320's roof 130 Watt Sunflare solar collection question

MarkAl · July 2020

Please help: All my experience so far has been in marginal solar camping (cloudy or partial shade), our array is charging the battery (2-6V flooded) but I've never seen much power transferred in any situation (17-20 watts), and only "bulk" or "off" modes with a max of 12.9 volts to batteries. I'm wondering if this low power is due to my marginal weather / locations or a problem in controller setup or wiring or product defect. Would someone with this vendor's array respond with some full sun data?
Array: max watts and volts
Battery charging: modes observed and max charging amps and volts

I know anything less that full sun and an optimumly placed camper makes these numbers less useful so I'm really looking for full sun. Unlike most of you the PNW is not hot and we've had our normal early summer clouds with lots of trees. I'm using this to help plan if I'll need a generator or a portable array for future trips. The main issue is the electric only powered refrigerator with only battery/solar for extended usage. I like it but have limited experience with the older 3 ways for comparison. I haven't seen much hard data other than it works well but is it multi-day dry camping w/ full sun or week-end with 200AH Lithium

. Any review of an electrical item without knowing energy in and storage capacity is "rumor". Yeah you guys guessed it I'm an engineer...

Thanks

mrdeepfryguy · July 2020

MarkAl, have the same unit as you, got it May 29. Novice at solar, but here it what happened in Ohio on a sunny with occasional clouds day...Watts varied from 25-65, charge was in “float” mode the whole time. I was testing to see if it would keep up the charge with the refrigerator on 7and all the lights running. Monitored this every 30 minutes or so for 5 hours with the Victron Bluetooth app. Kept battery charged at ~13.6 volts the entire time. Hope this helps

jkjenn · July 2020

(Edited for photo size.)

Hard for me to get full sun in W PA and OH.

Even today, a pleasant day has lots of big puffy clouds. At mid-day, I am drawing 60 watts.

Don't forget latitude, time of year, and time of day will impact your numbers. Temperature will also, but to a lesser degree with Sunflare panels. This reading was taken south if Columbus, OH.

Here is a peak at my history, though, and we actually have had some unusually sunny, dry weather as of recent.

mrdeepfryguy · July 2020

Type your comments
(Continued form last response) ... max watts 65, max volts around 17? . Battery charging varied from 4.5 to 5 amps and equaled the draw from the frig and lights. The dealer threw in a second Interstate group 24 battery and a connection port for a portable solar panel. Trying to figure out what else we might need in the future (generator, 2nd panel). P.S. I’m definitely not an engineer lol.

pthomas745 · July 2020

Are all these voltage readings from batteries "at rest" with no loads? If you are trying to measure your voltage with your fridge running 12.9 would be pretty good. Try turning the fridge off and see where your battery voltage goes to.

MarkAl · July 2020

After a day of rain and not enough capacity to go the remaining 2 days, managed morning sun "kind of" on my array for 3-4 hrs this trip and totally brought my capacity back to 93% so I guess the system is working, just need to look for better locations (and weather). Thanks for the system readings, I saw them just before I left.

MarkAl · July 2020

Apparenly the factory switched the 320s in January to use 105 Watt panels, my S/N 207 has the 105 Watt panel. Being in the market for some remote panels I see 130 Watt panels are pretty rare so they may have changed to align with the market and (maybe) the larger one didn't fit? Now that I've used the trailer some I'd have preferred to lose the Yakima Rack and put the panel on the back. I think the angle would be better for the sun and allows a larger panel...

ontheroad · July 2020

@jkjenn... what wattage are your panels...as you just received M@ttieRoss?

jkjenn · July 2020

ontheroad said:

@jkjenn... what wattage are your panels...as you just received M@ttieRoss?

I believe it is 130?

MarkAl · July 2020

There was some overlap on the first of the year, so some 320s could be 130. The 105 size is 1200 x 820 don't know the 130 size. I don't think the 25 watts will make as much difference as a cloudy day will. My brief experience of a few hours of sun restored a 60% bank to 93% and got me through 3 days, Sunday and Tuesday were rainy or overcast. (225AH, GC2 6V and refridge/pump/minimal lights, no fan/radio/TV)

320's roof 130 Watt Sunflare solar collection question

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