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 harvesting with current sunload? All I can see is what my batteries will accept at their SOC at that moment.Is there an easy way to put a load on the controller? To somehow make it "gimme all you've got Scotty". With batteries disconnected obviously. Or do we just assume our array can do XYZ based on panel specs?I feel like I won't ever see what the system can actually do, without discharging the batteries way down and then hitting the solar switch, and even then it is only a short term metric.

keep the controller in bulk mode with a load or multiple loads.1/2 a day is enough cuz the 2nd half of day mimics the first half.

You live off batteries so the # of them and the size will determine what your drain rate capabilities are(how fast your panels replenish the battery bank). A moderately sized system should include 4 6V deep cycle batteries for maximum capture of charge during the day. Very generalized but fairly applicable for the frequent boondocker.

I pretty much know what to expect with charging my battery bank using the on-board Converter/Charger setup.In my case I want to get charged up to point that I can use my batteries again right away so I follow the 50% to 90% charging rules so I can get safe use of the batteries in as short of charging time as I can pull off... Again in my case I know how many DC Amps I can pull from my battery bank so that I can stay with-in the 50% charge state. When I see 12.0VDC on my battery monitor I know I am approximately at the 50% charge state so I will stop using my batteries until I get them charged back up to the 90% charge state as soon as possible... If I can supply 17-20Amp per 12VDC battery in my battery bank I know they can be charged from the 50% charge rate to the 90% charge rate in approximately a three hour charge period. When camping OFF-GRID I will run my 2KW Honda Generator with the Popup Trailer shore power cable connected to do this. Most often the camp sites allows the use of generator starting at 8AM each morning so this is the perfect time for me to do this...I also know from experience my battery bank will accept around 53 AMPS DC Current when first hit with 14.4VDC charge from my smart mode charger setup when the battery bank is at its 50% charge state. This will last for around 20 minutes and then starts tapering back. After around one hour of charging with 14.4VDC from my smart mode charger it will then drop back to 13.6VDC.At this point I would like to shut down my generator and hook up enough solar panels to continue my charge mode the rest of the afternoon in high sun. I can get my battery bank up to its 90% charge state by running the generator for an additional two hours after it drops down to 13.6VDC. Hopefully in the several hours of high sun left I can do this setup using only the solar panels.I would most likely want to have at least 20AMPS of DC Power being generated by the solar panels to feed my three 12VDC batteries... A single 120WATT Solar panel will only generate around 6AMPS DC current to give you an idea how many panels you will need...These are my thinking of using solar panels to charge my battery bank for me when we are camping OFF-GRID...We may be using more power then most do when camping off grid because of my Ham Radio use and wife's use of watching HDTV … I regularly see 20-25AMPS of Dc Current being drawn from my battery back between the 6PM to 11PM time frame each evening to give you and idea of how much we pulling from the battery bank each evening...It all kinda depends on each camper's need for power I guess...I know I can do it by running my 2KW Generator for three hours each day to get my battery bank from its 50% charge state to its 90% charge state. Would like to reduce the generator run down to around one hour aday and let the high SUN get my batteries back up to their 90% charge state so I can do all of this all over again each evening...My 12VDC battery bank story haha... I'm sure other do it differently... Roy Ken

Hi,If you have an inverter load it up and that will soon have the solar pumping out watts.

Careful unhooking all your batteries without disabling the solar panels first...blanket, darkness etc.

Testing potential solar harvest? | Good Sam Community

Itinerant1
Explorer
Aug 23, 2018
I like those graphs to see production through out a days use I wish my system had that option.
bpounds
Nomad
Aug 23, 2018
I'm impressed with the time you guys put into your spreadsheets. I assume you pull that out of your Morningstar charge controllers.

So far I am really happy with the Epever Tracer MPPT. I don't think it does realtime logging. I know it accumulates a value for watts collected. I'm not sure over what time period, and if it ever resets or rolls over. It's not a value that interests me.

It came with an MT-50 remote monitor which I mounted inside the coach, using RS485. The main monitor screen tells me the important stuff, and also is a better method of adjusting settings in the controller, than the controller front panel. I also kept my old volt meter as a second opinion, and it has the added value of reading in hundreds of a volt. Sounds silly, but I find that extra digit useful.

It has optional modules to do Bluetooth and WAN connections. Based on reviews I've read, I'm not sure they have the bugs worked out of those. And it was super easy to pull an RS485 cable over to the trailer control panel wall.

At about $190, it does everything I value. I think it is a good buy, as long as it doesn't blow up.
Itinerant1
Explorer
Aug 23, 2018
I'm using all Magnum equipment, readings come from the the me-arc50 mounted inside the trailer. The Lifepo4 battery readings have their own display for monitoring.
CA_Traveler
Explorer III
Aug 23, 2018
bpounds wrote:
I'm impressed with the time you guys put into your spreadsheets. I assume you pull that out of your Morningstar charge controllers.
Yes, the Morningstar MSView software logs and creates a CSV file and the rest is done in Excel.
red31
Explorer
Aug 24, 2018
epever PC software makes cute plots, never figured out to save the data.
hers's bulk/abs early morning charging tiny 7ah AGM via epever's PC software.

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