I know what part of your problem is..... Solar Panels DO NOT like heat! You have them mounted DIRECTLY on your roof. Get some 2x2 Wooden slats, raise the panels up on them to allow some AIR to flow beneath them and your roof. This will allow the panels to run cooler, and you MAY gain an amp or 2.
That's a good observation! I believe another part of the problem is those panels are inferior. I use just two 100w SunPower monocrystalline high efficiency solar panels that take up far less room than eight of those HF panels and will put out up to 177 watts combined.
Try hooking it all back up the way it was at the beginning of the video with the Inverter tied to your battery and turned on. Now get a heat gun, your wife's blow dryer, and electric heater, ...... (something that likes lots of watts). Plug into the inverter and turn it on. Now go look at your amp meter. I think you will be surprised.
Something I noticed between when experimenting with my solar controllers. There is a difference between amps being pulled when a battery charge load versus a dummy load. Your panels could probably push more amps but your batteries might be limiting this
Hi, I watch you on utube, a lot and would like to tell ya, Something that happened to me, Concerning your problem of losses of power after Two different set of harbor freight solor panels are hooked up to the controller" with Hope's of Doubling your POWER".!! That Same thing happened to me, and I had to change one of the diode's around on the back of a couple of the panels. I can't remember if it was a whole set" that I did" or one or TWO. However, I do remember that after adding the 2nd, set" Of Thunderbolt 100watt, panels it ONLY gave me 1 1/2 output.!! But I Found out LATER, that it would have been SO MUCH EASIER, IF I had just ( used Both, Charge Controller's)!! And just ran Ea, set Through the Controller it Came with. Jumping the Power supply together just before going in to the Battery's.!! Okay" well, give them A try because " Just to settle for 1 1/2, the Power supply you should have, is not an option for me,. I hope You are the same," I mean It's what we thought we Was getting" Right?? It's what we all go spend our hard earned money for.!! NO, for me to settle, is to say give me 1 1/2 The Gas I have paid for.!! MACK!! OR, just Make it 3/4's the gas I just bought,z!! Instead, of FULLER up MACK.!! So, There ya, have it.!! Straight from the Horse's mouth.!! Hope it helps,!!!
Your solar videos are so awesome I have 2 lots and was thinking of buying an mppt but u with facts proved not to waste my money and just keep my 2 controllers on my set up which is identical to yours except I have the 3000 jupiter I did by the 5000 cause it was a parking lot sale/return for $150 and bought it as a backup for my 3000 if it ever goes bad. Thanks for your videos!!!!!!
msgt1942 . so glad you like them. Im going to get 2 more kits. Im sure I will have to upgrade my controller at that point. Not sure yet which one but we shall cross that road when I get there. Hope you enjoy your solar project. Remember to point them south☺
@@Checkitfirst will follow your lead and wait to see your upgrades because I will most likely do the same just got started and learning a lot thank you sir. But I don't think I will do the bus bar thing unless you feel it really helps
I'm using text-to-speech so things might get a little mixed up in the text. I'm not saying this to be a jerk, but you may want to turn your panels the opposite way so that the wires come out the top. I have eight of these left out of the 12 that I had. Water finds a way into that plastic around the cells and over time it will corrode your connections. Once I reoriented my cell the problem went away immediately and I've not had any other situations develop with the panels
"Check it first" I have 2 sets of the Harbor Freight solar panels 100 watt just like you. I used them this summer to power my aquaponics garden pumping water and air from a pond through my garden and back into the pond. I also use my solar panels for emergency to charge x2 79AH deep cycle marine batteries that powers a "pure sine wave" (pure sine wave is easier on electronics) inverter to keep my cpap,small fridge,small fan,and laptop going in an outage. Being I'm up on Lake Erie I get a lot of cloud cover and being amorphic these panels perform REALLY well (%90-%80) on a cloudy day as long as the cloud cover is not REALLY thick. They just take a lot more space than mono/poly which is ok for me working in a garden and perhaps for others if space is not an issue. The charge controller that came with your harbor Freight kit is rated for up to 20 amps. On a good day you'll get about 5 amps at 18-22 volts per solar set. The real problem is the charge controller that came with your kit is PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) and wastes power as your batteries get higher in charge. You are far better off getting a MPPT (Maximum Power Point Tracking) charge controller. Switching to a good MPPT charge controller on these panels should yield you %20-%30 more charging power over the winter and %10-%20 more charging over the summer from your solar panels. So as you can see the more panels you have the more power you are wasting with PWM. MPPT charge controllers used to be VERY expensive (many still are) and there are a LOT of fakes sold out there. Fortunately for us "small" users there are recently some reputable companies that make affordable good MPPT charge controllers. Many people will have recommendations on what is best/cheap. Myself I have had good luck with EPEVER brand who are well known in the solar community. I find them affordable and efficient for my needs. Here is an example you can read on: www.ebay.com/itm/EPEVER-20-30-40A-Solar-Panel-Controller-Charge-MPPT-Wifi-Or-MT50-Lithium-Battery/263049168664?_trkparms=aid%3D555018%26algo%3DPL.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20131003132420%26meid%3D21ce49df325c43ec821c578ffdba717e%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D12%26mehot%3Dpp%26sd%3D253412631963%26itm%3D263049168664&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851 I'm sure others here will have good/affordable suggestions for MPPT as well. Just be careful there are a LOT of fake units out there. I've used these Harbor Freight kits for a while. Feel free to ask any questions if you want and I will be glad to answer when I log in. :) Another popular MPPT controller Renogy: www.amazon.com/Renogy-Commander-Solar-Charge-Controller/dp/B01DCNSVIO/ref=sr_1_50_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1540017855&sr=8-50-spons&keywords=mppt%2Bcharge%2Bcontroller%2B12v&th=1 (a rebranded newer EPEVER I think).
Awesome info... Thank you... Looks like the EPever is the choice for me.. Thinking of adding some wind power to my set up. EPever has one that can do both☺.
A suggestion to controller manufacturers: Solar systems are designed with excess capacity for worst case cloudy days. Then the battery charges quickly to full charge on a sunny day and reduces output or turns off. Why throw away this excess capacity? Just add a pair of terminals labeled "EXCESS" and transfer power to them when battery charge is maxed out.. Then you can use the "low-grade" excess to a money saving device such as heat tape to a hot water tank intake. Overall, it is a saving in propane or natural gas.
True. To get around this in MY system, I installed two switches: 1 Between the Battery and the Controller, and the other switch between the array and the Controller. This way, Each component of the system can be quickly isolated from the other two, preventing damage to ALL.
I sure appreciate you demonstrating how to do this test. It stands to reason that without any resistance between the solar panels on a sunny day and a thirsty battery, you'd have approximately 8 amps. 100 watt panels / 12 volts equals 8.3 amps. If you got eight amps even it means you were drawing 12.5 volts. Just what we would have expected! I guess the trick is to get a really good charge controller!
Absolutely! You can get buy with an inexpensive battery and so-so Panels in a Pinch. Put your Money into a GOOD controller; then as finances allow, upgrade the battery, THEN concentrate of higher quality Panels!
200 w and have same story... Every rating can be divided by 2, or 50% or listed value. I'm in Tuscon at mid day with no clouds and get same readings as yourself. Was going to use MPPT due to 10A max limit, but it'll never hit 10 with only 200. Thanks for confirming...
What an MPPT solar controller does for you is that, when the sun rises or sets, your angle and the long path through the atmosphere will limit your solar flux and drop your panel output voltage, but the MPPT boosts the voltage using an adjustable buck-booster, so that it trades amperage for voltage, so that its output voltage will charge your batteries, because the voltage charging a battery MUST be greater than the voltage of the battery or it won't add charge. -- All a PWM solar controller does is turn off the charging when the battery gets too full by pulse width modulating the voltage it applies to the battery. When the pulse is off, it checks the battery voltage, and then when it's on, it only remains on a certain length of pulse before it checks the battery voltage again.
Yep. I changed my six Harbor freight panels to a renogy 30 amp charge controller. I basically have the same setup. I use two Harbor freight batteries to run my 12 volatile lighting system.
Great Test! Enjoyed watching. The MPPT will allow you start charging earlier in the day & later in the evening because it will increase the voltage. The extra voltage is then converted to increase the number of amps going into the batteries allowing you to bulk charge earlier & get into float.
I thought an MPPT just increases the amps when the voltage is converted down to a battery. So say 18 volts at the panels to 12 volts at the battery. Are you saying if the panel is only getting 7 volts due to clouds the MPPT converter will increase the voltage to 12 while decreasing the amps? Also can the MPPT take an 18 volt at the panel and increase it to 20 volts to charge a 20 volt battery? thanks
www.solarpaneltalk.com/forum/off-grid-solar/off-grid-solar-panel-systems/10413-can-mppt-controllers-step-up-voltage the answer is no. theoreticallly "yes" but they are not designed nor built to do so, except in rare "niche" set ups.
@@voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang885 No I am not saying the charge controller will step up the Voltage. If each panel is receiving poor light & outputting 7v the 4 panels all together now have 28v or if things are real bad & each panel is only receiving enough light to generate 4v you still have 16v & can charge this is why in the morning you can start sooner when the light is mostly ambient & same later in the evening when the sun is going down.
Them hubs say you can connect up to 4 units...yet it looks like it has 7 inputs and 1 output? So 8 connections? I got same kit bit only 1 for now and one of them batteries...i may return battery bc I found higher capacity ones for similar price
Also have you consider wiring in an inverter to not only get DC output to power dc lighting but also run AC outlet for ac machine/equipment/appliances. With 8 amps you could probably run a pretty good portion of basic house appliances for some time.
@Check it first,Try using a resistive load across the solar panel. The varying load of charging a battery only shows how much energy the battery is ACCEPTING, not how much power is actually available. Incandescent light bulbs or DC motors work well. Just make sure that your load is 24 volts DC or more, and at least 5 amps, so it will consume 100+ watts without harming it. I have this same Harbor Freight 100 watt solar kit. With three 50 watt light bulbs, I have gotten up to to 110 watts directly from the panels in full sunlight. Oh yeah, almost forgot, I live at 45 degrees 45 minutes North Latitude, where the sun doesn't have nearly as much energy as further South. One other thing. These are amorphous silicon cells, which actually out perform my more expensive crystalline silicon cells in low light situations. Like overcast days.
I'm glad I'm not the only one because in direct sunlight for my 100 watt kit I'm only getting just over 50 Watts. That's using the stands on top of concrete pointing right at the Sun on a not so hot summer day. So I don't think it is what some of these comments are saying like it's the way you have it mounted or because you have too many panels with a certain connector.
The specs advertised is at 24v when you bring it to 12 it's half of what you see on thunderbolts claim so 2 kits at 100w is correct and 1 kit at 50w is correct
You should be checking the power going into the battery, not the power coming off of the solar panels. Input power and output power are 2 different things. Whatever power goes into the battery is what you can theoretically use, and in reality, not 100% of it (batteries have losses too). It would be interesting to put your ammeter on the OUTPUT side to see how much current is going into the battery. I bet it is considerably lower than the 8A or so you are getting on the input side. My advice would be to sell that other controller that you only got about 5A from (or return it for a refund), and buy 2 more amorphous panels for about the same price as that controller. If you can get a true 8A flowing into the battery bank, then you will have a true 100 watts of usable solar power.
my experience with the 100 watt kit has been that the panels have to be pointed directly at the sun to get maximum output, and they produce a lot less output compared to a single 100 watt renogy panel when laying flat. the charge controller that comes with the kit really is junk.. it works, but you'll never make maximum power with it. the best test i did was to wire all 4 panels in series for 72 volts into a morningstar sunsaver mppt controller charging a 12 volt battery, with the panels aimed at bright sun they produced 9.8 amps. i also suspect that the long cords and silly mess of plug-in connectors in all harbor freight kits causes a lot of current loss.
marzsit -What people fail to realize is these harbor Freight panels change some as long as there is light. The panels from Renogy need to be in a certain temperature range to change. This makes them ineffective when cold and mornings/evenings when sunlight isn’t hitting them at all.
marzsit I have been watching videos on the HF 100w system. I have been wondering if they could be wired in series, how that would affect the power production for the batteries and what would be needed within the system. Thanks for the info. D.
Why would you run 72 volts to a 12 volt battery. A 12 volt battery charged just fine at 14 volts. If you are running a 72 connection of solar panels make a 48v battery system and get a mpp solar 48v inverter
@@westmountainadventures3606 I asked many people, finally after a dozen videos one man said you can as long as your using a good charge controller that can handle it; not harbor freight charge controllers are a joke, but there monocrystalline panels are good. 22.3volts straight output.
Can the amount of sun blow out a charge controller? I bought a used 100watt set and the guy told me the controller was bad. I had plans to buy a second kit and run it like your set up. Thanks for explaining the 500watt charger upgrade...saved me from making that mistake.
