We purchased a motorhome with a large roof solar panel and a SmartSolar charge controller installed. We only downloaded the app 2 days after we had the motorhome and ever since then no electricity has been coming in through the solar panel.

The app showed that it had been charging properly up until we downloaded the app. We tried uninstalling and reinstalling the app but nothing changed.

The app shows both the battery state as off and the load output state as off. The device is also constantly flashing blue. Does anyone know how we could get our solar panel to charge again? Any advice would be appreciated.

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Hi,

Are the Blue Solar panels rated for applications out at sea where they will be exposed to a high amount of salt water? I cannot see anything in the certification section of the VE website however have noticed other panel manufacturers either specifically exclude or include this type of application/exposure in their documents.

Hello I currently have 2x100w panels in series supplying a 100/50 which is charging 2x12v batteries.

I just purchased 3 more 100w panels and I’m stumped how to connect them. Originally I thought I would just connect all 5 in series but quickly realized that will exceed the 100v input limitation.

Should I do 2 panels in parallel + 3 panels in parallel and connect them in series?.

This is for my RV so there are times I am in shade.

thanks

Dear forum:

I have been exploring the web and seeing a lot of electrical diagrams for a Solar installation in a camper van, but non with the idea I had in mind, so I'm sharing my scheme.

My idea is to have 2 x 180W Solar panels serial conected to have 24v output connected to a MPPT solar controler to charge two 12v batteries (115Ah each, serial conected 24v total). I would like to be able to charge those batteries also with the van alternator, and someone in the forum suggested me to try the Orion DC to DC high power 12v to 24v 450W.

From there, control de batteries level witht he BMV 712 Smart, and some other components (see int the scheme) to have a 12v power line, an inverter to have 220v, etc.

I would appreciate a lot if anybody could comment on this, give me his/her opinion, It is my first electrical scheme, I know there might be some basic error (I'm not sure how to wire the Orion 12v to 24v to the alternator/starter battery and bank batteries), things to be corrected or improved.

All fuses and wire diameters still in process

THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!

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van

I've got a 50/100 charge controller on my camper, 2 100 watt panels, and a single 100ah battleborn battery.

I recently had my camper in to get my radio wired into both the engine battery and camper battery with a switch between. I realized they only hooked it up to the camper battery when the battery completely died. I tried to charge it with my shore power hookup. I think since the battery was dead, something wasnt recognizing a battery being there and it wouldnt charge it.

I then unhooked everything from the battery, and jumped it from the engine battery. hooked everything back up, and was able to charge it through shore power from there, and everything functioned normally.

Im wondering if when hooking everything back up i blew a fuse in the charge controller itself? my other thought was that I might have blown one of the inline fuses coming from the panels, though I've got a 20a fuse between my battery and charge controller, Id be surprised if it was the solar panel inline fuses.

I havent been able to check them because the renogy mounts make it an absolute pain to reach the bolts. Otherwise I'd have to remove the mounts from the roof itself which means a lot of disassembly to access those mount bolts, which i'd really like to avoid.

Does this sound like a problem with the charge controller itself? any other Ideas?

Hello everyone, I am off grid with Aquion battery system powered by solar pv and Sunny Island inverter, and an 11KVA generator connected via a Victron 48v Quatro inverter charger rated to 8000w, with a CCGX Colour Control panel and a BMV700. Everything was working fine until the Quatro inverter suddenly stopped charging the batteries and the battery voltage dropped to 5-6 volts. Since when I have been unable to re-charge the batteries from the pv because the Sunny Island display indicates "Grid Failure" and as a result the Victron inverter can't or won't accept power from the solar pv (or my in-situ generator probably for the same reason). I brought in a Fork Lift Truck charger to do the job instead but it also appears not to recognise the grid so won't connect properly to supply any charge to the batteries either. I would be very grateful if someone or @guystewart could advise me on how to get enough voltage charged back into my batteries so that the Victron will pick up the power from the solar pv and the 11KVA generator to charge them up fully again. Thank you

Hello, I am putting a 96v EV motor on a sailboat. I need to run the motor at 96v. I will have 2kw of solar panels on the boat and would like to have the solar controller output 96v and not 24 or 48. Does anyone know how I could achieve this with Victron?

Thanks

Regards,

Dennis

I want to use two power sources to charge a battery, which will in turn power a motor. I need to know how to design the circuit required so I can charge the battery from two sources

SOLAR SETUP TO CHARGE LITHIUM ION BATTERIES (24v 11a)

I want to start a new project. I am completely new in this field. My only concern is that the charging current should not exceed 4 amps in any manner. I have even heard that the voltage should not exceed 30 volts.

