Anyone familiar with using Renogy Solar Kits?

[Van on 66]

Hi everyone,

I have been using the Renogy Monocrystalline 100-Watt Folding Suitcase solar panel kit for nearly a couple of years and a few days ago ordered the 200-Watt Suitcase Kit as I need more power.  I am curious if I can hook up both suitcase kits to the same battery and get a 300-Watt system.  I have posed this question to Renogy and have gotten mixed responses.  I am not talking about connecting the kits together and then running one power connection to the battery.  I am talking about connecting each suitcase kit separately to the battery.

Any thoughts?

 

[PlethoraOfGuns]

As long as both suitcase kits have their own charge controller then yes, it should work fine.

 

[Freelander]

The thing to look at is are both sets the same voltage? You cant mix panels of different voltage outputs.

I have 4 100 watt Renogy on my roof and they will output up to 20 volts each, since I have these in a parallel set up I can only get a max of 20 volt from the panels.

 

[Van on 66]

As long as both suitcase kits have their own charge controller then yes, it should work fine.

Thanks again for the response.  At first the person I spoke with at Renogy told me that this wouldn't work, but when I spoke with a tech I was told that it would.  Still, though I wanted to get another opinion.  This will now give me 300 watts of solar which is a good thing.

 

[Van on 66]

The thing to look at is are both sets the same voltage? You cant mix panels of different voltage outputs.

I have 4 100 watt Renogy on my roof and they will output up to 20 volts each, since I have these in a parallel set up I can only get a max of 20 volt from the panels.

Thanks for the response.  I doubled checked and both of my solar kits have the same Voyager 12V 20amp charge controllers so I should be okay.  When it comes to electrical things I always want to check with people who know.

 

[gizmotron]

You can split a solar panel connection circuit into parallel and series in the same circuit. It's always best to use an even number of panels. I know that does not apply to this discusion. But you can increase the amps while holding the volts below limits or you can keep the volts high and reduce the amp's limits by combining the methods.

 

[Freelander]

As long as both suitcase kits have their own charge controller then yes, it should work fine.

I have been told you cant run 2 controllers at the same time unless they may to do that.

 

[PlethoraOfGuns]

Amps going into the battery is just amps going into the battery. Battery doesn't care where it comes from. People run amps into the battery from solar, the alternator, and generator in any combination or at the same time, and it's all fine. I can't think of any reason why the battery would care if amps come from one or two different solar charge controller.

 

[Tom_M]

It should work fine. Hook it up and see what happens. My most useful meter is called a clamp meter. You can measure current by simply clamping it around one of the wires. It's important to get one that can measure DC (Direct Current). Virtually all of the sub $20 ones will only measure AC (Alternating Current). Here's one of the cheaper ones that do both. Available on Amazon: $22.99 on Amazon

[img=300x300]https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/8130HghpHgL._SL1500_.jpg[/img]

 

[Freelander]

Part of the problem is these controllers have a bulk voltage of solar set to 14.6 so that the battery can equalize the cells inside.

I have noticed that my convertor will run at 13.6 normally and the only way I can get to run up to 14.6 is to turn if off for a few minutes and back on so it will go into Bulk mode.

Solar controllers work different than convertors. Convertors are most of a poor supply unit first and then a battery charger second.

 

[Van on 66]

You can split a solar panel connection circuit into parallel and series in the same circuit. It's always best to use an even number of panels. I know that does not apply to this discusion. But you can increase the amps while holding the volts below limits or you can keep the volts high and reduce the amp's limits by combining the methods.

Thanks for the info!

 

[Van on 66]

I have been told you cant run 2 controllers at the same time unless they may to do that.

That is the information I have also gotten.  Of course this relates to a series of panels wired together.   In my case, these would be separate panels, suitcase kits, operating independent of each other and connected to the battery separately.

 

[Van on 66]

Amps going into the battery is just amps going into the battery. Battery doesn't care where it comes from. People run amps into the battery from solar, the alternator, and generator in any combination or at the same time, and it's all fine. I can't think of any reason why the battery would care if amps come from one or two different solar charge controller.

And that is what I believe as well.  It is just logical.

 

[Van on 66]

It should work fine. Hook it up and see what happens. My most useful meter is called a clamp meter. You can measure current by simply clamping it around one of the wires. It's important to get one that can measure DC (Direct Current). Virtually all of the sub $20 ones will only measure AC (Alternating Current). Here's one of the cheaper ones that do both. Available on Amazon: $22.99 on Amazon

[img=300x300]https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/8130HghpHgL._SL1500_.jpg[/img]

Thanks Tom.  This kind of meter is what I still need to get so I will check this out.

 

[Van on 66]

Part of the problem is these controllers have a bulk voltage of solar set to 14.6 so that the battery can equalize the cells inside.

I have noticed that my convertor will run at 13.6 normally and the only way I can get to run up to 14.6 is to turn if off for a few minutes and back on so it will go into Bulk mode.

Solar controllers work different than convertors. Convertors are most of a poor supply unit first and then a battery charger second.

Mine basically operates the same.  It runs up to around 14.5 just when the battery is about full and then it drops down to 13.6 and then stays there until the battery level drops.

 

[Freelander]

I asked Renogy about using a set of portable panel with my controller and was told I cant run 2 controllers at the same time until they had a 'paired' setting. I think the Renogy 60 amp controller does.

Now if I remove the portable controller and use just up my 40 amp controller that would would.

 

[wayne49]

The only thing that I think is the two controllers would see the other's voltage and one or the other would think the bank is full and stop charging, while the other keeps on charging.

Dueling dual controllers. You might not be getting optimal usage out of both controllers.

Over a year ago, I had a 200W solar/20A Renogy Rover and a 400W solar/40A Epever Tracer charging the same bank. If the cheap Tenergy watt meters were somewhat accurate, the 20A was putting significantly more AH/day into the bank, than the 40A did, day after day. That bank and the dual dueling mismatched chargers were replaced with a single 40A Rich Solar controller and a 200AH deep cycle bank and it's working fine.

 

[1shemp]

No problem,but you will be a little overpaneled.

 

[Van on 66]

I asked Renogy about using a set of portable panel with my controller and  was told I cant run 2 controllers at the same time until they had a 'paired' setting. I think the Renogy 60 amp controller does.

Now if I remove the portable controller and use just up my 40 amp controller that would would.

There seems to be some confusion about what I am talking about.  Even Renogy was confused at first until I clarified that the two portable suitcases were not connected to each other, but only hooked to the same battery.  Then they told me that this would work fine.  And that only makes sense.  All the controller is doing is reading the level of the battery.  If it was hooked up inline with another panel that had a charge controller than it makes sense that the controllers would be working against each other.

 

[Van on 66]

I want to thank everyone for all the responses and information.  And to end this thread I would like to add one more thing about all this.  

I now have my Renogy 200 watt Eclipse Suitcase Solar Panel Kit and have been testing it out.  It is charging my battery and appears to be working correctly.  However, it takes the same amount of time to bring the battery back to full as did my 100 watt Renogy suitcase kit.  I would have thought that since I doubled the wattage that it would cut the charging time in half.  I go through the same routine every day so I have a pretty good cage of the time it takes, and how my battery power that I use so this just doesn't make sense to me.

What do you all think?