Ok @Pickles , these are the settings on the unit on the T3 as they appear in Chinglish as you scroll through the menu. Charge set absorb 14.4 Charge set float 13.7 Discharge set over 11.2 Discharge set restart 12.3 As I said, I'm pretty sure they are the default settings. 14.4 v on the absorption stage means the higher voltage will drive the final amps onto the battery, overcoming the batteries internal resistance. Float charge maintains a healthy battery terminal voltage, again using slightly higher voltage to overcome the batteries natural resistance in its fully charged state of 12.6v. The charge controller you have is intelligent, ie it senses battery voltage, so if you have another charge source it will not overcharge via the panel. Ie if the vsr is workimg via the alternator or you have a separate mains charger working (ctek for example). The excess and unrequired voltage from the panel in these instances is dumped in the form of heat via the case of the charge controller. So, on some occasions it may become warm. Dont worry this is perfectly normal. Neil
@Pickles , use the 2 spare terminals to wire a feed and earth return to a rear accessory socket. Ive done that on both the T3 and the bay. We use it for the plug in shower, night time charge point, plug in reading light etc. Proper handy and tbh you can never have enough sockets
That sounds a very good idea. at the moment i have one (cigarette style) socket by the side of the drivers seat for the cool-box. Next year I might try and sort out some internal lights and other stuff, but at least this year we can have cold beer and food, so its a step up from 2017! And thanks for the settings.
Larmer Tree festival. It all worked fine and no issue with using lights, charger etc. Plenty of leisure battery juice being topped up every day. Happy days. Discovered that the 12v part of my three way fridge is wired off the ignition so only works when the engine is running even though it is leisure battery power rather than starter battery. I guess it’s fine like that as a fridge would kill a battery pretty quickly ( with out the glorious solar panel option) I use it on gas so not too worried but might re-wire it at some point now I have solar. I will definitely get a 12v socket running directly off the panel on the ‘load’ output.... a plug in shower would’ve been a great option at the back of the van!
Well with my solar panel and voltage sensitive relay my 60 AH leisure battery kept my new Waeco CFX cool-box running for the whole of the past two weeks. Am really pleased how solar panel, cool-box and VSR performed. Without the cool-box we would have had more issues keeping food fresh and drinks cold in the French sun. In the high (30+) temps saw some large numbers going in to the battery via the solar panel. Be interesting to see how different things are in the grey skies of England.
Leave the gas on.. the current drain of that fridge is about equal to a solar panel in bright sunlight. Once it clouds over or gets dark, you will lose charge with 7 amps for a fridge. I managed to annoy myself yesterday. With the solar cells taking up the battery voltage to 13.8 volts, I was testing a LED festoon bulb in a fitting and it got so hot it desoldered the current limiting resistor and broke.
I’ve had 2x100w solar panels and an Eco-Worthy MPPT 20A controller for about six months now – all through the summer - and I’m very disappointed. I was expecting the panels to provide enough power for a compressor fridge and to keep a 100Ah battery charged, no chance, the most I’ve seen from the controller is 1.2amp which isn’t even enough for the fridge. Something is wrong but I don’t know what and any help from the bright sparks would be appreciated. This is what I’ve checked: At midday in bright sunlight, one panel is 21.5v, the other is 21.6v, open circuit, this drops to just over 19v in the late afternoon with the sun low in the sky and at an angle to the panels. Working voltage is about 18v (according to Eco-Worthy) so I’m assuming the panels are okay. The panels are wired in parallel as recommended by Eco-Worthy although I’d have thought in series would be better to increase the voltage and reduce the current. Incidentally all wiring is 4mm2. I’ve left the controller at the default settings (as most people seem to do), so it should work but most of the time it’s sleeping or just providing a few watts regardless of the load or state of the battery. A couple of questions. I have a fuse between the controller and the battery and I removed this while checking something else. That means the controller would have been connected to the panels but not the battery – could this have damaged the controller? The battery is more than 6 years old and has been discharged and recharged many times, it holds a charge but certainly not as well as it used to. If the battery is too tired would this prevent the controller from working correctly?
That sounds really low for 200w. When I first tested my 100w setup on a partially cloudy day with a nearly fully charged battery it was pushing 2.7 amps to the battery. At 13.8 Volts you should see a max of around 14-15 amps from your panels Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk
To be honest, I've not seen any amps coming off my panel recently, and am also now wondering if it's working correctly. I thought it was just the low sun and slightly overcast days but...
That would be more than ten times what I’m getting, the most I’ve seen in ideal conditions is 1.2 amps.
Which controller do you have? I’ve now heard of several people with Eco-Worthy MPPT controllers with the same problem, little or no output, one apparently cured it by removing the diodes from the panels but I’m not going to do that. Several others returned them for a refund but I can’t get any response from Eco-Worthy (or Amazon) and I’m sure if I sent it back I would simply lose the postage cost, and the controller.
I have the votronic https://www.amazon.co.uk/efficiency...controller&dpPl=1&dpID=517BT1jMRaL&ref=plSrch been good so far. It was even charging on the stormy rainy weekend a couple of weeks ago although I didn't take a reading to see what the output was Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk
@77Westy It’s one of these It was working okay over the summer, keeping the battery topped up whilst I was away camping, not the 8A that some have mentioned, but fine for a bit of lighting music and phone charging. I wouldn’t attempt using my fridge as it’s an old Dometic (not compressor type). It’s just recently that it’s not registering any amps. I’ll have a good look at the outputs later when I’m home, although it’s misty and overcast here so not ideal conditions. I wondered if I’d ballsed something up when I added a switched usb socket from the ‘load’ outputs? The instruction booklet that comes with it is not user friendly for anyone except an electronics / maths genius, but I could understand the basic set up diagram.
Its foggy outside so on the low side at the moment. When the sun comes out later (well that is the weather forecast) I'll take and post another photo. I have a rigid 100w panel on the roof at the back. Which fridge do you have as 1.2A seems high? I bought my controller from Ebay sometime (probably two years) ago, although only got round to fitting it this Spring. 1.2A
