Wattage problem

[gotroxs]

Hello All,


New to solar which means new to forum. I am learning a lot but don

[J.P.M.]

Read "Solar power Your Home for Dummies". You'll learn more, faster, with the added benefit that what ever else you pick up here will make more sense and you'll be able to more easily separate the correct stuff from the B.S.

Welcome to the neighborhood.

[gotroxs]

My original message would not let me post more than the first line,


New to solar which means new to forum. I am learning a lot but dont know all the terms and lingo so bear with me.

I have some sheds on my property that are connected to the grid. I want them to be mostly off grid with the grid as a back up.

I have 1KW of panels. My problem(s) is that I have never gotten more than 550 Watts from them. That happened once. At the time they were setup in Parallel.

The setup is 10 - 100 Watt panels on an 8 gauge wire going about 15 feet to an Outback 80 Flexmax. The panels were in Parallel but Outback suggested I do series of 2 tied together in parallel. That has resulted in losing about 100watts peak. Now they are suggesting running them in a series of 3 and the parallel back to the box. I am in Arizona and yes the temps are in the 105-107 range today and most of the last few days. Skies are clear, they always are. So can the hi temperatures result in losing 55-60% of the wattage?

I have unplugged each panel and then added them back and check watts. I gain or lose 10% of the wattage as each one is connected or disconnected.

I have 4 golf cart batteries (12v) tied to an AIMS 2k inverter with a surge up to 6k.


My second problem is that when running on the inverter and I start an air compressor which uses 1.5kw the inverter just shuts down. AIMS says it

[Mike90250]

Sadly, the anti spam measures on the forum, mess up many copy and paste operations, seems like it thinks the formatting and odd punctuation is spammy.

As to your panel output, try disconnect the PV array from the controller, until about solar noon, or whatever time your array is at its peak exposure to the sun, Then connect the array
and see what full sun, onto low batteries, can produce. If your array is charging batteries since dawn, the batteries may be full enough they don't accept full power when the array is capable of it.

As to the inverter shutting down, that's either overload, or voltage loss in the wire. A 1.5Kw compressor can pull 8x that when starting up. That's a lot of power for batteries and cables to carry.

Is this a 12V or 24V battery system ? For best MPPT harvest, the solar array should be wired for 2x the nominal battery charging voltage. 12V battery charges at 15V, so needs an array at 30 or more Vmp . 24V bank needs 60Vmp.

[gotroxs]

Sadly, the anti spam measures on the forum, mess up many copy and paste operations, seems like it thinks the formatting and odd punctuation is spammy.

As to your panel output, try disconnect the PV array from the controller, until about solar noon, or whatever time your array is at its peak exposure to the sun, Then connect the array
and see what full sun, onto low batteries, can produce. If your array is charging batteries since dawn, the batteries may be full enough they don't accept full power when the array is capable of it.

As to the inverter shutting down, that's either overload, or voltage loss in the wire. A 1.5Kw compressor can pull 8x that when starting up. That's a lot of power for batteries and cables to carry.

Is this a 12V or 24V battery system ? For best MPPT harvest, the solar array should be wired for 2x the nominal battery charging voltage. 12V battery charges at 15V, so needs an array at 30 or more Vmp . 24V bank needs 60Vmp.

I will try the disconnect later today or tomorrow. Depending on the clouds. I have been keeping a load on it as to see if it will draw more. I have a window ac unit that draws about 500 watts.

This is a 12v system and I currently have the 10 panels set in series of 2 and then parallel. Peak voltage has been 38v since I set it up this way.