question

jms28 avatar image
jms28 asked

Sanity check on solar charging planning

Hi,

I currently have 2 x Solara SM 225 M (68W each, I think) connected to a Votronic MPP 350 Duo Digital to charge two seperate battery banks (starter & house) in my motor boat. Rather small sized, I know :/

Hence, I recently purchased 2 x Jackery SolarSaga 100W foldable solar panels to start the upgrading process. Thanks to this forum, I now know that I should not mix these 2 strings connected to one single solar charger (see here and here e.g.) So my plan is to buy an additional Victron MPPT charger for the 2 Jackery panels and then to run both strings seperately:

  • String 1: Solara + Votronic --> Starter + House Battery Bank (the latter especially for storage to keep batteries at healthy levels)
  • String 2: Jackery + Victron --> House Battery Bank only (the larger consumer, especially when anchoring)

Questions:

  1. Would you agree with this plan overall? Anything I forgot to consider?
  2. The Solara panels are quite old and will need to be replace relatively soon. But even if I were to get identical Jackery panels, would the Victron solar charger even be able to charge 2 seperate battery banks? All Victron solar chargers only come with one output terminal which makes charging two separate banks rather tricky, especially if these are comprised of different battery types. So I am well advised to run seperate solar chargers anyway, correct?
  3. Both battery banks are being charged by the same Victron IP22 landline charger (has 2 seperate output terminals). Can I track both solar charging and landline charging in the same app and/ or does it make sense to add an additonal Victron "smart" device for the overall power monitoring? Asking both the Solara panels and the Votronic charger are rather old. So I'm already planning for the day that these two will need replacement as well and I'm keen to learn more about the wider Victron ecosystem and what might makes sense for me to consider.

Thanks in advance,

Mike

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1 Answer
furyjk98 avatar image
furyjk98 answered ·

Question 1:
This will need more information, what are the types of batteries and the capacities used for the Starter battery, and House Battery Bank. If there are differences, you cannot use one controller for two different types of batteries.

However, since you are planning to get another battery, you can connect the low-power panels to the Starter Battery with one controller, then use the new controller with the new higher-power panels, and connect the House Battery Bank.

Question 2:
If you have two different types of battery banks, then it is better to use two different controllers and different solar arrays.

Question 3:
The MPPT can only show how much power is being sent from Panels to Batteries daily. To track the amount of power that is being sent into the battery and being used by the load, you will need to have a SmartShunt connected to the battery.
However since there are two battery banks, you will need to properly plan where to connect the SmartShunt for tracking the amps going in or out of the batteries.

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