Victron Smart Solar MPPT 75/10 & Renogy 200 Watt 12 Volt Flexible Panel

DIY
, ,
1

Hi,

My current PV panel has failed (well its sporadic at best and seems only to generate 10v most of the time) and I’m looking to replace it with a Renogy 200 Watt 12 Volt Flexible panel as this offers the best cost, physical size and flexibility that I can find for my pop top camper van.

My question is whether this panel will be OK with my existing 75/10 controller or if I need to up it to a 75/15.

The spec of the Renogy says it has an Optimum Operating Current (Imp) of 10.02A and a Short Circuit Current of 10.74A. Fuse ratings are fine at 15A as this is - what I currently have inline from my existing panel - Renogy 200w Specs-

Is the Renogy too high a spec for the 10A controller or will I be OK? I’d rather not have to upgrade the controller to a 75/15 but I will if necessary. The panel is £180 and the controller would as another £55 so not out of the question.

Obviously if someone has a better panel at a similar price point to recommend then please go ahead. One of the reasons for choosing this particular panel is it is slightly physically bigger than my existing one so would cover the footprint left after I remove the old one. Ideally I’d like a panel with a single cable feed with no connectors, like my existing one, rather than twin AWG 12 cables with MC4 connectors, as it would mean I could use the current cable routing without issue. But I can of course get around this. I can’t seem to find any with a single output cable other than what I have which I don’t want to buy again due to reliability issues - it’s the second failure in 3 years.

This is a similar model to what I have already. Its a later model but has the same cabling - Existing Panel

Many thanks in advance for any advice.

Radar

2

Your MPPT can handle 75V on the PV side, your better off with a higher voltage panel, since it needs Vbat+5V in order to start working. So lets say battery has 13V then your PV needs to be at 18V minimum. Your linked panel has a rather high current but a low voltage. It will take half a day to even produce enough voltage for it to start.

Get a panel that has 40-50Vmp. Or two smaller ones in series, for example the 100W renogy, same voltage spec as the 200W, but if you use two in series you still get 200W peak but at a higher voltage

3

The other limit is the input short circuit current limit, the datasheet say 13A for the smartsolar 75/10, so 10.74A from the Renogy panel will be OK with the 75/10. However as noted above, higher voltage will be better.

4

Thanks.

In that case what about this panel instead?

https://amzn.eu/d/dOO1rm5

Physically smaller than idealy I’d like but I could make it work. Seems a better voltage and a lower amperage.

5

Yes, that would be better voltage and current. I do not know anything about the brand quality though.

6

I figured it might be a better choice.

I’m unsure of the brand quality as well although reviews are fairly positive. I can always send it back.

It’s difficult to know what to buy without shelling out silly money and it needs to be flexible because of my roof. That’s the difficult bit

It’s only to keep my leisure battery topped off when I’m not on mains hookup.

Thanks for the advice. I’ll give it some thought.