The more sun the better. But you cant exceed the chargers capabilities. The charger im using can handle the 18+ volts im sending to it. Also do not draw more than 20 amps from this controller as it has only a 20 amp fuse in it..☺
Check it first so maybe the guy blew the fuze? I never checked the system after i bought it. The panels went in storage and the charge controllers on a shelf next to me? So should i be able to open the controller and see a fuze i can replace? (I also hadnt considered maybe he fried his battery) I paid $40 for the charge controller and 4 25watt panels. Thanks.
Nice video! I have two 100w generic Chinese solar panels in parallel so 200w total 12v system, a good quality (Carspa) PWM charge controller and I get 10 amps max in full sun. i believe you will never get 16 amps on your system when using a PWM charge controller. your max amps will only be around 8 to 10. considering you have Harbor Freight PV, and accounting for voltage drop, 8amps in full sun is about right for your system.
Been living off 12v solar for 15 years. Fat tinned wire is a must have copper wire will go green and cause power losses. A quality controller that gives a 3o day input history is well worth the money shade tolerance of your panels for s important spec even quality battery can have life cycle greatly reduced by deep discharge. Plan your bank so you use only half or less Amps available daily keep your battery recharged any way you can. Solar is soft so charge with alt means at every opportunity a good battery system is like pet if you look after them they live a long time it's possible to get ten years. Or two weeks once they get damaged low discharge it's out put is Amps available reduced by large margin it was a learning curve to start. But we'll worth the effort no power bill for 15 years less system cost and battery s. Is still a lot of money. Ditch 240 volts go 12 volt every time you can a lot of your house hold needs can be well sorted and already are only 12 volt tv etc keep it simple as you can but. Put in lots of fuses have a go it's a great hobby
Great info. I have learned a lot since this video. I did however go to 24 volt system with a EPever 30 amp charger. I now have 500 watts of solar. But yes,,, batteries are an issue for me with 24v. I only have 2 marine batteries. They say 100 amp hour but come to find out it’s really about 30 amp hours. Led acid,,,,,🙄. I need about six batteries to get 100 amp hours of real use. I am thinking about going back to 12 V and getting a single lithium hundred amp hour battery. Watching videos on UA-cam they seem to give you a full 100 amp hours. What is your take on lithium. I also have my panels in series around 108 V to 110 V depending on conditions.
@@Checkitfirst good on you I have stuck to Lead acid deep cycle a 2oo amp hour about 600 $. But you have to check fluid level regular especially in hot weather no mantaince ones dry out n fail eventually who's best interest is that in not yours. Power only runs on outside of wire not in middle longer the wire fatter in has to be 240 has tourqe so gets away with thin wire tractor vs pushbike if you are not weight or room limited. Go for physical ly big battery. Buy a trusted local brand as you charge the input is affected by resistance the fuller the battery more resistant harder to charge I've found bigger the better and only use 100amp hr if linked to bank of four a hundred amp hr alternator car etc runs your needs but still only puts in what the bank can absorb tipacaley 5_8 Amps an HR if it starts out at 3o amp charging watch it drop input fast as charge comes up volts is guide if you discharge below 12,4 Volt's U get into power poverty quick hope it helps good on you for having a go
@@Checkitfirst get a lifepo4 12v 200ah battery (or 100ah depending on price) and don’t look back, move forward 🔜 Forgot about led acid, it’s obsolete at this point car manufacturer still use them cause they buy in bulk for cheap.
You will gain more with a mppt controller. The voltage that it drops when connected directly to the battery is a loss. Because volts times amps is watts. Anytime one drops and the other doesent go up its a loss! I would get a 10-20amp mppt controller and for a 12v system. Arrange the pannel wiring for about 22-24v no more than 28v when i had only 300 watts of my panels up with my 30a mppt controller. I was getting about 260 watts. With a terrible angle. Witch is really good for the situation. With the proper wiring . meaning just because the controller can take 150 volts in. Doesn't mean it will be effiecent converting it to 12-14v... About 1.5-1.9 times battery voltage is about the best conversion effiencey . allowing the panels to stay in their max power range.where the volts and amps are at the max. And yeah, nothing is perfect, there will be losses...
I am new at this and just learning being retired woman I am trying to learn all I can as I live full time in my RV. The octagon shaped box on your system is that a combiner? Where did you get it? If not what is it? thanks
Probably so. I just can’t see to reach the point of drilling holes in the roof. There only mounted with 1/2 “ screws so I’m not penetrating all the way through the roof deck. A little sealant on each screw
The max i can get out of my HF 100 watt set is 4.25amp in AZ with panels aligned precisely to the sun. I also tested each panel separately. There's some loss in the wiring but not much. The blue LED lights on the panels are a gimmick. They will stay on until it's completely dark and the charge controller will show you you're charging your battery in very dim light. If you put a volt meter on the panels you'll see over 20 volts before sunrise. Looks impressive until you put a DC amp meter on the system and see you're only getting .01 amps at 22 volts+-. LOL. Also the tilt of the panels makes a big difference. When lying flat on the ground for example in full sun mid day the amperage dropped to 2.6 from 4.2. On a sunny day I get about 25 amp hours per day in December and on a cloudy day virtually nothing even though the controller says it's charging. One day of full sun and one kit is the equivalent to running my HF Tailgater generator with a 25 amp battery charger for 1 hour per day. The generator will run about 9 hours on a gallon of gas. This means the 100 watt kit is saving me 43 cents for every full sunny day. ($3 for a gallon of gas + 85 cents for 2 stroke oil divided by 9 = .43) The advantage is no noise. The panels might last longer than a generator. And a kit should pay for itself in about a year if you use them every day and most days are sunny. The disadvantage is constantly moving the panels throughout the day for max output and the need for many panels if you hope to keep a large battery bank charged without a generator in an off grid situation.
I added a mppt charge controller to my system. It has a meter with it. I also added more meters just to check. I have 3 HF kits now. On a good day I get 13 amps +-. Thats about 4+ amps each kit. I just bought 2 monocrystalline pannels to add. Going to see which is better. Subscribe. Im going to do a video on it
@@Checkitfirst Yes my 100 watt kit with included controller is getting over 4 amps so what would be the advantaged of the mppt controller? It would be interesting to see if your noncrystalline panels have better output. Thanks for the reply.
@@billborden310 well so far I notice that the voltage stays higher when charging. The amps are lower from pannels but higher to the battery. During peak charge times my voltage stays 15 volts. It just seems to charge better.
Wish you would have unplugged 1 set to see if it dropped to half the combined results. Maybe one set isn't working? If not then it would mean the panel set outperforms rated specs.. Just a thought. :) Sorry if this has already been stated, I didn't check your responses. Thanks for the video.
Hey talk a little about the white thing you have the positive input from the panels going through. What do you call that item? What is the wiring below it going to the gage? What do you call the gage. Where do I get that set up? Looks like a cool amp/volt meter. I appreciate your showing the set up and your testing ideas. Thanks. Don
Hey Don... That little white thing your asking about came with that meter you see. That meter is Yeeco Digital DC Voltmeter. I found it on Amazon.I believe i payed $35.00 for it. It measures the amps that flow though it. That meter reads volts, amps, watts, and records usage. I have mine hooked up to the solar panels so I can see how much power is coming from them.
“Directly at the sun” changes on a second to second basis. You’d be better off arranging the panels along the arc of the sun so that there is always some voltage/current presented to the controller, and then scale up the number of panels along that arc. 6-8 of these kits would get you a consistent 400W during daylight hours, and that would give you a chance to store some serious power in a storage array as well.
No, since this is a roof mount ... it is best to point the PV Array DUE SOUTH and match with a CC that can handle the array at Solar Noon. Installing Panels on an East / West tilt creates Shading Issues - way over this guy's head. "K.I.S.S." I would *never* install 6 - 8 HF Kits = a waste of time and money and roof space. That small battery is just enough to keep the Voltage Steady when clouds pass by, it is not designed to run the house at night
I just bought this 100w kit from HF on memorial day special still unopened should i return it? Reading some of the comments gives pause, even though the vid creator might have messed up wiring two kits with only one of the included controllers. I'm wondering if it still might b a good deal if I could separate the kit into 4 separate 25w panels and just use them for separate vehicles, trucks n' stuff. 25w should b enough to maintain any unused truck battery right? Can they b split up? Alls I would need is to buy 3 more cheap
Even though I've learned a lot from them, If I had to do it all over again I'd buy something other than the HF kit. I'm only getting 1 amp from my 4 panels and I live in Arizona and have them angled correctly. Sure, it's November but so far very disappointed in the panel outputs. I have a 2 watt LED light bulb w/a dawn to dusk timer (it's on all night) and a 300w inverter with a motion activated LED Shop Light (from costco) and a small lawn irrigation timer connected to the inverter outlets. The shop light turns on about 3 times each night when my dogs walk by the shed and every morning my brand new deep-cycle, 120 aH battery shows 10.5 watts. One of these may be sucking electricity at a high rate, but was really disappointed, on a cloudless day at 10am, to see 1 amp coming in from the panels, especially when the box says they're 6.5 I think.
Also if one got this kit and mounted them like you did on roof tops is there any limit to how many you get. I mean could you just get 4 sets for 400 watts solar panels and connect them up because the only thing i see is you need a better controller panel other then that to extend more solar power it seems just dropping new ones down and connect them up to bus bar in your set up. Anyway great video i think the solar stuff rocks with harbor freight maybe some day all have some uses for these to run small appliances off of.
If I had to do it again, I wouldn't by HF kits. I paid over $300 for 2 100 watt kits.. Recently I bought a single 100 watt monocrystalline panel on Amazon for $95 free shipping. And a mppt controller for $180. I have noticed the monocrystalline panel works allot better. Im noticing the HF panels are starting to deteriorate around the glass. There made of plastic. I don't beleave they are designed for 24-7 use..
So the 10 amp controller can be used with big inverters? And no damage to the controller. I just got a 100 watt kit. Using it to charge batteries but was wondering on the size of inverter to use. I have two 80amp/hr deep cycles at 12volt. Thanks great video!
I got this same kit from Harbor Freight and will be returning it cuz I am not satisfied with the performance. I too only see about 4 to 5 amps max and that is not even close to 100 watts. Why would they advertise some wattage that is not achievable under normal circumstances? Also here is another cool (literally) thing to try. On hot sunny days when solar panels tend to run hot and produce less than maximum voltage, try squirting them with water from the hose to see if they produce more power. I never really tested that but it seems it might work. Since they are made to handle rain (and sometimes it rains when it is sunny out), I don't think it will damage them at all.
David James . Exactly my point. You should keep it though. They aren't verry expensive compared to other kits.. Im thinking of adding another kit soon or maybe a wind gen.
Do you want to buy 2 of my 4 panels? If you do, I will keep the rest of the kit and monkey around with it. Since you aren't getting the full 100 watts per kit, add a 5th panel to each kit (maybe get 2 Y adapters so you can combine the 5 output cables from the panels into the 4 way combiners), then you should get about a 25% boost in power overall without having to buy another full kit. That will put it much closer to 100 watts per kit (5 panels each) for less than half the price of a 3rd kit. You don't need that 3rd controller anyway. You just need a few more panels and raise them up for air circulation and that will be a nice setup.
I have 4-100 watt Harbor Freight Solar Kits, tied to the 400 watt connector hub. Then I have a distance of about 70’ to the garage and the charge controller. What gauge wire should I run between the Hub and the charge controller? Thanks-
When they get hot, they output lower voltage. A MPPT won't help with that because your power point voltage is lower than regular panels. Series panels might help with MPPT. Ive just bought a couple cheap PWM controllers and I'll be looking at an easy way to use these with with lower cost grid tie panels (30-60V) in MPPC.
opera. Ok. What is my power point voltage? What should it be for 200 watts? Can these cheap panels even produce 200 watts? I don't think they can. Each panel still has a max amp rating. Your controller wont produce more amps just because you run your pannels in series with a higher voltage. All your doing is being able to produce voltage at lower light but your watts will still be low. You can't cheat the system...
