- Oct 8, 2014
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- I'm a newbie and always will be. You never know it all.
Right bear with me please because apart from what I have tried to absorb over the passed few days I know nothing about amps, volts, watts, smart controllers etc. I started having problems with the vehicle battery so decided to increase my solar power by adding another pv, first problem the pv I have is riveted to alloy brackets that are bonded to the roof and I don't want to drill them out just yet so I don't have the exact specs of the pv.
My motorhome is a swift so assume it's between 80-100w and I was thinking of doubling this power so decided that a new victron 75/15 smart solar controller would be a good replacement for the cheap 10amp pmr that is fitted at the moment.
I now start reading about the Sergant EC 450 psu which has a smart battery controller and this is where I start to get really confused, as far as I can see the pmr is connected directly to the psu.
According to sergeant the smart battery controller monitors both vehicle and hab batteries and charges them in the same Bulk, Absorption, Float manner that the solar charge controller does.
So...which of the two controllers is actually doing the work? Also the Sergant specs only give one figure for the rating of the battery Controller and that is 100 watts does this mean it can handle any combination of volts and amps as long as the total doesn't exceed the 100w? So I suppose I'm asking would the victron smart solar be an expensive unnecessary piece of kit.
If I understand this correctly the victron has parameters that can be altered so could it be altered in such a way as to never exceed the 100w in what seems to be the unlikely event of two 100w solar panels ever producing much more.
or could the Victron load be connected to the Sergant and configured then the hab batteries be connected to directly Victron (the psu can be altered to charge the vehicle battery only)
Or perhaps I'm just over complicating it all and its all gone completely over my head.
My motorhome is a swift so assume it's between 80-100w and I was thinking of doubling this power so decided that a new victron 75/15 smart solar controller would be a good replacement for the cheap 10amp pmr that is fitted at the moment.
I now start reading about the Sergant EC 450 psu which has a smart battery controller and this is where I start to get really confused, as far as I can see the pmr is connected directly to the psu.
According to sergeant the smart battery controller monitors both vehicle and hab batteries and charges them in the same Bulk, Absorption, Float manner that the solar charge controller does.
So...which of the two controllers is actually doing the work? Also the Sergant specs only give one figure for the rating of the battery Controller and that is 100 watts does this mean it can handle any combination of volts and amps as long as the total doesn't exceed the 100w? So I suppose I'm asking would the victron smart solar be an expensive unnecessary piece of kit.
If I understand this correctly the victron has parameters that can be altered so could it be altered in such a way as to never exceed the 100w in what seems to be the unlikely event of two 100w solar panels ever producing much more.
or could the Victron load be connected to the Sergant and configured then the hab batteries be connected to directly Victron (the psu can be altered to charge the vehicle battery only)
Or perhaps I'm just over complicating it all and its all gone completely over my head.
