Recent Posts

1

General FAQ'S / Re: New member looking for a Winter solution

« Last post by tecnodave on Today at 10:51:08 AM »

A single panel that is 96 cell will work well for wintering if you turn off the summer panels. The Sanyo HIT panels have a high MPP of 53.5 volts and will work well with the classic and a 24 volt bank. A 72 cell panel will not have enough voltage to keep the classic happy. If you use this approach, do turn off the summer panels at winter shutdown and turn off the winter panel when you start up for spring. The two arrays will not work well togather

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General FAQ'S / Re: New member looking for a Winter solution

« Last post by Latt51 on July 15, 2019, 07:16:27 PM »

Any suggestions for panel brand and Model that would do the job ?

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General FAQ'S / Re: New member looking for a Winter solution

« Last post by Latt51 on July 15, 2019, 07:09:02 PM »

Thanks all for your rapid reply.. much appreciated! 
The 8x6volts batteries are configured in 2 banks in parallel of 24Volts.  With 120 VAC fridge, freezer, and 3/4 hp water pump, the Magnum 2824 is directly connected to the batteries with 80 A rating cables. Since the other owners of the camp are not much into electrical works, I want to avoid manual connections and handling every spring and fall. 
I would go for adding an extra PV panel installed at 90 deg facing south with foot of the panel 8 feet above ground.  I would need a panel with enough power to feed the Magnum standby drain current with all AC loads turned off +  enough power to feed the Classic 200SL standby drain current which would remain powered ON.
I read about minimum PV voltage for proper battery charging.  My summer config is 2 banks in parallel of 2 LG 400 Watts (LG395N2W-A5) panels which deliver total 20A at 80 Volts.  What should be the  minimum requirements of a winter PV to keep the batteries fully charged all winter ?

4

General FAQ'S / Re: New member looking for a Winter solution

« Last post by Vic on July 15, 2019, 03:36:38 PM »

Hi Latt51,

Often,  one would expect Flooded Batteries to be damaged by such low discharges.

Also,   the freeing temperature for the electrolyte in a dead battery,   is not much below the freezing point for pure water.   One page one of the following Link is a table of freezing points,   verses the battery charge level:
https://www.trojanbattery.com/pdf/WP_DeepCycleBatteryStorage_0512.pdf

Perhaps,  your batteries did not freeze   ...   but you might want to check for physical damage to the battery cases.   It can be risky to charge batteries which are still frozen,   but,  it appears that you avoided doing this  ...

FWIW,   Good luck,     Vic

5

Owner Installed system pictures / Re: Apartment Solar in Ohio

« Last post by ClassicCrazy on July 15, 2019, 02:34:12 PM »

Not sure where that skip day setting is on the Kid - maybe only on the Classic but not sure.
If you are taking 20% out of the battery  you are okay and don't need it.

When you first set up SOC it can take a day or so to start showing the correct stuff - When it fills up to 100% and goes to float then it resets the AH from full  to zero .

Larry

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Owner Installed system pictures / Re: Apartment Solar in Ohio

« Last post by Shade on July 15, 2019, 01:11:46 PM »

nice they gave you that info with the battery . And I am glad I was close to right reading their data sheet !
You need to enter -3 mv for temp comp setting - not  +3  . Not sure if you meant  that is what you put in.
Leave the default Whizbang 1% per deg C . You would tweak the SOC by changing the Efficiency%

The SOC percent is calculated from the other settings you put in like the AH capacity and the Efficiency and it factors in the temp too .
So when you use power it will subtract and the SOC % will go down . Next day the SOC% will climb to 100% - it will take more amps to fill it up than you took out because it uses the Efficiency setting  for that.
So if you are watching you want to see the SOC get to 100% about the same time it goes from Absorb to Float. Change the Efficiency or the Ending Amps to tweak it to get it close to matching. But you should probably have the SOC 80% so you know what is going on.
You may want to do that skip days if you aren't taking much  power out of the battery - at least for flooded lead acid - might not matter for sealed lead acid AGM - you will have to research that or maybe someone else knows. But if you aren't taking much out it probably goes quickly to ending amps and goes to Float so that is okay I think.
Did you set the maximum charging amps to 20 a ? That was the other setting you need to put in. If  you get more batteries you can raise that up.

