Setting up my solar system
I'm in the planning stages of adding solar to my travel trailer. I currently have a battery bank of two 6V flooded lead acid GC batteries in series that is 215 Ah 12 volts. I am planning on adding ...
Forum Discussion
I never got the diode section advantage because the darn sun shading was at an angle to the sections and so crossed cells in more than one section.
I never was able to measure the fabled advantage of having the higher voltage MPPT in lower light and shoulder hours. Was all the same to me. Low light means few amps. Who cares if you get twice the amps between getting 1.5 and 3 ?
I did see the Trimetric action when shading hit one parallel panel and not the others so I still got some amps to the battery. But this was late in the day when the shading was because of a low sun and didn't last long anyway till dark so didn't matter. Also by then, batteries were charged so didn't matter.
No shading and swapping series and parallel and MPPT and PWM I got (as seen on Trimetric same sunshine conditions) same amps to the battery so it just didn't matter what I did--same amps!
What did matter was sunshine on the panels where I had them tilted and twirled to be aimed at the sun as it rose and fell and went around laterally at 15 degrees an hour.
With this rig in the same campground site with the panels now flat on the roof, I get the same results only with more panels to make up for not being able to aim them. Actually I now have more panel wattage flat on the roof than I need on the Class C for here in the summer, so I will likely steal a panel and put it on the Truck Camper we got recently.
Yes you can have too much solar. It is always about the scenario. You find out about that by experience. All you can do at first is estimate. Then be prepared to adjust. Or max out your roof and that is what you have for all scenarios. (Probably the best way to go if not on a budget)
I never was able to measure the fabled advantage of having the higher voltage MPPT in lower light and shoulder hours. Was all the same to me. Low light means few amps. Who cares if you get twice the amps between getting 1.5 and 3 ?
I did see the Trimetric action when shading hit one parallel panel and not the others so I still got some amps to the battery. But this was late in the day when the shading was because of a low sun and didn't last long anyway till dark so didn't matter. Also by then, batteries were charged so didn't matter.
No shading and swapping series and parallel and MPPT and PWM I got (as seen on Trimetric same sunshine conditions) same amps to the battery so it just didn't matter what I did--same amps!
What did matter was sunshine on the panels where I had them tilted and twirled to be aimed at the sun as it rose and fell and went around laterally at 15 degrees an hour.
With this rig in the same campground site with the panels now flat on the roof, I get the same results only with more panels to make up for not being able to aim them. Actually I now have more panel wattage flat on the roof than I need on the Class C for here in the summer, so I will likely steal a panel and put it on the Truck Camper we got recently.
Yes you can have too much solar. It is always about the scenario. You find out about that by experience. All you can do at first is estimate. Then be prepared to adjust. Or max out your roof and that is what you have for all scenarios. (Probably the best way to go if not on a budget)
