MPPT Volts to Current Conversion
My buddy picked up 6 300 watt panels today - because he wants to be able to feed his ravenous Starlink - without running the generator. The starlink uses 190 watts of power at 120v - it's a pig for p...
Forum Discussion
@CA Traveler - if it's a 220AH set of batteries - then what is the C (Charging?) rate for those batteries. I've read on rv.net from folks who are a LOT smarter than me that you can only put 25% per hour into Lead Acid Batteries during bulk charging. Is that not correct?
And Yes, it is WAY over sized for his battery banks - but that will change over time - as he'll be looking at moving to LiPo or some other technology for storage in the next year. As we all know we all have to start somewhere and evaluate our needs individually.
Personally, I've got 2 banks of GC batteries, and an Inverter. I alternate between each bank every other day - and do a daily recharge with my Honda - so my own needs are much less than his.
Though I'll be moving to Starlink at some point this year because some of the places we go in Colorado don't have internet (cell) based and for work, I need to have some internet access.
@2oldman - that's good to know. we're going to do a kill a watt test when we go next week to figure out real world usage.
By the way - he's had the worst luck with Starlink. When he originally bought is starlink system, he's in an area that's considered to be rural - and there's no High Speed internet available where he lives. He has a microwave dish on a tree pointing 12 miles south for his internet.
When he got his starlink system, he had great success - except, his original dishy was getting covered with snow (He's at 9300' in Conifer, CO) and the heater couldn't keep up with melting the snow and it was melting and freezing on the dishy. He purchased the new, bigger system - but was getting terrible throughput - only to find out even though his address is rural, he was considered to be in an over utilized zone and was getting terrible throughput.
After 4 months of going back and forth with Starlink - he had to go back to his old system and his performance is back to where it was. Seems that Starlink won't let you upgrade your system to a newer base unit and dish - and if you do, and you're in an oversubscribed area, you get "best effort". They don't have a way to "upgrade" and keep your current bandwidth.
It's a hot mess and he's out 1600 bucks!
For where we're going camping though, it's an under subscribed area so it's not an issue.
Thanks for the info by the way!!
Josh
And Yes, it is WAY over sized for his battery banks - but that will change over time - as he'll be looking at moving to LiPo or some other technology for storage in the next year. As we all know we all have to start somewhere and evaluate our needs individually.
Personally, I've got 2 banks of GC batteries, and an Inverter. I alternate between each bank every other day - and do a daily recharge with my Honda - so my own needs are much less than his.
Though I'll be moving to Starlink at some point this year because some of the places we go in Colorado don't have internet (cell) based and for work, I need to have some internet access.
@2oldman - that's good to know. we're going to do a kill a watt test when we go next week to figure out real world usage.
By the way - he's had the worst luck with Starlink. When he originally bought is starlink system, he's in an area that's considered to be rural - and there's no High Speed internet available where he lives. He has a microwave dish on a tree pointing 12 miles south for his internet.
When he got his starlink system, he had great success - except, his original dishy was getting covered with snow (He's at 9300' in Conifer, CO) and the heater couldn't keep up with melting the snow and it was melting and freezing on the dishy. He purchased the new, bigger system - but was getting terrible throughput - only to find out even though his address is rural, he was considered to be in an over utilized zone and was getting terrible throughput.
After 4 months of going back and forth with Starlink - he had to go back to his old system and his performance is back to where it was. Seems that Starlink won't let you upgrade your system to a newer base unit and dish - and if you do, and you're in an oversubscribed area, you get "best effort". They don't have a way to "upgrade" and keep your current bandwidth.
It's a hot mess and he's out 1600 bucks!
For where we're going camping though, it's an under subscribed area so it's not an issue.
Thanks for the info by the way!!
Josh
