question

jack-reeves avatar image
jack-reeves asked

No real load. MPPT shows 500w daily. Normal?

screenshot-20210117-161709.pngHello. Just recently had to travel for a few days. Unplugged load from invertor but left panels connected via Victron MPPT to FLA batteries. Also had battery sense and battery safe connected.


When I returned I saw that each day seems to have used 500w. Is this normal and where does this energy go?

MPPT SmartSolar
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2 Answers
seb71 avatar image
seb71 answered ·

Wh, not W.

The energy went into your battery and also to power all devices you still have powered by the battery.

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jack-reeves avatar image jack-reeves commented ·

No I didn't turn the invertor off. Sorry yeah wh. I guess what I mean is if no ther systems are connected except 1000w invertor, MPPT, batterymonitor and batteryconnect is this use normal.seems my normal use is 1.6kwh so 550wh without anything seems high.

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seb71 avatar image seb71 jack-reeves commented ·

Let's say your inverter draws only 10W with no loads (but not powered off).

In 24 hours that means 240Wh.

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jack-reeves avatar image jack-reeves seb71 commented ·

Thanks for helping me home in my question. So is the wh displayed on the screenshot being used - it's not something displayed to keep batteries in good condition that doesn't really exist or something. Only have a small 1000w must invertor so 20w an hour feels like a lot of "leakage"

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seb71 avatar image seb71 jack-reeves commented ·

A part of that 500Wh energy generated by your panels is used directly (during the day) to power all your devices. This is more energy efficient.

Another part of that 500Wh is used to recharge the battery. This is less energy efficient.

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lehrling avatar image
lehrling answered ·

You removed the load from your inverter but did you turn the inverter power off?

Inverters use a small amount of power even without a load.

Best practice might be to have a switchable breaker in the inverter power feed circuit.

Many places power could be going including battery as seb71 suggested.

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jack-reeves avatar image jack-reeves commented ·

No I didn't turn the invertor off. Sorry yeah wh. I guess what I mean is if no ther systems are connected except 1000w invertor, MPPT, batterymonitor and batteryconnect is this use normal.seems my normal use is 1.6kwh so 550wh without anything seems high.

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