Solar Controllers--Don't be a Sucker! :(
Just got to say it again, how it is we are sitting here for five months off grid on solar with no problems at all (third season on solar like this), using the non-programmable, non-MPPT, solar control...
Forum Discussion
Why ignore the hours from 6-8? Because production is minimal? Production is also minimal from late afternoon to evening. Does your system stay in float during demand from 5pm till solar sleep? The Rogue will be in MPPT from wake-up until Vabs. Any time after that it will revert to MPPT if there is sufficient demand to drop voltage below the set point.
I don't equate demand loads with "messing up". As long as one can bring the bank to a full state (whatever your definition of full is and I don't quibble over +/- a few Ahs) on a regular basis, it is actually more efficient to use the watts directly rather than depleting and recharging a battery. The real reason for a solar system is to provide power. Unfortunately we have to attempt to store the part we can't use directly in a battery.
Since battery bank capacity is a moving target how does one ever "know" that he has achieved "full" except by a hydrometer? All amps are not equal. By definition I have a 440 Ah bank if I withdraw at the 20 hr rate (approx. 22 amps). Who does that? Most of the time it is much less than 22 amps which means the capacity in hrs is actually much greater than 440. However I also have short bursts of high amp draw from a MW, coffee pot, hair dryer, vacuum cleaner. How does one account for that? The Trimetric thinks an amp is an amp except for the recharge fudge factor. If I see .5 to 2 amps into the batteries at float voltage, they are "full". To attempt more than that would be to invite unnecessary worry or what some might consider obsession.
I don't equate demand loads with "messing up". As long as one can bring the bank to a full state (whatever your definition of full is and I don't quibble over +/- a few Ahs) on a regular basis, it is actually more efficient to use the watts directly rather than depleting and recharging a battery. The real reason for a solar system is to provide power. Unfortunately we have to attempt to store the part we can't use directly in a battery.
Since battery bank capacity is a moving target how does one ever "know" that he has achieved "full" except by a hydrometer? All amps are not equal. By definition I have a 440 Ah bank if I withdraw at the 20 hr rate (approx. 22 amps). Who does that? Most of the time it is much less than 22 amps which means the capacity in hrs is actually much greater than 440. However I also have short bursts of high amp draw from a MW, coffee pot, hair dryer, vacuum cleaner. How does one account for that? The Trimetric thinks an amp is an amp except for the recharge fudge factor. If I see .5 to 2 amps into the batteries at float voltage, they are "full". To attempt more than that would be to invite unnecessary worry or what some might consider obsession.
