I purchased a Victron 100/50 w/ Bluetooth controller and have been using it for a bit now with my 200 watts of portable panels . The manual is a bit sparse on info, most of it is just other language translations. I am researching grid tie panels of approx 300 watts each as I find they will put out the 50 amps when cold and in "perfect" conditions. (which I will never see) But it seems we need to size the controller to numbers we will never see.
RV Specs 520Ah LA battery (4@ 6v 260 Ah Crowns S&P)
Magnum 2800 watt PSW inverter w/ 125 amp charger. 4/0 Cables from Inv to Battery.
Victron 100/50 controller with 12" 6AWG cables to the inverter 4/0 cables. 50 amp inline circuit breakers
7500 watt Generator
Want to replace about 200 Ah per day. I am assuming I will need to run the genny to get it out of Bulk most days as the panels will be flat mounted and probably warm in the southwest US. But all that is just speculation till after i buy and install them and see what really occurs.
Here are my "hopefully" not stupid questions:
1. If my panels get really cold and surpass the 100 volt maximum input voltage will that hurt the Victron controller or do they limit it like the output? I can only find reference to the output being limited, if it tries to put out 51 amps it will only put out 50 amps to the battery. Nothing about the incoming voltage. The panels I am considering put out very close to 100 volts with two panels @ 10 degrees C.
2. Currently I have setup the controller with User defined battery settings per my battery manufacturer recommendations. 15.5 EQ, 14.5 Absorb, 13.5 Float. EQ is not enabled. The BT app shows the device is in Bulk charging my 520 Ah battery pack @ around 15 amps with my current portable panels, but doesn't show what voltage its charging at. Nor does it show that in Absorb or Float. It does show the battery voltage, in what looks like real-time. My thought was it should be providing 14.5 volts during Absorb and 13.5 during float, my guess is that is what the battery voltage should show those voltages during charging from the controller. But what shows is batt voltage slowly going up, from say 12.67 to 12.68 then 12.69 etc. That doesn't make a lot of sense to me if the controller is putting out the higher voltage needed to charge the battery.
3. Maximum absorption time 6 hours is default. When charging my batts via my magnum inv/cnv i use 120 minutes for absorb time. Should I use the same for the Victron? Or since its solar should it be longer possibly due to lower amperage? I am really not sure why we have to specify absorb time at all, and nothing for bulk or float.
Thanks in advance for any helpful information to clear up my cloudy vision of whats going on!
-Bill
RV Specs 520Ah LA battery (4@ 6v 260 Ah Crowns S&P)
Magnum 2800 watt PSW inverter w/ 125 amp charger. 4/0 Cables from Inv to Battery.
Victron 100/50 controller with 12" 6AWG cables to the inverter 4/0 cables. 50 amp inline circuit breakers
7500 watt Generator
Want to replace about 200 Ah per day. I am assuming I will need to run the genny to get it out of Bulk most days as the panels will be flat mounted and probably warm in the southwest US. But all that is just speculation till after i buy and install them and see what really occurs.
Here are my "hopefully" not stupid questions:
1. If my panels get really cold and surpass the 100 volt maximum input voltage will that hurt the Victron controller or do they limit it like the output? I can only find reference to the output being limited, if it tries to put out 51 amps it will only put out 50 amps to the battery. Nothing about the incoming voltage. The panels I am considering put out very close to 100 volts with two panels @ 10 degrees C.
2. Currently I have setup the controller with User defined battery settings per my battery manufacturer recommendations. 15.5 EQ, 14.5 Absorb, 13.5 Float. EQ is not enabled. The BT app shows the device is in Bulk charging my 520 Ah battery pack @ around 15 amps with my current portable panels, but doesn't show what voltage its charging at. Nor does it show that in Absorb or Float. It does show the battery voltage, in what looks like real-time. My thought was it should be providing 14.5 volts during Absorb and 13.5 during float, my guess is that is what the battery voltage should show those voltages during charging from the controller. But what shows is batt voltage slowly going up, from say 12.67 to 12.68 then 12.69 etc. That doesn't make a lot of sense to me if the controller is putting out the higher voltage needed to charge the battery.
3. Maximum absorption time 6 hours is default. When charging my batts via my magnum inv/cnv i use 120 minutes for absorb time. Should I use the same for the Victron? Or since its solar should it be longer possibly due to lower amperage? I am really not sure why we have to specify absorb time at all, and nothing for bulk or float.
Thanks in advance for any helpful information to clear up my cloudy vision of whats going on!
-Bill
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