I skipped the 1740 watt upgrade and went straight to 2030 watt. It made sense as I would have to run wires and drill an access hole anyway. Thanks to Roger for selling me his 150/70 Victron and dongle .With his leading me the way on the first panels, it went fairly easy. Now I have to hope having 2 seperate controllers, that they will play together. Have 4 panels on the 150/85 and 3 panels on the 150/70
Last 2 pics, controllers.
😳. Holy crap!!! Looks nice!!,!
One question, do you have to get on the roof to angle them every time you move??
I only angled them to work on them. I have no intention of angling them to get more power.
Do the controllers communicate with each other or are they just hooked in parallel to each other?
see ya
ken
They are just hooked in parallel. Talked to Justin at Bay Marine and he said an update is a couple of months away that will simplify the 2 controllers, Not sure how this firmware update will work.
If you are using the bluetooth app on a cell or wifi tablet, it will inform you when you open app and download new firmware to controller automatically, otherwise a physical connection to laptop connected to net, I have had 4 or 5 updates to solar controllers and battery monitor in the last 2 years.
Do you have a way to monitor the 2 controllers to see what they are outputting? I'd be a little worried that one controller would see the output of the other and go to absorption or float before it should. Keep us updated on how it works out.
You guys are really making my 720w look pretty puny. :)
see ya
ken
I have the app on 2 phones for the controllers. Received 2 firmware updates in the last 2 days. I can watch one controller on one phone and the other on the second phone. They are set for automatic updates.
I have 5 different devices, would be nice to open them all on one screen though instead of one at a time.
I'll be dealing with another Victon bluetooth when I return from Phoenix, I see your point on wishing for one screen.
That's what the bluetooth monitor on your phone or tablet does. Voltage input and output, watts/amps, history, production, and the ability to change values, turn on and off. With LI, no absorb, so one controller may go back to float a few minutes before the other, but controllers are basically reading battery voltage, so both react similarly. They will stay in float and pick up any loads until battery voltages falls enough to go back to bulk mode. Different with Lead Acid though, have to use absorption.
Synchronizing multiple MPPT 150/70 charge controllers | Victron Energy (https://www.victronenergy.com/blog/2013/11/15/synchronizing-multiple-mppt-15070-charge-controllers-2/)
Looks great Chuck, You might want to look at the Color Control GX.
A little pricey, will check with Bay Marine and see if the VE Net Blue Power Controller will do the same. I don't need to monitor while away from the coach.
These recently reported monster solar installs are giving me PV Envy. :'(
(Notice I said "PV" envy - not "Pee Pee" envy)
24/24-17 - Google Search (https://www.google.com/search?q=24/24-17+)(400W)&rlz=1C1ASUC_enUS665US665&ei=JZm5XeP9Ko3Y-wT-y6XgDg&start=10&sa=N&ved=0ahUKEwijpN6IlMTlAhUN7J4KHf5lCewQ8NMDCLoB&biw=1280&bih=580
looks like a new alternator charge controller for lithium/lead acid.. might need to look into it.
2030 watts on the roof should generate about 5Kw per day on average. Maybe half of that in the dead of winter, maybe twice that on a good summer day. Solar power either gets used in real time or stored. Once your storage capacity is reached the charge controllers limit what gets to the batteries so excess power is just that excess, neither used or stored.
Battery capacity is what gets you through those long cold winter nights in early January without running your generator.
In any of these big installations or yours it seems to me the trick is to balance average use with battery capacity and average solar recovery.
At the far ends of this would be maximum daily use balanced with battery capacity and solar recovery in the middle of the winter. This pushes solar and battery capacity way up. If all you are trying to do is maintain battery charge in the winter during storage with minimum use then the balance is different. And if you want to run an AC on battery through an inverter for any length of time without using your generator then max battery capacity and solar recovery come into play. And if you are OK with an hour or two of generator use to supplement solar then the balance changes again.
If you are considering solar or a change in batteries or a residential refrigerator or an electric conversion kit for your LP refrigerator do some planning. Be realistic with the use side of the equation. Consider Lithium batteries as a long term solution. Use a practical solar solution. The right solution for you is the one that fits your needs, your use lifestyle, your budget and timeline.
