Dead solar panel??????

by chriscx500 Fri Dec 19, 2014 2:38 pm

Assistance required from you knowledgeable folks please. My 2010 Nuevo 2 suffers a very easy flat battery when standing . To investigate I have read up on this forum and various threads about solar panels.
Having rescued my van from storage a few days ago (flat battery) I have had it on charge with a for a few days. Battery voltages are now good. BUT the control panel current reading on a bright winters day with the van parked in sunlight was -0.1 to -0.2 amps (when disconnected from mains hook up). I have recalibrated the display (twice) and this makes no difference. I have unplugged the solar wire from the EC 325 and it is giving me between 4.8 and 5 .1 volts, varying as clouds whiz past. Unplugging the the solar panel takes the voltage to 0.01 volts so i know I have the correct wire. What voltage should one expect in winter sunshine?

by **roli** Fri Dec 19, 2014 4:11 pm

There is a extensive recent thread on this topic Chris have you had a look ?
You are looking at lower charge rates at this time of the year and it depends on panel size and where the van is parked
I don't want to repeat myself too often so as not to annoy members but don't put too much faith on readings from Sargent panels (again details in prev posts)

by -mojo- Fri Dec 19, 2014 6:23 pm

The solar panel will not be putting anything at all into the battery below around 15V, and even then the charge rate is likely to be extremely low. Typically a solar panel should have an output no-load voltage of 21V or more in decent light, but bear in mind that the winter sun is extremely weak and low, so it's entirely possible that it simply cannot generate enough output at this time of year.

As Roli says, the accuracy of the Sargent panel does not seem to be very good - even when just recalibrated - but it sounds as though you have an unexplained drain on the 12V side. One thing you could try is pulling out each of the 12V fuses in turn to see if the current reading drops to zero. But it may be more reliable to get a multimeter and insert it into the leisure battery +ve lead to get an independent view of what is actually happening.

by mikethebike Sat Dec 20, 2014 10:15 am

I agree with Mojo. However your battery is suspect as well. You talk of flat battery more than once.
Without Voltage figures I assume it was like under 10 volts?
Batteries don't like being flattened.

Regards

Micky

by chriscx500 Sat Dec 20, 2014 10:34 am

Hi thanks for advice so far. The Battery going flat is the vehicle battery. The leisure battery is solid. I hoped that the Solar panel via the PSU would give enough to combat the inherent vehicle drain which is taking the vehicle battery down to 10v and less over a 2 -3 weeks.

Thanks

Chris

by Paulmold Sat Dec 20, 2014 10:38 am

I have an 80w panel on my Nuevo (2006) and it keeps both batteries at over 13v all the time when standing unused. The engine battery being charged via a Battery Master. I don't know the working of the control panel on a 2010 but are you sure it should automatically charge the engine battery?

by Peter Brown Sat Dec 20, 2014 11:10 am

When NOT on hook up your EC325 will charge both leisure and vehicle batteries if you have a solar panel fitted and connected too it. Is the panel the AS standard of 30W or one of larger capacity?

You should be looking at the Leisure and vehicle battery voltages on the sargent control unit with no hook up to give an indication of the status. With good batteries and the vehicle not in the shade (and this time of year the shading building/tree can be some distance away) and no 12v powered items switched on, even on a grey winters days the voltages should indicate between 12.7 and 13.2v if an 80W or larger panel is installed, but the most important consideration is that both voltages should be more or less the same. If one voltage is significantly different to the other you have a problem.

Even if you have the 30W panel and no more than a standard alarm installation both batteries should read about12.5/12.6 or higher.

Ignore any current readings as there are too many variables that can affect them in this quiescent state.

If there is a problem there are several things it could be so if you can post the size of the solar panel and the voltage indication for both batteries read from the sargent control unit after the van has been left off hook up for at least 24hrs but ideally at 24, 48 and 72 hrs then further advice can be given.

Peter

by -mojo- Sat Dec 20, 2014 12:57 pm

chriscx500 wrote:I have unplugged the solar wire from the EC 325 and it is giving me between 4.8 and 5 .1 volts

I've just had a chance to check the output of my panel, and if by the above measurements you mean the voltage across the pins ~from~ the solar panel in winter sun, then I strongly suspect that you are correct in assuming that the panel has failed.

My van is inside a garage and gets no direct sunlight with the door open, but just with indirect light reflecting off the (white painted) garage door above it has an output voltage above 10V with light cloud cover, rising to nearly 14V with weak indirect sunlight. Your panel may be lower output and older, but the output voltage should still be comparable, and certainly higher in ~direct~ sunlight.

It would be nice to think that maybe a wiring problem could cause this, but offhand I can't think of an obvious way that it could - generally a loose connection somewhere will give either nothing or the full voltage, and not (when dealing with low voltages like this) somewhere in between.

[Incidentally, now we know that it is the vehicle battery that you are referring to, I can re-iterate something said several times already: The current reading that the Sargent panel shows for the vehicle battery is almost totally meaningless - it can only measure loads that pass through the Sargent control unit, and most loads don't!).

by chriscx500 Tue Dec 23, 2014 9:52 pm

Thanks for your continued advice. Having charged the van on hook up and left it with a steady 13v vehicle battery and 12.8v leisure I have returned the vehicle to storage for a week or so over the Christmas week. I will visit and take readings and "hopefully" start it later this week.

I have no idea of the output of the solar panel I have fitted as it was on a secondhand van when purchased. Confirmation that 5.1 volts on a bright sunny day = dead solar panel is valuable advice for which i am grateful before I get my credit card out to have it replaced.

Regards all
Chris

Dead solar panel??????

Dead solar panel??????

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