Next week I'll be dry camping in Q for 3 days and this will be my first "real" solar experience. I've got 3x250W panels and a MPPT60 controller.As a learning experience what data would be useful to collect regarding solar performance, my usage, etc? The controller will automatically collect limited data such as daily AHs and a few other parameters.I could also run the computer on the inverter and log a wide variety of data every second or longer. I have a battery monitor but no automatic logging for it. What information would be useful to climb up the learning curve?

You don't need to monitor minute by minuteBut if you can monitor inherently.. how many amp hrs/watt hrs, you use vs how many the solar collects and returns to the systemYou will know positively whether you have a deficit or a surplusI like separate meters because it can show you total output of the solar system instead of just battery statusA trimetric will show charged or how many amp hrs down/deficitBut it takes two meters to show that you used 90 amp hrs while the solar produced 120ah... so only 30 went to rechargeYou may our may not be fully charged, depending on how much you neededOne meter in the battery discharge aka load sideOne meter in the solar output..Or in your case the display from the solar controller

Go out and have fun at the gem shows and flea markets. You can now ignore the batteries.Have you custom programmed a charge profile?

Bob I have loads of data/graphs I did over the past few yearsCan send a few to you if you want to see them One test I suggest you do is to graph the Battery voltage (at the battery aka battery sense line to the controller) Vs Battery output of the controller under different heavy load conditions. My system has about 10ft one way of wire from controller to the battery. This test clearly showed me how well the battery sense function works with as much as 250mV drop under a heavy load and fully compensated by the controller.

The only thing I'd care about is the amp output at noon. You could be seeing up to 50a @ 13v. Wow.Are these panels tilted?

smkettner wrote:Go out and have fun at the gem shows and flea markets. You can now ignore the batteries.Have you custom programmed a charge profile?Not yet. After the Q trip I plan to update the firmware and then any customization. Just in case either of these cause any down time I'll still be able to have solar at Q. I do know that the AGM switch settings are not exactly what Lifeline recommends but only a 0.1V off. I also have concerns about the Read TSMPPT data I'm seeing and opened a support ticket yesterday. Here is the support ticket, hope it's clear.Please clarify just what I’m seeing and should expect to see with the Read TSMPPT. I expected that the Setpoints values would be the values actually being used but that is not the case. For example the Maximum Battery Current returns as 80.00 and not 60V. What is Regulation Voltage? Nowhere do I see the values specified by my controller switch settings for AGM. The controller does seem to be charging correctly but I’m going to have to change the values because your AGM switch settings to conform to the Lifeline recommendations. Plus in Edit mode there are some different names and the MSView Help text is also different for some of its information.I have not updated the firmware or the Setpoints at this point. MSView is the latest version but I’m not at the rig right now to get the controller and remote versions. I can send you screen captures of the MSView Setpoints if that is helpful.

Useful Solar Data | Good Sam Community

37 Replies

CA_Traveler
Explorer III
Mar 06, 2015
That tree was right next to Hi Jolly's buried gold. :B
Almot
Explorer III
Mar 06, 2015
Where did you find leafy shadows in Quartsite, I wonder :)
CA_Traveler
Explorer III
Mar 06, 2015
FYI New thread: Solar, Leafy Shadows and Bypass Diodes
Almot
Explorer III
Mar 05, 2015
CA Traveler wrote:
It's kinda like a kid with a new toy. I'll get there but still getting on for the ride. :)

Been there. When living for a while with one 245W flat, I used to check amps and volts and how much time it spend in Absorb and Float etc - several times a day. 245W didn't really cut it on a dark day in winter at Lat 29, and this made me uncomfortable even though with one dark day out of 5 it didn't really matter.

Now that I've got around to adding a 2nd 245W, I don't look at it 'cause I "know" that bats will be full every day. Still tweaking with Float voltage, but, being AGM, batts don't tell me if they are happier after 6 hours at 13.7 than at 13.6. So, it's mostly in my mind.

Need to get me another toy, and stop looking at that controller.
jrnymn7
Explorer
Mar 05, 2015
Take a look at June 28th, 2014, for example...

Pointed dips below flat for a while. Is that do to panel temps?
red31
Explorer
Mar 05, 2015
CA Traveler wrote:
However, regardless I have no way to measure panel temmperature or actual radiation levels other that as I have noted it was a blue sky.

I like using the solar calendars from the govt, the closest live data to phoneix is UofA Tusan.

http://www.nrel.gov/midc/ua_oasis/

Take a look at Solar Calendars, esp in Feb '15 for some perfect days, Global horz is on a flat plate while direct normal is tracking. Panel is rated at 1000 so you should see 80% at 800 ... Compare to late June!
jrnymn7
Explorer
Mar 05, 2015
CaT man do.
Salvo
Explorer
Mar 05, 2015
You're doing the right thing. You got the tools and the ambition. Keep on truckin'.

Attitude is everything.

CA Traveler wrote:
Almot wrote:
OP - relax.
It's kinda like a kid with a new toy. I'll get there but still getting on for the ride. :)
BFL13
Explorer II
Mar 05, 2015
CA Traveler wrote:
BFL,

During the time and location for my chart the sun elevation would have changed from about 47 to 50 degrees elevation. And 50 degrees is the maximum elevation so that the curve is flatter during the time of the chart than earlier.

Also since the sun evelation reaches it's maximum at 12:00 and the ambient temperature was 65F it seems likey that this increase in in sun elevation was more of a factor in the slight increase in amp output vs panel temperature during the time of the chart. However, regardless I have no way to measure panel temmperature or actual radiation levels other that as I have noted it was a blue sky.

At any rate as a solar newbie I'm pleased with this output. My goal was 45A during the summer and perhaps I'll exceed that. My hope/planning was for the 3 flat mounted panels to be equivalent to 2 panels. Nothing would be better than to exceed my conservative estimates.

I also was comparing 11-12 when the Salvo graph is when noon is 13 so it would be 12-13 for comparison. There is a 15 degree change in the sun's bearing every hour though regardless of altitude change in that hour.

I was wondering if there was some sort of flat-topping going on due to controller settings or whatever. Have to wait for more readings later in the year.

Three flat can more than out-do two tilted south. My figures at the time were 56AH flat and 70AH tilted, so two tilted would be 140AH and three flat would be 168AH

To be equal to 140AH, you would need two flat at 112 plus another 28 and 28 is about half 56 so about 2.5 panels flat in that case. Of course the difference between flat and tilted is highly variable over the year and locations, so three flat should do it much of the time if not all the time.
CA_Traveler
Explorer III
Mar 05, 2015
Almot wrote:
OP - relax.
It's kinda like a kid with a new toy. I'll get there but still getting on for the ride. :)