If you get another battery and put them in series, you can charge at 440 watts with that controller. It can do 15 amps at 24 volts too!

I have a few charge controllers, including this one. Victrons are the best, and pretty much bullet proof. I run in series up to the max voltage, then parallel the rest. Higher the voltage, the thinner wire you can use, with less voltage loss and longer wire runs.

I did the same series/parallel setup on my Renogy array. The MPPT controllers love it!

Great demonstration for over paneling!

Here's something to think about. The biggest problem we all have, when using solar is the vinter - all clouds, no sun. - My 170 watt panels provides me with only 26 watt when it's cloudy, but I have 8 of those though I only need 2 to max out my controller! Guess what... When it's cloudy, I still get more than My controller can handle, and the 400 watt each hour during the daytime, is more than I need. - I put the 8 panels on my roof, because it looked stupid with 2 🙂

Very good overview of adding more panels to an existing system. You can't go wrong with an MPPT controller. In testing using the 100/20 version using 100watt panels, I ended up paralleling two MPPT controllers and wired them with two panels for each controller. The only difference was that my panels were in parallel to eliminate the shading issue as much as possible. Here in Michigan, especially in winter I have to fight for every watt I can get. I guess the golden rule is to keep the voltage NO more than rated for the controller and current will be maxed out to whatever the controller is designed for. Hence, why I did two smaller controllers......great content as always! Thanks, Gary

What a wonderful video. Learned a lot and appreciate your time and energy put into it.

Those Victrons are something else. 👍👍👍

I've been getting up to 220w with two 100w Ecoflow rigid panels in series. 220w is the most the controller will do. For 2S2P (4-100w panels) you should be using a 100|30. Victron controller. Looks like you could up your bulk/absorption voltage a bit, your battery will charge faster and they'll fill. Use the Victron preset for LiFePO4.

I have the exact same kit (victron 75/15 mppt controller + victron phoenix inverter 12/375 + battery 200 ah) with a 180W solar panel and I'm just thinking about adding a second panel. Your video is... Inspiring. Thank you! Greetings from Your End of the World - from Poland 🙂🤗

The maximum PV power you get is really dependent on your current battery voltage and mppt`s max current. e.g the data sheet for 75/15 recommends 220w array for a 12v battery system as this will be (220w/15a=14.67V) well we normally dont charge our batteries to 14.67V, so if your battery gets full at 14.2V then the maximum incoming PV array can only be (14.2V*15A) 213W. So if your battery voltage is at 13.7V then the maximum PV array you get coming in is (13.7V*15A) 205.5W However, if you get 100/30 mppt it will double the output since it has a higher current output.

Good Evening ! Thanks posting. TAKE CARE..

NoOb here but learning fast. That was really helpful. Thanks.

I have a very similar setup with same 75/15 charge controller with 6 50w panels. 3 in serials and then parallel with another set. No shade can harm me. Full charge back every day ever since even in winter I was able survived with 2 x 100ah

Yes extra panels Rock! Ensuring charge on non perfect days. Cool.

Glad that setup is working good. I expect it will last a long time. My 24/1200 has been running 7/24 for 28 days so far and pretty much set it and forget it, power to spare. When there is no problems it gives you time to think about improvements. O’ boy do I have some ideas.

Using more panels than a charge controller can handle is a good idea when extra panels are available. They help when the sun is covered by clouds or even on rainy days. Keep your batteries full and you don't need to burn fuel when little sun is available.

Nice job!

i always plan to oversize my PV array, because here the full sun is not often there.. and Victron have no problem to deal with!!

Those parallel branch connectors short out really easy for one reason or another. I've seen one start smoking and crackling when I hooked it up to 4 X 100 watt panels in series. ALso had one sizzle when I connected it to a customer's 200 watt panels. And to top it off, I have seen some youtube videos of this happening, so thats why I say the sizzle quite frequently.

Extremly useful video i just bought this controller but i am putting a 430w panal on a 12v system for ny garage.... i get i need a bigger controller at some point but at least i know it will proberly be ok my other solar controller stopped working and was getting no power off thanks for making this video

over panerling is a good way to keep a steady current and voltage when a battery has a 40 amp charge limit and you have a 40amp controller and the controller is able to hold back the power from over panelling it makes to do to get the more steady charge rates

Hi adding a 3rd panel to the series array will raise your voltage while keeping your current low. That way you don't have to change your controller and therefore get higher output by keeping your charge current low.