What we found when we added solar and more battery capacity is that we can go to many more places and stay as long as water and waste tanks allow and rarely if ever need to use the generator. We will if it is really hot or cloudy for a long stretch. A week or two in a National Park or a State Park without hook ups (and no generator) is now possible. Same with BLM land, other remote places, COE parks. We plug in when we can, more than half of the time. When we are plugged in to a metered socket and have a good solar exposure we usually use significantly less power from the meter.
Adding a solar power source gives us way more options.
Batteries are my weak link right now. The Lifeline 8D agm's are 6 years old and lithium is out of my budget because of all the equipment needed to not ruin them. I keep watching installations like David's with lower cost batteries and maybe the Lifelines will last until systems like his are tested. My only other choice is one you suggested the 335 agm's
I have batteries, two inverters, solar charge control, two BMVs and landline that all integrate on the Color Control GX. It is internet connected and data is recorded in the cloud somewhere to check on from anywhere in real time.
Synchronizing multiple MPPT 150/70 charge controllers | Victron Energy (https://www.victronenergy.com/blog/2013/11/15/synchronizing-multiple-mppt-15070-charge-controllers-2/)
For those wondering if you connect 2 controllers.. the controller will work the sync out.. by using it algorithm
I'll be calling Bay Marine as my firmware is only 1.43 and it needs to be 2.00 I have auto updates set and maybe bluetooth won't get the job done.
I just checked with Justin at Bay Marine and he informed me that link is 6 years old and doesn't apply to my system.
FYI, all, the posted link was from 2013 and
only applies to BlueSolar VE.Can MPPTs; if you happen to have VE.Can controllers on a CANBus network, you can still use these instructions, but after Victron moved to the SmartSolar and VE.Direct BlueSolar models, the synchronization feature has not been available on those models. This is largely because VE.Can and the CanBus network uses entirely different communication protocols than VE.Direct, and while VE.Direct was a major step forward in the programming interface (ie, you no longer need to use command-line based programming to set up your MPPT) and ease of use, actual programming functionality was slightly reduced due to the bandwidth restrictions of the VE.Direct interface.
The current F/W version for SmartSolar and VE.Direct BlueSolar MPPTs is 1.46 (just released Monday) and I have just confirmed with Victron that it does
not currently support synchronization across devices. As previously discussed with
@craneman and many others, the synchronization of devices is largely a matter of expected behavior rather than actual device performance, but I am assured -and therefore pass along the assurance- that the necessary F/W update is in the works.
Best Regards!
-Justin
Laurel Technologies / Bay Marine Supply
I have 2 controllers and have never had an issue with them not working together.
@DavidS yes, the controllers actually do work together just fine as they are; the issue is really more of a perception one than a performance one. If you have two MPPTs connected to the same battery bank, you'll notice that one will go into "float" a little earlier than the other one; this is because the controllers decide how long their absorption cycle is by looking at the battery voltage when they wake up, and since one almost will always wake up later (how much later depends on the sun/angle of panels, etc), the second controller to wake up sees a higher voltage at the battery than the first (because the first is already charging, of course) and so decides it needs a shorter absorption time than the first... and so of course goes into float sooner as well.
The reality is that there is nothing functionally wrong with this behavior at all, but the perception is that the two devices should be working precisely in tandem, which is currently impossible given the way their algorithms function... and, to be fair, two devices working exactly in tandem
would be just a hair more efficient in completing the overall task of fully charging your battery banks. That in mind, I'll certainly be happy to see the upcoming F/W update for SmartSolar and VE.Direct BlueSolar devices that permits device synchronization, since obviously more efficient=more better, but tbh I'm more excited about it because then I won't have to explain how/why these algorithms aren't perfectly synced anymore...
@craneman and a number of other customers understand the base concept so it's not a big deal, but oh lord some people simply cannot be convinced that there's nothing wrong with their device just because one went into float sooner than the other!
On the system that AM Solar set up for me I have two of the SmartSolar MPPT 150/70 VE.Can and they synchronize their charge stages:
"The VE.Can SmartSolar charger is equipped with CAN bus ports. This allows for communication with additional VE.Can SmartSolar chargers. The additional units are simply "daisy chained" to each other with a single RJ45 cable between the individual units.
When connected to each other, all individual VE.Can SmartSolar chargers, will synchronise their charge stages. They can also send their data, via a single cable, to a GX monitoring device."