Larry

-3.0 mv temp comp
SOC AT 80%   82% 85AH remaining. have tortoise light on think its 100 watt still in float battery 13.6v 128w
battery - absorb - amp limit 20a
skip a day setting were do i find it ?? dont understand this one

thanks for helping

7

Owner Installed system pictures / Re: Apartment Solar in Ohio

« Last post by ClassicCrazy on July 15, 2019, 11:54:29 AM »

nice they gave you that info with the battery . And I am glad I was close to right reading their data sheet !
You need to enter -3 mv for temp comp setting - not  +3  . Not sure if you meant  that is what you put in.
Leave the default Whizbang 1% per deg C . You would tweak the SOC by changing the Efficiency%

The SOC percent is calculated from the other settings you put in like the AH capacity and the Efficiency and it factors in the temp too .
So when you use power it will subtract and the SOC % will go down . Next day the SOC% will climb to 100% - it will take more amps to fill it up than you took out because it uses the Efficiency setting  for that.
So if you are watching you want to see the SOC get to 100% about the same time it goes from Absorb to Float. Change the Efficiency or the Ending Amps to tweak it to get it close to matching. But you should probably have the SOC 80% so you know what is going on.
You may want to do that skip days if you aren't taking much  power out of the battery - at least for flooded lead acid - might not matter for sealed lead acid AGM - you will have to research that or maybe someone else knows. But if you aren't taking much out it probably goes quickly to ending amps and goes to Float so that is okay I think.
Did you set the maximum charging amps to 20 a ? That was the other setting you need to put in. If  you get more batteries you can raise that up.

Larry
 

8

General FAQ'S / Re: New member looking for a Winter solution

« Last post by KyleM on July 15, 2019, 11:31:23 AM »

Before you leave for the winter hang a panel or two on a south facing wall at 90deg.  No snow load and power enough to keep batteries topped up over the winter ( if the snow on the ground doesn't reach that height  )

Ralph

This is a great idea!!!    Also it might be worth setting up a low battery disconnect just in case.   There are many ways to get this done, and it sure beats coming into camp and finding dead batteries.

http://midniteftp.com/forum/index.php?topic=3714.msg35955#msg35955

Kyle

9

Owner Installed system pictures / Re: Apartment Solar in Ohio

« Last post by Shade on July 15, 2019, 11:07:36 AM »

sun up now
soc 100%  104ah remaining
would i raise % in wizbang jr since i have 100ah battery 

10

Owner Installed system pictures / Re: Apartment Solar in Ohio

« Last post by Shade on July 15, 2019, 08:19:32 AM »

Hey - great job getting what you have set up. Let us know if you want any help with anything.
According to what I look up for your battery
20 amps max charge current
 Absorb 14.5 v
2 hours absorb time
ending amps -I can't tell from the chart fro your battery - from other agm battery info on second link looks like 6 amp for ending amps
Float 13.5 v
-3 mv for temperature compensation .
If you are going to be shallow cycling the battery - not taking too much out you probably want to set up skip days .
https://www.omnitron.cz/download/datasheet/NP12-100Ah%20NPP.pdf
https://www.victronenergy.com/upload/documents/Datasheet-GEL-and-AGM-Batteries-EN.pdf

What do you think ?  Maybe someone else can give some input if I got that ending amps right.

Larry

booklet i got with battery
float 13.6 - 13.7   set at 13.6
(cycle use ) absorb 14.6 - 15.0   set at 14.6
2 hour absorb time
below 15c or above 35c -3mv or -4mv   set at 3mv   was thinking this was wizbang jr setting like how do i get % from -3mv 

set set 6 amp for ending amps
wizbang
100ah
94% effiency
1.0 % per degree C