Hi folks, need help!
I’m 3yrs now on my solar project, been upgrading, learning and modifying along the way trying to get the best out of what I got.. The goal started as an emergency power source but now working towards running the whole house minus my Hvac unit. I got one that’s got me stumped now. So here is the setup and status before the last mod I did:
1) I had five 100 watt panels in parallel. At a distance, give or take, of 100’-120’ from the battery bank.
2) Off brand 40amp controller.
3) 3500 watt pure sine inverter
4) Seven UB121000 100ah batteries, in parallel = 700ah bank.
All tests to date have only been conducted during the day while charging was available. How did it perform? Not too bad I guess? My bank capacity would level around 60-70%, depending on power consumption of course, then towards late afternoon after say 6-7 hours of use it would start dropping towards the 50% range even though the sun was still plentiful. I noticed I was only getting a small percentage of charging current coming in so I started looking into my next mod/upgrade to see how I could gain efficiency?
Modification:
1) Renogy River 40amp controller.
2) I added one more panel to the array for 3 groups of 2 and wired them in series/parallel for a 24v array. One thought here was maybe with that distance I had going the higher voltage would provide a better push to the bank?
3) Added 1 more battery. End goal for the design is 10 batteries for a 1000ah bank. I’m now at 8.
First test. How did it do? Awesome! Under the same conditions the bank capacity stayed between 70-80%. One thing that confused me though was At times that sucker had a charge current coming in at 25amps, even hit 30amps at one point. I didn’t understand cause if I wired each group of 2 panels in series (24v/5.5a) and then the 3 groups in parallel (24v/16.5a) then how the heck was I getting such a high current coming in? The current was reading almost as if I still had All panels in parallel? Didn’t complain though cause with that current I was rocking and rolling. So that is my first question right there? How did that happen?
Now here’s my problem!
after that test I shut it down and switched back over to the grid an 2 days later my battery bank is still not fully charged? Hell it was charging better while under a load? Controller is reading a charge coming in.. but it’s charging super super slow now. Never had that problem even when the panels were set up for 12v.. when not in use the bank always charged up pretty quick. I understand the bigger the bank gets it will take longer to charge but geez shouldn’t take that long right? I’m sure I got something out of sorts somewhere? The parameters seem to be set normal on the controller however I am confused on setting it 12v, 24v, or 12v/24v now that I got a 24v array and a 12v bank. My understanding was that the Renogy Rover automatically distinguished the voltage coming in and charged the bank accordingly?
Long ass question, sorry y’all.. Yupp, I’m “that” guy. Any words of wisdom will be much appreciated! Thanks.. ✌️
I’m 3yrs now on my solar project, been upgrading, learning and modifying along the way trying to get the best out of what I got.. The goal started as an emergency power source but now working towards running the whole house minus my Hvac unit. I got one that’s got me stumped now. So here is the setup and status before the last mod I did:
1) I had five 100 watt panels in parallel. At a distance, give or take, of 100’-120’ from the battery bank.
2) Off brand 40amp controller.
3) 3500 watt pure sine inverter
4) Seven UB121000 100ah batteries, in parallel = 700ah bank.
All tests to date have only been conducted during the day while charging was available. How did it perform? Not too bad I guess? My bank capacity would level around 60-70%, depending on power consumption of course, then towards late afternoon after say 6-7 hours of use it would start dropping towards the 50% range even though the sun was still plentiful. I noticed I was only getting a small percentage of charging current coming in so I started looking into my next mod/upgrade to see how I could gain efficiency?
Modification:
1) Renogy River 40amp controller.
2) I added one more panel to the array for 3 groups of 2 and wired them in series/parallel for a 24v array. One thought here was maybe with that distance I had going the higher voltage would provide a better push to the bank?
3) Added 1 more battery. End goal for the design is 10 batteries for a 1000ah bank. I’m now at 8.
First test. How did it do? Awesome! Under the same conditions the bank capacity stayed between 70-80%. One thing that confused me though was At times that sucker had a charge current coming in at 25amps, even hit 30amps at one point. I didn’t understand cause if I wired each group of 2 panels in series (24v/5.5a) and then the 3 groups in parallel (24v/16.5a) then how the heck was I getting such a high current coming in? The current was reading almost as if I still had All panels in parallel? Didn’t complain though cause with that current I was rocking and rolling. So that is my first question right there? How did that happen?
Now here’s my problem!
after that test I shut it down and switched back over to the grid an 2 days later my battery bank is still not fully charged? Hell it was charging better while under a load? Controller is reading a charge coming in.. but it’s charging super super slow now. Never had that problem even when the panels were set up for 12v.. when not in use the bank always charged up pretty quick. I understand the bigger the bank gets it will take longer to charge but geez shouldn’t take that long right? I’m sure I got something out of sorts somewhere? The parameters seem to be set normal on the controller however I am confused on setting it 12v, 24v, or 12v/24v now that I got a 24v array and a 12v bank. My understanding was that the Renogy Rover automatically distinguished the voltage coming in and charged the bank accordingly?
Long ass question, sorry y’all.. Yupp, I’m “that” guy. Any words of wisdom will be much appreciated! Thanks.. ✌️
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