As i said mate , cheapo panel - cheapest i could get so wasn`t interested in warranty , Selling point being it was a perfect fit on the available roof space . I`m suspecting it only being 100w but it suits my needs for now and i`ve spoken to quite a few folks who reckon 100w is plenty but others who insist on nothing less than 200w so have added an extra 100w panel to their existing one . The ebay link to his neg feedback - think i got lucky :- https://www.ebay.com/fdbk/feedback_...=period:TWELVE_MONTHS,overall_rating:NEGATIVE Controller is an boggo Epaver mppt 20a job like this :- https://www.amazon.co.uk/EPEVER-Con...jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ== They`ve gone up - i paid 60 quid . It`s probably overkill as i reckon the 10a would have been fine judging by the power i`m getting out of the panel but figured if i needed to pop on an extra panel i would have the capacity . It truly is a minefield out there and for that reason if it`s for a customer i`d only buy for a reputable dealer . Hope this helps
Do you have a pic of your panel fitted fella I’m interested to see with you having the same roof as me. Also where did you route the panel wiring and the controller?
Cheers @Lasty As you say, as it’s for a customer, I really don’t want to be having to faff about sending shonky goods back if I can help it... that eBay sellers feedback is pretty nasty! You defo got lucky there..
Buy it from Photonic Universe, they’ll advise what you need and supply everything. And if it’s not right they’ll sort it out, unlike eBay or Amazon. https://www.photonicuniverse.com/en/
Their prices are very competitive and although I’m not a customer I know their customer support is very good. And their estimates on what power you are likely to get out of a panel seem more realistic than most other suppliers. As I said earlier, whatever you do check the output (amps and volts) before the panel is fixed. Suppliers will always try to blame the installation if there is a problem and a few minutes checking can save hours of struggle to remove a faulty panel.
I went with this kit, I did stick the panels on my rear hinge west roof with tiger seal so I'm wondering will they over heat now. On the plus side I can still put surfboards on the roof (panels won't work then though) and take them off at destination. When the weather is good I can run my absorbtion fridge during the day and leave it as a cool box over night.I put the cables down through the air vent and the controler in the engine bay. Not the tidiest looking but no holes drilled.
With the usual VSR plus solar on the leisure battery it does have the advantage that eventually the solar cell can also charge the starter battery. With a B2B charger you will not be charging the starter battery with solar if you have a solar charger on the leisure battery. The B2B requires the engine to be running or something to be charging the starter battery .. so you might do better to put chargers on the starter battery .. solar and hookup. Then the B2B charges the leisure battery. In an ideal world you would have the means to run all the 12 volt loads while on hookup directly off a regulated mains supply. The batteries would be disconnected from the 12 volt loads and are only connected to independent battery charging outputs from the power supply. So that the voltage on the batteries and the current fed to them gives optimal charging, without e.g. a fridge suddenly taking 5 amps when the charger is in final absorbtion phase outputting an amp or so..which mucks up the charge cycle.. We spend all this money on nice battery chargers and keep messing with their sequences by starting to discharge batteries before the chargers can complete their cycle of charging.
The Sterling B2B is 30amp isn’t it? Does your alternator cope with that constant load without overheating?
the CTEK 250 I use takes the alternator and solar inputs to charge both with priority given to one depending on the way you wire it
I've just got the Sterling BBS1230 battery to battery charger for the T3 refit. 30amp charge and the ability to harvest 350watts from solar panels, mppt. It's a big unit though so not ideal if space is an issue. As some of you know, I'm a big advocate of solar as a method of charging but we were lucky to have been able to buy kit before it became popular. Chips has been on now for 7 years! I'm dreading the day we have an issue coz the kit was top spec, and now it seems quality is pot luck!
Interesting, I looked at the Sterling BBS1230 but I thought it was just a 30amp B2B charger, solar MPPT is not mentioned in the specifications I read. It also seems there can be a problem with conflict with a LiFePO4 BMS.
Well, it's lithium compatible, apparently, and the only way to actually tell they're mppt is to scrutinise the Google pictures with an electron microscope as it's not mentioned anywhere, even on the sterling website! However, the instruction booklet was more revealing. Its a clonky thing, but true to Sterling form, it'll work well and will be robust. Of that I'm confident I'll dig out the instructions Geoff, but I'm sure they specifically mention lithium and BMS conflicts, or at least give a best practise solution
Thanks Neil, I’ve read the instructions and saw the workaround. Seems really strange that it’s also MPPT and not mention it, that has to be a big selling point.
Yeah, you'd have thought. I like the idea you can 'over spec' the solar panel wattage and the charger will harvest to 350w if conditions allow. Previously we'd gone with the convention of future proofing the instal by ensuring the charge controller could 'handle' extra wattage. Maybe it's spin but it seems there is no limit here to panel wattage, it'll cope and loose the extra unwanted input over 350w through heat loss.
More likely, it just moves off the maximum power tracking point, allows the panel voltage to get closer to 20V and draws less current. The days of solar regulators being shunt load energy dumps are long gone - modern switchmode tech just draws current from the solar panel for 0% to 100% 0f the time, stores the energy losslessly in an inductor, and dumps it in the battery at a lower voltage. All it needs is for the controller to accurately estimate the power it is handling and protect itself rather than running blindly towards maximum power all the time.
