Parallel Amps Question
If I have three solar panels in parallel producing 20amps in total down a wire, and then I divide that wire with a Y into two sets of wires, each going to a solar controller's array side, and each con...
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In this situation I do not need to evenly balance resistance to get half each amps. I only need to get the most any one controller does nominally is 16a out of its 20a rating.
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I wish Mr Ohm were here now to help me un-confuse myself taking these readings.
I wanted to wait until total amps fell below 10 so it would be safe to use my 10a accurate ammeter part of the multimeter. I would then check amps on the Trimetric and subtract the amps on one controller and get both controller's amps to the battery.
Wrong! Total amps was down to about 2 by the time I got started, so I turned on some lights and a fan with solar disconnected to get minus 8.1a on the Tri.
Since the batts were taking almost nothing, I figured solar would be under 10 running the loads. Connected up solar , amps jumped to plus 9.7 but quickly tapered to plus 1.1a steady state with loads running.
So I figured solar was doing about 9 amps and half that would be 4.5a
But ammeter on one controller said 0.83a and the other controller was 1.30a. (put ammeter between controller pos and battery) Meanwhile the stupid Trimetric was still showing plus 1.2 with loads on.
Something is goofy including me, but anyway, whatever the reason is for the numbers seen, it seems the split is something like 0.83 on Y(b) vs 1.3 on Y (a) ratio ?
So you would think the higher amps went with the fatter wiring of the Y split. Nope. Y (a) is 12 ft of #6 cu booster cable plus 2 ft of #8 stranded. Y(b) is 14 ft of #2 cu clad al piece of booster cable plus 6" of #8
So that must mean Y (b) has worse connections than Y(a) to have more resistance even though fatter?
The coarse ammeter readings taken earlier showed approx. half each, so this shows at least they split 1/3, 2/3, whatever. Good enough split for me to keep either controller at 16a or below when total is 20. I will try for a better measurement when conditions allow so I don't have to run a load and get so confused :(
-----
I wish Mr Ohm were here now to help me un-confuse myself taking these readings.
I wanted to wait until total amps fell below 10 so it would be safe to use my 10a accurate ammeter part of the multimeter. I would then check amps on the Trimetric and subtract the amps on one controller and get both controller's amps to the battery.
Wrong! Total amps was down to about 2 by the time I got started, so I turned on some lights and a fan with solar disconnected to get minus 8.1a on the Tri.
Since the batts were taking almost nothing, I figured solar would be under 10 running the loads. Connected up solar , amps jumped to plus 9.7 but quickly tapered to plus 1.1a steady state with loads running.
So I figured solar was doing about 9 amps and half that would be 4.5a
But ammeter on one controller said 0.83a and the other controller was 1.30a. (put ammeter between controller pos and battery) Meanwhile the stupid Trimetric was still showing plus 1.2 with loads on.
Something is goofy including me, but anyway, whatever the reason is for the numbers seen, it seems the split is something like 0.83 on Y(b) vs 1.3 on Y (a) ratio ?
So you would think the higher amps went with the fatter wiring of the Y split. Nope. Y (a) is 12 ft of #6 cu booster cable plus 2 ft of #8 stranded. Y(b) is 14 ft of #2 cu clad al piece of booster cable plus 6" of #8
So that must mean Y (b) has worse connections than Y(a) to have more resistance even though fatter?
The coarse ammeter readings taken earlier showed approx. half each, so this shows at least they split 1/3, 2/3, whatever. Good enough split for me to keep either controller at 16a or below when total is 20. I will try for a better measurement when conditions allow so I don't have to run a load and get so confused :(