I can answer that question. Yes they can. The other day my 9 panels ( haven't install all of mine yet ) ( 225 watts hooked in ) actually beat their rated output. Saw 238 watts at one point. Sadly, I'm configured for only 142 watts output on the one controller and it tried to overload the buck converters that do the final charging. Needless to say, it blew all three 3 amp fuses at 15.84 volts. That indicates that they were each hitting 5 amps at the time they blew. You need to get your panel voltage up to 18 volts to see the max output and hooking directly to the batteries will not do that. Adding the fourth buck converter should take it up to a max of 190 watts on mine. My panels that day before the fuses blew showed that they were at 22 volts which is their vMax at that point. Today, with it cloudy, the 200 watt setup was hitting right at the 118 watt point.
gravelydon. Thank you for your input.. My panel voltage when not under load is 21 volts. On the back of each panel it says 18 volt. Usually it stays around 14.8 volts when loaded,,
One or two volts difference in their vMax can be a number of things. Temp, solar radiation, meter differences, etc.... I manage to overdo mine again today so all three fuses blew again. Right during the middle of the day we lost commercial power. FPL said up to 4 hours before it would be back on. The system at that point had the batteries at 14.1 volts and were only taking in 50 watts out of the 200. Turned on the Jupiter 2000 watt inverter and went back in the house to plug in the small A/C unit. Fired it up. Saw readings of 1400 watts at the max so I know that caused the charging system to go full bore. When we got commercial power back less than a half hour later I noticed that they were not charging again. Found blown fuses again. Tonight, one of the 3 amp units got replaced with one that can handle 6 amps but is set at 4. If it works out okay tomorrow at that setting, then it will get bumped up to 5 amps. The bad thing about the STM8 controlled units is that they do well with the voltage control but will overshoot the amperage.
gravelydon . check my latest video. I got 9.3 amps today. Not sure where that came from. The most amperage I've been getting is 8.4. I kinda got excited over that extra amp Lol.....
I have one panel hook to a mpp controler into two baterys and a apc works find runs fan tv charges my phone my batterys for my flashlights my elictric lighter .going to put 4 280 watt panels up as soon as i decide to get them i can get 280 what industreal grade panes 135 bucks each
I would be more than happy to but I no longer use that hub. Maybe I can tell you and see if that helps. When you are staring at the front of the hub you will see that the word output is in bedded on the face. Each harbor freight kit has four solar panels that connect to one wire. That one wire has four connections on one end for each panel to connect to. After you connect all for solar panels to that one wire you can then connect that wire to any of the input connections on the hub. There are eight inputs and one output. The kit comes with a wire that plugs into the output and has a female jack on the other end that plugs into the charge controller that comes with the kit
What is the reason for the bars? Just to show or is there a purpose for them. Also, sometimes females watch too. Could you explain in more details? Thanks in advance.
It allows me to add other devices as my system grows, like meters and other chargers if I wish. What would you like me to explain to you. I will do my best😊
At first I thought that’s all the power you were getting out of the large set of panels then realized you were receiving about 8 A from 200 W of solar. That’s not terrible. Personally I’ve never had panels put out much more than 75 to 80% of what the claims are. In the winter time as the temperatures dropped the amps increased. many factors including sun exposure time of year temperatures connectors which you may want to make sure that you’re using good quality connectors everything is fitting tight the way it should the right gauge wire. I have some of those PWM charge controllers a little different than the one you have mine don’t have a screen. However, I got rid of my lead acid battery along time ago and got a good deal buying a 100 amp hour 12 V lithium. After getting $200 off from Amazon credit card approval it cost me $75. I needed a better charge controller so I spent about $115 and bought 30 amp EPEver Xtra MPPT controller that has waterproof display and buttons. I have multiple sets of panels for redundancy in case needing to switch out. The best seem to be the monocrystalline. I have a Morphis thin film, but they’re producing similar to what you have there about 50% of rated output. Currently February in winter hard to get sunny days in the north east part of the United States. Mostly I’m limited by my choice where to mount for sun exposure. Thanks for sharing your results like other said you may want to try pulling a load plugging something into the inverter draining the battery a little bit. My charge controller floats when voltage gets to 14.2 V then it doesn’t actually start allowing current to flow from the panels into the battery until it dips down a full bolt. at some point I’ll invest in a meter they can read voltage etc. without needing to hook everything into the charge controller. Thanks again stay well
I have had those dang harbor freight panels. After a while I would notice the power get less.. I would plug and unplug one by one till I found out which panel had took a crap. One usually does... You need to graduate to real panels. I spent lots of money trying to be cheap!!! Finally I have all the right equipment. Wish I would have just spent the money from the gate... But some people learn the hard way.
Since I have made this video. I have upgraded meaning I added nice panels to the harbor freight panels. I am in the process of removing my harbor freight panels and just keeping the monocrystalline panels I bought on Amazon also I have a brand new charge controller. I have a few videos of it you should go check it out
I've spent the past 6 months slowly buying solar equipment almost have everything I need to properly install a 500 Watt system With gel batteries 2000 Watt inverter proper wiring and T-fuses and a lot of trial and error, it's not cheap and not something to do if you don't have the money, I've already blown up an $800 inverter just testing the setup preinstalled, Its a learning curve and everything I mean everything must be grounded,, Harbor freight is for kid's projects, and cheap tools lol 👻👻👻
Howdy There: Y would like to know where did you pick up some stuff. So I can try to build for my home. Oh I would you know how can I get power from my solar panels that I have installed 4-month ago. And also do have a backup power generator that I don't sun for the panels. Well I have 40-solar panels on my home I think each one is 100watts. I'm calling from Houston Tx & keep up the good work on your UA-cam Video too
That saw Green Solar Technologies they come out to my place did a survey & took a look at the breaker box it show 125 break two of them. So tell me how do you like your solar system at your place or you saving money on your energy bill & you getting money from your electric company where you at
to determine how many amps can be produced by the solar panels, your plan is 'nice' However, the amperage to the batteries strictly depends on the current charge state of the batteries
not sure how old this vid is" after i full screened it i was able to see the upload date" i recently bought the 500 watt controller you had issues with. im not a fan either! i ended up getting an hqst controller from amazon for 40$ and like it much better. seems to be getting more watts to the batt than the other controller and lets you know how much juice is in the batts. not sure how accurate it is but i do know the harbor freight controller will only get my batts to 13.1 and stops. the other one says its only 3/4's full and keeps going. hope this helps. also got the hqst panel ill be installing soon. im trying to get enough watts to charge my 2 deep cycle 6 volt batts in one day if possible. those batts will run my normal night time power usage and then recharge while im at work. "thats what im hoping for anyways lol" my current set it 2 100 watt thundervolt panels and 1 hqst panel, 1 hqst 30 amp controller 2 6 volt deep cycle and a 2000 watt samplex pure sinewave inverter. if everything works as plan it should be enough to run my office at night and be charged by the next day. maybe i should do a vid lol i keep saying i need to make more but never find time.
Nice setup. Would love to see it. I should make more videos to. I’m kinda at a stopping point now. New controller and added some panels. I guess the only thing left is to do lithium 🙄.
do not touch your fingers on the wires or busbars when testing amperage. your body absorbs some of the energy hook the wires up and install a switch flip the switch and then take a reading. but I'm going to tell you your going to want to use a larger ga wire from the charge controller down to the batteries at least a 8ga or even a 4ga wire, your trying to get as much energy as you can. add all the panels up each one has a 16ga wire on it to support that current you have to provide a path for the energy x2 per pair 8 panels would need x8 in wire size yes its overkill but would you rather gain more power and lose a few pennies? or waste what you could have if you upgraded the wires. This is 12 volts not AC its DC direct current wire size and ga has a profound effect on current transfer. The reason your home uses 120 volts per leg of 240 volts is because moving power over a long distance with dc current uses very large wire's almost everything in your home runs off low current after stepping down voltage in a power supply. you clocks radios tv's computers ex. run off of 12 volts or close to 12 volts dc current. Large appliances run of AC current and low dc current if they have a computer chip in them Most are 120 volts a electric stove AC system and dryer use 240 volts ac and 120 volts ac very few other things use this type of power unless you have a machine shop or woodworking shop ex.. but that's differnt stuff most homes do not have that. instead of buying inverters to step up power to step it down but stuff that runs off 12 volts because everytime you change the voltage you lose some of that power in heat. Its lost energy. You can find plenty of things made to run off 12 volts, tv fridge ac units ex. Even power tools. rechargeable power tools that have plenty of working power that can charge off a 12 volt system. Light's did you know all Leds run off of 2.1 volts dc? Buy Leds and a 10k ohm resistor put the resistor on one leg and you have light right off your 12 volt battery. Led stands for Light Emitting Diode they wire up in one direction only so if its not coming on turn the polarity around If its a good led it should work. Most failed Led house light bulbs fail because the power supply went bad not the led. Now That's an assumption not fact I haven't tested yet. But Leds last a long time and draw very little current. What draws the most current in say a TV is the power supply in standby mode. Its pulling power to be ready to turn on when you push power on. It's stupid but thats how its done. If I were to build a home today I'd rethink the entire electrical system to be multi voltage, 1 power supply for Lights and lighting systems, one for electronics and one for electrical appliances. 2.1 volt dc Lights 12 volts dc TV stereo computer ex.. 140 2 phase volts ac Fridge counter top cooking garbage disposal 440/240 3 phase volts ac AC system dryer and anything with a high powered motor and car charger for garage electric car. This is what A home should have.
Michael Sherburne. My power inverter is only a 12 V inverter and the charge controller you’re looking at will not handle that voltage. But in the future yes maybe
If it were me, I would use a 150 amp fuse. 12.5 V x 150amps = 1875 Watts. You probably don’t want to max out your inverter. But if you want to max out your Inverter then I guess 175 amp fuse would work
Can I use three 12 volt 35Amp batteries in series using the 30 Amp solar charge controller that came in the kit? without ruining the controller? Thank you
I'm confusted. I believe the controller that comes with the HF kit is a 20 amp max unit designed for a 12 volt battery bank. 3 12volt batteries in series gives you a 36 volt system. I'm not sure any of this is the correct use of the controller included in these kits.
Impedance matching of source and load for max power transfer is the name of the game. Too much loading and there will be a "brown-out" drop in voltage in the panel. (P = I x E) Too little loading and the power is under utilized from its potential. That is what a MPPT controller does. But further to your experiment; was the battery near to a full charge? One function of a controller is to taper off charging when nearing charge completion to stay inside the battery safe parameters. Repeat with the battery sufficiently drained as a starting point.
Later on I came to find out that the controller had an issue. When I put the original controller back on I’m more than doubled my output. The original charge controller that came with the kit works a lot better than that 500 W controller that Harbor freight sells that’s supposed to be better. I no longer have any of that equipment. My system has been upgraded. Go check it out
There are four screw holes in the corners of the panels.. I used coated exterior screws. If you do this,, make sure you don’t screw all the way through the roof deck and use roof sealant around the screw holes. Screw the panel down then remove the panel fill the screw holes with the sealant and screw the panel back down. They have been on my roof now for three years and there hasn’t been any issues that I have seen
If you have an MPPT charge controller my guess is that you will get about a 30% increase in power. PWM charge controllers just "lop" off the voltage greater than the battery can use, an MPPT charge controller will take that 'extra' voltage that is not needed and convert it to amps at a lower voltage that can be put into your battery.
Doesn't do any good with only 200 watts. The 3/4 amp i gained when i bought my mppt doesn't justify the cost. Now I'm at 500 watts and i can see the difference and justify the cost..
@@Checkitfirst Agreed, but I think that is a result of the harbor freight panels specifically. I never put MPPT on the harbor freights I had, but I did a test on one of my windy nation 100W panels. on PWM I would get a max of about 69Watts output, but using MPPT I would get close to 98Watts max. 5.2Amps max on PWM Same conditions on same battery bank (did the test within minutes of each other) MPPT gave me 7.4Amps output. Batt voltage at the time was 13.3Volts 13.3Vx5.2A = 69.16W PWM , 13.3Vx7.4A=98.42W MPPT The harbor freight panels seem to be running at an odd powerpoint and are unable to actually give you 100W (or 25W per panel) output.
@@andresrvlife1386 . I agree.. HF panels just dont seem to match the power of mono panels. I have 12 of them and I will use them till they stop working. Seems they have a short life span. Not really designed to operate 24/7.
Oh do you have to send your extra power back to the electric company that you don't used & you use your solar system day time & go back to city service?And how long it took you to get the PTO switch so you can use the solar system where you at? It took us 3-month because we can't used the solar system & we have been make month payment on it.
Michael Christopher . You can. Car batteries don’t last as long. I’m using a marine battery. It supposedly can take a bit more abuse and last a bit longer
I have to Harbor Freight 45 watt solar panel kits. My question is could I hook all six panels to one original Harbor Freight solar panel charge controller. Any feedback would help, I am charging 2 6 volt batteries tied together for 12 volt Trojan t105
The charge controller that came with the 100 watt kit has a 20 amp fuse. I have goten 13+ amps out of it with 12 panbels. I now have 3 100 watt kits. I had all 3 kits totalling 300 watts. I had no problems
@@Checkitfirst so if I'm getting this right the obvious question is I need to check the fuse in the back of the controller and see what the maximum amperage you can handle. And this is coming from someone that worked on generators Transformers electric motors, LOL that tells you a lot of what I know and don't know. Just because you put a carburetor on a car doesn't mean you can rebuild it LOL
@@marbbridges . Don't be so hard on yourself LOL.... The manufacturers said my controller had a 10 amp fuse in it. When I checked it had a 20 amp fuse.. Sometimes manufacturers dont know crap. ☺. We all learn something new everyday...
