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Charging issues

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Hi all,

I am new on here and I was hoping for some assistance.

I have two 150 watt panels connected in series. ( 300 Watt ) .

Two by 100 Ah 12v Batteries in series ( 24 volt )

These are being charged by a German made 15-15 charge controller.

Everything is new.

However, the LED's show orange even after a days sunshine. on the instructions this means the batteries are below 70% charge.

This does not change day after day. when I measure with a multi meter it reads 24.4 volts.

Does this sound like a faulty charge controller? I have removed all load including the inverter.

 

Any ideas before

I start swopping things out?

  • 1 month later...

Hi all,

I am new on here and I was hoping for some assistance.

I have two 150 watt panels connected in series. ( 300 Watt ) .

Two by 100 Ah 12v Batteries in series ( 24 volt )

These are being charged by a German made 15-15 charge controller.

Everything is new.

However, the LED's show orange even after a days sunshine. on the instructions this means the batteries are below 70% charge.

This does not change day after day. when I measure with a multi meter it reads 24.4 volts.

Does this sound like a faulty charge controller? I have removed all load including the inverter.

 

Any ideas before

I start swopping things out?

You have 300watt solar PV and need to charge 2400W. With only 5 hours, you'll charge about 1,200w (let's say there's 20% losses). 

Without knowing what load you put on the panels / batteries, and knowing how deep you discharge them before the sun rises the next day, it's difficult to know whether the solar PV is too small, or the charge controller is faulty. Or perhaps it's a PWM type charge controller? MPPT charge controllers will give better efficiency and it might solve the problem. Or, perhaps another 2 panels, in order to meet the demand?

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