Parallel Solar Chargers?

[LeisurePursuits]

Can I parallel two Victron MPPT SmartSolar 150/50 chargers? I have 900 watts of solar on the roof. I have 6 AWG copper cables that feed down to a single Victron 150/50 charger to charge my 510 Amp Hr AGM batteries. Theoretically, 900 watts could provide 75 amps @ 12 volts to the battery. Anything over 50 would be lost due to maxing out the charge controller. I have an extra 150/50 charger that I can use. I will not run any additional cables from the roof. Would it be potentially beneficial to connect the pair of cables to both charge controllers and have both charge the batteries? I don't think I've heard of anyone doing that before. Thoughts?

[John Hilley]

Originally Posted by LeisurePursuits

Can I parallel two Victron MPPT SmartSolar 150/50 chargers? I have 900 watts of solar on the roof. I have 6 AWG copper cables that feed down to a single Victron 150/50 charger to charge my 510 Amp Hr AGM batteries. Theoretically, 900 watts could provide 75 amps @ 12 volts to the battery. Anything over 50 would be lost due to maxing out the charge controller. I have an extra 150/50 charger that I can use. I will not run any additional cables from the roof. Would it be potentially beneficial to connect the pair of cables to both charge controllers and have both charge the batteries? I don't think I've heard of anyone doing that before. Thoughts?

I doubt that you can do that. Why don't you contact Victron and ask.

[vito.a]

You can find lots of RV Solar research reading in the Going Green section:
Going Green - iRV2 Forums

You can provably add a second charge controller, but I doubt you will see any additional charging. If you really want it to work properly, you will need to rewire your system to isolate half the panels to each controller. This may not be as difficult as it seams, you could just route one new positive cable and share the 6 gauge ground.

How long has this system been operational?
What is the peak charging amps you've seen so far?

[PbdBlue]

Originally Posted by vito.a

You can find lots of RV Solar research reading in the Going Green section:
Going Green - iRV2 Forums

You can provably add a second charge controller, but I doubt you will see any additional charging. If you really want it to work properly, you will need to rewire your system to isolate half the panels to each controller. This may not be as difficult as it seams, you could just route one new positive cable and share the 6 gauge ground.

How long has this system been operational?
What is the peak charging amps you've seen so far?

+1. Paralleling the inputs of the controllers is a bad idea. Splitting the panels and paralleling the outputs of the controllers is the correct way to do it.

[Chuck Q]

I have been running parallel chargers your a couple of years. 400 watts on the roof plus a 120 portable. Roof is a Gopower 30 amp, the portable is a 20 amp. Portable puts out about 5 amps, get 16 amps from the roof. I rotate the portable panels for best sunlight.

[LeisurePursuits]

I did a little more research about running multiple charge controllers on the same set of panels. Victron has something called Smart Networking where the two controllers will talk to my bmv-712 battery monitor and work together. I'm going to look more into this. Thanks for the replied thus far and sorry for not posting this in the "Green" forum.

[PbdBlue]

Originally Posted by LeisurePursuits

I did a little more research about running multiple charge controllers on the same set of panels. Victron has something called Smart Networking where the two controllers will talk to my bmv-712 battery monitor and work together. I'm going to look more into this. Thanks for the replied thus far and sorry for not posting this in the "Green" forum.

I forgot about that option. Not sure if there's any additional hardware needed or how cost effective it would be vs just running another set of cables which is pretty cheap to do. Midnite has a similar configuration for the Kid controller but I think it's all software so nothing needed to buy.

[OffGridCirc]

Originally Posted by LeisurePursuits

I did a little more research about running multiple charge controllers on the same set of panels. Victron has something called Smart Networking where the two controllers will talk to my bmv-712 battery monitor and work together. I'm going to look more into this. Thanks for the replied thus far and sorry for not posting this in the "Green" forum.

That's the correct way to do it. I'm a Victron user on all the projects that I engineer.