Need to charge a 48v LFP battery from a single 450W solar panel. How is this done? Non-Victron options only?
Victron‘s MPPT Calculator will suggest best Victron charge controller based on your location and your panel’s parameters…
This depends on the VOC of the single panel, However, it is unlikely to have a high enough VOC to fully charge a 48V Lithium battery, or to drive either a PWM or MPPT controller for this purpose.
If you post the battery voltages and the VOC data from the panel, further advice can be given.
No, but I wish that was true. There is an “Asian 450W Solar Panel” option in the calculator. When I select that and select 1 panel / 1 strong for charging 48v LFP, the Victron MPPT Calculator chokes. The reason is due to the engineering decision to save 2 MOSFETs by making MPPT controllers that are buck-only. Certainly not a premium product.
Choose “custom” and enter your actual panel specs.
I can count the number of reputable companies making boost solar controllers on one hand with fingers left over, so that Victron MPPTs are buck-only has nothing to do with “premium” or not.
You can select “custom panel” and provide your panels parameters. But there only a few high voltage panels on the market like the Maxxeon 3 with around 70Voc.
I just wanted to use Victron for MPPT but lack of flexibility sent me to Shenzhen. Again. Second time in 3 months. The previous remove-and-replace came when I went from 12v to 48v, thats when I lost my Orion XS - I would have replaced it with a 48v DC-DC charger from Victron but that effectively does not exist, unless you want to say that charging at 8 amps from a 200A alternator makes sense. Its ok though, Shenzhen came to the rescue twice in 3 months.
Perhaps you could share a bit about what the setup is for - eg a boat, truck, camper van, tiny cabin in the woods?
Are you looking for 120V or 230VAC ?
Regarding the Orion, just noting that 8A at 48V is the output, so that’s drawing about 36A from the 200A (peak, not continuous) alternator assuming 13.8V.
Kinda like the 7.5A you’ll get from charging a 48V nominal battery from a 450W solar panel with the Shenzhen solution.
Anyway, we all know its frustrating when the perfect solution isnt available from a vendor that actually supports it after the sale.