Hi everyone,
I just put together a small off-grid solar setup. The system consists of:
- (2) 100 watt solar panels
- (2) 235AH 6 volt Crown RE batteries
- Renogy Tracer 4210 charge controller with LCD display (20ft of 10 gauge wire going from the panels to the charge controller, 8ft of 4 guage wire from charge controller to the batteries)
- Aims 6,000 watt pure sine inverter
This is my first dive into anything solar related so forgive me for my lack of knowledge. My issue I'm having is on the LCD screen, it says my battery voltage is at 12.7 volts. The minute I switch on any load on the inverter (16 watt LED light bulb for instance), the LCD display shows my voltage dropping immediately down to around 12.3 volts. When I then turn the load off, the volts within about 60 seconds go back to 12.7. My question is whether or not this is normal? I don't understand how 0.4 volts could be used almost instantaneously when under such a light load.
If that is typical, then how am I ever supposed to know when I run the risk of running the batteries down below 50%? From what I read online the batteries are at a 50% state of charge when the volts read 12.06. When I put a heavier load (small water distiller) the volts almost immediately drop to 11.9. So almost immediately after plugging in my small water distiller which draws about 550 watts my batteries go from full down to below 50%? That doesn't make any sense to me, but when the load is unplugged the volts quickly climb back up even when it's overcast outside. This leads me to believe that the volts did not go down as far as the LCD is telling me since there is no way it could recharge that quick with overcast skies.
The charge controller LED's are all lit green, so it looks like everything is working correctly. The batteries are both brand new so I don't think anything is wrong with those.
How can you get an accurate state of charge on the batteries when it changes so dramatically with any sort of load on it? Or are my batteries not working properly?
Sorry if this is a "rookie" question. Any help would be appreciated.
I just put together a small off-grid solar setup. The system consists of:
- (2) 100 watt solar panels
- (2) 235AH 6 volt Crown RE batteries
- Renogy Tracer 4210 charge controller with LCD display (20ft of 10 gauge wire going from the panels to the charge controller, 8ft of 4 guage wire from charge controller to the batteries)
- Aims 6,000 watt pure sine inverter
This is my first dive into anything solar related so forgive me for my lack of knowledge. My issue I'm having is on the LCD screen, it says my battery voltage is at 12.7 volts. The minute I switch on any load on the inverter (16 watt LED light bulb for instance), the LCD display shows my voltage dropping immediately down to around 12.3 volts. When I then turn the load off, the volts within about 60 seconds go back to 12.7. My question is whether or not this is normal? I don't understand how 0.4 volts could be used almost instantaneously when under such a light load.
If that is typical, then how am I ever supposed to know when I run the risk of running the batteries down below 50%? From what I read online the batteries are at a 50% state of charge when the volts read 12.06. When I put a heavier load (small water distiller) the volts almost immediately drop to 11.9. So almost immediately after plugging in my small water distiller which draws about 550 watts my batteries go from full down to below 50%? That doesn't make any sense to me, but when the load is unplugged the volts quickly climb back up even when it's overcast outside. This leads me to believe that the volts did not go down as far as the LCD is telling me since there is no way it could recharge that quick with overcast skies.
The charge controller LED's are all lit green, so it looks like everything is working correctly. The batteries are both brand new so I don't think anything is wrong with those.
How can you get an accurate state of charge on the batteries when it changes so dramatically with any sort of load on it? Or are my batteries not working properly?
Sorry if this is a "rookie" question. Any help would be appreciated.
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