Designing out a new solar / charging / inverter system for my boat, and have a couple questions on which monitoring steps to take.
First, I would like to end up with the following:
- Monitoring of output of each panel and total
- Historical data stored on output / efficiency of each panel
- Monitoring of battery level, discharge etc
- Monitoring of inverter / charger and output / load etc
- Likely a couple other things that would useful / make it easier for battery / power management that don't come to mind at the moment
- Cost is not a huge issue, would rather complete this properly, but of course would rather save money where I can
Current system plan includes:
- Multiplus 12/3000/120
- Argofet 200-2 (to split the starting and house bank)
- Isolation Transformer 3600W
- BMV-700
- 4x MPPT 75/15 (one for each 145W panel)
- 4x MPPT Control (one for each MPPT)
- Digital Multi Controller 200/200A GX
- CANvu GX or Colour Control GX
- GX GSM or Wifi Stick (to upload system data to the cloud when in range)
- Octo GX (looks like I need this to connect all 4 MPPTs / MPPT Controls)
Areas where I am unclear, or maybe am missing something:
Do I need the Octo GX to connect all 4 MPPTs/MPPT Controls? Or is there an easier / simpler way?
Are there serious differences between the CANvu GX and Colour Control GX? Have not seen a good comparison - I like the aesthetics of the CANvu better, however only thing I have found is the glass bridge connection will only work with Octo / Colour Control.
Do I need a second BMV-700 and shunt to see total PV output or will the GX Family add the 4 controllers output together?
Is there anything else I am missing that I need to achieve my goals above?
Thanks!
