I have 2 of these Rover 60 amp units charging my 24 volt LFP batteries. Each has its own string of 1600 watt panels. For a year I have been using the 120 amp Growatt MPPT with 2 solar input channels. I never saw any more than 60 amps from it. It burned out last week and I installed the pair of Rovers. Wow, I saw one at 55 amps and the other at 48 amps today, 2.4KW on the panel meter. The amazing thing was that there was still charge showing on each of around 25 to 30 watts each near sundown. Not much, but I am impressed at how long they keep charging as the sun goes down. The Growatt has been shutting down at 2:30 in the afternoon. Today, the Rovers were still outputting at 5:30, a little over an amp. I am impressed with them!
Looking at using these to charge our 48 volt Absolyte GX battery bank. I would be interested in seeing how you set up your 24 volt system and what type of equipment (panels, inverter) you are operating on! We are starting with an Conext SW4048 prewired system with Outback Controller. I would like to push as much power into the battery bank (2,000 amp hour) that we are able. We are located in Northern Nevada and hope to use very limited generator power (fully off grid).
@@rongray4118 Mine is a home made system. It has a dozen Chins 300 amp hour batteries in a cabinet/console that has several inverters on its top shelf. 3600 amp hours currently. The main inverter is a Sungoldpower 6000 watt split phase heavy duty low frequency unit. There are 2 other 3000 watt WZRELB high frequency inverters to run low load circuits running chest freezers 24/7. These have low parasitic loss compared to the 6000 watt inverter charger's 86 constant watt draw. The 2 Renogy 60 amp MPPT's are on 2 separate solar strings with the lightning arrestors and fuses up by the roof and a pair of 100 amp switches that can disconnect either or both of the inputs to the solar chargers on the console. There are times when the battery pack is at 100% and I shut down one or both charge controllers until the system gets down to 70%, then maybe turn one back on. The loads are all over the map and as the seasons change, there are times that all solar input is appreciated...November through February. The 2 panel face the sun at different times and having 2 charge control units maximizes the input from each. These are dual face panels somewhere around 400 watts, new, left over from a friend's project that never got built. Less than ideal for me, but these happen to be just at the very edge of the Renogy input specs for June/July sun without overpaneling the charge controllers. There are also a pair of Aims 24 volt battery chargers on the panel that can be powered up by 120 volt generators for 70 amps total output. The Sungoldpower 6000 watt can be used as a charger but needs the 240 volt output of the Onan diesel generator as a source, loud and stinky, used as a last resort if needed. I think it charges at 90 amps. I built a bunch of smaller systems for family, friends for their RV's and my camper van. The Renogy MPPT charge controllers, inverters, DC-DC chargers, and battery meters have been really reliable in the last few years for me. Another thing that was cheap to do and is a surprisingly good tool was to add an Amazon $50 ''pet camera'' to the console that is aimed at the Renogy shunt battery meter. This means that I can see everything displayed on that meter from my cell phone instantly from many miles away. It has audio and I can hear if cooling fans are running. The higher dollar Victron Bluetooth smart shunt unit can't even read from just outside my shop 20 feet away. This panel uses the Eye4 pet cam but 2 other separate battery/inverter ststems have Reolink pet cams. Both good. And the advantage of having the Renogy battery meter is that you have all of the info on one screen at the same time without having to be there and scroll thru menus. I build units to be flexible and have components on hand in case something fails. I hope this helps.
Mine...3600ah, 6000w split phase inverter charger with 90 amp charge, two 3000 watt high frequency inverters, 2 Aims 120 volt battery chargers for 70 amp charge, two 60 amp Renogy MPPT units fed by 2 strings of panels that get different sunlight at different times of day. The 6000 inverter charger needs the 240 volt generator to function. sounds like you have a nice system.
To use the controller parallel port if you have two of these controllers. First decide which controller is going to be your Primary and which the Slave. Only set the Primary to the days you want between Equalizations and the slave to Zero if setting is being used. In settings Menu go to Address and set the Primary to 1 and Slave to 2 or whichever numbers you desire as long as the Primary is a lower number than the Slave. Remove both green port connectors, ignore the first wire connecting point (on the left), manual shows which is which. Then wire each of the remaining connecting points to each of the connectors, 2 to 2, 3 to 3 and 4 to 4. Reconnect them to the controllers, Primary first. Then go into Settings Menu to the 485 setting (very last setting in menu) and switch from Communication to Parallel Charge, again Primary first. The charging arrows on the slave should now be Clear and the Primary remain Solid. I found disconnecting from panels and battery then reconnecting helps if the arrows have not changed on the Slave. But turn the Primary back on first. When in equalisation mode both controllers will be now synced together. I do have 3 of these and tried wiring all 3 together but does not seem to work.
Maybe I'm missing something, but my interest in the DC load outputs would be to connect a refrigerator and freeze that has a DC compressor. It's not something I've actually tried yet. Pretty sure it's something that would work best with a 48 volt system since I'm not sure 20 amps would be enough to handle the starting spike in current draw with a 12 volt system.
