Testing potential solar harvest?
Now that I have a solar installation up and running, and it's working great BTW, I feel a little under informed at times. For example, at any given point in time, what is my array capable of harvesti...
Forum Discussion
azrving wrote:
"With batteries disconnected obviously. "
You may see smoke come out of the controller. I use a trimetric but victron and others are also available
I understand that you should not run the controller without batteries, but I was suggesting some other type of load in place of batteries. Perhaps using a pair of disconnects to switch between loads. A Trimetric would not do what I was hoping for.
pianotuna wrote:
Hi,
If you have an inverter load it up and that will soon have the solar pumping out watts.
Now that makes sense. I'm not really planning on an inverter, at least not at the moment. Maybe a small one at some point to run entertainment. We've become very comfortable camping without AC power, and I don't want to haul more than 2 GC batteries just to support an inverter. I think you are right though, that would be a way to test the system. I thought of just turning on every 12v device in the entire coach, but that still would not tax the 40a charge controller, or even the 30a that the solar array might be capable of on its best day. A good sized inverter would, then try to find enough AC gizmos to run for a while.
I was hoping someone had devised a simpler method. Haven't seen it done as of yet. Maybe something similar to a battery load tester?
I know it is kind of a silly curiosity of mine. And is due to the fact that I haven't been able to take it out camping yet. It won't matter once I have a little experience with the system.