Kindly provide me inputs on the same especially about the solar panel rating and mppt charge controller ratings which I should use.

Thanks

Sanat

I have a BMV-700 BMS that has done a great job and registers the incoming battery charge current from the shore power AC charger. I just installed solar with a MPPT solar charge controller that is clearly charging the batteries as the voltage goes up (as shown on the BMV-700 and the solar charge controller). However the solar charge current does not register on the BMV-700 which means all the SOC, Ah left, etc. does not work for the solar charging. Please help.

We have a battery pack (2x 12V 110 AH PbCa) for Engines and a second battery pack (2x 12V 110 AH PbCa) for service on our motor boat (34").
All our circuits (engine start, lights, electronics...) are in 12V.

We plan to install two 115 W Blue solar panels on the roof to maintain batteries fully charged when we are not on board (if we are on board, the batteries are charged by the engines).

Our shipping area is from Britanny and Scotland, with a quite low solar illumination (!)

What is the optimal solution ?

- Use of two separate MMPT regulators (and 1 solar panel / regulator / battery pack) ?
- Use of Blue solar PWM DUO charger (and the solar panels in serial or parallel) ?

- Another more optimal solution ?

Thanks for yr help and your experience.

Regards

I have been having issues with my charge controller.

I have one solar panel (specs below) connected to the "Victron 100/20 SmartSolar MPPT" charge controller. When I tested the panel directly, the multimeter was reading 37.2v.

There are 2 x 12v leisure batteries (haven't been charged in a while) wired in parallel to the controller. The controller light flashes blue when the batteries are connected, but no change when the solar panel is connected.


Solar Panel specs:

Maximum power (pmax +10%,-0% - 245w
Short Circuit Current (Isc) - 5.86a
Open circuit voltage (Voc) - 53.0v
Maximum power current (Imp) -5.54a
Maximum power voltage (Vmp) -44.3v
Mamimum system voltage -1000v


Readings from charge controller:

Battery: 12.49v
PV: 12.3
Load: 12.49v


I tested it again after a few hours and the Load was 12.45v.
Are these the reading I should be getting? Or is something in my set up wrong? I was told this controller would work in creating a 12v system (very important, don't want 24v).


"Nominal PV power, 12V - 290W":

https://www.victronenergy.com/solar-charge-controllers/smartsolar-mppt-75-10-75-15-100-15-100-20#datasheets

https://www.victronenergy.com/upload/documents/Datasheet-SmartSolar-charge-controller-MPPT-75-10,-75-15,-100-15,-100-20,-100-20_48V-EN-.pdf



Any help would be much appreciated.
Thank you.

I have 3 Panasonic 325w HIT PV panels I am installing on our sail boat. It says on them that the open circuit Voltage VOC is 70.9

ISC 5.94A

Imp 5.50A

VMP 59.2

Question is can I run the panels in parallel in to a single Victron 150/100 MPPTcontroller or do I have to go to the 250 model.

Any help appreciated!

Hi, I would like if someone with more experience than I can help me to solve this. Actually we have an Off-Grid site with 4 PV strings, every string have 16 50w solar pannels connected in serial-parallel to get 24V to the power bank (14 batteries 12V 100Ah each battery). Each string have a Morningstar PS-30M, but they are connected in parallel on the load port and works well, but we have to replace them, because they have more than 20 years in use. I have seen that a Smartsolar MPPT 150/35 is a good option, but we can't connect the battery banks in parallel to charge the batteries because they are in 2 different places with a distance between them of 4 meters (around 8 meters of cable difference between the longest cable and the short one, so they could have a difference of the charge voltage. How can we connect the battery banks to the load with the Smartsolar and maintain the 4 battery banks?

Thanks a lot for your help.

I have read a couple of posts on the question of connecting solar panels to a hot water heater on a boat. My boat has three 250w Kyocera solar panels with a MPPT 150/70 and BMV700. The battery bank is three 220amp 6v [in series and parallel] LifeLIne AGMs. The charger/inverter is a Xantrex Freedom 458 2500w. The hot water heater is 11 gallons. I have a dual 12v/120v heater element that has not been installed yet. From earlier discussions it seems that using the inverter when the SOC is 100% is the most satisfactory and efficient course of action. Is my system up to the task? And what settings need to be made? Thank you for attention in this matter.

Hi all,

i'm struggling to get my solar set up to charge the batterie of my battery bank.

The solar panels give the right output voltage of about 37-something volts but 0 Amps and Watts.
I've tried resetting and re-detecting the system on the EasySolar unit to no avail.
Also it gives no errors in the notifications section of the menu.