The one that comes with it is a 30A according to the manual. Thus 360W, so buying a 200W controller was probably pointless. It may have been putting out just over 200W and reducing it down not to blow itself up. Or the heat was just too much like others said.
@@Checkitfirst thanks for letting me know because the book says something like 30 amps max but didnt really say thats what it was necessarily rated for. And I have 275W total. But was the fuse on the incoming or outgoing power? Because my panel's incoming is 18-20v and controller outgoing is like 12-14v. 18v @20 amps is same wattage as 12 @30. (360watts) Maybe the book was referring to the max output is 30amps. I guess I need to look again but my 275watts total shouldn't cause any problems at 18v.
@@spankymagee. I believe it is the output power. So you are looking at about 21 amp to the battery if you are getting a Full 275 watts in. I would probably get a little bigger charge controller😊
@@Checkitfirst yeah better safe than sorry. Some are only like $30 on amazon. Ill probably run my 100 watt thunderbolt on the that came with it and the 175w panel on the new one.
Check it first I was cleaning up debris from an auto accident, it was dark and I didn't see that the battery case was missing. I reached down to pick it up, and when I grabbed it I got shocked and threw the battery about 20 feet. It was a 12 volt lead acid battery . .
I got 400 watts of panel on the roof, 200 watts facing east, and 200 watts facing west. I can hit the full 30+ amps from my 400 watt hub. The real item everyone needs to be aware of is the 500 watt controller may charge a lifepo 4 up to 4.2 then stop providing current. I don't know at the moment how low it will let the battery go before it starts dumping amps again into the battery, Report when I find out.
@@Checkitfirst I guess he's looking to maximize his early morning charge after drawing down his battery at night and late afternoon charge to top them off before dark.
That is not the proper way to max out the solar panels. You are still going thru that hub, the bus bars, and into a charged battery. Try taking the output of a single panel and run it into a highly discharged (but otherwise very healthy) battery. I suspect you will see more than 1A of charge power, perhaps even as much as 1.5A in intense sunlight at the perfect angle. Each time you add something such as a meter, a bus bar, a hub, more wires... you are adding series resistance and dropping the current. Even if you shorten the wires from the panels, you should see a slight increase in amperage cuz there are losses in the wires.
You will never see 25 watts directly out of a panel that is sent to a discharged battery. I don't remember what the dead short value I saw was but it was under 1 amp and the panels produce their most power at the 18 volt point. You do not get 2 amps at 12.5 volts but you can get 1.5 amps out at 18 volts under ideal conditions. They will likely show about .8 amps at that point. That is why a MPPT controller is needed. You need to get the panels' voltage and amps to the max wattage point for what you have available from the sun. I have a picture of the MingHe MPT-7210A from the other day where it showed 198.5 watts output out of 200 watts of panels. 26.02 volts X 7.63 amps = 198.5326 watts. I didn't have the ammeter on the input to it at the time but I would bet that it would have shown over 200 watts into the controller. That was just before the fuses blew as my output to the batteries is fused for 142.56 watts. 3 X 3 amps X 15.84 volts. That showed a battery voltage at the time of 14.1 volts. The difference in 14.1 and 15.84 is the blocking diodes voltage drop on both legs. A fourth, fifth, and sixth buck converter are on hand so that I can get the power up to the full rated output of the 7210A. And then when the second 7210A arrives, the rest of the 400 watts of panels can be installed.
That seems like a lot of expense to squeeze out a few more watts. Here is an idea for a "poor man" to try... If a typical 12V panel can output as much as 23V unloaded and produces peak power output around 18V, why not put 3 of those panels together in series to get around 54V peak power voltage, and then just connect that to a 48V battery bank? What someone could do is monitor the output voltage of the panels in series and if connecting them to a battery in a mid state of charge is too much load for them (dropping the panel voltage below 54V), then just add some series resistance before the batteries such as a piece of wire. After experimenting enough, you should be able to get it so that even in full sun, the output voltage of the panels should not be too much to charge the 48V bank. 54V on a 48V bank is like 13.5V on a 12V bank which is the voltage that can be used to quickly charge a battery in a mid state of charge, but by holding it at 13.5V (per 12V of cells), that will not overcharge a battery since that is industry accepted standard as a healthy trickle charge/maintain voltage for a full charged battery. I think it would be worth investigating this setup. I can even try it cuz I have a 4 panel Harbor Freight kit so I can just connect 3 in series and monitor the current flow. At 54V solar panel voltage under load, I would be very lucky if I get 1A (54 watts). The advantage is I wont need a solar controller. I could also sell my 4th panel to someone that wants to play around with solar on a budget since buying 1 panel is much cheaper than buying a whole kit. For example, someone that already has an inverter and a 12V battery but wants to monkey around with a single solar panel to help keep the battery topped off. Perhaps someone that has a shed and just wants to give it some solar power or maybe someone that already has a 4 panel HF kit and wants to add a 5th panel to get is closer to a true 100 watts output.
@@davidjames1684 Yes it did eat some of the power but it was done so that it was a 12 volt system in my case. Currently it now is working as both a 12 and 24 volt system. During the day, 24 V and at night, 12 V. With 200 watts of panels, it is getting around 550 watt hours per day in a 10 hour period. It does hit 100 watts just about every day for about 1 hour. My batteries are never below 12.4 volts in the morning and are at about 14.4 around noon. They are at 13.1 around midnight. And HF has started to sell single 25 watt panels too.
@@Checkitfirst ah ok. I was about to hook up the harbor freight solsr panel in series then hook it up to the charge controler. The current wouldn't be much but the high voltage would blow it . How much voltage can the charge controler handle from solar panels connected in series? Do you know why the new charge controler allowed for more amps vs the other one? Thought the othe old one was more powerful. You stated in the video the new charge controler had a 10 amp fuse. Just making sure my system isn't weird. Thanks again
@@j5892000 . The manufacturer said there was a 10 amp fuse in the controller. They were wrong. I opened it up and found a 20 amp fuse in it. I have a video. Go look.. You can not run pannels in series with harbor freight charger.
@@Checkitfirst yeah I had seen a video about why not to do it but never saw anything in how much voltage they can take going in. Harbor freight doesn't have much info sadly. I'm thinking about tinkering with dc to d.c step down converter. I hsve carried but. It's 2 gel batteries that are about 110 ah. Both 6 volts so connected in series. My charge controler charges them so slow . Do I figure I can get the panels to hook up into that to drop the voltage and plug it into my inverter do het more faster. Or I could just go with an mppt chargers 🤔. What do you think
@@j5892000 mppt... That way you can add more panels in the future. I ran my panels in series and got 60 volts. But my amps to the battery stayed the same. You won't gain any amps running in series. If your pannels are close to your charger like within 30 feet I would stay in parallel. If you are farther than 30 feet and have small gage wire then run in series. Amps are lower on panel side but the controller will bump the amps back up..
Eric Cart. Amazon 3.8 out of 5 stars 23 Yeeco Digital DC Voltmeter Ammeter Multimeter, 10-90V 0-200A LCD Color Display Voltage Ampere Power Watt Coulomb Capacity Time Meter Tester Testing Detector with Hall SensorYeeco Digital DC Voltmeter Ammeter
I checked each panel 20 volts and 3.5 amps when I have each one, one at a time plugged in and I have a dif charge controller so it may the charge controller I feel like it should be at least ten amps to fifteen in full sun
I have an mppt charge controller but I'm not hooking up my good stuff til I get a good hold on the cheap stuff lol I feel like I need to wire in series and then in parallel to bump up the voltage and the current to balance both out what you think?
get rid of the buss bars ? and toss the lead acid stuff also make sure you have a blue light on the top of the panels if it is light blue or no light it's bad
sorry you need air space under panel ,or they over heat ,resulting in way less power. i have mine on a pull so it gets cooling from wind .I have pulled 8.7 amps out of mine . keep it cool or the panel will degrade and start pealing solar material off. trust me air space is every thing winter time it will produce slightly more power ,up to 12 amps when cold in full sun
You can not get 12 amps out of a 100 watt panel. 100 watts divided by 18 volts is 5.5. Even at 14 volts which is where charge controllers charge at the most you’ll get is 7.1. In the winter time I’ve only gained approximately 10% so it’s not really worth the effort to lift them off the roof
Luis Anacona. Well, this video has roughly about $400.00 invested. If I knew then what I know now I wouldn’t buy it. There is better stuff than this on amazon like 2-100 watt panels at $99 bucks each and $150 for a charge controller
I know what part of your problem is.....
Solar Panels DO NOT like heat! You have them mounted DIRECTLY on your roof. Get some 2x2 Wooden slats, raise the panels up on them to allow some AIR to flow beneath them and your roof. This will allow the panels to run cooler, and you MAY gain an amp or 2.
That's a good observation! I believe another part of the problem is those panels are inferior. I use just two 100w SunPower monocrystalline high efficiency solar panels that take up far less room than eight of those HF panels and will put out up to 177 watts combined.
@KC JONES - Here's the link on Azon: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07C37TJJ6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
@@RoundTripSpirit and they are only 25 watts each+ 100 watts total
What a great wife helping you out!😊
Try hooking it all back up the way it was at the beginning of the video with the Inverter tied to your battery and turned on. Now get a heat gun, your wife's blow dryer, and electric heater, ...... (something that likes lots of watts). Plug into the inverter and turn it on. Now go look at your amp meter. I think you will be surprised.
Yeah my thought was the battery can't make enough current draw haha.
Something I noticed between when experimenting with my solar controllers. There is a difference between amps being pulled when a battery charge load versus a dummy load. Your panels could probably push more amps but your batteries might be limiting this
You can achieve a similar effect by applying a known load amount, you just have to periodically check solar input amperage to get accurate numbers
Hi, I watch you on utube, a lot and would like to tell ya, Something that happened to me, Concerning your problem of losses of power after Two different set of harbor freight solor panels are hooked up to the controller" with Hope's of Doubling your POWER".!! That Same thing happened to me, and I had to change one of the diode's around on the back of a couple of the panels. I can't remember if it was a whole set" that I did" or one or TWO. However, I do remember that after adding the 2nd, set" Of Thunderbolt 100watt, panels it ONLY gave me 1 1/2 output.!! But I Found out LATER, that it would have been SO MUCH EASIER, IF I had just ( used Both, Charge Controller's)!! And just ran Ea, set Through the Controller it Came with. Jumping the Power supply together just before going in to the Battery's.!! Okay" well, give them A try because " Just to settle for 1 1/2, the Power supply you should have, is not an option for me,. I hope You are the same," I mean It's what we thought we Was getting" Right?? It's what we all go spend our hard earned money for.!! NO, for me to settle, is to say give me 1 1/2 The Gas I have paid for.!! MACK!! OR, just Make it 3/4's the gas I just bought,z!! Instead, of FULLER up MACK.!! So, There ya, have it.!! Straight from the Horse's mouth.!! Hope it helps,!!!
Your solar videos are so awesome I have 2 lots and was thinking of buying an mppt but u with facts proved not to waste my money and just keep my 2 controllers on my set up which is identical to yours except I have the 3000 jupiter I did by the 5000 cause it was a parking lot sale/return for $150 and bought it as a backup for my 3000 if it ever goes bad. Thanks for your videos!!!!!!
msgt1942 . so glad you like them. Im going to get 2 more kits. Im sure I will have to upgrade my controller at that point. Not sure yet which one but we shall cross that road when I get there. Hope you enjoy your solar project. Remember to point them south☺
@@Checkitfirst will follow your lead and wait to see your upgrades because I will most likely do the same just got started and learning a lot thank you sir. But I don't think I will do the bus bar thing unless you feel it really helps
msgt1942 . I only did the bus bars for my own tests. They are not necessary
I'm using text-to-speech so things might get a little mixed up in the text.
I'm not saying this to be a jerk, but you may want to turn your panels the opposite way so that the wires come out the top. I have eight of these left out of the 12 that I had. Water finds a way into that plastic around the cells and over time it will corrode your connections. Once I reoriented my cell the problem went away immediately and I've not had any other situations develop with the panels
You couls ALSO seal all the potential trouble spots with Clear Silicone and solve the issue that way.
May be a silicon around de edge between plastic and the solar panel will help.
