Ive watched quite a few videos, and read a bit but I have to stop because I was frightened this info may well occupy so much of my limited brain space, and other important info may fall out the other side. I recall a video where the dude was say the Epever screen bar graph would only show half full right up to the point where the battery was fully charged. I suppose the Drifter will fill that void there, and hopefully once the system is all connected I wont need to monitor it as such, just test it every so often to make sure its all still doing whats its supposed to.
I have the one factory 150w glass panel on the roof via a PWM controller; the panel will stay put and the controller will swap out for the Epever. Im going to add 2 x additional flexi 150w panels to the roof, which are of identical specs to the existing glass panel; flexi panels are because the weight saving is significant. The potential issue with flexi panels is the inability to disperse the heat buildup from surface mounting, particularly in really hot areas. I read on here someone roof mounted flexi panels to core-flute roof sheeting but that type of roofing is only around 8mm. Ill reduce that heat issue by mounting my flexi panels on square corrugated polycarbonate pergola roofing. The polycarbonate sheet will give me an inch of airflow under the panel and ample adhesive surface area to both the van roof and the panel itself. The polycarbonate is very light weight and should bond quite well with a UV stable polymer based adhesive to both the fibreglass roof and alum solar panel.
My vans in at its biological parents getting some work done and I didnt check the available height in the cabinet before I purchased the Epever, so there's a very real possibility it may well be sideways mounted.
The reading and videos I seen first up stopped me dead in my tracks from launching into simply buying and adding additional panels. I would have ended up with panels of differing inputs and outputs all connected together in a confused Serial Parallel Universe and all running into a $25 PWM controller that had "MPPT" boldly and clearly emblazoned across the front, and I would have blindly thought I was kicking serious solar ar$e
I have 2 x AGM batteries connected in parallel.
Hi
@Crusty181 , to comment on your notes, I shall start at:
para 1 - I agree, the minor problem? with the EPEVER is not important as your Drifter panel will give you all the info you need on voltage.
para 2 - Just because specs for flexi panels are quoted the same as the glass panel does not necessarily mean they will perform the same. From what I have read, they are not as efficient as fixed glass mono-crystal panels, but that should not be too much of a worry as long as OCV and Vm are close presuming you are connecting in SERIES. As
@mikerezny has said, the output voltage will be the cumulative total, but current (AMPS) output will be limited to the panel with the lowest Im (current output under load). So the "weakest" panel will decide ampere available. Not so much of a problem when you have heaps of volts for your MPPT controller to convert to ampere current output. It is good that you have considered the heat build up under the panel - another great reason to connect in SERIES!!
para 3 - try to fix controller in a vertical position as the cooling fins at the back are designed to allow heat to flow from the bottom through the gaps at the back and out through the top. Sideways mounting may disrupt the air flow if the controller is working hard. I was lucky as I too did not consider height in placement either. From an earlier thread of mine, you can see from the picture how close it was!!
para 4 - Glad to hear that you have been following the SOLAR THREAD with all the technical talk. There is great value in all these discussions and a wealth of information fed in by many technically minded members. As
@G Daddy said, this is a highly complex area when you really get into it, and feedback from the many members helps us all learn even more on how to get to get the very best out of solar panels and avoid costly errors or problems. I had to rely on a lot of high school teaching plus my own experiences in mucking around with 12V stuff, before putting my own equipment to the real field test. And I am still learning!! ,
para 5 - the amount of current that you and I are producing would be too much for flooded batteries as they would get hot and bothered and boil. There is no such problem with AGMs as they do not get hot and can handle huge amounts of input and you have two batteries to soak up the charge!! In fact, I have read that an AGM can be charged from zero volts DOD to 80% charged in 40 minutes with a 100 amp charger!! Not recommended at room temp, but possible. You will get nowhere near that but it would definitely be worthwhile to have a temp sensor placed in the battery container to modify charging voltage in hot weather. My controller has a thermistor with a short lead to connect into controller, which I extended so I could tape the sensor on top of the AGM battery. Before I did this, I ordered one suitable for an Epever thinking it would save me the hassle of splicing in the extra length, but alas, no good. Only cost about $ 8.00 on Ebay but will never use it. If someone wants it, just let me know. Cost NIL to members on this forum.
Hope all this make your connections easy and successful. Regards
