Questions about solar set up

[Black Vulture]

OK, I could really use some help...lol
I've been trying to figure out my solar set up on my own but I give up.

Geeze Louise I'm bad at this stuff...lol

I just bought 2 Full river brand DC224-6 6 volt AGM golf cart battries.
I just went ahead and bought the ones Bob Wells used in his videos.

I have 2, 100 watt Renergy solar panels on my cargo van roof that I wired in Parallel.

My charge controller is the Renogy Wanderer -- 30A Advanced PWM Negative-Ground Solar Charge Controller

I just hooked up 1 battery to the charge controller (i didn't wire the batteries together yet) and the battery light was red??? How can a new battery be dead...?

I'm afraid I broke the charge controller by putting the wires from the solar panels into the charge controller without being hooked up to the battery.

Do I have to wire my batteries in series or parallel?

My inverter is the BESTEK 400W Power Inverter DC 12V to AC 110V Car Adapter with 5A 4 USB Charging Ports

My electric need will be a small Dometic fridge, fantastic fan, a few L.E.D. lights, small laptop, maybe another fan ....

Will my inverter be good enough for my electric needs?

Thanks again for this forum! I really enjoy reading all the old blog posts and threads.

Jeff

 

[tx2sturgis]

If you hook up only ONE 6 volt battery to the controller, it will show red or low voltage because its wanting to see something close to 12 volts, not 6.

You need to wire those 6 volt batteries in series and try again, with no panels connected.

If all is good, then hook up the panels.

 

[musicman]

Just a FYI. Hooking batteries in series adds your voltage so 2 6 volts would be 12 volts . Hooking up vatteries in parallel adds your current so 2 100amp/hour batteries would give you 200 amp/hour.
Hope this helps.
Bill

 

[highdesertranger]

do what Texas said, make sure to disconnect your panels before you disconnect your battery.

if you get a 12v charger for your laptop you don't even need an inverter. highdesertranger

 

[DuneElliot]

Since it hasn't been said (well it was sorta said) ALWAYS connect your batteries to the controller BEFORE you connect your panels...and to disconnect, panels first, batteries last. You can fry your controller if you go the wrong way.

 

[RVTravel]

Some solar sites talk about laptops needing a pure sine wave inverter. Is the 12v charger really safe?

 

[Black Vulture]

Since it hasn't been said (well it was sorta said) ALWAYS connect your batteries to the controller BEFORE you connect your panels...and to disconnect, panels first, batteries last. You can fry your controller if you go the wrong way.

Well, I went to Wall Mart and got a 2 awg wire and wired my batteries in series.
I plugged my now 12 volt battery into my charge controller and it lights up! Yay!

Hooked up the inverter and the first thing I plugged into my inverter was my girlfriends Mickey Mouse jackolantern...lol

But when I plug in the solar panels the "pv" light doesn't light up....

Yeah, um, I think I fried my charge controller  :huh:

Is there a way to test the charge controller before I go on Amazon and buy another one?
I have the 2, 100 watt solar panels wired in Parallel instead of series, does that matter?

 

[John61CT]

Portable screens work off DC natively, the transformer brick charger gizmo is "converting" shore power to what it really needs.

Putting an inverter (DC to AC) in the mix, to feed an AC to DC transformer, is, well, just silly IMO.

So DC-DC converters are safer and more efficient, just adjusting voltage level.

 

[John61CT]

> But when I plug in the solar panels the "pv" light doesn't light up....

Silly Q maybe, are panels pointed at the sun middle of the day?

> I have the 2, 100 watt solar panels wired in Parallel instead of series, does that matter?

Yes, parallel is correct for PWM.

 

[SoulRaven]

One of the first things I sometimes try is to use a multimeter to check the output on the panel leads. 

Be sure the panels are generating output. ... kinda where John was pointing,  I think. 

If you'd already done that,  sorry. 

Pat

 

[jonyjoe303]

make sure all the wires from the panel are correct, maybe connect only one panel first to see if that makes a difference, maybe one panel is bad. 

Solar controllers are very robust, they can handle some simple abuse, like connecting wires wrong etc and survive. One thing they won't survive is panels that have too much voltage or too much amperage, but with your 200 watt panels your safely many times below the 30 amp rating of your controller. 

Check all your wiring, 99 percent chance thats where your problem is. Later when you got everything working get a 90 volt 30 amp combo meter (about 20 dollars) and hook it up between your controller and battery, the blinking lights on your controller will tell you nothing about your battery condition. You want to know how much volts/amps your panels are giving your battery, you need to see at least 14.4 volts and at least 8 amps from your 2 panels. You don't want to undercharge your batteries. 

 

[deadwood]

For all the reasons everyone stated this is why both my controller and my solar panel run through circuit breakers. I can easily turn one or both off to isolate the system. My controller won't power up unless I give it power from the battery first. Then I can send the power from the panel.

If you have a multi meter you can be checking all of your voltages. You can see how much the panel is sending to the controller. You can then see what is coming out of the controller and then see what it is at at the battery. Before I started anything up the first time when I installed it I went through every connection with the meter to make sure it all looked good.

 

[frater secessus]

Some solar sites talk about laptops needing a pure sine wave inverter. Is the 12v charger really safe?

Yes.

 

[DuneElliot]

To answer two questions:

1) I charge my laptop (while off) with a standard 12V 400W inverter (not PSW). It might be different if you are running a computer from an inverter. I have a large 2000W PSW inverter for delicate equipment like my TV and PS3 that are actually drawing a charge straight through it.

2) Check you manual for what the Converter is supposed to show with lights when things are charged, charging or there is something wrong...best to double check that stuff before forking out money.