question

carlos-farfal avatar image
carlos-farfal asked

Why is my off grid system shutting down overnight?

Hi: 
I have an off grid system consisting of 6 270W panels, 1 Victron Phoenix of 500VA / 48V, a Blue Solar 150/35 48V regulator and an 8x100Ah battery bank in two series of 48V each. The loads are luminaires of a corridor (210W installed) that must be turned on when the darkness of the afternoon starts and off at dawn, however they go out between 1 and 3 in the morning. 
I checked the sizing and it is fine, what I don't know, is if there is any voltage parameter that is incorrectly configured in the inverter or regulator, and that causes the system to shut down, due to low voltage maybe. As a background, the maximum battery voltage during the day reaches 57.5V and the minimum voltage, when the charges are switched off is 37.44V. 
I would appreciate comments to someone with more experience in this type of configuration, to see if I can solve it. 
Thanks in advance,
battery chargingPhoenix Inverterbattery system voltage
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4 Answers
carlos-farfal avatar image
carlos-farfal answered ยท

Last night I measured the batteries of two off grid systems, after it turned off completely. At sunset 9:15 p.m., the interior luminaires were turned on and the voltage was 51V. Then, at 1 am, the voltage dropped to 36V and the system stopped working. At that moment, we desconnected all the bateries bridges and proceeded to measure voltajes of each battery individually. Batt1=7V ; batt2=12V ; batt3=7V ; batt4=12V ; batt5=5V; batt6= 12V ; batt7=10V ; batt8= 12V

And other Off Grid System:

Batt1=10V ; batt2=12V ; batt3=12V ; batt4=10V ; batt5=12V; batt6= 10V ; batt7=10V ; batt8= 10V


Than you for advance. @Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager)

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Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager) avatar image
Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager) answered ยท

When the system is shut off at 37.44V, check the individual voltages of each of the batteries with a multimeter and see if they are all consistent.

Write down the voltages and report back.

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Murray van Graan avatar image
Murray van Graan answered ยท

It does appear that the battery bank is not coping with your load. Further, batteries discharged down to between 7-10Vdc will certainly damage them. You definitely need a battery balancer, to keep all batteries at the same level. Ultimate solution would be to replace them with lifepo4 batteries

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loramoser avatar image
loramoser answered ยท

is the inverter and it's fuse wired to the battery terminals, or to a Load terminal on the charge controller ?

1 comment
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carlos-farfal avatar image carlos-farfal commented ยท
The inverter and its internal fuse are connected directly to the battery bank through a 6 mm2 solar cable. In turn, the output of the regulator is connected to the battery bank through a 6 mm2 solar cable
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