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Learned something today that might help others new to solar
I installed my 300 watt Renogy system last fall and felt like it was doing "ok". But the more I thought about it, what I was seeing in the app did not make much sense.
I would see 59 or 60 volts but only an amp or two. It seemed like it kept the batteries charged up, but it just didn't make much sense to me. Till this weekend.
The batteries were down to about 60%, 12.3 volts (2 trojan T105) when I picked up the trailer to bring it to the house for the weekend to do a few things on it.
Once I pulled it out of the covered storage I checked the app and it showed 61 volts, 225 watts, about 15 amps. So I thought great, it is working.
When I got home I checked it again, about 35 min ride, and it was down to about 8 amps. So I tried to sort out why it had dropped and was not working now. I cleaned the panels (wild shot since it was fine earlier), checked connections, nothing. Still putting out low amps.
This morning I figured I just try a test to see how the batteries held up if I used a slow cooker, I want to use one when boondocking so best to try it in the driveway. When I checked the app for the controller I saw it had jumped up to almost 13 amps again...
Now the lightbulb in my head goes off. The amps on the display is not what the panels are putting out, but what the controller is sending to the batteries.
So simple, I was interpreting the display wrong.
The panels kept up with the slow cooker on high for the four hrs with no problem. So I am now a very happy, soon to be boondocking, camper.
Maybe someone else is having this same question in their minds about the Renogy app and it helps them.
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