I have a SmartSolar 75/15 and I am confused about the Load Output display. I am wondering if the Load output values look right as shown in the attached image. The reason I ask is because at the time this screen shot was made, I had the Victron connected to two 100watt solar panels (in parallel), a 12v 10A/hr battery and a Coleman Iceless cooler drawing 3Amps.
What confuses me is that I expected the Load Output to display the actual load the Iceless cooler was drawing and the Power in Watts. Instead, it appears to show virtually no load. What am I missing here?
2 reasons I can guess, the cooler is connected to the battery rather than the load terminals or the cooler was at the temperature set on the thermostat and not drawing significant current.
Thank you for the response. I must say I believe it was (as usual) operator error because I think I had the connections wrong as you said. Sometimes you have to check and re-check your work. I “thought” I had checked them but seems I was mistaken.
Check also the Connection of your panals. The PV-Voltage ist very low. It would be better to wire the panals in series. What kind of Battery do you have?
Hello again, I’m not understanding the series recommendation. If I put my 2, 100watt, 5A panels in Series, I will get 40v and 5Amps max. But since I am only using 12v batteries, I don’t need more than approximately 14v max. Parallel gives me more Amps than Series. I could easily see Series needed if I was using a 36v battery for example, in fact, it would be necessary. But can you help me understand why you would recommend Series for these two panels under the circumstances of my usage?
The wire length is minimal so I don’t think that’s an issue here.
I use the 12v batteries when I’m traveling in my minivan for various appliances like a mini fridge and a small 5Amp portable AC unit. The solar panels are mostly for recharging the batteries.
I know that MPPT controllers are better and more efficient, but still, reducing the current to 5Amps instead of 10Amps seems to be going the wrong way, at least in the case of 12volt battery charging in a vehicle? If I connect the panels in Series, won’t a substantial amount of efficiency be lost as the voltage has to be dropped down by the controller from 40v to 14v ?
Would my 12v batteries result in a faster charge if these two panels were connected in series delivering 5Amps due to the higher voltage? I’m somewhat familiar with ohms law and that 5Amps at 120v for example is much more watts (power) than 5Amps at 12v. But again, in this case, the controller would have to convert the 40v back down to 12-14v for my batteries.
To the input of the MPP. But the Mpp looks for the best power point and transformates the Power to Current. It is a step down converter. The output of the MPP delivers more currenet then the input. If each panal delivers 100W, the output current is almost 200W/12V=16,6A.
The input voltage ist 2.6 times higher than output voltage, but output current ist 2.6 times higher than input current. Would i connect it to a 12V battery the output current would be 10.2A
No, I am just looking at the screenshot where it is outputting to a 24V system at 5A, so if it was outputting to a 22V system at the same Watts it would be approx double the current.
Your mppt 75/15 needs to see battery voltage + 5V on the solar input just to start charging. Once it starts it needs at least 1V more on solar input than battery voltage to keep charging.
