Solar Charge Controller

Hi,

Try this one? 30 amp controller.

steveh27 wrote:
Of course! I would not have asked otherwise. There are many listed & I don't want to play roulette. If you have one that works well for you why not share? Thanks.

I get dizzy re-reading these three pages.

What bubbles up to the surface is a couple of smaller batteries and hinges for the panels.

This is not MPPT territory, sorry.

MPPT is for higher voltage massive panels (but cheaper per watt), long runs of panel to controller wire and critical little bit extra charging at sunup and sundown. MPPT on a small system would be like a Goodyear Blue Streak racing tire on a wheelbarrow. Just my humble opinion.

steveh27 wrote:
Why do you even post here if you're not willing to share what works for you?

Why are you not willing to help yourself? There was a controller mentioned on page 1 of this thread. Another on page 2. Again on page 5.

steveh27 wrote:

NinerBikes wrote:

steveh27 wrote:
Niner,

Which ebay adjustable controller did you buy? Could you post a link? That is one thing I would like to have.

Did you try searching Ebay? "30 solar" find one for about $31 from china. yellow buttons, 3 of them.

Thanks for all your help. Not. You edited your post after seeing mine where I said I searched ebay & there were many. Why do you even post here if you're not willing to share what works for you?

Because numerous times, I have posted here what works for me, to the point of sounding like a broken record because folks like you won't use key words and the "search" function. In other words, you're lazy. The info is all over the place in here, it's not for me to hold your hand and dig around all over Ebay when you are capable of doing that yourself, but won't.

Give a man a fish, you have to feed him, teach him how to fish, he can feed himself the rest of his life.

NinerBikes wrote:

steveh27 wrote:
Niner,

Which ebay adjustable controller did you buy? Could you post a link? That is one thing I would like to have.

Did you try searching Ebay? "30 solar" find one for about $31 from china. yellow buttons, 3 of them.

Thanks for all your help. Not. You edited your post after seeing mine where I said I searched ebay & there were many. Why do you even post here if you're not willing to share what works for you?

Of course! I would not have asked otherwise. There are many listed & I don't want to play roulette. If you have one that works well for you why not share? Thanks.

steveh27 wrote:
Niner,

Which ebay adjustable controller did you buy? Could you post a link? That is one thing I would like to have.

Did you try searching Ebay? "30 solar" find one for about $31 from china. yellow buttons, 3 of them.

steveh27 wrote:
I discovered why my multimeter wouldn't show the Short Circuit Current (SCC). The 20 amp fuse was bad. I did check behind both panel's black boxes & the connections are good. One registered Open Current Voltage (OCV) of 21.2 the other 20.8. It's rated at 21.8. The rated SCC is 7.2 amps with max output of 6.67 amp.

Results:

SCC from controller connection = 6.5
from 25' 18 ga = 6.7
from 22' 10 ga = 6.6

I need to make the final solder & heat shrink connections on the 10 ga. wire. I may shorten it a bit to 16-18' if that needs done & would help.

Now my battery has a SOC of 87% with 12.7 v and a draw of -0.2a. When connected with the various cords my Trimetric shows:
with 25' 18 ga = 13.1 v and +2.9a
with 22' 10 ga = 13.2 v and +3.0a the v went up a bit the longer connected
with 16' 18 ga wire clamped direct to battery = 13.3v and 3.0a.

Maybe all is well & I just do not drain the battery enough to allow all the amps to charge?

You can test for that by running some loads on the battery like a few lamps and fans. No solar. Note the draw on the Trimetric, say it is -15a.

Now turn on solar. Amps will rise by the amount of solar you are getting. If they rise by 7a to -8a, then you know it was just the battery acceptance rate at 3a. If it rises by 3a then you are on half array.

wbwood wrote:
What's BFL?

I ask myself that same question LOL! BFL13, one of the posters in this thread.

JiminDenver wrote:

wbwood wrote:

JiminDenver wrote:
My twin 245w set ups are only different in that one has a 25 ft set of 10 awg cables, the other fifty feet. The system with the longer cables is always a few 10ths of a amp lower than the shorter. Worth it because the longer set up is easier to avoid the shade with.

wbwood

Every rig/user is different so it's hard to say this will be enough. We used a 230w system last year for the loads you are talking plus a considerable amount of furnace run time. It was overkill even with the afternoon storms we had except for one cold and cloudy weekend, and even then it kept us off the generator.

Some of the places have 200w kits for $300 including shipping. I would toss the mounting hardware, hinge the panels and run the cable to the controller near the batteries. A little more work than the premade portables and twice the power.

We are not going to mount the panels...I am leaning towards getting 2 - 100 watt panels and hinge them as you mention. It's just as cheap (if not cheaper) to get a kit with the controller. Usually it's a 30 amp PWM controller. One kit has a 20' cable, but some of the others don't mention it. I know they sell different length of cables. I'm looking at getting a quick connect/disconnect and mounting it underneath (or there abouts) near my batteries. That way, I can just pull out the panels, place and point them in the right direction and plug it in.

We don't do a lot of dry camping. (Actually have only done it once in the last year), but want to be able to do it and not have to run the generator if we don't want to or need to. We are not trying to power everything in the coach and not for extreme periods of time. The 30 amp controller states you can go up to 400 watts. So that gives the ability to add another panel or two later on. When the 2 group 27's die, we will replace with a couple of 6 volts...so that will help a little more. By then, who knows, we may be true solar converts....lol

I just want something to play with, learn with and help out some. I also like the idea of possibly starting a battery bank at the house and being able to use the solar panels and an inverter to run a few things with power outages. We have a small portable generator at home to use, but we get a lot of sun, so why not harvest it!

Depending on what you can get the panels for you may be able to beat the kit cost or at least get better quality components. My 25 ft set of cords with connectors was $32 shipped and the 59 ft were $50 or so. Longer and heavier than those in the kits. BFL uses a inexpensive PWM controller that would work well. Newer ones can use a temp probe too.

What's BFL?