The Eco-w's new VOC limit
The last Eco-w 20a controller came while we we camping. The first thing I noticed was it now comes in a printed box with graphics and the info on it. The second thing I noticed is on the box the VOC l...
Forum Discussion
JiminDenver wrote:
Thinking about it I can do one better with a bit of side by side comparison. I'll set up both 245w systems, run them both at peak while keeping one controller cool and letting the other one heat up until I see a difference.
I get confused about the Eco-Ws watts read-out. Chicken and egg thing. The panel has watts but the controller reads just the battery voltage times the amps it is making as output.
The panel can be in full sun with the controller in Bulk showing 200w but a minute later it can have dropped to Float and be making half the amps it was and the watts figure goes down too. But nothing really happened to the actual panel wattage.
The controller's watts figure seems sort of incestuous to me. We don't really see what the panel wattage is that is affected by the panel temperature out there so I don't feel I know what is really happening.
I do see that the little MPPT demo it does shows what the actual panel Isc is. (Compared it to my own Isc take at the disconnected panel a few times--same amps.) So one check to see if it is doing the best it can wrt insolation (being at or above rated Isc) is just do the demo and see what the Isc is.
You can only complain if the watts are lower than you like if the Isc is at or above rating. Otherwise the insolation is low and that might be the excuse for having low watts.