"Check it first" I have 2 sets of the Harbor Freight solar panels 100 watt just like you. I used them this summer to power my aquaponics garden pumping water and air from a pond through my garden and back into the pond. I also use my solar panels for emergency to charge x2 79AH deep cycle marine batteries that powers a "pure sine wave" (pure sine wave is easier on electronics) inverter to keep my cpap,small fridge,small fan,and laptop going in an outage. Being I'm up on Lake Erie I get a lot of cloud cover and being amorphic these panels perform REALLY well (%90-%80) on a cloudy day as long as the cloud cover is not REALLY thick. They just take a lot more space than mono/poly which is ok for me working in a garden and perhaps for others if space is not an issue. The charge controller that came with your harbor Freight kit is rated for up to 20 amps. On a good day you'll get about 5 amps at 18-22 volts per solar set. The real problem is the charge controller that came with your kit is PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) and wastes power as your batteries get higher in charge. You are far better off getting a MPPT (Maximum Power Point Tracking) charge controller. Switching to a good MPPT charge controller on these panels should yield you %20-%30 more charging power over the winter and %10-%20 more charging over the summer from your solar panels. So as you can see the more panels you have the more power you are wasting with PWM. MPPT charge controllers used to be VERY expensive (many still are) and there are a LOT of fakes sold out there. Fortunately for us "small" users there are recently some reputable companies that make affordable good MPPT charge controllers. Many people will have recommendations on what is best/cheap. Myself I have had good luck with EPEVER brand who are well known in the solar community. I find them affordable and efficient for my needs. Here is an example you can read on: www.ebay.com/itm/EPEVER-20-30-40A-Solar-Panel-Controller-Charge-MPPT-Wifi-Or-MT50-Lithium-Battery/263049168664?_trkparms=aid%3D555018%26algo%3DPL.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20131003132420%26meid%3D21ce49df325c43ec821c578ffdba717e%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D12%26mehot%3Dpp%26sd%3D253412631963%26itm%3D263049168664&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851 I'm sure others here will have good/affordable suggestions for MPPT as well. Just be careful there are a LOT of fake units out there. I've used these Harbor Freight kits for a while. Feel free to ask any questions if you want and I will be glad to answer when I log in. :) Another popular MPPT controller Renogy: www.amazon.com/Renogy-Commander-Solar-Charge-Controller/dp/B01DCNSVIO/ref=sr_1_50_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1540017855&sr=8-50-spons&keywords=mppt%2Bcharge%2Bcontroller%2B12v&th=1 (a rebranded newer EPEVER I think).
Awesome info... Thank you... Looks like the EPever is the choice for me.. Thinking of adding some wind power to my set up. EPever has one that can do both☺.
A suggestion to controller manufacturers: Solar systems are designed with excess capacity for worst case cloudy days. Then the battery charges quickly to full charge on a sunny day and reduces output or turns off. Why throw away this excess capacity? Just add a pair of terminals labeled "EXCESS" and transfer power to them when battery charge is maxed out.. Then you can use the "low-grade" excess to a money saving device such as heat tape to a hot water tank intake. Overall, it is a saving in propane or natural gas.
Unhooking the battery from the charge controller while the solar is still going is a good way to ruin the charge controller.
True. To get around this in MY system, I installed two switches: 1 Between the Battery and the Controller, and the other switch between the array and the Controller. This way, Each component of the system can be quickly isolated from the other two, preventing damage to ALL.
I sure appreciate you demonstrating how to do this test. It stands to reason that without any resistance between the solar panels on a sunny day and a thirsty battery, you'd have approximately 8 amps. 100 watt panels / 12 volts equals 8.3 amps. If you got eight amps even it means you were drawing 12.5 volts. Just what we would have expected! I guess the trick is to get a really good charge controller!
Absolutely! You can get buy with an inexpensive battery and so-so Panels in a Pinch. Put your Money into a GOOD controller; then as finances allow, upgrade the battery, THEN concentrate of higher quality Panels!
@michael - Except, he has a 200 WATT PV Array !
200 w and have same story... Every rating can be divided by 2, or 50% or listed value. I'm in Tuscon at mid day with no clouds and get same readings as yourself. Was going to use MPPT due to 10A max limit, but it'll never hit 10 with only 200. Thanks for confirming...
I got the other solar pannel they sell. I got 4 of them. They o a great job. Ive seen it hit close to 500 watts. Crazy !
Yes. I do believe they are a better set of panels.
What an MPPT solar controller does for you is that, when the sun rises or sets, your angle and the long path through the atmosphere will limit your solar flux and drop your panel output voltage, but the MPPT boosts the voltage using an adjustable buck-booster, so that it trades amperage for voltage, so that its output voltage will charge your batteries, because the voltage charging a battery MUST be greater than the voltage of the battery or it won't add charge.
--
All a PWM solar controller does is turn off the charging when the battery gets too full by pulse width modulating the voltage it applies to the battery. When the pulse is off, it checks the battery voltage, and then when it's on, it only remains on a certain length of pulse before it checks the battery voltage again.
Now that I have added more panels I can now justify the cost of an mppt which i have recently bought
Yep. I changed my six Harbor freight panels to a renogy 30 amp charge controller. I basically have the same setup. I use two Harbor freight batteries to run my 12 volatile lighting system.
Great Test!
Enjoyed watching.
The MPPT will allow you start charging earlier in the day & later in the evening because it will increase the voltage. The extra voltage is then converted to increase the number of amps going into the batteries allowing you to bulk charge earlier & get into float.
I thought an MPPT just increases the amps when the voltage is converted down to a battery. So say 18 volts at the panels to 12 volts at the battery. Are you saying if the panel is only getting 7 volts due to clouds the MPPT converter will increase the voltage to 12 while decreasing the amps? Also can the MPPT take an 18 volt at the panel and increase it to 20 volts to charge a 20 volt battery? thanks
www.solarpaneltalk.com/forum/off-grid-solar/off-grid-solar-panel-systems/10413-can-mppt-controllers-step-up-voltage the answer is no. theoreticallly "yes" but they are not designed nor built to do so, except in rare "niche" set ups.
@@voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang885
No I am not saying the charge controller will step up the Voltage. If each panel is receiving poor light & outputting 7v the 4 panels all together now have 28v or if things are real bad & each panel is only receiving enough light to generate 4v you still have 16v & can charge this is why in the morning you can start sooner when the light is mostly ambient & same later in the evening when the sun is going down.
@@LarsLondian good point but you would have to rewire the panels in series. They are wired in parallel.
Them hubs say you can connect up to 4 units...yet it looks like it has 7 inputs and 1 output? So 8 connections? I got same kit bit only 1 for now and one of them batteries...i may return battery bc I found higher capacity ones for similar price
Also have you consider wiring in an inverter to not only get DC output to power dc lighting but also run AC outlet for ac machine/equipment/appliances. With 8 amps you could probably run a pretty good portion of basic house appliances for some time.
With 8 amps x 12 volts = 100 Watts. What can you do with that ?
@Check it first,Try using a resistive load across the solar panel.
The varying load of charging a battery only shows how much energy the battery is ACCEPTING,
not how much power is actually available.
Incandescent light bulbs or DC motors work well.
Just make sure that your load is 24 volts DC or more, and at least 5 amps,
so it will consume 100+ watts without harming it.
I have this same Harbor Freight 100 watt solar kit. With three 50 watt light bulbs,
I have gotten up to to 110 watts directly from the panels in full sunlight.
Oh yeah, almost forgot, I live at 45 degrees 45 minutes North Latitude, where the sun doesn't have
nearly as much energy as further South.
One other thing. These are amorphous silicon cells, which actually out perform my more expensive
crystalline silicon cells in low light situations. Like overcast days.
Awesome.. Thanks for the info.. I have 300 watts now. Its doing pretty good. Check out my latest video☺
The power available is the working power, you cannot include ghost power...
I'm glad I'm not the only one because in direct sunlight for my 100 watt kit I'm only getting just over 50 Watts. That's using the stands on top of concrete pointing right at the Sun on a not so hot summer day. So I don't think it is what some of these comments are saying like it's the way you have it mounted or because you have too many panels with a certain connector.
Many people complain that there HF Solar Panels are under performing. The quality varies, usually towards the low end. I would not be "glad" !
The specs advertised is at 24v when you bring it to 12 it's half of what you see on thunderbolts claim so 2 kits at 100w is correct and 1 kit at 50w is correct
You should be checking the power going into the battery, not the power coming off of the solar panels. Input power and output power are 2 different things. Whatever power goes into the battery is what you can theoretically use, and in reality, not 100% of it (batteries have losses too). It would be interesting to put your ammeter on the OUTPUT side to see how much current is going into the battery. I bet it is considerably lower than the 8A or so you are getting on the input side. My advice would be to sell that other controller that you only got about 5A from (or return it for a refund), and buy 2 more amorphous panels for about the same price as that controller. If you can get a true 8A flowing into the battery bank, then you will have a true 100 watts of usable solar power.
Great video. I’ve purchased the newer 100W panels. I’m curious to see how much better they are as far as amperage
I bet they’re going to be a lot better
my experience with the 100 watt kit has been that the panels have to be pointed directly at the sun to get maximum output, and they produce a lot less output compared to a single 100 watt renogy panel when laying flat. the charge controller that comes with the kit really is junk.. it works, but you'll never make maximum power with it. the best test i did was to wire all 4 panels in series for 72 volts into a morningstar sunsaver mppt controller charging a 12 volt battery, with the panels aimed at bright sun they produced 9.8 amps. i also suspect that the long cords and silly mess of plug-in connectors in all harbor freight kits causes a lot of current loss.
Check out my latest video.. 300 watts now....
marzsit -What people fail to realize is these harbor Freight panels change some as long as there is light. The panels from Renogy need to be in a certain temperature range to change. This makes them ineffective when cold and mornings/evenings when sunlight isn’t hitting them at all.
marzsit I have been watching videos on the HF 100w system. I have been wondering if they could be wired in series, how that would affect the power production for the batteries and what would be needed within the system.
Thanks for the info.
D.
Why would you run 72 volts to a 12 volt battery. A 12 volt battery charged just fine at 14 volts. If you are running a 72 connection of solar panels make a 48v battery system and get a mpp solar 48v inverter
@@westmountainadventures3606 I asked many people, finally after a dozen videos one man said you can as long as your using a good charge controller that can handle it; not harbor freight charge controllers are a joke, but there monocrystalline panels are good. 22.3volts straight output.
Don't forget the internal resistance of the battery you may want to load the 12 volts to the battery to get maximum charge potential, good luck
Solar panels need to be lifted off of the roof to produce more energy efficiently..heat kills power
photovoltaic technician here. and i concur, heat kills power. i Like, OLE!
@importryderify - PV Array mounted directly to the roof = rookie mistake #1 ...
Can the amount of sun blow out a charge controller? I bought a used 100watt set and the guy told me the controller was bad.
I had plans to buy a second kit and run it like your set up.
Thanks for explaining the 500watt charger upgrade...saved me from making that mistake.
The more sun the better. But you cant exceed the chargers capabilities. The charger im using can handle the 18+ volts im sending to it. Also do not draw more than 20 amps from this controller as it has only a 20 amp fuse in it..☺
Check it first so maybe the guy blew the fuze? I never checked the system after i bought it. The panels went in storage and the charge controllers on a shelf next to me?
So should i be able to open the controller and see a fuze i can replace?
(I also hadnt considered maybe he fried his battery)
I paid $40 for the charge controller and 4 25watt panels.
Thanks.
Nice video! I have two 100w generic Chinese solar panels in parallel so 200w total 12v system, a good quality (Carspa) PWM charge controller and I get 10 amps max in full sun. i believe you will never get 16 amps on your system when using a PWM charge controller. your max amps will only be around 8 to 10. considering you have Harbor Freight PV, and accounting for voltage drop, 8amps in full sun is about right for your system.
Been living off 12v solar for 15 years. Fat tinned wire is a must have copper wire will go green and cause power losses. A quality controller that gives a 3o day input history is well worth the money shade tolerance of your panels for s important spec even quality battery can have life cycle greatly reduced by deep discharge. Plan your bank so you use only half or less Amps available daily keep your battery recharged any way you can. Solar is soft so charge with alt means at every opportunity a good battery system is like pet if you look after them they live a long time it's possible to get ten years. Or two weeks once they get damaged low discharge it's out put is Amps available reduced by large margin it was a learning curve to start. But we'll worth the effort no power bill for 15 years less system cost and battery s. Is still a lot of money. Ditch 240 volts go 12 volt every time you can a lot of your house hold needs can be well sorted and already are only 12 volt tv etc keep it simple as you can but. Put in lots of fuses have a go it's a great hobby
Great info. I have learned a lot since this video. I did however go to 24 volt system with a EPever 30 amp charger. I now have 500 watts of solar. But yes,,, batteries are an issue for me with 24v. I only have 2 marine batteries. They say 100 amp hour but come to find out it’s really about 30 amp hours. Led acid,,,,,🙄. I need about six batteries to get 100 amp hours of real use. I am thinking about going back to 12 V and getting a single lithium hundred amp hour battery. Watching videos on UA-cam they seem to give you a full 100 amp hours. What is your take on lithium. I also have my panels in series around 108 V to 110 V depending on conditions.
