ChadRobinson Posted May 18, 2022 Posted May 18, 2022 Ok so here goes what is probably another "stupid" question where I could not find an answer on Google Its early morning and light outside but the sun is not technically up yet, I see the panels are producing voltage but no Current or Amps as per attached image (120v currently), is this because there is technically no sun? Quote
Bobster. Posted May 18, 2022 Posted May 18, 2022 I have a split array - 6 facing east and 6 north. Right now I'm seeing 217V and 3,5 A on the east facing array, 96V and 0.4 A on the north facing. The latter is not nothing, but it's negligible. But the monitoring software I used showed 23W of PV at 6.50 this morning (presumably from the east facing array). That's very low current or very low voltage or both. It's torch battery stuff. So I'd expect your system to be showing you some PV power at 120V, unless there's something like your inverter not drawing from PV until it reaches a certain voltage. Pour a cup of coffee and watch those graphs a while. Quote
ChadRobinson Posted May 18, 2022 Author Posted May 18, 2022 Ok, I have seen that the power is increasing as the sun rises, so it all makes sense Quote
Bobster. Posted May 18, 2022 Posted May 18, 2022 Yesterday you posted some shots of what looked like a constantly and rapidly fluctuating PV. Looking at them now, the graph shows now PV power when PV is clearly on but below 150 or so V. What software are you using for monitoring? Quote
ChadRobinson Posted May 18, 2022 Author Posted May 18, 2022 Bobster, I am using Solar Assistant from https://solar-assistant.io/ Yes I posted yesterday regarding the rapidly fluctuating PV, - Today I have left the setting on "Utility First" to see if the PV fluctuation is related to the usage or maybe an incorrect setting on my side. So right now my PV is not being used anywhere, its under 50w now and while the fluctuations are still there they are in line with Voltage and the panels are not in full Sun yet Quote
jumper Posted June 21, 2022 Posted June 21, 2022 This is because Power = Voltage X Current... you will have some voltage when there is some ambient light, but the current will be 0, so P=0. As the sun increases, your current will increase and therefore your power too. Quote
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