Solar panel failed? And agm battery charger

[Pummer67]

It seems my 130watt panel has failed. I noticed yesterday it wasnt working on a blazing hot day as we were away camping and I have recently fitted a new agm battery so i was paying more attention to what was going on. The panel was saying between 0volts and 11 volts but generally was around about 6 volts. I unplugged the connectors and measured the volts straight off the panel and it was still the same so I'm presuming panel is knackered. This morning though at around 7ish just as sun was coming up over the hill it read 19volts and I checked on it again a few minutes later when sun was fully on the panel and it was back down around 6volts so it seems the more sunlight the worse it gets. Any thoughts?
Also I need to get a agm charger as my inbuilt one which we use if we have ehu or plug in at home before our trip is built into our controller which doesnt produce the voltage so I was thinking to fit another charger on one of the 240volt circuits and turn off the charger it comes built in with but what charger would people recommend.

Mark

 

[Dellmassive]

sounds like your panel may be failing.

heat from the sun causing thermal expansion on some failed conections internally.

got some pics?


see here for more info:

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and here for the rest of it.


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[Pummer67]

Thanks for your quick reply.
Its reading 14volts now with the sun behind trees and nearly behind houses opposite so it looks like as the sun has stopped beaming on it the volts have gone up again. The screen shot was from yesterday morning around 9am and the panel had just taken direct sunlight as it started slightly cloudy. From then on the volts went down and up depending if sun was behind clouds. It looks like this morning when it went up to around 19volts it charged slightly. The battery was sat at about 12.6volts this morning so by no means was fully charged so I should have had some solar. I'm thinking panel is knackered. I'm thinking try and get hold of a spare panel to wire into controller to quickly test the controller.

 

[Pummer67]

Here's my built in charger. Thanks for your link I think I will go with a victron bluetooth charger. I like the sounds of having control of it via bluetooth. I can just wire that in on one of the circuits then and bolt straight onto battery terminals.

 

[Dellmassive]

Thanks for your quick reply.
Its reading 14volts now with the sun behind trees and nearly behind houses opposite so it looks like as the sun has stopped beaming on it the volts have gone up again. The screen shot was from yesterday morning around 9am and the panel had just taken direct sunlight as it started slightly cloudy. From then on the volts went down and up depending if sun was behind clouds. It looks like this morning when it went up to around 19volts it charged slightly. The battery was sat at about 12.6volts this morning so by no means was fully charged so I should have had some solar. I'm thinking panel is knackered. I'm thinking try and get hold of a spare panel to wire into controller to quickly test the controller.

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the panel and controller look decent enough.~~

what size panel is it? - - 50-100w?

with good sun on the panels you should see at least 50%+ of the panels rating.

as a test . . .

tomorrow when its sunny . . .

turn on all your loads to drop the battery a bit.

then watch these values.






you should see the voltage come up with sun . . . but the important thing is the Amps .

you need the Amps to be able to charge the battery.

so post a few pics tomoz, with sun on the panel and your loads all switch on.

.

 

[Pummer67]

Ok will do. It's a 130watt from memory and a 10amp mppt controller.
Thankyou for your help.

 

[Dellmassive]

if its 130w. and your tracer was showing 14v panel voltage.

then w=v*a means you should see upto 9Amps





++++

as an example -


this 130w panel specs show. 20v / 6.4A to make the 130w

12V solar panels charging kits for caravans, motorhomes, boats, yachts, marine

12V solar panel solar charging kits for motorhome caravan boat campervan yacht marine off-grid

www.photonicuniverse.com

Solar panel specifications:

• Peak power: 130W
• Maximum power voltage: 20.2V
• Maximum power current: 6.44A
• Open circuit voltage: 23.9V
• Short circuit current: 6.82A
• Power allowance range: +/- 5%
• Solar Panel Dimensions: 1460 x 505 x 4 mm
• Weight: 4.4 kg
• 2 x 1m of high quality single core solar cable (4mm² cross section)
• Male and female MC4 connectors

 

[Pummer67]

That must be pretty much my panel as that's where I got it from. That would make sense as they said it's a 10 amp controller and I cant add another panel to it. 12volt electric calculations confuse me a bit. I work for electric board and I can do mains calculations all day long in my head but 12volt ones I have to write down and it takes me a while.