@@Checkitfirst good on you I have stuck to Lead acid deep cycle a 2oo amp hour about 600 $. But you have to check fluid level regular especially in hot weather no mantaince ones dry out n fail eventually who's best interest is that in not yours. Power only runs on outside of wire not in middle longer the wire fatter in has to be 240 has tourqe so gets away with thin wire tractor vs pushbike if you are not weight or room limited. Go for physical ly big battery. Buy a trusted local brand as you charge the input is affected by resistance the fuller the battery more resistant harder to charge I've found bigger the better and only use 100amp hr if linked to bank of four a hundred amp hr alternator car etc runs your needs but still only puts in what the bank can absorb tipacaley 5_8 Amps an HR if it starts out at 3o amp charging watch it drop input fast as charge comes up volts is guide if you discharge below 12,4 Volt's U get into power poverty quick hope it helps good on you for having a go
@@Checkitfirst get a lifepo4 12v 200ah battery (or 100ah depending on price) and don’t look back, move forward 🔜
Forgot about led acid, it’s obsolete at this point car manufacturer still use them cause they buy in bulk for cheap.
@@isramen4756
I would love one but can’t afford it
You will gain more with a mppt controller. The voltage that it drops when connected directly to the battery is a loss. Because volts times amps is watts. Anytime one drops and the other doesent go up its a loss! I would get a 10-20amp mppt controller and for a 12v system. Arrange the pannel wiring for about 22-24v no more than 28v when i had only 300 watts of my panels up with my 30a mppt controller. I was getting about 260 watts. With a terrible angle. Witch is really good for the situation. With the proper wiring . meaning just because the controller can take 150 volts in. Doesn't mean it will be effiecent converting it to 12-14v... About 1.5-1.9 times battery voltage is about the best conversion effiencey . allowing the panels to stay in their max power range.where the volts and amps are at the max. And yeah, nothing is perfect, there will be losses...
He could always add a 6 v battery in series to 'max' the panels power and voltage of 18 volts...
I am new at this and just learning being retired woman I am trying to learn all I can as I live full time in my RV. The octagon shaped box on your system is that a combiner? Where did you get it? If not what is it? thanks
I got it at Harbor freight. It does combine all the panels together so I could have one output
Great video!! What little digital meter is that ?? Just to the upper right of your inverter???❤️
Yeeco digital ammeter. I found it on Amazon
@@Checkitfirst oh nice! Found them👍
I think you could benefit by mounting your solar panels with a 1 inch gap between the roof in the back of the panels for cooling
Probably so. I just can’t see to reach the point of drilling holes in the roof. There only mounted with 1/2 “ screws so I’m not penetrating all the way through the roof deck. A little sealant on each screw
The max i can get out of my HF 100 watt set is 4.25amp in AZ with panels aligned precisely to the sun. I also tested each panel separately. There's some loss in the wiring but not much. The blue LED lights on the panels are a gimmick. They will stay on until it's completely dark and the charge controller will show you you're charging your battery in very dim light. If you put a volt meter on the panels you'll see over 20 volts before sunrise. Looks impressive until you put a DC amp meter on the system and see you're only getting .01 amps at 22 volts+-. LOL. Also the tilt of the panels makes a big difference. When lying flat on the ground for example in full sun mid day the amperage dropped to 2.6 from 4.2. On a sunny day I get about 25 amp hours per day in December and on a cloudy day virtually nothing even though the controller says it's charging. One day of full sun and one kit is the equivalent to running my HF Tailgater generator with a 25 amp battery charger for 1 hour per day. The generator will run about 9 hours on a gallon of gas. This means the 100 watt kit is saving me 43 cents for every full sunny day. ($3 for a gallon of gas + 85 cents for 2 stroke oil divided by 9 = .43) The advantage is no noise. The panels might last longer than a generator. And a kit should pay for itself in about a year if you use them every day and most days are sunny. The disadvantage is constantly moving the panels throughout the day for max output and the need for many panels if you hope to keep a large battery bank charged without a generator in an off grid situation.
I added a mppt charge controller to my system. It has a meter with it. I also added more meters just to check. I have 3 HF kits now. On a good day I get 13 amps +-. Thats about 4+ amps each kit. I just bought 2 monocrystalline pannels to add. Going to see which is better. Subscribe. Im going to do a video on it
@@Checkitfirst Yes my 100 watt kit with included controller is getting over 4 amps so what would be the advantaged of the mppt controller? It would be interesting to see if your noncrystalline panels have better output. Thanks for the reply.
@@billborden310 well so far I notice that the voltage stays higher when charging. The amps are lower from pannels but higher to the battery. During peak charge times my voltage stays 15 volts. It just seems to charge better.
Wish you would have unplugged 1 set to see if it dropped to half the combined results. Maybe one set isn't working? If not then it would mean the panel set outperforms rated specs.. Just a thought. :)
Sorry if this has already been stated, I didn't check your responses. Thanks for the video.
Hey talk a little about the white thing you have the positive input from the panels going through. What do you call that item? What is the wiring below it going to the gage? What do you call the gage. Where do I get that set up? Looks like a cool amp/volt meter.
I appreciate your showing the set up and your testing ideas. Thanks. Don
Hey Don... That little white thing your asking about came with that meter you see. That meter is Yeeco Digital DC Voltmeter. I found it on
Amazon.I believe i payed $35.00 for it. It measures the amps that flow though it. That meter reads volts, amps, watts, and records usage. I have mine hooked up to the solar panels so I can see how much power is coming from them.
Do those panels need direct sunlight to work ? Will they operate on a cloudy or partly cloudy day in other words ?
They do work well on cloudy days.. But of course direct sunlight is all ways key☺
Hi great video. What is that box called that shows different readings? The one you pointed to. Thanks, alicia
Charge-Discharge Monitor, DROK 0-90V 100A DC Ammeter Voltmeter,
I bought it off of Amazon. Type it in just like that and it should pop up
“Directly at the sun” changes on a second to second basis. You’d be better off arranging the panels along the arc of the sun so that there is always some voltage/current presented to the controller, and then scale up the number of panels along that arc. 6-8 of these kits would get you a consistent 400W during daylight hours, and that would give you a chance to store some serious power in a storage array as well.
No, since this is a roof mount ... it is best to point the PV Array DUE SOUTH and match with a CC that can handle the array at Solar Noon. Installing Panels on an East / West tilt creates Shading Issues - way over this guy's head. "K.I.S.S." I would *never* install 6 - 8 HF Kits = a waste of time and money and roof space. That small battery is just enough to keep the Voltage Steady when clouds pass by, it is not designed to run the house at night
I just bought this 100w kit from HF on memorial day special still unopened should i return it? Reading some of the comments gives pause, even though the vid creator might have messed up wiring two kits with only one of the included controllers. I'm wondering if it still might b a good deal if I could separate the kit into 4 separate 25w panels and just use them for separate vehicles, trucks n' stuff. 25w should b enough to maintain any unused truck battery right? Can they b split up? Alls I would need is to buy 3 more cheap
Even though I've learned a lot from them, If I had to do it all over again I'd buy something other than the HF kit. I'm only getting 1 amp from my 4 panels and I live in Arizona and have them angled correctly. Sure, it's November but so far very disappointed in the panel outputs. I have a 2 watt LED light bulb w/a dawn to dusk timer (it's on all night) and a 300w inverter with a motion activated LED Shop Light (from costco) and a small lawn irrigation timer connected to the inverter outlets. The shop light turns on about 3 times each night when my dogs walk by the shed and every morning my brand new deep-cycle, 120 aH battery shows 10.5 watts. One of these may be sucking electricity at a high rate, but was really disappointed, on a cloudless day at 10am, to see 1 amp coming in from the panels, especially when the box says they're 6.5 I think.
put panels in series, higher voltage will have less loss
The Charge controller also keeps you from over charging the battery too though, right?
yes. the panels are around 18 volts.. the battery needs 13.8-14 volts
Have you tried plugging each panel into the octopus (this is recommended for an 8 panel configuration)?
I did at the time. I no longer have this set up
Also if one got this kit and mounted them like you did on roof tops is there any limit to how many you get. I mean could you just get 4 sets for 400 watts solar panels and connect them up because the only thing i see is you need a better controller panel other then that to extend more solar power it seems just dropping new ones down and connect them up to bus bar in your set up. Anyway great video i think the solar stuff rocks with harbor freight maybe some day all have some uses for these to run small appliances off of.
If I had to do it again, I wouldn't by HF kits. I paid over $300 for 2 100 watt kits.. Recently I bought a single 100 watt monocrystalline panel on Amazon for $95 free shipping. And a mppt controller for $180. I have noticed the monocrystalline panel works allot better. Im noticing the HF panels are starting to deteriorate around the glass. There made of plastic. I don't beleave they are designed for 24-7 use..
So the 10 amp controller can be used with big inverters? And no damage to the controller. I just got a 100 watt kit. Using it to charge batteries but was wondering on the size of inverter to use. I have two 80amp/hr deep cycles at 12volt. Thanks great video!
The charge controller is not affected by the size of your power inverter. Just don’t put more panels to your charge controller then it can except
@@Checkitfirst gotcha. Thx.
The voltage of solar panel is lowered and amps is increased
I got this same kit from Harbor Freight and will be returning it cuz I am not satisfied with the performance. I too only see about 4 to 5 amps max and that is not even close to 100 watts. Why would they advertise some wattage that is not achievable under normal circumstances?
Also here is another cool (literally) thing to try. On hot sunny days when solar panels tend to run hot and produce less than maximum voltage, try squirting them with water from the hose to see if they produce more power. I never really tested that but it seems it might work. Since they are made to handle rain (and sometimes it rains when it is sunny out), I don't think it will damage them at all.
David James . Exactly my point. You should keep it though. They aren't verry expensive compared to other kits.. Im thinking of adding another kit soon or maybe a wind gen.
Do you want to buy 2 of my 4 panels? If you do, I will keep the rest of the kit and monkey around with it. Since you aren't getting the full 100 watts per kit, add a 5th panel to each kit (maybe get 2 Y adapters so you can combine the 5 output cables from the panels into the 4 way combiners), then you should get about a 25% boost in power overall without having to buy another full kit. That will put it much closer to 100 watts per kit (5 panels each) for less than half the price of a 3rd kit. You don't need that 3rd controller anyway. You just need a few more panels and raise them up for air circulation and that will be a nice setup.
To truly max power output, he has to do it at 18 volts not 12-14 volts....
I have 4-100 watt Harbor Freight Solar Kits, tied to the 400 watt connector hub.
Then I have a distance of about 70’ to the garage and the charge controller.
What gauge wire should I run between the Hub and the charge controller?
Thanks-
At the time of this video I had eight gauge
When they get hot, they output lower voltage. A MPPT won't help with that because your power point voltage is lower than regular panels. Series panels might help with MPPT. Ive just bought a couple cheap PWM controllers and I'll be looking at an easy way to use these with with lower cost grid tie panels (30-60V) in MPPC.
opera. Ok. What is my power point voltage? What should it be for 200 watts? Can these cheap panels even produce 200 watts? I don't think they can. Each panel still has a max amp rating. Your controller wont produce more amps just because you run your pannels in series with a higher voltage. All your doing is being able to produce voltage at lower light but your watts will still be low. You can't cheat the system...
I can answer that question. Yes they can. The other day my 9 panels ( haven't install all of mine yet ) ( 225 watts hooked in ) actually beat their rated output. Saw 238 watts at one point. Sadly, I'm configured for only 142 watts output on the one controller and it tried to overload the buck converters that do the final charging. Needless to say, it blew all three 3 amp fuses at 15.84 volts. That indicates that they were each hitting 5 amps at the time they blew. You need to get your panel voltage up to 18 volts to see the max output and hooking directly to the batteries will not do that. Adding the fourth buck converter should take it up to a max of 190 watts on mine. My panels that day before the fuses blew showed that they were at 22 volts which is their vMax at that point. Today, with it cloudy, the 200 watt setup was hitting right at the 118 watt point.
gravelydon. Thank you for your input.. My panel voltage when not under load is 21 volts. On the back of each panel it says 18 volt. Usually it stays around 14.8 volts when loaded,,
One or two volts difference in their vMax can be a number of things. Temp, solar radiation, meter differences, etc.... I manage to overdo mine again today so all three fuses blew again. Right during the middle of the day we lost commercial power. FPL said up to 4 hours before it would be back on. The system at that point had the batteries at 14.1 volts and were only taking in 50 watts out of the 200. Turned on the Jupiter 2000 watt inverter and went back in the house to plug in the small A/C unit. Fired it up. Saw readings of 1400 watts at the max so I know that caused the charging system to go full bore. When we got commercial power back less than a half hour later I noticed that they were not charging again. Found blown fuses again. Tonight, one of the 3 amp units got replaced with one that can handle 6 amps but is set at 4. If it works out okay tomorrow at that setting, then it will get bumped up to 5 amps. The bad thing about the STM8 controlled units is that they do well with the voltage control but will overshoot the amperage.
gravelydon . check my latest video. I got 9.3 amps today. Not sure where that came from. The most amperage I've been getting is 8.4. I kinda got excited over that extra amp Lol.....
