I performed a driveway test of the solar system in the van. I drew 2KWH ,per Kill-A-Watt, by running a 5K BTU window-shaker A/C for 4.5hours.
I ran the coolest setting so the A/C would run continuously so the average was 444W.
A majority of the power came from the 270Ah AGM bank, with the assist from the 280W solar with the MS SS MPPT 15l controller. The controller was maxed out at 15A for about 3 hours. I had to use a USB fan on the controller. It got very hot where the decal said 'Don't touch!'.
The test began at 12:52, a few minutes after the controller switched to float and ran until 17:22. The lowest Voltage was 11.77 at 17:22 and 10 minutes later at 17:32 the Volts were 12.17. All the while, 2 Dometic CF-35 12V compressor fridges are running 24/7. End result is the system did well.
Now it is the next morning, July 7th, and we need a good charge. Beforehand, I set the 15L to skip float if the battery Volts stay below 12.5 for 2 hours. The bank needs a long Abs stage. I plugged in the Magnum 1012 inverter/charger at 6AM. Now the 1012 is providing 50A of charge and the solar nearly nothing. All I want is for the 1012 to bring Volts up to the Abs target. This took 3.5hours at which point I unplugged the 1012 and let the controller finish Abs. As I had hoped, the controller held Abs all day and never went to float. It worked!
I believe that the 1012 if left on would have dropped to float anyway. In either case, the 15L controller would have held Abs all day.
I believe the bank is charged.
Today July 8, the charge stages are back to normal.
I have graphs if anyone is interested.
I say automatic is getting smarter. What do you say?
HTH;
John
