question

bobbydbrooke avatar image
bobbydbrooke asked

Why charging stops at 95%

Hi everyone

I have recently (June'23) had installed a 360W solar panel, 200Ah deep cycle gel leisure battery, 30A Photonic Universe Solar Charger, 15A Victron Blue Smart IP22 Mains Charger, Renogy 1500W inverter, 18A Victron Orion DC (12v/12v-18A) altenator charger - monitored by Victron shunt (500A/50mv).


It was installed in my campervan in June'23 and has been working well. Typically the battery doesn't go below 90% daily and the solar panel has been charging it back up to 100% each day.


I am currently in Greece with hot sunny weather all day.


However, over the past few weeks I've noticed it is only charging back up to 98% then 97% then 96% usually reaching this level during daytime (sunny) hours e.g. 2 or 3pm with still another 3-4 hours of sun energy available, but once it gets to 96% the charge seems to be controlled down or capped from 100W+ to 5W....so it doesn't get higher than 96%.


I have not plugged in to mains for six weeks so all charging is solar or altenator.


Why is it not using the available sun hours to get back up to 100%? Are there Victron settings I should change, or something I should do to maintain config?


Screen shots below of config, settings and example trend chart.


Thanks for help! Keen to learn what I might be doing wrong.


screenshot-20230914-145800.jpg

screenshot-20230914-151416.jpg

screenshot-20230914-151433.jpg

screenshot-20230914-151438.jpg

screenshot-20230914-151505.jpg

MPPT SmartSolarSmartShunt
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1 Answer
gazza avatar image
gazza answered ·

I assume those screenshots are while you are stationary (ie no Orion) so just solar? It sounds like your solar charger is throttling the charging? So what settings are you using on that?

The other thing is your shunt "charged voltage" should be ~0.2V less than absorption voltage set on your solar charger, as recommended by Victron for using the shunt in a solar setup.

Also, one other observation in your History, "Max Battery Voltage = 15.56V" ... that is high for a Gel battery!! Typically your max absorption voltage should be 14.4V and max float 13.8V with NO Equalisation stage.

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