Hi all, I recently (with the help of Steve at AM Solar and an electrically-savvy pal) installed two new 100W panels on top of my small fiberglass camper, along with Victron’s charge controller, smart shunt, smart solar, and ip22. That brought me to 300W of solar total. I have two 100ah brand new LiPo4 batteries. The idea was to power 2 Dometic CFX coolers for longer periods of time off grid. We don’t run much else short a furnace fan, LED lights, and a MaxxFan.
I am 100% new to these systems and am trying to learn on the fly but am having a hell of a time - I’ve been testing the system prior to our scheduled trip (leaving tomorrow - delayed twice already due to problems with installation. Yesterday it was warm outside and I cranked up our MaxxFan all the way for about 5 hours. When I looked at my SOC I panicked - 34% - sunset approaching. I had the two coolers running all day - it was sunny, no clouds (SW Michigan). And the fan. That’s it. As a test I left the MaxxFan on the lowest setting overnight. This morning I came out and found I was down to a 17% SOC, and even though I was getting some watts into the panels the batteries (abt 10am ET) the batteries were not recharging. I waited about an hour until the SOC went to 16%, gave up and plugged in.
The only thing I can figure out is that the MaxxFan on high somehow blew through my juice to the point that things wouldn’t even recharge. Which doesn’t make sense to me (I ran the fan in the same way when I was on lead acid previously with no issue, and was able to boondock for 10 days this time of year - sans coolers, yes, but the coolers have pretty low consumption rates.
I’m new to all this — fearful of spoiled groceries and a ruined trip - but I’m at a loss as to how to investigate. Steve at AM Solar did walk me through my app settings a few days ago and had me adjust quite a bit after some initial weirdness - doesn’t seem to have helped tho. I am sure polarity is correct and we did review the wiring last week. i do know how to use a multimeter if there’s something more I can check here.
Ideas? Ways to educate myself so that I can understand WTF Is going on? Screenshots are from this morning (I’m now plugged into shore power at home trying to get the batteries back up).