 

[Pummer67]

First photos from this morning at 7.15 before sun was touching the panel.

 

[Pummer67]

Just taken a screen shot now. Its not reading below 12 today by the looks of it but I know on a day like this solar volts used to be around 25volts.

 

[Dellmassive]

it looks like the battery is fully charged . . ? 0W and 0A from the controller?

what happens if you turn on all your leisure loads . . . to try an drop the battery voltage?


got some pics of your leisure battery? and setup?

 

[Pummer67]

The battery is brand new energy expedition plus 180ah agm. I dont think the controller can actually measure the load as I have never used the terminals in the controller which go to load but i have had my fridge on full power since this morning. I did have ehu on when we got home from camping as the volts were down to around 12.5 so I thought I would top it back up. Volts are at 12.8 now at present reading from controller and at battery. It's only a 1metre run of cable from battery to controller. Isnt a agm when fully charged over 13volts?

 

[Dellmassive]

yes. . . 13.0 fully charged . . . or being charged.

this morning fully charged . .




....

whats the battery tab readout now?

 

[Pummer67]

Volts are at 12.79 with fridge running. Her 12 volt hair straighteners on. All the lights although they are all led. And I have put the fan from the heating on. I dont have much else to turn on apart from water pump but that means filling up with water. Do you think it's just fully charged then? Shall I turn all loads off and see what battery recovers to? I just know with my previous battery the volts from the panel in the sunlight were always over 20volts even if my battery was fully charged.

 

[Dellmassive]

get one of these fitted to your Leisure battery and monitor it for a week . . . .

that will give you a lot more data to go on.

Auto Battery Monitor BM2 Car Battery Tester Battery Load Tester Bluetooth 4.0 12V Device Car Battery Tester Auto Cranking Charging System Test Scan Tool Digital Battery Alternator Analyzer (1pcs): Amazon.co.uk: Automotive

Auto Battery Monitor BM2 Car Battery Tester Battery Load Tester Bluetooth 4.0 12V Device Car Battery Tester Auto Cranking Charging System Test Scan Tool Digital Battery Alternator Analyzer (1pcs): Amazon.co.uk: Automotive

amzn.to

more info here:

Battery Monitoring -- How I Done It --

Battery Monitoring -- How I Done It -- Part #1 Battery monitoring is a very important part of your 12v system . . . . whether its just the vans starter battery or your leisure setup keeping an eye on the power in your battery bank will keep you from breaking down and make sure your weekends...

www.t6forum.com

.

 

[Dilbert]

Looking at your solar voltage going to 12V when the panel is hot, I would suspect you have one half of your solar array going open circuit. Steering diodes keep one half of the panel still supplying power but you will only see half the normal voltage. This lower voltage will not operate your solar controller on a 12V battery.
It is a common panel failure mode when there is a solar cell fault or busbar fracture.
Once in fault mode you will still see the 12V half voltage output even with the solar panel off load.

 

[Pummer67]

Thanks dilbert. My dad has a portable panel so I am going to wire that in tommorrow hopefully and see if it works. That eliminates the controller and beyond. Then it's just confirm wire is ok to panel which I can see it the whole way pretty much and if that's all intact I think I will have to bite the bullet and buy another panel. What data will that monitor give me Dellmassive? The only other thing I want to try and do is get inside the connections in the box at rear of panel. I took the top cover off and then I was greeted by a off white thing which looks like it is siliconed in I presume to stop and moisture and the like entering. I will attack that carefully once i have tried the other panel. I just want to get this sorted before the summer as we are away at camp bestival at the end of july so I wanted to make sure I'm all sorted by then and not running out of my cold beer in the fridge

 

[Dellmassive]

the BM2 will give you voltage over time . . min/day/week/month

you will be able to see the rest voltage of the battery and when/where your charge sources are and how they are charging.

 

[Pummer67]

Ah nice. Ok so I could just wire that in when I wire in the new victron charger.

 

[Dellmassive]

@Pummer67

have a look at one of my BM2`s (its one on my 12v solar shed)

this shows the voltage now.



.


this is today . . .






...

this was yesterday.





+++++

you can see the battery rest voltage over night.

and the effect of the solar charging from 6am to 8pm.