peterboat Posted May 5, 2020 Report Share Posted May 5, 2020 1 hour ago, RufusR said: I have been messing about designing a new solar system all lock down and have done a ton of research and spoken to a a lot of “experts “ some more so than others . Here is my take . 1. If you don’t want to spend a lot and don’t need to harvest every last ounce of power ala grid tied and solar farms and don’t want a lot of features such as proper Pwm ssr dump load and remote monitoring the the ep solar mppt is pretty decent . It is a earl mppt unlike a lot of eBay crap and does a good job for the money . I have one now and it’s decent and does the job although has some flaws but you pays your money . if like my new system you want dump loads that work , high current output etc etc the you are looking at much bigger bucks . After much research and changing of minds I am going for Midnites classic 150 As it does everything I need and actually fits in my boat , which ruled outback out unfortunately. But it is eye wateringly expensive so having to save for it . but in short for value you are hard pressed to beat ep solar . Beware cheap ebay efforts that are I fact scam badged pwm controllers and will fail quickly . Prism solar are the Europe supplier Callum the owner is on lockdown. I have 2 classic 200s and they are the dogs dodahs worth waiting for they also have a 5 year warranty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RufusR Posted May 5, 2020 Report Share Posted May 5, 2020 Ah many thanks , I have only seen them available on Bimble does prism also sell the combiner boxes ? As you say after a lot of research, discussion and soul searching have have come to conclusion Midnite classic is the right one for my new solar project . Does everything I need and seems to have a loyal following and no bad reviews. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RufusR Posted May 5, 2020 Report Share Posted May 5, 2020 Peter can i ask your advice ? Have looked at prism and they indeed have many more Midnite product options . They have the SL model which is solar only and does everything I want for a little less but no Arc Fault Detection. Is this feature worth the extra on a narrow boat with 5 to 6 270watt panels in parallel? Do you think ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterboat Posted May 5, 2020 Report Share Posted May 5, 2020 9 minutes ago, RufusR said: Ah many thanks , I have only seen them available on Bimble does prism also sell the combiner boxes ? As you say after a lot of research, discussion and soul searching have have come to conclusion Midnite classic is the right one for my new solar project . Does everything I need and seems to have a loyal following and no bad reviews. As far as I know everything, I think you can still phone him Google them great service Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterboat Posted May 5, 2020 Report Share Posted May 5, 2020 10 minutes ago, RufusR said: Peter can i ask your advice ? Have looked at prism and they indeed have many more Midnite product options . They have the SL model which is solar only and does everything I want for a little less but no Arc Fault Detection. Is this feature worth the extra on a narrow boat with 5 to 6 270watt panels in parallel? Do you think ? It's to prevent equipment fire i am not sure I have enabled it on mine ? I thought it was automatic but reading the blurb it might not I will read the manual and let you know Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RufusR Posted May 5, 2020 Report Share Posted May 5, 2020 Many thanks . If it really makes. Difference to safety I will pay the 107 euro more but if not on a smallish system will save the money . Cheers I would not have found them otherwise , they could do with help with google Seo lol . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterboat Posted May 5, 2020 Report Share Posted May 5, 2020 4 minutes ago, RufusR said: Many thanks . If it really makes. Difference to safety I will pay the 107 euro more but if not on a smallish system will save the money . Cheers I would not have found them otherwise , they could do with help with google Seo lol . Read the section only midnite have this feature and it's an impressive safety feature, running at my high voltage it seems like a good thing, not sure you will need it at 30 odd volts Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smiler Posted May 5, 2020 Report Share Posted May 5, 2020 (edited) 2 hours ago, WotEver said: $35 more expensive from the UK warehouse than direct from China. $105 vs $70. + import duty + VAT? Edited May 5, 2020 by smiler Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WotEver Posted May 6, 2020 Report Share Posted May 6, 2020 7 hours ago, smiler said: + import duty + VAT? Maybe, maybe not. You never know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Movin' on Posted May 6, 2020 Report Share Posted May 6, 2020 Where electrics/solar are concerned - I always go for blue boxes! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RufusR Posted May 6, 2020 Report Share Posted May 6, 2020 10 hours ago, peterboat said: Read the section only midnite have this feature and it's an impressive safety feature, running at my high voltage it seems like a good thing, not sure you will need it at 30 odd volts Thanks Peter that’s what I thought maybe I will contact Liam and ask to be sure but I do only have 30 volts albeit at 60 A 1 hour ago, Halsey said: Where electrics/solar are concerned - I always go for blue boxes! I normally would too as inverter and batteries are victron and their great but in this case these can’t offer a aux output with pwm for a diversion load on their controllers . It’s a shame lots of people asking for it so maybe in the future in the meantime it means only outback and Midnite are in the running and midnIt’s have the better product for my application at this time 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nightwatch Posted May 6, 2020 Report Share Posted May 6, 2020 No one seems to be talking Victron. Are they not any good then, or just pricey? