Getting the best out of my system

[Sunking]

yeah, I'm seeing a problem. I've been getting "close enough" but not dead on. Too many years relying on spreadsheets, mathworks and canned formulas

Hey that means you are young again like Millennials who have never put a pencil or thought into anything. They just use a calculator and text.

No joke there is a new school opening up for Millennials to teach them to be adults and skills it takes to survive like how to spell, do simple math, talk to people face to face. It is called Adulting School opening across the USA

[ufoexpert]

Well, while I was hooking up my kill a watt to my system to see how many watts I was pulling, you'all (that's southern talk) were arguing over simple math that a person needs to know to get their ham license....gee. Back to me.....I'm pulling about 300 watts with everything that is on the line which is my computer system, 46 in. TV, 2 ceiling fans running max and a couple small items. I'm still at bed time have 12.2 volts on the batteries. I believe I can load a couple more items on the system without going over board. What you think SunKing?

[Sunking]

Well, while I was hooking up my kill a watt to my system to see how many watts I was pulling, you'all (that's southern talk) were arguing over simple math that a person needs to know to get their ham license....gee. Back to me.....I'm pulling about 300 watts with everything that is on the line which is my computer system, 46 in. TV, 2 ceiling fans running max and a couple small items. I'm still at bed time have 12.2 volts on the batteries. I believe I can load a couple more items on the system without going over board. What you think SunKing?

I think at 12.2 volts you might have a problem. Is the battery FLA or AGM? Is that voltage with a heavy load or everything turned off? Either way is not good after one day use. After one day you want to be at 75% or more. At 12.2 you are less than 50% SOC

FLA



AGM



FWIW I apologize your thread got HIJACKED.

[ufoexpert]

Nothing heavy load, at the most , maybe 150 watts. I do run off the batteries for about 4 to 5 hours at night but as the days get longer that should go down to about 3 hours. Hey, I wasn't you going to close this thread. thanks for the chart. 73s

[Sunking]

Nothing heavy load, at the most , maybe 150 watts. I do run off the batteries for about 4 to 5 hours at night but as the days get longer that should go down to about 3 hours. Hey, I wasn't you going to close this thread. thanks for the chart. 73s

You are welcome but 12.2 volts at the end of the day is a Red Flag.

[ufoexpert]

I never did ask you why your in Panama, does this have to do with the election? You do like that term "red flag" a lot. I will have to show you a RED FLAG. This is what a solar panel looks like when its shorts out and I believe it was the cause of my 80 amp controller to disintegrate.
As far as the panama ....I'm just having a little fun. 73s

[Sunking]

I never did ask you why your in Panama, does this have to do with the election?

Yeah kind of from 2008. My wife is a doctor and had her own practice. Became unprofitable with the Health Care Act. So she sold out to her two partners. At that time we were early mid/50's and could easily retire. Now we are mid/late 50's So we started looking for a place to build out final retirement house. Looked at Hawaii, Prescott AZ, Costa Rica, and Panama. No taxes in Panama and the population is very friendly to Americans especially the region we moved to is about 60% expats. As it turns out the wife being a doctor was able to go back to work on the public healthcare side. We have two systems here, public and private networks. The public system is strictly for Panama born citizens, and the Private is for expats and Panama citizens who can afford it. Ironically the Private Insurance is 1/5 what you would pay in the USA and there is no prescription medicine insurance available I pay 1/10 for medicine with no insurance that I paid in the USA with Insurance. Anyway wife no works the local clinic 2 days a week for 12 hours a day. If you are on the Public system you can spend two days waiting in line, and surgeries can take several months waiting. Private you are in and out in 30 minutes, and if you need surgery, you are in the same day if needed. As for me I worked for the government electric utility part time to have something to do, but that ask me to leave. Seems I made them uncomfortable because in my 2-day work week, I got more work done than my 5 peers can do in a week.