You would connect the fridge freezer to the battery via a fuse if its a DC unit. If its ~Ac you supply it from an Inverter, that powered by a battery. RVs are normally 12 or 24v.
@mowgliadventures5773 I don't disagree. But these aren't only used in rvs. And some of us like 48 volt systems. So connecting to the DC outputs might be tempting, although I personally wouldn't.
At 2:24 you mention an asterisk and an assumption it relates to 48V not being available with LifePO. Was this asterisk in he manual? I realize this review is over a year old so just wondering if Renogy has made an update as all marketing and the manual for current model don't indicate that 48V is not compatible with LifePO. Cheers.
Hey boss. Ive had this unit for maybe 6 months or so now. Right now ive got 6- 12v 100w pannels hooked up to it. But im not getting nearly as many watts output under full sunlight. Some sugest my wires are too small. Im thinking of ordering 2 more panel and wiring them 2 sets of 4 so 48v 200w. This is all still safe to do with this charge controller going to my 12v 300ah battery bank correct?
What power are you getting? Do you know the Voc and Isc. How are they wired? Series or parallel or mixed? Let’s see what the maths say before need to spend ££
Or subscribe to the email on this post to get a free solar design tool that will tell you recommended wire sizes per config. It’s half way down the post mowgli-adventures.com/rv-solar-calculator/
@mowgliadventures5773 so right now my 6 12v 100w have produced a max of 360-370w all wired in parallel. And that's in full sunlight in July. I would assume being a 12v 600w system in full sunlight I would at least see 500w entering the charge controller. But even the smallest things like battery chargers and 12v lights seem to start pulling from my battery bank during full sun
So it might be wires sizes from the joined array to the Mppt, they will restrict the energy flow. I reckon 25mm2 (4awg) for a 4m run to Mppt & circa 50a fuse. From the mppt to the battery 16mm2 (6awg) at 1 meter length with 60amp fuse. @@brandonshepherd3317
@@brandonshepherd3317try wiring the panels in series. Higher voltage and less current on your wires. In parallel your pushing to low of voltage and to many amps through your wires. It’s also possible you have a bad panel.
That was my point, what is the purpose the dc outlet? I don’t use the 12v load connection, maybe other do and perhaps they could share what they use it for? I agree inverters should be feed off the battery via a fuse.
Small loads such as lights can be connected to the DC load output and programmed to turn on and off at specific times and will work even when the inverter is turned off.
I have 2 of these Rover 60 amp units charging my 24 volt LFP batteries. Each has its own string of 1600 watt panels. For a year I have been using the 120 amp Growatt MPPT with 2 solar input channels. I never saw any more than 60 amps from it. It burned out last week and I installed the pair of Rovers. Wow, I saw one at 55 amps and the other at 48 amps today, 2.4KW on the panel meter. The amazing thing was that there was still charge showing on each of around 25 to 30 watts each near sundown. Not much, but I am impressed at how long they keep charging as the sun goes down. The Growatt has been shutting down at 2:30 in the afternoon. Today, the Rovers were still outputting at 5:30, a little over an amp. I am impressed with them!
@kimmer6 wow thats great to hear the improvement on your array.
Looking at using these to charge our 48 volt Absolyte GX battery bank. I would be interested in seeing how you set up your 24 volt system and what type of equipment (panels, inverter) you are operating on! We are starting with an Conext SW4048 prewired system with Outback Controller. I would like to push as much power into the battery bank (2,000 amp hour) that we are able. We are located in Northern Nevada and hope to use very limited generator power (fully off grid).
@@rongray4118 Mine is a home made system. It has a dozen Chins 300 amp hour batteries in a cabinet/console that has several inverters on its top shelf. 3600 amp hours currently. The main inverter is a Sungoldpower 6000 watt split phase heavy duty low frequency unit. There are 2 other 3000 watt WZRELB high frequency inverters to run low load circuits running chest freezers 24/7. These have low parasitic loss compared to the 6000 watt inverter charger's 86 constant watt draw.
The 2 Renogy 60 amp MPPT's are on 2 separate solar strings with the lightning arrestors and fuses up by the roof and a pair of 100 amp switches that can disconnect either or both of the inputs to the solar chargers on the console. There are times when the battery pack is at 100% and I shut down one or both charge controllers until the system gets down to 70%, then maybe turn one back on. The loads are all over the map and as the seasons change, there are times that all solar input is appreciated...November through February.
The 2 panel face the sun at different times and having 2 charge control units maximizes the input from each. These are dual face panels somewhere around 400 watts, new, left over from a friend's project that never got built. Less than ideal for me, but these happen to be just at the very edge of the Renogy input specs for June/July sun without overpaneling the charge controllers.
There are also a pair of Aims 24 volt battery chargers on the panel that can be powered up by 120 volt generators for 70 amps total output. The Sungoldpower 6000 watt can be used as a charger but needs the 240 volt output of the Onan diesel generator as a source, loud and stinky, used as a last resort if needed. I think it charges at 90 amps.
I built a bunch of smaller systems for family, friends for their RV's and my camper van. The Renogy MPPT charge controllers, inverters, DC-DC chargers, and battery meters have been really reliable in the last few years for me.
