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  • Help with Landscape lighting system.

    Hi Everyone,
    I hope someone can help me with some issues I am having with my Solar panel setup for my outdoor landscape lighting. This is my first experience with Solar, so I am a newbie. I have 12 low voltage lights. Each light is 5 volts for a total of 60 volts. I have two 100 watt panels connected in series. The charge controller is a 10 A controller. I have two 12V, 35 Ah Sealed Lead Acid Batteries connected to a 1000 watt inverter. The lights are on about 12 hours per night. With a full charge the lights work perfectly on night one. On night two, the lights work for about 10 hours before the controller detects a low battery, and triggers off. I have to turn it off on night three, since the batteries do not have a full charge. What options do I have so that the batteries fully charge each day? I am in Southern California, so I have about 10+ hours of sunlight. Any help will be appreciated.

    Phil

  • #2
    Hello pb4sc and welcome to Solar Panel Talk

    I guess my first question is what are you using that inverter for if those lights are low voltage? How are they wired to the batteries?

    Next what is the amount of amperage are you getting from the panels to charge those batteries?

    And finally I think i understand that your 2 batteries are wired in parallel but depending on how the circuit is set up they may not be properly wired to get the full charge from your panels.

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    • #3
      Hi,
      Thanks for taking the time to look at my question. I appreciate it. I have the Transformer with the light sensor plugged into the inverter. It came with the lights I bought. The batteries are wired to the inverter, then the plug for the light sensor is plugged into the inverter.

      The specs on the panels are
      Maximum Power Output: 100W

      Maximum Power Voltage (Vmp): 18.78V

      Maximum Power Current (Imp): 5.32A

      Maximum System Voltage: 1000V DC

      Open-Circuit Voltage (Voc): 22.64V

      Short-Circuit Current (Isc): 5.7A

      (Here is the kit I bought off of Amazon) I have two panels.

      Here is a picture of how I have everything wired.
      IMG_20221101_093112.jpg

      Any suggestions or improvements, would be much appreciated.

      Thanks again,
      Phil

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      • #4
        Well that inverter will use power from the batteries as long as it is on. So they may be draining all day long even while they are getting a charge from the panels.

        I also don't trust "kits" because usually they have issues and will not perform as indicated. That may also be part of the problem.

        And finally that charge controller may not perform as indicated which could be another part of your issue.

        Try turning off the inverter during the daytime and hope your batteries will get charged up.

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        • #5
          Thanks so much for all your help. Sounds logical that the inverter is the issue. I am going to try turning it off, and see how it charges over the day.
          Thanks again,

          Phil

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          • #6
            After a bunch of trial and error I was able to find the sweet spot of 6 hours of light per night. As long as it is sunny, the batteries will fully charge during the day, for the next night.

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