Eco-Worthy 12v solar panels, Now drifting to... mono vs poly

jrnymn7 wrote:
BFL,

I'm not sure I understand the 13.2 thing with the wfco. If the batts have to be very low, say 12.2v to kick it into boost, is it the difference of 1 volt that makes it kick in?

And how would an early pm3 handle say 12.5v batts? (both pre-mod and post-mod)

Thanks!

When you turn on a charger, the batts immediately spike from 12.x to 13.x. The WFCO and early PMs and PM3s will only go into boost if that spike is to less than 13.2, so the batts have to be low, around 50% or whatever it needs to be, maybe less than that if wiring is also a factor.

If the batts are at 12.5 the spike will go to 13.5 say (whatever) and be above 13.2, so no boost happens.

Iota and later PMs decided to beat that by having the 15 min thing so it goes into boost no matter what at first. Not sure about Iota but ISTR the PMs after the 15 min check and if the batts are not yet up to 14.2 by then, they continue on in boost till batts reach 14.6, then drop to Vabs of 13.6

If after the 15 min, the batts are above 14.2, it means they must be at a fairly high SOC and will reach 14.6 in minutes, so it just goes straight to the Vabs of 13.6.

PM chose the 15 min trick because they hate the whole idea of having a gizmo you need to attach like the Charge Wizard to hold a "boost button" and they didn't want the added expense of having a built in boost button like the WFCO 98100 has either.

BTW, I still think you have a good case to get that first PM mystery unit exchanged for a working 60 amper that you should have received the first time, but I wonder how you can return that new one when it is not broken. Should be an interesting negotiation! Do remember to stay reasonable or they will react to being pushed by pushing back same as anybody would :)