Another thing that was cheap to do and is a surprisingly good tool was to add an Amazon $50 ''pet camera'' to the console that is aimed at the Renogy shunt battery meter. This means that I can see everything displayed on that meter from my cell phone instantly from many miles away. It has audio and I can hear if cooling fans are running. The higher dollar Victron Bluetooth smart shunt unit can't even read from just outside my shop 20 feet away. This panel uses the Eye4 pet cam but 2 other separate battery/inverter ststems have Reolink pet cams. Both good. And the advantage of having the Renogy battery meter is that you have all of the info on one screen at the same time without having to be there and scroll thru menus.
I build units to be flexible and have components on hand in case something fails. I hope this helps.
@@rongray4118 Something wrong with YT posting here this morning. 2 long replies from me to you did not go through, disappeared. Will try later!
Mine...3600ah, 6000w split phase inverter charger with 90 amp charge, two 3000 watt high frequency inverters, 2 Aims 120 volt battery chargers for 70 amp charge, two 60 amp Renogy MPPT units fed by 2 strings of panels that get different sunlight at different times of day. The 6000 inverter charger needs the 240 volt generator to function. sounds like you have a nice system.
👍 that’s the one I shall get eventually, thanks for the review.
To use the controller parallel port if you have two of these controllers. First decide which controller is going to be your Primary and which the Slave. Only set the Primary to the days you want between Equalizations and the slave to Zero if setting is being used. In settings Menu go to Address and set the Primary to 1 and Slave to 2 or whichever numbers you desire as long as the Primary is a lower number than the Slave. Remove both green port connectors, ignore the first wire connecting point (on the left), manual shows which is which. Then wire each of the remaining connecting points to each of the connectors, 2 to 2, 3 to 3 and 4 to 4. Reconnect them to the controllers, Primary first. Then go into Settings Menu to the 485 setting (very last setting in menu) and switch from Communication to Parallel Charge, again Primary first. The charging arrows on the slave should now be Clear and the Primary remain Solid. I found disconnecting from panels and battery then reconnecting helps if the arrows have not changed on the Slave. But turn the Primary back on first. When in equalisation mode both controllers will be now synced together. I do have 3 of these and tried wiring all 3 together but does not seem to work.
Looks good.
Maybe I'm missing something, but my interest in the DC load outputs would be to connect a refrigerator and freeze that has a DC compressor. It's not something I've actually tried yet. Pretty sure it's something that would work best with a 48 volt system since I'm not sure 20 amps would be enough to handle the starting spike in current draw with a 12 volt system.
You would connect the fridge freezer to the battery via a fuse if its a DC unit. If its ~Ac you supply it from an Inverter, that powered by a battery. RVs are normally 12 or 24v.
@mowgliadventures5773 I don't disagree. But these aren't only used in rvs. And some of us like 48 volt systems. So connecting to the DC outputs might be tempting, although I personally wouldn't.
At 2:24 you mention an asterisk and an assumption it relates to 48V not being available with LifePO. Was this asterisk in he manual? I realize this review is over a year old so just wondering if Renogy has made an update as all marketing and the manual for current model don't indicate that 48V is not compatible with LifePO. Cheers.
Hey boss. Ive had this unit for maybe 6 months or so now. Right now ive got 6- 12v 100w pannels hooked up to it. But im not getting nearly as many watts output under full sunlight. Some sugest my wires are too small. Im thinking of ordering 2 more panel and wiring them 2 sets of 4 so 48v 200w.
This is all still safe to do with this charge controller going to my 12v 300ah battery bank correct?
What power are you getting? Do you know the Voc and Isc. How are they wired? Series or parallel or mixed? Let’s see what the maths say before need to spend ££
Or subscribe to the email on this post to get a free solar design tool that will tell you recommended wire sizes per config. It’s half way down the post mowgli-adventures.com/rv-solar-calculator/
@mowgliadventures5773 so right now my 6 12v 100w have produced a max of 360-370w all wired in parallel. And that's in full sunlight in July. I would assume being a 12v 600w system in full sunlight I would at least see 500w entering the charge controller. But even the smallest things like battery chargers and 12v lights seem to start pulling from my battery bank during full sun
So it might be wires sizes from the joined array to the Mppt, they will restrict the energy flow. I reckon 25mm2 (4awg) for a 4m run to Mppt & circa 50a fuse. From the mppt to the battery 16mm2 (6awg) at 1 meter length with 60amp fuse. @@brandonshepherd3317
@@brandonshepherd3317try wiring the panels in series. Higher voltage and less current on your wires. In parallel your pushing to low of voltage and to many amps through your wires. It’s also possible you have a bad panel.
What is the purpose of the "DC Load" output? The inverter is usually tied directly to the batteries.
That was my point, what is the purpose the dc outlet? I don’t use the 12v load connection, maybe other do and perhaps they could share what they use it for? I agree inverters should be feed off the battery via a fuse.
Small loads such as lights can be connected to the DC load output and programmed to turn on and off at specific times and will work even when the inverter is turned off.