Doubling your battery voltage while still using the same charge controller lets you utilize the full 400W. But then you'd need a 24V inverter. With your current overpanelling you still get more power over the course of a full day - as you found out. So very nice demonstration of overpaneling and the power of combining parallel and series. Running a chargecontroller at its max amp limit day in and day out, is hard on its electronic components though and could potentially shorten it's life. If it gets too hot, active cooling with a fan will help. Paralleling panels does however increase the need of fusing(at each string). Just saying -- again😉 Even when some(one) claim nothing ever happens (other post in your week old video)

Nice overview. I would have enjoyed it more with actual voltage readings or maybe a look at the panel labels showing voltage/amps to make up the 100W. 2S2P PV panels is a great idea to help with partial shading. Thanks for sharing

pretty much have the same system but 48v all in a server rack you can't go wrong with victron in the future upgrade to 48v its way more effirect can get alot more power and dont have to use bigger wires etc you have a good little setup 👍

well you can't series all panels. way over the 75V . watch them branch connector's . made with small wire inside . you may be ok with just 2 strings. check them for heat. also use inline fuse on each string. that way protect each string. if you are doing this on a larger system use a combiner box and fuse each string. now them victron MPPT controllers are current limited to the battery output. over size PV is ok unless you over-volt the input. if you were to use 24V system it still limits just under 15A giveing you about 2X total watts. watts is amps times volts. the panels I got are big. over 300 watts each and have shading diodes built in . also the victron MPPT charge controllers are thermal protected as well. but always a great idea to let plenty of air to get threw them. with that max out it will get warm . read manual for clearance needed on MPPT and/or inverter . now them MC4 fuse holders place eather pos or neg side of each string or even both sides, you can even place them between each string. you do not need to go crazy . just 1 fuse per string is fine. the windynation MC4 fuse holders comes with a fuse rated higher DC volts. keep spares.check the DC volts on fuse. I got 1KV ones on mine. easy to install is MC4 male and female. just take apart and insert fuse. my MC4 kit came with small plastic blue tool for taking them apart.so easy. hard in fingers without tool.

Thank you, for doing this experiment, I was wondering if the CC will protect itself and it all seems to work pretty well.

Please check the settings in the Charge controller - 13.7 volt is for AGM/lead acid - as far as I remember, LiFEPo4 batt's can take 14.6 (Read the fine manual You got with Your battery!) With 13.7 volt, You are only able to charge Your battery up to lke 80%.... - Nice test array btw.... 🙂 ohh, as a thank you for posting Your video, You can keep the rouge 40 Ah I just found in your array 🤣😜😂

idk if people know but solar panels will generate close to 100% wattage but then once they are hot upto temperature. they wil generate around 75% wattage in full sun direct angle,

I like your videos. They are very thorough. You have obviously spent many thousands of dollars on equipment. I would like to know how long it will take to recoup your investment vs.if you relied on the grid.😮

What type of fuse is that between the battery and the inverter? How does it work?

My EpEver 20a does the same - it feathers off from the maximum power point to limit current when approaching its max current to protect itself - in my case, the panel is just 20w over spec so it seldom goes into this mode, however, I noticed that the unit does get pretty hot when its maxed out and have fitted a little PC fan to come on via a thermal switch wedged in the fins of the heat sink - You need to watch you don't cook your mosfets maxing out your controller.

My battery is is 16.8 max and just befor float I get 247watts with the smart 75/15

it is pretty much the exact system I designed except mine would be 24V 50AH battery, 24V/375W inverter, same charge controller and 4x 100W panels... it would give me the maximum potential for the least amount of money... the battery is the same price as 12V 100AH (they have same total capacity) the inverter costs the same and the charger is obviously the same so costs the same too... instead of beefing up a 12V system with a more expensive charge controller just to reach 400W/12V

if you could go to a 24 volt battery you can double the energy the Victron can send to the battery. You would be able to push over 400 watts through that controller.

something that you should do would be to reconfigure those four panels. Instead of the two big ones in series in parallel with the two smaller ones in series, I would take a big one and a small one in series, then do the other big one in series with the other small one, then parallel those together. this will provide a better voltaqe match for the charge controller. I know you are already maxing the CC out the way you are, but voltage mismatch in no joke, and leaving a poor match in place in just bad practice. The arrangement I explained above will correct this issue. Try it, make another video showing the difference. If you want, disconnect the charge controller and take a voltage reading of each of your two series strings, you'll see a difference especially under varying light conditions. Let me know how this works out for you, Aloha

Victron 75/15 stuck on absorption mode. Battery on 48% but controller says battery voltage 14.6v when infact it's 13.1. any insite?

Hi, no fuse controller -> battery?

Hello. Thank you verry much. It's really helpfull! Is it possible to use victron mppt as a booster. For exemple i have a ebike with a batterie 48v. 25 amp. And a solar panel 100w 12 v ? I want to charge my bike while riding... let's say with a smal victron mppt. Have a nice day!

Why wouldn't you just buy the larger controller? I don't understand it.

If the issue boils down to which Victron Smart Charge controller to buy than I believe than I believe that you should buy the 100/30 model❤. Going cheap with electronics seldom pays off in the long run.😅

Your panels must have a pretty high Voc to hit 59V on that one day.

hy pleaze help me because THE loadis not work ??

