new solar panels fitted but?

[mickp]

Fitted myself 2*100w panels and mppt controlleryesterday,the sun sort of came out but kept disapearing behind the clouds .the results so far disapointing.the panels are flat at the moment as work still in progress but the best figure i saw was 4amp but mostly around 2amp.i tried series and parallal with little difference,the panels volts are 21v each .controller reading tally with my battery monitor ok.cable runs quite short with 4mm cable .my question is do i need to start looking for problems or hang fire for better weather

[jodansgang]

Hang fire and run your batteries down. If the batteries were near to full capacity the panels possibly wouldn't do much anyway.

Good luck.

[costalot]

I have two 100W panels lying flat on the roof and was getting 2-4 amps yesterday. Reached 7 amps in bright sunshine at one point this morning.

 

I'd give it a few days before coming to any conclusions

[Paul C]

Your batteries are probably full, or nearly full. I don't know if its true for all MPPT controllers but mine is quite "conservative" in that it will tend to put a lowish amount of power into the batteries when they're not too far off full. If they're run down a bit, or there's high-power electrical items running, then in sunny conditions it will transfer the full power achievable from the solar panels.

[mickp]

Thanks for replies.i forgot to say i did allow the batterybank to drop to 12.4 before fitting so the panels so they were thirsty for pwr.i will monior then for a clearer picture on performancr

[Phil Ambrose]

My 3 X 100watt panels laying flat will run both my 12v fridge and 12v freezer while putting 2amps into my bank, when the fridge and freezer turn off I still get 2amps into the bank as they are full.

Phil

[Ex- Member]

Also where's your MPPT controller sourced from, there have been problems from cheap Chinese units as some members have posted previously.

[Ricco1]

My 3 x 125w panels usually give an amp or two. But, as previous posters have already said, that's because my batteries are full, or close to full. One morning I deliberately ran the batteries down and turned on everything electrical in the boat. In bright sunshine 21 amps were going into the batteries.

[Scooby]

Bright sunlight i get 30+ amps lmao. sry couldnt help it. thats without the other 100 watt panel i have lol.

Edited July 7, 2014 by Scooby

[Scooby]

I paid £350 for the 60 amp regulator and it seems it was worth the extra spend, i have 3 x 165w panels and 1x 100 watt all connected in series. Pushing 30+ amps in bright sunlight, hazy/cloudy days around 10-15 amps, i also have 1 other 100 watt panel running from a seperate controller i didnt connect it to the others due to max 150volts.

[MyLady]

Fitted myself 2*100w panels and mppt controlleryesterday,the sun sort of came out but kept disapearing behind the clouds .the results so far disapointing.the panels are flat at the moment as work still in progress but the best figure i saw was 4amp but mostly around 2amp.i tried series and parallal with little difference,the panels volts are 21v each .controller reading tally with my battery monitor ok.cable runs quite short with 4mm cable .my question is do i need to start looking for problems or hang fire for better weather

 

Does your controller report the volts from the panels? My 165W panels are supposed to give about 40V, but with two in series it once showed 85V from the panels. I've never seen above 14V @ 17A into the batteries (roughly, my memory ain't great) but lots of the time I see 13+V with only 2 or 3A - I think that's because they've filled up the batteries before I get up...

 

Hope that helps,

 

Roger

[mickp]

I left the boat yesterday morning with 12.7 v when i returned at 5pm i had 13.4 so the panels can keep up with the fridge and charge so i feel a bit happier with them.i will monitor there performance for a while to get a better feel.

The panel voltage readings were taken from the cable tails on the panels

[Scooby]

I have 4 in series it goes as high as 130v sometimes, and volts going in as high as 14.5ish. It tends to give higher readings when the sun is out and drop back later but it does sound like its charging just dont expect miracles from 200 watts. In full sunlight you can expect my solar to be like running the engine nearly.

 

My batteries are old and only last the night but by 10-11am they are back to full charge from 12.2 if the sun comes out.

[by'eck]

Its the battery voltage you should be checking. If its much above 14 volts (or whatever the mppt absorb mode voltage is set to) then the charge current will be limited by the mppt controllers voltage regulator and the batteries themselves since they will be at or near fully charged.

 

This assumes the controller hasn't dropped to float mode voltage limited to around 13.5 volts, where the charge current will be even less.