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RufusR Posted May 6, 2020 Report Share Posted May 6, 2020 1 hour ago, Nightwatch said: No one seems to be talking Victron. Are they not any good then, or just pricey? No they are great see my post above however they are missing one key feature that kills it for me . Which is a pwm aux output , Outback have it , Midnite have it and I believe Morningstar has it but a Victron have chosen not to have it so cannot really be used to properly control a diversion load . Big oversight on their behalf as I like many others would have gone Blue as first choice otherwise , Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrsmelly Posted May 6, 2020 Author Report Share Posted May 6, 2020 1 hour ago, RufusR said: No they are great see my post above however they are missing one key feature that kills it for me . Which is a pwm aux output , Outback have it , Midnite have it and I believe Morningstar has it but a Victron have chosen not to have it so cannot really be used to properly control a diversion load . Big oversight on their behalf as I like many others would have gone Blue as first choice otherwise , What the flippin eck is a PWM and or aux output? I just want to put some charge int batteries and wonder what the items you mention would do for me?? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBiscuits Posted May 6, 2020 Report Share Posted May 6, 2020 3 minutes ago, mrsmelly said: What the flippin eck is a PWM and or aux output? I just want to put some charge int batteries and wonder what the items you mention would do for me?? Let you run a 12v immersion heater, but only with "waste" sunshine, not flattening your fully charged batteries. It's the one feature the Tracer doesn't have that I would really appreciate, but I'm too tight to pay for a Midnite controller just for this feature. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrsmelly Posted May 6, 2020 Author Report Share Posted May 6, 2020 3 minutes ago, TheBiscuits said: Let you run a 12v immersion heater, but only with "waste" sunshine, not flattening your fully charged batteries. It's the one feature the Tracer doesn't have that I would really appreciate, but I'm too tight to pay for a Midnite controller just for this feature. Is that the two thingies that come out that say " Load " ?? many of the realy cheap controlers have that on or is it somett else. I dont need it but just wondrin innitt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBiscuits Posted May 6, 2020 Report Share Posted May 6, 2020 1 minute ago, mrsmelly said: Is that the two thingies that come out that say " Load " ?? many of the realy cheap controlers have that on or is it somett else. I dont need it but just wondrin innitt. Not quite. It does have load or aux outputs for the wires, obviously! The clever bit happens inside the electonics: it thinks "Ooh I can make 900 watts of electric in this sunshine, but the batteries will only take 100 watts of it" so it keeps charging the batteries with the maximum they can accept and dumps all the "spare" electric into the immersion heater so you get free hot water too. Knowing which is "spare" electric to feed to the diversion load is the clever bit - the cheap controllers would just activate the LOAD circuit and then your batteries would start draining into the calorifier instead of finishing the long slow charge. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Detling Posted May 6, 2020 Report Share Posted May 6, 2020 21 hours ago, WotEver said: Panels in series can also give a usable output in low light conditions where parallel panels wouldn't give anything useful. My panels reach max voltage when they are only capable of outputting milliamps in the morning, so there is no current to max transfer until the sun is a bit higher. If one of the 6 is shaded when I had them in series the output current was halved. So much better in parallel. but you do need fatter (or two runs) wires from the panels back to the controller to carry the higher current. Now if one is shaded I lose less than 10% and they start producing maximised power as soon as, or earlier than, they did in series (I am not usually up then). Tracer controller Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WotEver Posted May 6, 2020 Report Share Posted May 6, 2020 1 hour ago, Detling said: If one of the 6 is shaded when I had them in series the output current was halved. Absolutely. That’s the trade-off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBiscuits Posted May 6, 2020 Report Share Posted May 6, 2020 4 minutes ago, WotEver said: Absolutely. That’s the trade-off. I find that my system works best as parallel in summer and series in winter. It doesn't take much effort to replug the connector wires as I only have one panel ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WotEver Posted May 6, 2020 Report Share Posted May 6, 2020 2 minutes ago, TheBiscuits said: I find that my system works best as parallel in summer and series in winter. That makes complete sense. 2 minutes ago, TheBiscuits said: It doesn't take much effort to replug the connector wires as I only have one panel ... That doesn’t... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RufusR Posted May 6, 2020 Report Share Posted May 6, 2020 3 hours ago, TheBiscuits said: Not quite. It does have load or aux outputs for the wires, obviously! The clever bit happens inside the electonics: it thinks "Ooh I can make 900 watts of electric in this sunshine, but the batteries will only take 100 watts of it" so it keeps charging the batteries with the maximum they can accept and dumps all the "spare" electric into the immersion heater so you get free hot water too. Knowing which is "spare" electric to feed to the diversion load is the clever bit - the cheap controllers would just activate the LOAD circuit and then your batteries would start draining into the calorifier instead of finishing the long slow charge. Perfectly explained . Just what is am trying to achieve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trevor Lyons Posted May 16, 2020 Report Share Posted May 16, 2020 The CPK-X controller was well-reviewed on You Tube: Also, I see someone's selling a system with an 80amp version of this controller on eBay: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/153926162874 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrsmelly Posted May 16, 2020 Author Report Share Posted May 16, 2020 11 minutes ago, Trevor Lyons said: The CPK-X controller was well-reviewed on You Tube: Also, I see someone's selling a system with an 80amp version of this controller on eBay: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/153926162874 Funnily enough the ebay seller also has a barge and lives where you live!! what a small world innitt. He reckons 600 watts is enough to run fridge, freezer, microwave etc which always puts me on my guard with advertisers as 600 watts will run diddly squat in january. The controler does look a good bit of kit though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trevor Lyons Posted May 16, 2020 Report Share Posted May 16, 2020 Indeed, funny that! I see the 600W kit is no longer available on eBay! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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