asked
Can I lower the conversion start voltage from 5 volts to maybe 2 or 3. It usually doesn’t start the conversion until 5 hours after the sun is up.
Hi Brian. If you're talking panel Voc vs Vbat, then no you can't. It's perhaps the only disadvantage of mppt over pwm cc's that I'm aware of, and I guess it would come to the fore at your latitude.
Is it possible to rewire your panels to longer strings? Even if you find yourself with an 'orphaned' panel, it may be worth trying that route..
You are cutting it too fine with the panel voltage vs battery voltage.
The system design is the real issue & not the MPPT logic/ability.
The correct way to resolve this is a) if you currently have multiple solar panels, rewire them in series to increase the voltage output, b) buy some more solar panel(s) of the same type & wire them in series to increase the voltage, or c) replace your current panel(s) with units that have a higher voltage output (such as panels used for regular household solar - they typically have a Voc of ~40v each).
Just as a idea, you could put say 2 x 9 volt dry cell batteries in series and then connect them across the PV input for a few seconds every hr in the morning as this may fool the mppt unit into starting as once its started it only needs 2 volts above battery to hold.
I dont know how ell this would work but its not a expensive try out in you situation