I reckon it's something relatively simple I've been omitting but I just can't get my head around it...
Any ideas and help would be appreciated.
Also let me know if you would require some more information if needed.

Here are the specifications of my set up build in on a MAN 4X4 overland camper truck.

5 x Canadian Solar CS6K-295MS panels (1475W in total).
One set of 2 panels and one set of 3 panels.

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On the picture the panels are not wired up yet but you'll get the idea.

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4x12v Victron Deep Cycle 220 Ah Gel Batteries in set up 24V / 440Ah configuration.

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Here are the readings from the Connect app

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I have sailboat with 2 solar panel 365W each , with 2 MPPT 100/30 and BMV702. On a sunny day at 10am all my (4) batteries (200A/hour each) are charged 100% and I want to use the excess energy from the solar panel to heat my water tank. (1500 W /110Vac). I have 3000W inverter from 12VDC to 110Vac. What kind of set up i need to heat up this water tank. Is victron energy has a monitor/equipment that can switch once the battery reach 100% charged to heat the water tank? If yes please provide more detail information.

I've just installed the BMV712.

It currently monitors a Lead Crystal 110Ah battery.

Bulk 14.7

Absorption 14.7

Float 13.6

I also run an 80w solar panel through a CTEK D250SA.

I have the 712 at settings:

Charged Voltage: 14.5

Tail Current: 2%

Efficiency Factor: 97%

Puekert: 1.25

Low SOC Relay: 50% 50%

It appears to always show 100% SOC even when the voltage has dropped after a night of accessories running off it.

The settings weren't initially setup like this. Do I need to charge fully and resync? Or is there a settings issue.

Habe 8 solarpanele lt Datenblatt in Reihe.

Vorab vielen Dank für Hilfe

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Hi,

I would like to setup a testsystem to evaluate the solargield for a year.
I was thinking of one 24V 300W mono panel connected to a BlueSolar MPPT 75/15 and a 12V batterybank.

How should i design the load, i need ideas what to connect and how to set it up so that it uses 100% of what the panel can produce, without cycling the battery too much.

I also have a Venus GX i could use for this test.

Kind Regards

Seit drei Tagen lädt unser MPPT 100/50 nicht mehr.

Es leuchten alle 3 LEDs.

Welcher fehler Fehler ist das?

Gruß

Thomas

I'd like to get your thoughts on my planned installation, i have a couple of choises and would like your input.

I have a quite reliable grid (as of now, might be different in the future), but i have equipment that require uninterruptable power, and i plan on installing solar panels which i would like to use even when the grid dies.

So my goal is to be able to primarily use solarpower myself, secondary is to charge batteries if they need to and tiertiary sell excess power to the grid.
When the grid fails, i would like to continue to use solarpanels, when batteries reach a certain SoC i will start the generator which will take over until the grid comes back.

The setup would look something like this:

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It will consist of three Quattro 5kVA in ESS mode (3 phase), one Venus GX, Lynx busbars and four 12V 190Ah in serie.

I will mount the panels on the ground for best angle and direction (roof is not well suited) and becouse of that i will have a long cablerun from the panels to my house.

That gives me two choises.

One: Run high voltage DC from panels to house.
Two: Convert to AC at the panels and run more expensive cable to my house.

What's my options for connecting the panels to my quattros and batterybank? I don't think either the Quattro nor any of Victrons MPPTs can take that high voltage?

It feels better to put all active equipment at the same locked place (my house) rather then having a DC to AC converter at the panels.

What's your recommendations?

Kind Regards

M

I have been asked to come up with a solution to solar charge an 36V battery bank.

Current setup:

3 x Victron (110Ah) BAT412101084 Connected in series to provide 36V

the charger is a Pro Sport 20 Plus (mains powered charging 3 batteries individually 12v)

What I like to do is install 3 solar panels 12V, each connected with a SmartSolar charge controller MPPT 75/10 (12V). So each unit will charge each battery individually (like the current installed charger)

My questions:

Would there be an advance/disadvantage in connecting the panels in series and connect a MPPT 150/35 in a 36V setup and charge all batteries in one go?

Will the 12V setup be powerful enough to charge the 12v Victron 110ah batteries

Hello! I have the following situation here: I have 6 Canadian Solar 300w monocrystalline panels connected to one key of two available in my string box and in one of three of my charge controller (MC4). The question is: can I get other 6 panels from Byd 330w pollycrystalline and use the available connections in my string box and charge controller?

I'm looking for some advice on setting up solar on our new to us boat - there's no solar in place so we're starting from scratch and will be having an arch built to accommodate the panels.

