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zaczaller avatar image
zaczaller asked

Solar power system not working properly

6e7a5a3b-08e2-4f52-acff-762b71a2b679.jpegI want to start off by saying that I am currently feeling lost & hopeless because the system I had used to work great and is now having problems. I have attatched a picture of the current setup. I have 700 watts of solar on the roof that enters in the upper left. On the positive I have a 70 amp circuit breaker to have the ability to cut off the panels from the charge controller. I have the 150V 70amp charge controller from victron which then goes to 6 gauge wire to my bus bar. Going down the bus bar the positive runs through a 300 amp switch, a 300 amp fuse, and then to my battery with the positive loop slipped under it for the shunt. The negative to the battery just travels through the shunt. The last piece on the bus bar is the positive and negative to the 2000W aims inverter charger. All of my cables are 1/0 gage except the solar wires coming in and the 6 gauge to the busbar from the charger. The battery is also Lithium 300 Amp hour from Zoogamo on amazon and the reviews we’re great. The problem i’m having is that the battery is not charging at all. I believe the BMS could possibly be not working right and i need to replace the battery. That’s the only thing I can think of. I just replaced all of the wiring you see in that picture a few hours ago to make sure it was done right, crimping & heat shrink and all. I also have a volt meter and I checked the voltage on the battery when the big red switch was off and it read 12.45 and as soon as I flick it on, the charger goes to float and the voltage suddenly is at 14-15 ish. The same applies when I plug into shore power. The inverter beeps as it goes to charge mode and I used to see the power show a positive 750 which super charged the battery and now the voltage jumps to 15 and the power just says 0. As soon as the solar or shore power is cut off the battery goes back down to that 12.4 voltage. I just replaced the solar charger and all the wires so I believe the only thing that could be wrong is a faulty battery. Any help would be greatly appreciated I just want this system to work I’ve been struggling. (also only 20 years old)

Lithium Batterychargerbattery system voltage
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zaczaller avatar image zaczaller commented ·
One other thing I could think of is that is said it had a built in cold temperature cut off and it’s currently 10 degrees in colorado boulder. Would it create that fake 14-15 voltage to not allow charging and simply my system should work fine when it’s not below freezing?
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Wayne answered ·

@zaczaller hi there your symptoms would usually indicate a connectivity issue between the charger and the battery, from the pic I can see there is no fuse between the controller and the positive bus,

So i suspect your last comment is correct, Lithium does not like being charged at temps below 0 degC and you are currently -12C, so nothing wrong with your system, the Lithium BMS will be protecting the battery and has disabled the ability to charge until the battery temp rises above 0.

I looked up the BMS spec for your battery and this is the excerpt

Operating Temperature: Charge: 0°C--45°C; Discharge: -20°C--60°C

Cheers

Wayne

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