R-pod Owners Forum Homepage

This site is free to use.
Donations benefit a non-profit Girls Softball organization

Forum Home Forum Home > R-pod Discussion Forums > I need HELP!!!
  New Posts New Posts RSS Feed: SOC
  FAQ FAQ  Forum Search   Calendar   Register Register  Login Login

Topic ClosedSOC
 Post Reply Post Reply Page  <1 34567 11>
Author
Message Reverse Sort Order
  Share Topic Share Topic  Topic Search Topic Search  Topic Options Topic Options
offgrid View Drop Down
Senior Member
Senior Member


Joined: 23 Jul 2018
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 5290 		Direct Link To This Post Topic: SOC
    Posted: 25 Jul 2020 at 3:53pm
I like the firewood. Now there you have some stored kwh. If that's a couple cords of oak then its about 15,000 kwh. It would take your 300 watts of PV about 40 years (roughly its useful life) to produce that amount of energy. Too bad its so heavy and its hard to convert to electricity....

Maybe make a producer gas generator and take it camping instead of the solar LOL


Anyhow my suggestion is to load up your batts a little. At 14V you're not really getting any useful work out of your two PV systems.....just changing water into H2 and O3....
1994 Chinook Concourse
1995 RV6A Experimental Aircraft
2015 Rpod 179 - sold
Back to Top
fwunder View Drop Down
Senior Member
Senior Member
Avatar

Joined: 04 Oct 2013
Location: New Jersey
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1676 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Jul 2020 at 3:23pm
Well, I am impressed with the HQST panel. It showed open circuit voltage @ 18.9v Renogy @ 25 feet from controller. My solar field is pumping power. HQST 100W currently 14.0v @ 5.2A shown by SCC.  200W suitcase currently @ 14.0v @ 10.2A shown by SCC.

My stand/tv rack design needs a little tinkering. Legs are too long and 3/4 inch pipe is just a little flimsy in camp mode. It's fine on tv rack. Nothing glued up. I might take it apart and fill frame members with spray foam to see if that stiffens them or just redo with 1 inch pipe. I could move them to the edges, but it fits better on my tv rack like this and I think it looks better.
2014 RPod 178 => MyMods and Buying Habits
2008 4Runner Limited 4.0-liter V6
Yes, those are wild ponies dining on grass while dumping tanks!
Back to Top
fwunder View Drop Down
Senior Member
Senior Member
Avatar

Joined: 04 Oct 2013
Location: New Jersey
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1676 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Jul 2020 at 5:14pm
This should be fun to play with. $80.00
2014 RPod 178 => MyMods and Buying Habits
2008 4Runner Limited 4.0-liter V6
Yes, those are wild ponies dining on grass while dumping tanks!
Back to Top
offgrid View Drop Down
Senior Member
Senior Member


Joined: 23 Jul 2018
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 5290 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Jul 2020 at 4:19pm
+ 1 for Morningstar. I used to work with the founders of that company back in the late 80s/early 90s at another solar company. Great guys and excellent high quality products. Can’t say enough good things about them.
1994 Chinook Concourse
1995 RV6A Experimental Aircraft
2015 Rpod 179 - sold
Back to Top
JR View Drop Down
Senior Member
Senior Member


Joined: 31 Aug 2018
Location: Manistee, MI
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 375 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Jul 2020 at 12:17pm
As I sit on the shores of Lake Michigan near Charleviox, MI. under clear skis and my panels collecting much sun...I think everyone has diagnosed your problem with your first charge controller.  I have a Morningstar which gives you the option of manually setting many of the set points which limits or even eliminates the equalization of the battery (ies) if that is your desire.  Hopefully your controller will supplement your camping memories. 
Jay

179/2019
Back to Top
offgrid View Drop Down
Senior Member
Senior Member


Joined: 23 Jul 2018
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 5290 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Jul 2020 at 7:03am
Short term is fine, long term damage is possible with too high charge voltage settings, read the battery university link I posted. And you'd have to keep a close eye on the water level. 