As an ex-pat we do not have to pay duty taxes on imports or any income taxes, and we also get 50% off on all utilities. I pay a whopping 6-cents per Kwh. We also have a lot better Internet, Phone, and CATV. Everything is Fiber to the house. I pay $35/month for phone, 200 Mbs internet, and CATV. Only thing I really miss is USDA Beef. Cannot beat the weather where I live. Spring every day high in the mid 80's, low upper 50's at night with a chance of rain. Easy to be a weatherman here. Same forecast every day year round.

[Mike90250]

This is what a solar panel looks like when its shorts out and I believe it was the cause of my 80 amp controller to disintegrate.

Not sure how a 60V PV panel shorting out and becoming 0V (just like they do every night when the sun goes down) can fry a controller ? I can't even come up with a theory.

Now if lightning hit the panel, that would be expected to fry something !

[Sunking]

Not sure how a 60V PV panel shorting out and becoming 0V (just like they do every night when the sun goes down) can fry a controller ? I can't even come up with a theory.!

What I was thinking to. Sounds more like the controller malfunctioned and the battery cooked the panel.

[ufoexpert]

Thanks for the up date on your living conditions. I'm sitting here smiling about your statement about doing more in one day then the rest of the crew, it brought back old memoirs of my uncle who was also a PE. From your writings you and he would get along very well as he had the same problem. He was the chief engineer on the Titian rocket in its design stage and when they tested it blew the top of the mountain off. The brass told him to cover it up ........its a long story and the end was that he was fired.
The health care system in this country...........all I can say is you got a bunch of lawyers thinking they know everything about health care. I get my health care from the VA and I have no problem but I guess others have problems. Ill keep my opinions to myself on this subject as it can cause a lot of heated discussions.
You might just hit the nail on the head on the burn panel, it could have been the controller but why did it pick just one cell out of hundreds? You would think it would fry the whole panel. Hmmmm...What if the diode failed in the panel?
Maybe someday I will tell you about my interesting life chasing UFOs and the government. 73s wb8zii

[Mike90250]

Only thing inside the panel J box are connections and sometimes bypass diodes. If the panel has had any shading, the diodes are activated and start heating up. heat causes all sorts of cascading electronics failures, from oxidizing connections, to semiconductor die failure. My SWAG is partial/full shade on the panel heated the diodes and that heat ruined the tabbing connections to the J-box terminals.

[SunEagle]

Only thing inside the panel J box are connections and sometimes bypass diodes. If the panel has had any shading, the diodes are activated and start heating up. heat causes all sorts of cascading electronics failures, from oxidizing connections, to semiconductor die failure. My SWAG is partial/full shade on the panel heated the diodes and that heat ruined the tabbing connections to the J-box terminals.

But that burnt area is not even at the j-box. It is at one of the cells half way up the panel. You can see the connection box and connection wires at the bottom of the picture where the diodes would be.

I would think that cell was physically damaged causing a short in the string. But was it the chicken or the egg? Did the short cause the controller to fail or the controller cause the panel to fail?

[ufoexpert]

I think your all right and I'm going to pull the box and check the diode and the bet is on.

[Sunking]

I think your all right and I'm going to pull the box and check the diode and the bet is on.

Keep in mind solar panels are current sources with very limited current. In fact to test a panel you apply a Dead Bolt Fault at the output and measure the current. Will not hurt a thing. In fact you can short them out while installing so they do not zap anything. Lik eyou leg while lifting it up on the roof cause you to jerk or jump.

There is only one thing that can burn up a panel, the battery as it is the only source with that kind of power. Weel I forgot lightning, but that is another subject.

[Mike90250]

Due to the quality of the pic that I see, and the smoke pattern. it looks like maybe the panel was flat mounted, and was smacked by a baseball? I can't tell if the glass is shattered or just dirty.
I don't know of any way a "bad controller" could burn a panel. I don't know if that was a single panel or part of an array, Heck, the classic almost had a snow melt mode, where applied battery voltage to the panels to melt the snow off them. So the correct polarity of DC won't burn a panel (parallel panel strings proves that) so it was either a baseball or a reverse bias with no charge controller. Or some intentional short through the backsheet to the tab wires.