question

spower001 avatar image
spower001 asked

Charging Current

Hi,

This is my setup on my RV....

2 100ah battleborn lithium batteries in parallel

3 190w solar panels

Victron smartsolar 100/50 controller

Renogy battery monitor

2000w inverter

In the morning (lots of sun) as charging begins the controller will show charging current to be at about 17.5 amps but the monitor shows only about 6 amps charging. Is it supposed to work like this? If not, what could be cause it? Thanks!!

battery charging
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ingo21 avatar image ingo21 commented ·
your renogy monitor also takes the discharge in account....?

meaning your charge current from solar is 17.5 but you using 11.5 and your renogy shows 6 amps into the battery..........

are you running some things that could use 11.5 amp fridge, lights . etc???


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spower001 avatar image spower001 ingo21 commented ·
No, sorry forgot to mention, nothing over 1.5 amps is running!
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seb71 avatar image seb71 commented ·

First, to rule out the simple things:


Is the shunt properly installed (meaning nothing else is connected to the negative battery terminal)?


Also, what's the self-consumption of that inverter (how much power it draws with no load)?

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spower001 avatar image spower001 seb71 commented ·

Yes, it is connected as stated in the instructions and diagram.

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spower001 avatar image spower001 seb71 commented ·
Like 1.5 amps
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seb71 avatar image seb71 spower001 commented ·
Did you check it with a clamp meter? Or by turning the inverter off?
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spower001 avatar image spower001 seb71 commented ·
Don't have a clamp meter...with inverter off I have a 9 amp difference instead of 11.
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seb71 avatar image seb71 spower001 commented ·
Since it's a RV, you don't have any DC loads?


Is the battery bank negative connected to the car chassis by any chance?

Do you have a schematics for your system?

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spower001 avatar image spower001 seb71 commented ·
I have very little dc loads. I'm not connected to my truck. No schematics.


Once the batteries are fully charged then the amps match the controller so maybe it's working right? Just seems I should get more charging amps.

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seb71 avatar image seb71 spower001 commented ·

I have very little dc loads.

How little? In Watt.


When the battery is fully charged and the panels are fully powering the loads, the shunt/battery monitor should show 0A, not the same value as the solar charger.

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spower001 avatar image spower001 seb71 commented ·
Yup, when fully charged it goes to 0, controller just went into float but monitor shows batteries at 93%, maybe I should adjust monitor so it shows 100% and then see what happens tomorrow?
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seb71 avatar image seb71 spower001 commented ·
SOC measurement is not the cause of "missing" current. It could be an effect.
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spower001 avatar image spower001 seb71 commented ·
Yeah I'm at a loss :(
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1 Answer
spower001 avatar image
spower001 answered ·

Yeah I'm at a loss here...

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nesswill avatar image nesswill commented ·
All i would suggest is to safely disconnect everything (in the correct order), power just does not disappear, you could just have a bad connection causing high resistance (warm cable could also suggest incorrect cable size) or a bit of faulty equipment, at lease this way you rule out the obvious and when reconnecting you might find when something is plugged back in you find your problem.
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spower001 avatar image spower001 nesswill commented ·
Ok, So I did find a few connections that weren't right. I fixed those and seems to have fixed my amps issue.

Now it's a charging issue I think. The controller starts in bulk and then switches to absorption before they are charged. Then absorption runs for an hour (per BB) and then goes to float for the rest of the day. But the amps never go down to zero or close to it! Which tells me they aren't fully charged. At night when solar is off batteries go to 13.2v which according to Lithium charts is only 70%. Can't figure out why?

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nesswill avatar image nesswill spower001 commented ·

Ok well done you have made progress this is good. (and headed off potential future issues)

Now for people to help we will need to see the setting you have for charging in your Victron smartsolar 100/50 controller.

One thing to note on charging (if under load) the charging current will not go to zero (from what i have seen in my setup other may disagree) i consider my batteries fully charged when the current being accepted by the battery is at 1% or less of battery capacity, this is after the charging cycle is complete (when on float)

Please read this (page 16) to understand the charging process if you are not sure about it.

But having said this you will get to know your system and this is different for everybody.

Post your setting please and we can go from there...

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