Charging on cloudy day (1 Viewer)

[Speve]

My solar monitor is showing this on an overcast day would it be considered good?

 

[Lenny HB]

Depends on the state of charge of your batteries, to see what the solar is putting out you really need to run the batteries down to about 85%, then see what it's doing.

 

[funflair]

Not as good as this,

but really it’s all relative to what you have on the roof and what you need day to day.

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[Guigsy]

Depends on the state of charge of your batteries, to see what the solar is putting out you really need to run the batteries down to about 85%, then see what it's doing.

This. Your charger is smart enough to have multiple stages of charging. If your batteries are nearly full, the solar controller will just be pulling enough power to top them off. As Lenny HB says, you won't see the maximum your panels can pull unless the controller senses the battery is pretty low.

But yeah, on a cloudy day in September, you're going to get far less than your panel's rated output.

 

[Two on Tour]

Not much to write home about with today's weather here.
The solar on the house has struggled to put much in the battery pack over the past few day's as well.

 

[Speve]

No I realise state of batteries is to be considered however they are at 13.5v and we have a couple of 100w panels on the roof I noticed that after using the internal lights for half an hour that was what was going back in so was happy with that

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[Googlebot]

Looks about right to me.

 

[Speve]

Not as good as this,View attachment 532398

but really it’s all relative to what you have on the roof and what you need day to day.

Is that on lithium’s?

 

[funflair]

Is that on lithium’s?

Yes, fairly full ones at that

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[Guigsy]

Yes, fairly full ones at that

Which is an under-touted benefit of Lithiums. We all know that they weigh less and you can discharge them deeper. But you can pump power into them right up until the brim. So if you swap to Lithium, your existing existing solar setup can fully recharge the battery faster. Or on a cloudy day, capture more of the energy before it gets to evening.