The best fit is 3 x 175w Monocrystalline Blue Solar panels - I've been advised to wire each of these with their own MPPT controller so if one panel is shaded but another not, it won't affect the output of the other panels. This is important as we'll have radar mounted above and will cast a shadow at some point in addition to the mast and boom. Are the 75/15 Mppt controllers the best fit for this?

At the moment, we have 2 x 180ah lead acid batteries and a 95ah engine starter battery.

I'm looking to upgrade these to 4 x 100ah lithium life po4 batteries + the engine starter battery but this may be a while after the solar is fitted.

We are running on a 12v system and have a 24v system when on shore power. We'd like to be able to use the 24v system when away from land as we'll be mostly self sufficient and will need to charge laptops etc. - which inverter will we need? And how would all of this be wired for the best efficiency? I would like all the panels to charge all the batteries, rather than one panel designated to one battery.

Many Thanks

Currently I have (3) 100W panels wired in parallel that typically operate in the 17-19v range. During full sun they generate power in the 15-20A range. These are wired into an MPPT 100/50 unit that I purposely over-sized as I expect to grow the array incrementally over time. I have currently chosen the parallel configuration as it seems to have more immunity to partial shading, but I probably incur a penalty during full-sun conversion in terms of efficiency.

Aside from the extra power generated by adding a 4th 100 watt panel, would my full-sun power generation efficiency increase significantly by creating two pairs of series panels (for 34-38v) and then running these two series pairs in parallel? I'm sure the voltage increase would help with any cable losses I might have built into the system. Presently my smallest cable is the 10ga at the panels, but I do have nearly 40ft of 8ga and 6ga flexible copper cabling. The (3) 100W panels are set up as a portable/re-positionable ground array for replentishing (2) series-wired T105 6v deep-cycle golf-cart batteries on my RV. Basically I want to be able to recharge the 30% or so battery capacity that I consumed the previous overnight as fast as the batteries can handle (10% of 225Ah). Maybe someday I'll be able to afford to switch over to Lithium cells, but that will have to wait for now.

Honestly, setting up two separate two-panel arrays might seem like more work, but I think the lighter weight of two hinged panels vs the current three might make things easier to move around. It would also, of course, mean building more cabling and another panel frame mount.

Any relevant wisdom would be greatly appreciated.

packrat

BTW, what is it with the spell-checker on this site? I don't think I made up any new words today. It seems to red underline several legitimate words as well as much of the jargon I would expect used on this site....

Hello guys!

I have three-phase ve bus system with two PV chargers.

I think I have some problem with in/out power calculation on VRM portal.

If I take one-day data from VRM its look like the PV to battery power more than the battery to consumption power. So how it's happening? If I take from battery less then I use where the excess power is going?

I have a new Maine Cat 38' that came with 6 solar panels. 4x140W and 2x120W. The builder arranged these panels with (2x140W+1x120W) in series with two such banks in parallel.

They are placed flat on the bridgedeck roof.

(If you're curious: The 4x140W are all arranged bow-to-stern in a line side-by-side, and the 2x120W are arranged laterally amidships. I *believe* the three panels to port are in series together, and the three panels to starboard form the second series bank, the two banks combined in parallel. )

While I'm docked or at anchor, I keep the boom oriented for minimal shading (usually to one side, and maybe for 1-3 hours straight down the middle).

I've noticed things like moving the boom to remove shading from a 120W panel results in more than a 120W increase in wattage.

I've *heard* that mixing panels (wattage) can result in limiting the utility of the bigger panels, but at the moment, I'm playing the hand I'm dealt.

Points:

- At anchor, I have some control over shading. When the sun is positioned favorably, all 6 panels are in the sun (there might be slight/small shadows from the boat's rigging). Most of the day I can get 5 in the sun (with a 120W panel all or partially shaded).

- At sail, I have minimal control over the shading (aside from choosing a tack based on shading, but that's usually secondary to navigational reasons for choosing a tack).

It would seem to me if all the panels could be wired separately into a single box, that box could make the decision as to the best way to combine the panels for peak voltage. At present, however, the panels are wired via terminal blocks with a single pair of wires coming into the MPPT.

The micro-manager in me wonders:

Would it make sense to have the wires come into a bank of switches such that I could arrange the panels based on present need into the best arrangement of series/parallel/off (per-panel) before the wires enter the MPPT? (Leaving them in a default configuration when I leave the boat or do not feel like micro-managing)

The panels run into a Victron 150/35 MPPT. The output is a 48V Lithium Victron battery bank (comprised of 2x24V in series).

Is there anything I can do to improve what I get?

(I see 250-350W in the sun, the lower end when a single panel is covered, and closer to 140W when two panels are covered. When the sun is overhead and the panels appear to be lit, the wattage always seems disappointing.)