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Hello, I have three 100W panels on my camper trailer. I recently installed a Victron IP22 and a 100/30 MPPT solar controller to charge my three brand new battleborn Lithium 12V batteries. I live in Denver CO and today is a beautiful clear day, however my controller is only showing 53W from all three panels. Any idea what may be going on? They are clean so any help or suggestions would be helpful given the investment I just made. Thanks.
Either your batteries dont need a charge, (they have not drained to the rebulk offset voltage) or your loads are not high enough, or you could have connected them up incorrectly, possible a bad connection somewhere so not all the panels are contributing?
If you think it is the last one then how have you connected them?
Series, parallel? If you take a meter what do you read there voc on the panels?
Regardless if my batteries need a charge or not, it should show the power coming from the panels as being greater than 53W correct? Or am I misunderstanding what the app is showing me? I went up to the top and disconnected the panels and reconnected them, looked at the app and it was at 155W. Now, its back down to 22W. I'm confused by what this thing is telling me.
Disconnecting the panels like this will start the charger from zero. They tend to push a higher current fr a hort while before adjusting to what's needed.
Lithium batteries aren't like lead. When full, they're full and the internal BMS will usually stop the charge. If your MPPT is 'smart' you can use Victron Connect to see the actual values from the MPPT. It shows input volts, current, Output volts, current. As said by the others, if there's no load, there will be little current.
Try disconnecting the panels, put a decent load on the batteries to discharge them a bit. Then reconnect. You should see the MPPT current increase, Multiply by output voltage for power.
Thank you for the feedback. So is it safe to assume, then, that when I view the MPPT 100/30 via bluetooth and in the solar section on top, that wattage will only show something higher than zero when it needs it? Other wise the solar input is something less? To your point, I want to be sure I understand what I'm seeing because right now its next to impossible to know how much battery I have left or how well the charger is working.
The app shows you the power that is used from the panels not the power that is theoretically available.
If you turn on some loads the power from the panels should rise.
Interesting. As I said, it was at 53W earlier, all I did was disconnect and then reconnect the panels and it was showing 155W. I never changed the load.
The voltage is 12V as described in my original post, MPPT was in Bulk state when it was at 155W and I think it was in float state when it showed 20W from the panel. No loads connected other than the controller itself. I'm just surprised there is no easy way to determine how much my batter bank is charged and why I wouldn't get to see the total power being gathered by the panels.
It sounds like your batteries have been fully charged, seeing how the mppt has gone through the bulk>absorb phase, and is resting at float.
Did you set up the charge controller as per Battle Born FAQ?
You can see all sorts of interesting stuff if you look at the detailed history.
My controller was set to lipo.
But I also think that your battery is just fully charged. Switch on all loads you have and the power from the PV should go up.
The battery gets discharged overnight, and requires charging the next day.
You can not refill your battery, without first taking a bit out first.
In any event, thank you all again. You have been much more helpful than some others in another thread so i appreciate it.
