I will put this entire 12 minute video into a single sentence. In order to overpanel safely, you simply need to not exceed the maximum MPPT Input voltage. amps don't matter, as it will only take the amps that it needs. if your battery takes up to 60V at 10A, then you can have 50V at 40A, it doesn't matter. it will take the 10A it needs, and since you overpanel, even when the sun is dim, you will likely still get atleast 10A.
Volts are pushed. Amps are pulled. Your power station's solar charge controller cannot (be relied upon to) throttle down the volts you throw at it from the panels. Within reason, it can and will pull the amount of amps needed, at the SAFE voltage supplied, to meet its design and configuration for total amount of wattage delivered to a load or used to charge a battery.
This is my understanding too. This should be the same theory as DC chargers - if your charger is rated for 12VDC/3A, you can hook it to a device that will max out at 1A without any issue at all, but you'll probably blow the charger if you hook it to something that draws 3.5A and you'll probably blow the device if it can only accept 9V.
As people have mentioned, voltage is the only hard limit that you must never exceed. It is safe to exceed the short-circuit current by any factor. HOWEVER, it is always best to have a fuse or DC-rated circuit breaker between the panels and the power station/charge controller in case a problem occurs with the device and it starts to draw more power than it was rated for. For example with the River 2's solar input maximum of 8A, I would put a 9A or 10A fuse.
Everytime you drag that power station on the stone, my heart sank😢 btw it's okay to over current.. Electrical device will draw current that it needed.. But don't over voltage
Perfect demonstration of the volts times amps current limit you need a panel with an operating voltage of say 46 but a VLC under 60 and those are hard to come by or multiply up to without going over but great demonstration of everyone’s problem when you have a 60 V limit it’s the operating voltage times the current input limit that determines your wattage
Are you using the XT60i type connector for the solar charging on your EcoFlow? The middle pin on the XT60i shunted to ground is what puts the EcoFlow into the higher power solar charging mode.
So, to summarise, the panel(s) should have an open circuit Volts output just less than the storage device will accept, with due allowance for temperature effects and should have a power rating greater that the device will accept if the maximum charge rate is to be achieved, even in poorer lighting or cloudy days
Circuit voltage between 2 dissimilar panels in parallel doesn't become that of the lower voltage panel. I see this stared all the time, but experience tells me voltage will be close to the average of the voltage of the panels if they are close to same rated wattage.
My solar inverter inverex company 3.2 kv fault mention 52 I got it repaired they told me don't run elements thing on solar like iron, electric stove, electric geezar, please let me know is it true kindly give me suggestion.
A few people have mentioned that amps are pulled so there is no limit on the power the solar panels can deliver because the charger determines the amount of current drawn. THIS IS NOT TRUE - please read on for a more detailed explanation Well, at least no completely true. As an electronics engineer I have been designing portable power systems using of the shelf solar chargers and I have analyzed the working of these. A lot of the cheaper chargers that state they are MPPT controllers are in fact simple PWM controllers. These controllers simply connect the solar panel directly to the battery with just a few large transistors. They rely on the maximum power point of the solar panel to drop the voltage to a safe level for charging. Having a solar panel that can deliver much more current than the charger can handle, can result in a number of problems: the current may become too high, resulting in the transistors burning out. But this could also result in a too high current or voltage for the battery to handle and this is a very bad thing because this may lead too damage to the battery. What is even worse is that you may not notice this before it is too late. This may lead to the battery overheating. This behavoir was true for some of the controller that were sold to us as being MPPT-controllers but please note that we only tested OEM solar charger controller, not complete power stations like the ones being sold by Anker, EcoFlow or any of the other well known brands. Alex is right in suggesting to contact the manufacturer and ask them what the max. solar power input may be. Maybe some of you still remember 'the old days' when we had flashes for our photo cameras that ran on AA cells? When NiCd was introduced, not all of these could handle the fact that these batteries could deliver a much higher current than the old manganese batteries. If you would fire the flash a few times too fast in a row, the electronics in the flash got damaged resulting in a bricked device
I could see it burning up some components in cheap solar charge controllers but I believe the battery has internal resistance that will limit the amount of current it will accept. Would you agree?
@@diySolarPowerFunWithRay Hmm... difficult to say. Most modern battery packs have a very low internal resistance (i.e. allow for a very high charge current). If not, the charging voltage gets too high since these cheap PWM solar controllers do not regulate the voltage (that is - the ones I have tested) and in this case the battery gets damaged.
I will put this entire 12 minute video into a single sentence. In order to overpanel safely, you simply need to not exceed the maximum MPPT Input voltage. amps don't matter, as it will only take the amps that it needs. if your battery takes up to 60V at 10A, then you can have 50V at 40A, it doesn't matter. it will take the 10A it needs, and since you overpanel, even when the sun is dim, you will likely still get atleast 10A.