Good video mate 👌 call me crazy but I am doing a little experiment myself running 500w into my 75/15 controller. Going to do a longevity test. Will be intresting to see what happens. Might be some fireworks 🎉😂

Ii bought a 280ah battery would it be ok with a 100/30 cc and 430w panel

I think it might be better to increase the absorption and float voltage values to at least 14.42 ( 3.6 volt/cell) That is to say, any lower voltage setting will reduce the battery capacity. If Redodo allows 14.6 volts/ 3.65 volts per cell floating at 14.6 volts would be perfect in this solar pv off grid inverter system. Having the bit more voltage available to compensate for losses between the VECC output and Redodo battery BMS and inverter is probably better. Periodically, once every three to four weeks the voltage should be increaed up to maximum cell voltage because the BMS needs alot of hours at to equalize the cells once they reach 90% SOC. The 200amp hour battery will likely need 8-16 hours at the top cell voltage because he BMS uses a small amount of current to short circuit the highest voltage cells thus continuously reducing the battery capacity each day that the maximum cell voltage isn't achieved) 😅 ALOHA Redodo Nominal Capacity: 200Ah Nominal Voltage: 12.8V Energy: 2560Wh Charge Method: CC/CV Charge Voltage: 14.4±0.2V Recommend Charge Current: 40A

what size breaker are you using ?

That charge control can do 400 watts if you use 24 volt batteries

75vdc maximum input voltage @ 15amps

The Victron chargers can be set to act as one I think, so you could put another 75/15 on the 2 other panels, and it could give up to 400w?

Even though, theoretically, you can use a branch connector for two series strings, you really want to use a solar combiner box instead that puts an appropriate fuse on each string. And of course with more than two you must use a combiner box. But if you are safety-oriented you also should use a combiner box when paralleling two strings. Doubly true when variable shading is involved. Also, those branch connectors are generally really poor quality... I've got a bunch of them and after one got hot when it shouldn't have (due to poor quality manufacturing), I stopped using them entirely. I have one of the 75/15s and several 100/20's. You can see there is 5.7A on the solar input (which is fine), but 14.8A on the battery output which is near the limit of the unit. At roughly 14V on the battery side you are limited to 210W. Now, if you had a 24V battery system instead of a 12V battery system, that same little charge controller would be able to do 15A x 27V (roughly) which would be 405W. This brings to mind the "creeping upgrade" problem, where all of us enthusiasts are constantly adding to our systems well beyond the original design intentions. In anycase, yah, you will get better production across the day by over-paneling the charge controller, but you are also leaving quite a bit of solar production on the table that you could have soaked up but didn't. I guess it comes down to looking at the curve. If the charge controller is maxed out for more than an hour or so each day, the amount of energy being left on the table really starts to get excessive. I do like the fact that the Victron charge controller firmware properly limits the power to what it can handle. And its even a bit better... it also limits the power if the charge controller gets too hot.

I would just hook up three 100 W panels and the charge controller would be maxed out all the way around, and you would have one spare 100 W panel them to do something else with.

I have an Epever 60 amp mppt controller charging 2 100 ah. Weize Lipo 4 batteries. I run 100 watt panels and even on sunny days I can only get my batteries to 13.9 volts. Any ideas would be appreciated.

What size wires did you use from controller to battery? And what size fuse yo use between solar panels and the controller? Thank you

The two panels in series is only putting out 200watts @ double the voltage

your a funny guy , how many times you repeat things? also move the panels if getting shaded lol

12v panel won’t run mppt with a heavy load (flat battery) 19.5vdc in 24v configuration runs the mppt well charging 12v battery set voltage manually

2 panels in series will double the voltage half the current of two panels combined in series

bravo

To replace my pwm charge controller I bought a Smartsolar 75/15 from Victron, my only solar panel is 200W, it turns out that I am frustrated because the Max power that I have managed to achieve is 20w and 1.5 amp charging to the battery. I would appreciate if you could help me in configuring it.

changing the battery to 24v would increase the max power to about 400watts

what if you hook up to 24 volt battery - does victron out put 15 amps at 24 volts ???

36vdc in for charging 24volt battery

viktron 100/30 is on my list want to pair it with 400w panel

Nice system but that inverter is very small.

What is better? The 2 similar in parallel or 2 in Sirius?

24v @ 200w

Just set battery voltage manually for battery being used

Is this connection called 2S2P?

👍

At 12V or even 14V, 15A cannot do 400W.

With a 24v battery you could get 400w out of that 🤔😃75/15

I disagree that the controller is limiting the power. Please, correct me. To my understanding, and i am a newbie, that 75/15 charge controller can handle up to 1125 Watts, not exceeding the 75v and 15A limits. So you could add more panels while observing the charge controller specs.

🍍Aloha.

Running the controller at max will shorten the life of the controller.

👋👍☮️