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cody-1991 avatar image
cody-1991 asked

MPPT 100/50 Staying in Bulk, degraded performance

Hi everyone, I'm in the early stages of learning my system so thank you for your patience. Installed 2 400W panels w/ 2 batteries in March, preformed extremely well until recently. Despite several sunny days in a row, I haven't seen my system leave "Bulk" in a very long time, and the batteries seem not to be holding a charge well. The refrigerator shuts off every night and lights don't work at night - this is abnormal given that the refrigerator almost never shut off from March through about mid Sept. It is now almost Dec and I've been only living in the van part time since Sept, and it has been exposed to some bad weather weeks, snow, freezing temps. I am wondering how I can tell if the panels are degraded, if the battery is degraded, or what else might be going on. If anyone could direct me I'd be very grateful - took some screenshots from the app this afternoon.


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4 Answers
pwfarnell avatar image
pwfarnell answered ·

Are you in the Northern hemisphere, if so solar yield drops off significantly from September to December, see a typical UK chart below.a

pvgis-data-cambridge-uk-monthly-plot-annual-sum-4.png


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Justin Cook avatar image
Justin Cook answered ·

Check your connections and fusing. The history showing battery voltage dropping to 0 the past couple of days strongly indicates that you have a loose connection or degraded fuse between the controller and the battery bank or at the battery bank itself. Most likely not a blown fuse, as if that was the case there wouldn't be any charging possible, but a loose connection or degraded fuse would explain both the 0v reading at night and, too, would explain some of your charging woes.

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k-k avatar image
k-k answered ·

What type of batterie are you running? LiFePO4 with "wet" profile #2, a thermo-switch might cut off to 0-volt, or if you use flooded ones, is there enough water in them, are they frozen at night?

Remember: cloudy, shady days mean you might get only 10-20% of your normal solar watts.Yesterdays 880Wh / (2*400W*15%) = 7 to 8h muddy "sunshine". Assuming 2pc 12V 100Ah (= ~2,4kWh) refilled with 0,88kWh is not that much, and assuming old fridge 60W ... (24h*0,06kW* 33% duty cycle means 0,475kWh cooled away)

Any relay - with cut-off function - connected to virtual load output?

Any left food bags near batterie/solar cables ,which attracted martens, weasels, squirrel?

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kevgermany avatar image
kevgermany answered ·

Check out the suggestions re cabling etc. However assuming no cable faults this is normal in winter except for the zero volt readings. 600W of solar on my van won't keep up with my fridge and trickle charge to the starter battery.

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