Volts are pushed. Amps are pulled. Your power station's solar charge controller cannot (be relied upon to) throttle down the volts you throw at it from the panels. Within reason, it can and will pull the amount of amps needed, at the SAFE voltage supplied, to meet its design and configuration for total amount of wattage delivered to a load or used to charge a battery.
This is my understanding too. This should be the same theory as DC chargers - if your charger is rated for 12VDC/3A, you can hook it to a device that will max out at 1A without any issue at all, but you'll probably blow the charger if you hook it to something that draws 3.5A and you'll probably blow the device if it can only accept 9V.
@BillyBobDingledorf it depends and gets a bit complex. ...check out the comment from Rob_65 ... he sheds more light on this subject.
As people have mentioned, voltage is the only hard limit that you must never exceed. It is safe to exceed the short-circuit current by any factor. HOWEVER, it is always best to have a fuse or DC-rated circuit breaker between the panels and the power station/charge controller in case a problem occurs with the device and it starts to draw more power than it was rated for. For example with the River 2's solar input maximum of 8A, I would put a 9A or 10A fuse.
Everytime you drag that power station on the stone, my heart sank😢 btw it's okay to over current.. Electrical device will draw current that it needed.. But don't over voltage
Perfect demonstration of the volts times amps current limit you need a panel with an operating voltage of say 46 but a VLC under 60 and those are hard to come by or multiply up to without going over but great demonstration of everyone’s problem when you have a 60 V limit it’s the operating voltage times the current input limit that determines your wattage
Ok this one was technical and still really helpful. Thanks Alex.
8:44 I was bracing myself for a thermonuclear detonation. Thankfully my worst fear was not realized.
Are you using the XT60i type connector for the solar charging on your EcoFlow? The middle pin on the XT60i shunted to ground is what puts the EcoFlow into the higher power solar charging mode.
So, to summarise, the panel(s) should have an open circuit Volts output just less than the storage device will accept, with due allowance for temperature effects and should have a power rating greater that the device will accept if the maximum charge rate is to be achieved, even in poorer lighting or cloudy days
Great channel !
So from your last experiment, will a dc-dc converter with a close enough output to the maximum accepted voltage help to take more energy?
Do a thousand dollar system test, thanks.
Circuit voltage between 2 dissimilar panels in parallel doesn't become that of the lower voltage panel. I see this stared all the time, but experience tells me voltage will be close to the average of the voltage of the panels if they are close to same rated wattage.
My solar inverter inverex company 3.2 kv fault mention 52 I got it repaired they told me don't run elements thing on solar like iron, electric stove, electric geezar, please let me know is it true kindly give me suggestion.
A few people have mentioned that amps are pulled so there is no limit on the power the solar panels can deliver because the charger determines the amount of current drawn.
THIS IS NOT TRUE - please read on for a more detailed explanation
Well, at least no completely true. As an electronics engineer I have been designing portable power systems using of the shelf solar chargers and I have analyzed the working of these. A lot of the cheaper chargers that state they are MPPT controllers are in fact simple PWM controllers. These controllers simply connect the solar panel directly to the battery with just a few large transistors. They rely on the maximum power point of the solar panel to drop the voltage to a safe level for charging. Having a solar panel that can deliver much more current than the charger can handle, can result in a number of problems: the current may become too high, resulting in the transistors burning out. But this could also result in a too high current or voltage for the battery to handle and this is a very bad thing because this may lead too damage to the battery. What is even worse is that you may not notice this before it is too late. This may lead to the battery overheating.
This behavoir was true for some of the controller that were sold to us as being MPPT-controllers but please note that we only tested OEM solar charger controller, not complete power stations like the ones being sold by Anker, EcoFlow or any of the other well known brands.
Alex is right in suggesting to contact the manufacturer and ask them what the max. solar power input may be.
Maybe some of you still remember 'the old days' when we had flashes for our photo cameras that ran on AA cells? When NiCd was introduced, not all of these could handle the fact that these batteries could deliver a much higher current than the old manganese batteries. If you would fire the flash a few times too fast in a row, the electronics in the flash got damaged resulting in a bricked device
I could see it burning up some components in cheap solar charge controllers but I believe the battery has internal resistance that will limit the amount of current it will accept. Would you agree?
@@diySolarPowerFunWithRay Hmm... difficult to say. Most modern battery packs have a very low internal resistance (i.e. allow for a very high charge current).
If not, the charging voltage gets too high since these cheap PWM solar controllers do not regulate the voltage (that is - the ones I have tested) and in this case the battery gets damaged.
what's the difference between a solar and a wind controller?...
Smash anyways