In the old days charge controllers were just a simple high voltage disconnect, maybe temp compensated if you were lucky. You fiddled with the set points till you got a little battery gassing but not too much. Flooded batts were just fine with that approach. 

Now with everything having a microprocessor or two all the mfgs try to one up each other with "features" and "charge stages". You need different settings for AGM and gel batteries, and of course for Li. But for most folks its probably TMI (too much information) as you suggest. Especially that spurious amp hour production number is misleading because it makes it look like you have a stray load somewhere. 

I would just set the controller on gel batt charge mode so the equalize stage is defeated and see how that does for awhile, especially if you are going to also be running the new controller. I didn't like the warning that you have to shut off loads once a month to equalize or it might get stuck. 
1994 Chinook Concourse
1995 RV6A Experimental Aircraft
2015 Rpod 179 - sold
Back to Top
fwunder View Drop Down
Senior Member
Senior Member
Avatar

Joined: 04 Oct 2013
Location: New Jersey
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1676 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Jul 2020 at 6:43am
Originally posted by offgrid

My sense is that there is nothing actually wrong with either controller. Renogy just changed their software at some point and modified their equalization algorithm. The new ones are not pushing the battery voltage up as high, at least not at the same time as the old ones are. 


The obvious question, for me, is...

Is there any harm in charging flooded batteries @ 14.7v for any length of time? Perhaps most controllers don't have digital readouts so neophytes like me don't try to over think the process?

fred
2014 RPod 178 => MyMods and Buying Habits
2008 4Runner Limited 4.0-liter V6
Yes, those are wild ponies dining on grass while dumping tanks!
Back to Top
offgrid View Drop Down
Senior Member
Senior Member


Joined: 23 Jul 2018
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 5290 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 Jul 2020 at 6:42pm
Just note that that array voltage number really doesn't mean much. The array will sit at the battery voltage when it is connected. In electrical engineering parlance, batteries are considered a voltage source and soar arrays are considered to be a current source. IOW, the battery can suck up or provide any current asked of it, at least for a short period, so it sets the voltage for the whole system. The 18V is probably the open circuit voltage of the array, measured during the portion  of the PWM cycle when the controller has shut off current flow to the batts. 

My sense is that there is nothing actually wrong with either controller. Renogy just changed their software at some point and modified their equalization algorithm. The new ones are not pushing the battery voltage up as high, at least not at the same time as the old ones are. 
1994 Chinook Concourse
1995 RV6A Experimental Aircraft
2015 Rpod 179 - sold
Back to Top
StephenH View Drop Down
podders Helping podders - pHp
podders Helping podders - pHp
Avatar

Joined: 29 Nov 2015
Location: Wake Forest, NC
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 6417 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 Jul 2020 at 4:43pm
I'm glad the new controller is working out.
StephenH
Happy is the man that findeth wisdom,...

ouR escaPOD mods
Former RPod 179
Current Cherokee Grey Wolf 24 JS
Back to Top
fwunder View Drop Down
Senior Member
Senior Member
Avatar

Joined: 04 Oct 2013
Location: New Jersey
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1676 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 Jul 2020 at 4:19pm
Have to conclude for the day. Got some good thunder boomers moving in.

For the last couple hours under partly cloudy skies the controller was reporting as above (13.7v @  0.1-0.5 amps) . That's float. I think it's working exactly they way we all would expect it to.

I have to conclude that there is an issue with the first edition controller. I have opened another ticket with Renogy, but the controller is well past its 30 day warranty. It was probably doing the same in the beginning, but I just didn't know any better than to notice or care. I also used it so little that no damage was done to batteries.

Thanks to everyone who contributed. Hopefully, we all learned a bit.

BTW, I did get my hydrometer today and all six cells of batteries specific gravity measured +1.275
2014 RPod 178 => MyMods and Buying Habits
2008 4Runner Limited 4.0-liter V6
Yes, those are wild ponies dining on grass while dumping tanks!
Back to Top
 Post Reply Post Reply Page  <1 34567 11>

Forum Jump Forum Permissions View Drop Down

Bulletin Board Software by Web Wiz Forums® version 9.64
Copyright ©2001-2009 Web Wiz