I have one panel hook to a mpp controler into two baterys and a apc works find runs fan tv charges my phone my batterys for my flashlights my elictric lighter .going to put 4 280 watt panels up as soon as i decide to get them i can get 280 what industreal grade panes 135 bucks each
Hi can you post a video on how to hook up harbor freight solar panel kit to a 400 watt maximum thunderbolt connector hub.
I would be more than happy to but I no longer use that hub. Maybe I can tell you and see if that helps. When you are staring at the front of the hub you will see that the word output is in bedded on the face. Each harbor freight kit has four solar panels that connect to one wire. That one wire has four connections on one end for each panel to connect to. After you connect all for solar panels to that one wire you can then connect that wire to any of the input connections on the hub. There are eight inputs and one output. The kit comes with a wire that plugs into the output and has a female jack on the other end that plugs into the charge controller that comes with the kit
What is the reason for the bars? Just to show or is there a purpose for them. Also, sometimes females watch too. Could you explain in more details? Thanks in advance.
It allows me to add other devices as my system grows, like meters and other chargers if I wish. What would you like me to explain to you. I will do my best😊
At first I thought that’s all the power you were getting out of the large set of panels then realized you were receiving about 8 A from 200 W of solar. That’s not terrible. Personally I’ve never had panels put out much more than 75 to 80% of what the claims are. In the winter time as the temperatures dropped the amps increased. many factors including sun exposure time of year temperatures connectors which you may want to make sure that you’re using good quality connectors everything is fitting tight the way it should the right gauge wire. I have some of those PWM charge controllers a little different than the one you have mine don’t have a screen. However, I got rid of my lead acid battery along time ago and got a good deal buying a 100 amp hour 12 V lithium. After getting $200 off from Amazon credit card approval it cost me $75. I needed a better charge controller so I spent about $115 and bought 30 amp EPEver Xtra MPPT controller that has waterproof display and buttons. I have multiple sets of panels for redundancy in case needing to switch out. The best seem to be the monocrystalline. I have a Morphis thin film, but they’re producing similar to what you have there about 50% of rated output. Currently February in winter hard to get sunny days in the north east part of the United States. Mostly I’m limited by my choice where to mount for sun exposure. Thanks for sharing your results like other said you may want to try pulling a load plugging something into the inverter draining the battery a little bit. My charge controller floats when voltage gets to 14.2 V then it doesn’t actually start allowing current to flow from the panels into the battery until it dips down a full bolt. at some point I’ll invest in a meter they can read voltage etc. without needing to hook everything into the charge controller. Thanks again stay well
I have recently switched over to mono panels. My whole system has changed quite a bit since this video. I do have some videos on it.
I had one of those pannels and it only lasted 1 year before the frame decenagrated and the glass slid of the roof.
HF Solar Panels = usually low quality, at a high price ... OUCH !
I have had those dang harbor freight panels. After a while I would notice the power get less.. I would plug and unplug one by one till I found out which panel had took a crap. One usually does... You need to graduate to real panels. I spent lots of money trying to be cheap!!! Finally I have all the right equipment. Wish I would have just spent the money from the gate... But some people learn the hard way.
Since I have made this video. I have upgraded meaning I added nice panels to the harbor freight panels. I am in the process of removing my harbor freight panels and just keeping the monocrystalline panels I bought on Amazon also I have a brand new charge controller. I have a few videos of it you should go check it out
Which one did you upgrade too?
looks like the name is "Q cells"
scored a couple 280 W panels from a friend in Phx. I don't know where he bought them.
looks like the name is "Q cells"
scored a couple 280 W panels from a friend in Phx. I don't know where he bought them.
Thanks, answered my Q:....
Help. The first or left arrow is not on and the battery icon is not blinking on my control panel. Any idea what I did wrong?
What is model number and name of the original charge controller that you went back to?
Idk. It’s the one that comes with the original harbor freight kit. There’s no model number on it.
Yeah you need some air flow passing beneath your units
I think the charge controller that comes in the 100w kit is rated to 100w max. Have you had any issues with it?
Tony Solar. No. I have pulled 200 watts with it and it still works fine
@@Checkitfirst Nice.. Thanks for the info and awesome video.
can you just connect the wire from the hub to the charge controller and skip the bus panel?
Yes. I am only using the bus bars for future add-ons. There is a lot of connection on those bus bars to do for future projects
I've spent the past 6 months slowly buying solar equipment almost have everything I need to properly install a 500 Watt system
With gel batteries 2000 Watt inverter proper wiring and T-fuses and a lot of trial and error, it's not cheap and not something to do if you don't have the money, I've already blown up an $800 inverter just testing the setup preinstalled,
Its a learning curve and everything I mean everything must be grounded,,
Harbor freight is for kid's projects, and cheap tools lol 👻👻👻
All their crap is made in Red China. 'Nuff said.
Howdy There: Y would like to know where did you pick up some stuff. So I can try to build for my home. Oh I would you know how can I get power from my solar panels that I have installed 4-month ago. And also do have a backup power generator that I don't sun for the panels. Well I have 40-solar panels on my home I think each one is 100watts. I'm calling from Houston Tx & keep up the good work on your UA-cam Video too
Michael Shane . I’m in Corpus Christi. No I do not have a back up generator. You say you have 40 solar panels? That’s a lot of panels!!!
That saw Green Solar Technologies they come out to my place did a survey & took a look at the breaker box it show 125 break two of them. So tell me how do you like your solar system at your place or you saving money on your energy bill & you getting money from your electric company where you at
to determine how many amps can be produced by the solar panels, your plan is 'nice' However, the amperage to the batteries strictly depends on the current charge state of the batteries
AND ... the load on the battery
not sure how old this vid is" after i full screened it i was able to see the upload date" i recently bought the 500 watt controller you had issues with. im not a fan either! i ended up getting an hqst controller from amazon for 40$ and like it much better. seems to be getting more watts to the batt than the other controller and lets you know how much juice is in the batts. not sure how accurate it is but i do know the harbor freight controller will only get my batts to 13.1 and stops. the other one says its only 3/4's full and keeps going. hope this helps. also got the hqst panel ill be installing soon. im trying to get enough watts to charge my 2 deep cycle 6 volt batts in one day if possible. those batts will run my normal night time power usage and then recharge while im at work. "thats what im hoping for anyways lol" my current set it 2 100 watt thundervolt panels and 1 hqst panel, 1 hqst 30 amp controller 2 6 volt deep cycle and a 2000 watt samplex pure sinewave inverter. if everything works as plan it should be enough to run my office at night and be charged by the next day. maybe i should do a vid lol i keep saying i need to make more but never find time.
Nice setup. Would love to see it. I should make more videos to. I’m kinda at a stopping point now. New controller and added some panels. I guess the only thing left is to do lithium 🙄.
do not touch your fingers on the wires or busbars when testing amperage. your body absorbs some of the energy
hook the wires up and install a switch flip the switch and then take a reading. but I'm going to tell you your going to want to use a larger ga wire from the charge controller down to the batteries at least a 8ga or even a 4ga wire, your trying to get as much energy as you can. add all the panels up each one has a 16ga wire on it to support that current you have to provide a path for the energy x2 per pair 8 panels would need x8 in wire size yes its overkill but would you rather gain more power and lose a few pennies? or waste what you could have if you upgraded the wires.
This is 12 volts not AC its DC direct current wire size and ga has a profound effect on current transfer.
The reason your home uses 120 volts per leg of 240 volts is because moving power over a long distance with dc current uses very large wire's almost everything in your home runs off low current after stepping down voltage in a power supply.
you clocks radios tv's computers ex. run off of 12 volts or close to 12 volts dc current. Large appliances run of AC current and low dc current if they have a computer chip in them Most are 120 volts a electric stove AC system and dryer use 240 volts ac and 120 volts ac very few other things use this type of power unless you have a machine shop or woodworking shop ex.. but that's differnt stuff most homes do not have that.
instead of buying inverters to step up power to step it down but stuff that runs off 12 volts because everytime you change the voltage you lose some of that power in heat. Its lost energy.
You can find plenty of things made to run off 12 volts, tv fridge ac units ex. Even power tools. rechargeable power tools that have plenty of working power that can charge off a 12 volt system.
Light's did you know all Leds run off of 2.1 volts dc?
Buy Leds and a 10k ohm resistor put the resistor on one leg and you have light right off your 12 volt battery.
Led stands for Light Emitting Diode they wire up in one direction only so if its not coming on turn the polarity around
If its a good led it should work. Most failed Led house light bulbs fail because the power supply went bad not the led.
Now That's an assumption not fact I haven't tested yet. But Leds last a long time and draw very little current.
What draws the most current in say a TV is the power supply in standby mode. Its pulling power to be ready to turn on when you push power on. It's stupid but thats how its done.
If I were to build a home today I'd rethink the entire electrical system to be multi voltage,
1 power supply for Lights and lighting systems, one for electronics and one for electrical appliances.
2.1 volt dc Lights
12 volts dc TV stereo computer ex..
140 2 phase volts ac Fridge counter top cooking garbage disposal
440/240 3 phase volts ac AC system dryer and anything with a high powered motor and car charger for garage electric car.
This is what A home should have.
Thank you for all of this information. This extremely enlightening
@bobbg - His fingers are *NOT* absorbing any measurable energy ...
Where did you get that Amp meter from?
Amazon
Listen to the advice below.
So the maximum amount you can pull using that busbar system is 13.6?
13.6 is just the voltage im talking about the amperage.
Could it be because your panels are in parallel rather than series as to the reason you're only getting roughly 100w total?
Running series or parallel doesn’t change your wattage
What about stepping up the voltage to 24v or even 48v?
Michael Sherburne. My power inverter is only a 12 V inverter and the charge controller you’re looking at will not handle that voltage. But in the future yes maybe
Looks like 8 or 6 gauge coming off the battery- it's best to use 2 gauge
On a 2000 watt Jupiter inverter, would I need a 175 or 200 amp in line fuse, between the battery and invertor on the positive cable? Thanks!
If it were me, I would use a 150 amp fuse. 12.5 V x 150amps = 1875 Watts. You probably don’t want to max out your inverter. But if you want to max out your Inverter then I guess 175 amp fuse would work
Thanks for the video and the reply!
@@davidpalmer9091 your very welcome.
Can I use three 12 volt 35Amp batteries in series using the 30 Amp solar charge controller that came in the kit? without ruining the controller? Thank you
Folllowing as I have same set up
I'm confusted. I believe the controller that comes with the HF kit is a 20 amp max unit designed for a 12 volt battery bank.
3 12volt batteries in series gives you a 36 volt system.
I'm not sure any of this is the correct use of the controller included in these kits.
Impedance matching of source and load for max power transfer is the name of the game. Too much loading and there will be a "brown-out" drop in voltage in the panel. (P = I x E) Too little loading and the power is under utilized from its potential. That is what a MPPT controller does. But further to your experiment; was the battery near to a full charge? One function of a controller is to taper off charging when nearing charge completion to stay inside the battery safe parameters. Repeat with the battery sufficiently drained as a starting point.
Later on I came to find out that the controller had an issue. When I put the original controller back on I’m more than doubled my output. The original charge controller that came with the kit works a lot better than that 500 W controller that Harbor freight sells that’s supposed to be better. I no longer have any of that equipment. My system has been upgraded. Go check it out
How did you mount these to the roof?
There are four screw holes in the corners of the panels.. I used coated exterior screws. If you do this,, make sure you don’t screw all the way through the roof deck and use roof sealant around the screw holes. Screw the panel down then remove the panel fill the screw holes with the sealant and screw the panel back down. They have been on my roof now for three years and there hasn’t been any issues that I have seen
How many watts can that controller handle on the input and output?
Brian watson 300
If you have an MPPT charge controller my guess is that you will get about a 30% increase in power.
PWM charge controllers just "lop" off the voltage greater than the battery can use, an MPPT charge controller will take that 'extra' voltage that is not needed and convert it to amps at a lower voltage that can be put into your battery.
Doesn't do any good with only 200 watts. The 3/4 amp i gained when i bought my mppt doesn't justify the cost. Now I'm at 500 watts and i can see the difference and justify the cost..
@@Checkitfirst Agreed, but I think that is a result of the harbor freight panels specifically. I never put MPPT on the harbor freights I had, but I did a test on one of my windy nation 100W panels. on PWM I would get a max of about 69Watts output, but using MPPT I would get close to 98Watts max.
5.2Amps max on PWM Same conditions on same battery bank (did the test within minutes of each other) MPPT gave me 7.4Amps output. Batt voltage at the time was 13.3Volts
13.3Vx5.2A = 69.16W PWM , 13.3Vx7.4A=98.42W MPPT
The harbor freight panels seem to be running at an odd powerpoint and are unable to actually give you 100W (or 25W per panel) output.
