Built A tiny home, but it has solar issues

[chrisski]

Here’s my comments. The most important is the last. The battery looks flooded lead acid to me.

Do you have a shunt? This measures power to the battery. The SCC only gives amps from the SCC, not how many are diverted to your equipment and how many are diverted to charge your battery. An improperly connected shunt would give bad battery charging rate. Moons is the first thing on the negative wire from the battery. Yours should be there if you have one

The equipment you have on the roof will shade the panel, perhaps half the day. I check my panels by putting them in sunshine and look at the battery monitor and when the shadow of my head goes on the panel, I lose 80% of the output. I don’t think you’ve got an amp meter to measure, but without one I’ll give you that for reference. I think you said the cable is tucked under the panel, but if it wasn’t that will seriously effect output.

For the charge cable on the roof, I’d zip tie that at at various places and secure it to the roof with cable holders with a peel off sticky on the back. Cleaning the surface is key to getting it stick, but if cleaning doesn’t work for me, I secure it with Dicor roofing tape.

I did not expect the 15 amp shore power plug to be-a female normal wall receptacle, but have honestly not seen a 15 amp receptacle before.

I would also wrap the battery cable with split wire loom from the battery, through the wall to just above where it enters the trailer. Gives it an extra bit of protection over the years so it does not wear through. In my RV, it is routed through electrical conduit.

I don’t know what SLD stands for, but your batteries to me look like flooded lead acid. It looks like you could unscrew the caps and add water. I tried looking it up online, but other than available at COSTCO, a quick search didn't say for sure. If they are FLA, they should never go below 50%. 15% to 20% daily kills them.

[The_realTW]

Here it is! I thank any and all in advance for watching the video, it’s my hope one day I can use solar the way it was intended. As I stated many times before I am absolutely willing to put in the work and the education to get this system working, whatever it takes!

thanks again

https://youtu.be/5t8D8g8hi-A

[The_realTW]

Hey everyone,

the sun is back sort of, I’m going to do a video walk through of my system for any who are interested, might help you spot some things. After all the trouble I have had here with uploading basic images, I’ll link it to my site. Hopefully it can help you all and me.

thanks I’ll post the link soon!

[SunEagle]

I’m not testing today lol I just need power, it’s 25 degrees here with 25 mph winds , I’m hunkering down today , I’m going to use the car as a generator for the batteries since I can’t get the PV panel to give me proper readout

Always good to have a second power supply. Which is why I also have a 5500 watt generator on my RV.

[The_realTW]

Sounds like a plan. My guess is one of you pieces of equipment (CC, wire connections, fuse, batteries, panels) may not be working correctly. Finding out what it is may be time consuming but hopefully you will get to the bottom of the issue.

I’m not testing today lol I just need power, it’s 25 degrees here with 25 mph winds , I’m hunkering down today , I’m going to use the car as a generator for the batteries since I can’t get the PV panel to give me proper readout

[SunEagle]

Hey everyone , good morning from insanely cold Nebraska, I am running on almost no solar power and the batteries are almost discharged.

I cannot get the solar to give me more then 0-1 watts now.

I tried unplugging the solar fuse (AKA the quick disconnect) which runs from the PV + line to the SCC, essentially shutting the panels off.

I unhooked the + side of the power on the inverter, which comes and goes to the battery, and reset the default on the SCC,

still no change in the panels readout, I’m going to try to physically pull the cable from the batteries on the outside of the tiny home and hook them back up after 5,minutes, then put the fuse back in for the panels.

does this sound about right?

Sounds like a plan. My guess is one of you pieces of equipment (CC, wire connections, fuse, batteries, panels) may not be working correctly. Finding out what it is may be time consuming but hopefully you will get to the bottom of the issue.

[The_realTW]

Hey everyone , good morning from insanely cold Nebraska, I am running on almost no solar power and the batteries are almost discharged.

I cannot get the solar to give me more then 0-1 watts now.

I tried unplugging the solar fuse (AKA the quick disconnect) which runs from the PV + line to the SCC, essentially shutting the panels off.

I unhooked the + side of the power on the inverter, which comes and goes to the battery, and reset the default on the SCC,

still no change in the panels readout, I’m going to try to physically pull the cable from the batteries on the outside of the tiny home and hook them back up after 5,minutes, then put the fuse back in for the panels.

does this sound about right?

[chrisski]

Even though you don’t need a circuit breaker for the panels you have, using one to quick disconnect when working on your system comes in handy. Just get one rated DC for your panels voltage and amperage also rated for constant disconnect.

[SunEagle]

Are you saying I fried something ? I will need to unhook them several times over the next few days , what’s the best way to do that?

I believe he is saying that if you disconnect your equipment make sure you first connect the CC to the battery before you connect your panels. That allows the CC to know what the battery voltage is and set up for the correct charging parameters before it gets anything from the panels.

[The_realTW]

Many controllers need to be connected to the battery first, then to the panels.

Are you saying I fried something ? I will need to unhook them several times over the next few days , what’s the best way to do that?

[sdold]

Many controllers need to be connected to the battery first, then to the panels.

[The_realTW]

Sdold

for some reason your newest reply is not showing up, I saw one line of it in my email, but it’s not in the thread!

also for EVERYONE heads up I disconnected all batteries today to prepare for travel (I have a tongue weight issue which I’ll resolve when I get to Utah) and reconnected them, my MPPT is giving a real weird readout now

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[bcroe]

. can I also use this clamp meter to take an audit when I am ready,
would be real handy for devices that give no label or way to see what their usage level is!

It will give you a rough idea, but will NOT account for AC power factor. For that use a
KILL-A-WATT or equivalent which compares AC voltage and current phase. Bruce Roe

[The_realTW]

The $15 meter in your link only clamps on for AC current measurements. For PV solar a
DC clamp on is required, a completely adequate meter might be $50. A clamp on is
immediately useful around an array, where all the wiring is sealed up against weather.
In a hurry it will show where power is flowing, and where it is not. I do not pull out a
voltmeter until I must find a weak panel in a low performance string. Bruce Roe

yeah I saw that, harbor freight likes to do a lot of double talk with their labeling

as for the clamp on meter I have lots of my wire runs exposed on the roof, they are weather sealed but I can get the clamp around them.

csn I also use this clamp meter to take an audit when I am ready, would be real handy for devices that give no label or way to see what their usage level is!

[The_realTW]

If you look at the details that meter is only rated for AC currents not DC.

I purchased a Uni-T UT202A meter for under $30 on amazon. It works just fine on my solar equipment.

These?

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