Victron / solar people

steveswift

steveswift

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Nov 19, 2022
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swift edge 494
Happy Christmas to you all
I’m down on south coast of Spain atm and first time I’ve had a chance to test the solar part of my recent victron set up , the only thing is , the info makes little sense to me , please see attatched a current screen shot of what it’s doing and kindly offer some explanation of what you see , many thanks in advance
 

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It’s bulk charging so you must have capacity in your leisure batteries, at 3.4 amps an hour which is not bad in winter. Seems to be working well.
 
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steveswift said:
Happy Christmas to you all
I’m down on south coast of Spain atm and first time I’ve had a chance to test the solar part of my recent victron set up , the only thing is , the info makes little sense to me , please see attatched a current screen shot of what it’s doing and kindly offer some explanation of what you see , many thanks in advance
Click to expand...
The first section shows what is coming from the panels, your panels are wired in series which is why the voltage is so high at 56v and delivering 3.4 amps.

The 2nd section is what is coming out of the solar regulator and going into the batteries.
13.6v at 13.6 amps.

It's in bulk charge mode at the moment when the voltage reaches 14.4v it will change to absorption mode holding the voltage at 14 to 14.4v with a reduced current of around an amp. When the batteries are fully charged the voltage will drop to 13.6 to 13.8 at about 1 amp this is the float/maintenance charge.

Series connected panels is not the best for a motorhome as any shade on one panel you will lose all your output, it's worth considering changing them to parallel wired.
 
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top voltage is the solar into the controller and the 13 is whats being sent to the batteries the amps is the rate at which charge is going in
 
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stevewagner said:
It’s bulk charging so you must have capacity in your leisure batteries, at 3.4 amps an hour which is not bad in winter. Seems to be working well.
Click to expand...
No it's not the batteries are charging at 13.6 amps you are reading the solar output.

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Lenny HB said:
Very little gain having them in series, the advantage of them in parallel far outweighs any disadvantages.
Click to expand...
Up the voltage lower the amps= smaller cabling early switch on later switch off due to the higher voltage looks like slightly better gain but time will tell.
 
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steveswift said:
Happy Christmas to you all
I’m down on south coast of Spain atm and first time I’ve had a chance to test the solar part of my recent victron set up , the only thing is , the info makes little sense to me , please see attatched a current screen shot of what it’s doing and kindly offer some explanation of what you see , many thanks in advance
Click to expand...
How many panels do you have and what size are they?

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Ditcha said:
Up the voltage lower the amps= smaller cabling early switch on later switch off due to the higher voltage looks like slightly better gain but time will tell.
Click to expand...
But any shade on either of the ones in parallel and you have lost both.
 
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steveswift said:
please see attatched a current screen shot of what it’s doing and kindly offer some explanation of what you see
Click to expand...
As has already been said, the first section is the solar panel output, At 56.13V and 3.4A that makes it 56.13 x 3.4 = 190W.

The next section, as has been said, is what the solar controller is outputting to the batteries, 13.67V at 13.6, that makes it 13.67 x 13.6 = 186W. So the controller is losing 4W somewhere, which is about what I would expect.

The 'Bulk' state is the first of the 3-stage charging process (Bulk, Absorption,Float). The voltage should gradually rise from 13.67V to about 14.5V, stay in Absorption mode at 14.5V for a number of hours, then drop into Float mode at about 13.5V. If the sunshine lasts long enough, of course.

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stevewagner said:
It’s bulk charging so you must have capacity in your leisure batteries, at 3.4 amps an hour which is not bad in winter. Seems to be working well.
Click to expand...
Many thanks

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Lenny HB said:
The first section shows what is coming from the panels, your panels are wired in series which is why the voltage is so high at 56v and delivering 3.4 amps.

The 2nd section is what is coming out of the solar regulator and going into the batteries.
13.6v at 13.6 amps.

It's in bulk charge mode at the moment when the voltage reaches 14.4v it will change to absorption mode holding the voltage at 14 to 14.4v with a reduced current of around an amp. When the batteries are fully charged the voltage will drop to 13.6 to 13.8 at about 1 amp this is the float/maintenance charge.

Series connected panels is not the best for a motorhome as any shade on one panel you will lose all your output, it's worth considering changing them to parallel wired.
Click to expand...
Many thanks
 
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Only had a quick scan through the thread...

Your solar controller is outputting 13.6A. But, that is not necessarily all going into your batteries - you might be using some of it in the van.
 
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St3v3 said:
Only had a quick scan through the thread...

Your solar controller is outputting 13.6A. But, that is not necessarily all going into your batteries - you might be using some of it in the van.
Click to expand...
Hi I appreciate that thanks for your reply
 
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