@@andresrvlife1386 . I agree.. HF panels just dont seem to match the power of mono panels. I have 12 of them and I will use them till they stop working. Seems they have a short life span. Not really designed to operate 24/7.
You can not unplug better first. Must unplug pannels from charge controller. It will burn up charge controller.
Oh do you have to send your extra power back to the electric company that you don't used & you use your solar system day time & go back to city service?And how long it took you to get the PTO switch so you can use the solar system where you at? It took us 3-month because we can't used the solar system & we have been make month payment on it.
Can I use a car battery on these solar panels? It looks like you are, but I can't tell.
Michael Christopher . You can. Car batteries don’t last as long. I’m using a marine battery. It supposedly can take a bit more abuse and last a bit longer
I have to Harbor Freight 45 watt solar panel kits. My question is could I hook all six panels to one original Harbor Freight solar panel charge controller. Any feedback would help, I am charging 2 6 volt batteries tied together for 12 volt Trojan t105
The charge controller that came with the 100 watt kit has a 20 amp fuse. I have goten 13+ amps out of it with 12 panbels. I now have 3 100 watt kits. I had all 3 kits totalling 300 watts. I had no problems
@@Checkitfirst so if I'm getting this right the obvious question is I need to check the fuse in the back of the controller and see what the maximum amperage you can handle. And this is coming from someone that worked on generators Transformers electric motors, LOL that tells you a lot of what I know and don't know. Just because you put a carburetor on a car doesn't mean you can rebuild it LOL
@@marbbridges . Don't be so hard on yourself LOL.... The manufacturers said my controller had a 10 amp fuse in it. When I checked it had a 20 amp fuse.. Sometimes manufacturers dont know crap. ☺. We all learn something new everyday...
People used to work with who thought they knew it all, I told him to be careful cuz you have one foot in your backside and one out the door LOL
Oh I forgot we got package deal solar system with NG generate generator 22Kw
What size inverter are you using?
10,000 watt Jupiter
Pick up a cheap 400W Wind Turbine for around $200! You'd be surprised how much extra you can supplement your panels with a Wind Turbine.
roostershooter76 I do have my eyes set on. It’s only 200 watts at 24v. Thought I might try it
It would be cool to use a whirlybird connected to wind turbine generator to benefit from the excess heat being created. Added efficiency
Oh is your system solar edge HD?
Michael Shane. I have 300 watts of hf panels and 400 watts of mono panels with a EPever 30 amp charger
The one that comes with it is a 30A according to the manual. Thus 360W, so buying a 200W controller was probably pointless. It may have been putting out just over 200W and reducing it down not to blow itself up. Or the heat was just too much like others said.
chris cox. The original charge controller only has a 20 amp fuse in it. I opened it up and looked. I did a video on it go check it out
@@Checkitfirst thanks for letting me know because the book says something like 30 amps max but didnt really say thats what it was necessarily rated for. And I have 275W total.
But was the fuse on the incoming or outgoing power? Because my panel's incoming is 18-20v and controller outgoing is like 12-14v.
18v @20 amps is same wattage as 12 @30. (360watts)
Maybe the book was referring to the max output is 30amps. I guess I need to look again but my 275watts total shouldn't cause any problems at 18v.
@@spankymagee. I believe it is the output power. So you are looking at about 21 amp to the battery if you are getting a Full 275 watts in. I would probably get a little bigger charge controller😊
@@Checkitfirst yeah better safe than sorry. Some are only like $30 on amazon. Ill probably run my 100 watt thunderbolt on the that came with it and the 175w panel on the new one.
Where can I get that amp / clamp meter?
amaazon.
What kind of AMP meter are you using?
Rather Be Wargaming. It’s from amazon. Yeeco dc volt ammeter
Thanks
can the original charge controller handle 200 watts ?
Yes. I ran 200 W through mine for a long time. I opened it up and looked inside and it has a 20 amp fuse.
how are you holding 8 amps of current with your fingers?
Amps at a low voltage are not dangerous. A car battery has an amp output of 500+ amps at 12 volts. Never seen a car battery shock anybody...
Check it first
I was cleaning up debris from an auto accident, it was dark and I didn't see that the battery case was missing. I reached down to pick it up, and when I grabbed it I got shocked and threw the battery about 20 feet. It was a 12 volt lead acid battery .
.
I got 400 watts of panel on the roof, 200 watts facing east, and 200 watts facing west.
I can hit the full 30+ amps from my 400 watt hub.
The real item everyone needs to be aware of is the 500 watt controller may charge a lifepo 4 up to 4.2 then stop providing current.
I don't know at the moment how low it will let the battery go before it starts dumping amps again into the battery, Report when I find out.
I’m just curious why you’re not facing all of them south
@@Checkitfirst I guess he's looking to maximize his early morning charge after drawing down his battery at night and late afternoon charge to top them off before dark.
That is not the proper way to max out the solar panels. You are still going thru that hub, the bus bars, and into a charged battery. Try taking the output of a single panel and run it into a highly discharged (but otherwise very healthy) battery. I suspect you will see more than 1A of charge power, perhaps even as much as 1.5A in intense sunlight at the perfect angle. Each time you add something such as a meter, a bus bar, a hub, more wires... you are adding series resistance and dropping the current. Even if you shorten the wires from the panels, you should see a slight increase in amperage cuz there are losses in the wires.
You will never see 25 watts directly out of a panel that is sent to a discharged battery. I don't remember what the dead short value I saw was but it was under 1 amp and the panels produce their most power at the 18 volt point. You do not get 2 amps at 12.5 volts but you can get 1.5 amps out at 18 volts under ideal conditions. They will likely show about .8 amps at that point. That is why a MPPT controller is needed. You need to get the panels' voltage and amps to the max wattage point for what you have available from the sun. I have a picture of the MingHe MPT-7210A from the other day where it showed 198.5 watts output out of 200 watts of panels. 26.02 volts X 7.63 amps = 198.5326 watts. I didn't have the ammeter on the input to it at the time but I would bet that it would have shown over 200 watts into the controller. That was just before the fuses blew as my output to the batteries is fused for 142.56 watts. 3 X 3 amps X 15.84 volts. That showed a battery voltage at the time of 14.1 volts. The difference in 14.1 and 15.84 is the blocking diodes voltage drop on both legs. A fourth, fifth, and sixth buck converter are on hand so that I can get the power up to the full rated output of the 7210A. And then when the second 7210A arrives, the rest of the 400 watts of panels can be installed.
That seems like a lot of expense to squeeze out a few more watts. Here is an idea for a "poor man" to try... If a typical 12V panel can output as much as 23V unloaded and produces peak power output around 18V, why not put 3 of those panels together in series to get around 54V peak power voltage, and then just connect that to a 48V battery bank? What someone could do is monitor the output voltage of the panels in series and if connecting them to a battery in a mid state of charge is too much load for them (dropping the panel voltage below 54V), then just add some series resistance before the batteries such as a piece of wire. After experimenting enough, you should be able to get it so that even in full sun, the output voltage of the panels should not be too much to charge the 48V bank. 54V on a 48V bank is like 13.5V on a 12V bank which is the voltage that can be used to quickly charge a battery in a mid state of charge, but by holding it at 13.5V (per 12V of cells), that will not overcharge a battery since that is industry accepted standard as a healthy trickle charge/maintain voltage for a full charged battery.
I think it would be worth investigating this setup. I can even try it cuz I have a 4 panel Harbor Freight kit so I can just connect 3 in series and monitor the current flow. At 54V solar panel voltage under load, I would be very lucky if I get 1A (54 watts). The advantage is I wont need a solar controller. I could also sell my 4th panel to someone that wants to play around with solar on a budget since buying 1 panel is much cheaper than buying a whole kit. For example, someone that already has an inverter and a 12V battery but wants to monkey around with a single solar panel to help keep the battery topped off. Perhaps someone that has a shed and just wants to give it some solar power or maybe someone that already has a 4 panel HF kit and wants to add a 5th panel to get is closer to a true 100 watts output.
@@davidjames1684 Yes it did eat some of the power but it was done so that it was a 12 volt system in my case. Currently it now is working as both a 12 and 24 volt system. During the day, 24 V and at night, 12 V. With 200 watts of panels, it is getting around 550 watt hours per day in a 10 hour period. It does hit 100 watts just about every day for about 1 hour. My batteries are never below 12.4 volts in the morning and are at about 14.4 around noon. They are at 13.1 around midnight. And HF has started to sell single 25 watt panels too.
I have a new kit from Harbor Freight and would be willing sell you some individual panels so you want to get more total power out of your system.
I wonder why the charge control of the other one was lowering it. My charge controler has a 20 amp fuse... I took it apart and looked.
All the harbor freight charge controllers have a 20 amp fuse in them except the 500 watt charge controller . it does not have a fuse in it
@@Checkitfirst ah ok. I was about to hook up the harbor freight solsr panel in series then hook it up to the charge controler. The current wouldn't be much but the high voltage would blow it . How much voltage can the charge controler handle from solar panels connected in series? Do you know why the new charge controler allowed for more amps vs the other one? Thought the othe old one was more powerful. You stated in the video the new charge controler had a 10 amp fuse. Just making sure my system isn't weird. Thanks again
@@j5892000 . The manufacturer said there was a 10 amp fuse in the controller. They were wrong. I opened it up and found a 20 amp fuse in it. I have a video. Go look.. You can not run pannels in series with harbor freight charger.
@@Checkitfirst yeah I had seen a video about why not to do it but never saw anything in how much voltage they can take going in. Harbor freight doesn't have much info sadly. I'm thinking about tinkering with dc to d.c step down converter. I hsve carried but. It's 2 gel batteries that are about 110 ah. Both 6 volts so connected in series. My charge controler charges them so slow . Do I figure I can get the panels to hook up into that to drop the voltage and plug it into my inverter do het more faster. Or I could just go with an mppt chargers 🤔. What do you think
@@j5892000 mppt... That way you can add more panels in the future. I ran my panels in series and got 60 volts. But my amps to the battery stayed the same. You won't gain any amps running in series. If your pannels are close to your charger like within 30 feet I would stay in parallel. If you are farther than 30 feet and have small gage wire then run in series. Amps are lower on panel side but the controller will bump the amps back up..
Where did you get the ampmeter
Eric Cart. Amazon
3.8 out of 5 stars 23
Yeeco Digital DC Voltmeter Ammeter Multimeter, 10-90V 0-200A LCD Color Display Voltage Ampere Power Watt Coulomb Capacity Time Meter Tester Testing Detector with Hall SensorYeeco Digital DC Voltmeter Ammeter
How many panels for you have ?
8
Hey brother I'm not getting what I feel like I should be getting amp wise out of my 300 watt setup Does that hub run the panels in series or parallel?
Parallel
I checked each panel 20 volts and 3.5 amps when I have each one, one at a time plugged in and I have a dif charge controller so it may the charge controller I feel like it should be at least ten amps to fifteen in full sun
I have an mppt charge controller but I'm not hooking up my good stuff til I get a good hold on the cheap stuff lol I feel like I need to wire in series and then in parallel to bump up the voltage and the current to balance both out what you think?
@@flintriverkayaking7051
I have come to find out that when I have a load on mine it pulls more from the panels
@@flintriverkayaking7051
Running in series with mppt is always a good idea. What kind of battery bank do you have
You didn’t have to change the wires to a lower awg??? Or is that fine
It’s fine.
@@Checkitfirst okay I wanted to get two of the monocrystillne panels that harbor freight has now and I wanted to make sure that was fine
@@Shmade0304 I wasn’t aware that harbor freight had mono panels. I’ll have to look into that. My harbor freight panels are amorphous
@@Checkitfirst no they do check the website they 100w
@@Shmade0304 they want 100 bucks for the panel. 79 bucks on amazon.
get rid of the buss bars ? and toss the lead acid stuff also make sure you have a blue light on the top of the panels if it is light blue or no light it's bad
Agreed.
sorry you need air space under panel ,or they over heat ,resulting in way less power. i have mine on a pull so it gets cooling from wind .I have pulled 8.7 amps out of mine . keep it cool or the panel will degrade and start pealing solar material off. trust me air space is every thing winter time it will produce slightly more power ,up to 12 amps when cold in full sun
You can not get 12 amps out of a 100 watt panel. 100 watts divided by 18 volts is 5.5. Even at 14 volts which is where charge controllers charge at the most you’ll get is 7.1. In the winter time I’ve only gained approximately 10% so it’s not really worth the effort to lift them off the roof
@@Checkitfirst when there at - 10 you can the voltage on the panel go's up
How much money donI need to set a solar system like yours???
Luis Anacona. Well, this video has roughly about $400.00 invested. If I knew then what I know now I wouldn’t buy it. There is better stuff than this on amazon like 2-100 watt panels at $99 bucks each and $150 for a charge controller
Thank you so much for the information, now I have a idea...