Voltage drop from solar controller

mena661 wrote:
Not understanding why you are shutting off your solar? Let it run all the time. You COULD just run the converter off shore power and run everything else from solar. It's times like this when larger amp converters come in handy (like the Powermax 100A).

pianotuna wrote:
Hi,

I'd attempt to set the output from the blue sky at 15.4 volts

X2

Mena661: I'm not shutting the solar off. I do shut the Xantrex charger function off. It's good for 100A. Currently set for 96 A which is C20 of the batteries.

I might up the solar controller output voltage again to see what happens. When I went from 14.4 to 14.67 all it seemed to do was increase voltage drop. I'll nudge it up a bit tomorrow and see what happens.

Last night we went to bed with the invert function left on (standby) and woke up this morning with the inverter running, battery voltage down to 14.2 Some time during the night the line voltage had gone too high, the Xantrex invoked its right to block it, then later I suppose the electric water heater came on. Seems that some how the switch for the electric hot water had got turned on! :S However, when the line voltage dropped a bit later the the charger function engaged and it merrily pumped 96A into the batteries. After a while Battery voltage went up to 14.4. We went out for breakfast and when we returned everything looked good; battery voltage down to 14.1, Xantrex charging at 28A, the solar providing about 14A in Constant Voltage Mode. (ie it thinks batteries are at 90%.)

You don't think that 15.4 is too high? It is not temperature compensated and ambient here in the daytime is 30C, 86F give or take a degree.


All in all, I'll have to re-do it when we get home. I know what and how to do it, I just can't, physically. Hmmmm. Just had a thought--I have a nephew doing his Electrician Apprenticeship. . . . Maybe I'll invite him down for a week of "dinghy sailing". :B