2021 320S Boondock Solar question

Nessmuk

Bear with me if this is a dumb question. If you are plugged into shore power, and the battery is not disconnected by way of the switch, will the Victron app show 0 Watts? I assume that the inverter running on shore power takes over and the solar panel is no longer needed therefore showing no input? It worked well on solar and today is the first time I have shore power connected.

Dutch061

Typically it will not, I say typically because as soon as I say never someone will have a screenshot of 0 Watts. We have a 2020 400 BDL and as long as there is sufficient sun on the solar panels there will be an output. The only time I ever see zero output is when there isn't enough sun on the panels or at night. 

Brad

jcrystal

try rebooting the app to see if you get a different result

Nessmuk

jcrystal said:

try rebooting the app to see if you get a different result

Well, I finally ended up having to delete and reinstall the app and it finally started working 😕🙂
Thanks for the suggestion it was the app.

Nessmuk

OK, it gets more mysterious. When connected to shore power, and the battery fully charged it reads 0W. If I unplug shore power it starts reading solar output.
Now (with a fully charged battery) if I disconnect the battery it reads 0W again. Turn the disconnect back to connect and the app starts reading output again.
Being new to solar I am a wee bit confused. 

And trying to find a number for Victron Support here in the US seems impossible.

pthomas745

Could you post a screen shot of the Victron?

If the battery is fully charged, and the solar controller sees there is nothing for the extra solar coming in to do....it will just cut the charging from the panels.  The same thing would happen with a stand alone battery charger.  It will just stop and wait until the parameters to start charging occur.

Try your test again and, without shore power, have a small party inside the trailer:  tv, fan, radio, etc.......see how your Victron app reacts to that.

Nessmuk

I will do that. The bottom screenshot is with battery power on to trailer, the 0W is when I disconnect the battery. As mentioned, when connected to shore power it also reads 0.

pthomas745

Key information here is in the battery "state" section.  The battery is in "Float" status which is the very last phase of maintaining a charge.  (The other stages are "Bulk" and "Absorption".)  

The "current" section of the battery shows .30 amps, which closely resembles the .23 parasitic drain of my 2017 with my battery switch on and nothing running in the trailer.  In the float stage the controller should just continue to "top off" the battery.   This all seems pretty normal.

This site goes through all the battery charging terminology I quoted above.  Lots of web sites that have "explainers."http://www.chargingchargers.com/tutorials/charging.html

Nessmuk

Our new Tab has some power going to the TV, stereo and CO detector so I suppose that makes up the .3A draw. Thanks for the site URL.

As I said, I am completely new to this solar thing.

pthomas745

Yes, those draws are the "parasitic drains" that you should add to your calculations of battery amp hours used.  On your .30 amps of "drain" that would add up to about 7 amps a day (more or less.)  There are some simple "switches" that you can use to disconnect the TV...or, save a few bucks and just pull the plug!  Other owners have put kill switches on the Jensen stereo, also.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01D66D9PM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1