down to zero during that time.
Question is why is the charge controller only providing output based on load and not extra to charge the batteries? What could be the issue. I have checked the wiring and the voltage from each panel and it shows a total of 75 volts...37 volts is the rating of each panel.
The ambient temp these days is 47 C (broke 59 year record) so I can assume the panels will never go to 2880 watts. Yesterday I put a load of about 3,000 watts and the charge controller peaked at 2100 watts. So it is capable of going to 2000 watts...I feel it should give me 1600 for load and 400 for battery charging but I am only getting the load (1200-1500) and nothing extra.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Ali
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