MPPT controller

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Still chewing over upgrading to an MPPT solar controller for my truck. With winter coming and the solar angle declining, an MPPT controller might charge my batteries much quicker than a PWM controller, especially with the sub ideal conditions in the woods.

Low Voltage Disconnect Relay - Solar Controller

MPPT is great as it can buck or boost voltage from the solar panel appropriately to maximize charging speed. In contrast, the Renology PWM controller like I have now works but it’s often either using PWM to reduce voltage (wasting the excess power from the panel) or the panel isn’t producing enough voltage to properly charge the battery in less than ideal conditions. Bucking or boosting the voltage one can trade amperage for voltage and vice versa for the ideal charging voltage and best ratio of resistance for maximum panel efficiency.

100 Watt Panel

I am looking primarily at the Renology 20 Amp MPPT controller, which I’ve seen online for under $100. I would have to rewire a few things to make it work, including mounting it where the large inverter is now and moving that back to the shelf in the cap. No decisions have been made but I’m continuing to think about my options.

August 24, 2019 Evening

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Good evening! Partly sunny and 74 degrees at the Five Rivers Environmental Education Center. There is a north breeze at 9 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 53 degrees.

I decided after all these weekends heading out of town to stay closer to home this weekend. 🏡 I wanted to give Big Red a rest and not have to pack and unpack my camping gear. ⛺ Next weekend if it’s not a complete wash out I’ll probably head back to the Adirondacks. Probably take off next Friday but I’ve yet to request it.

Instead I continued messing around with the Save the Pine Bush map I’ve been working on, 🌐 and then a hike out to Five Rivers. I prefer the walk out there to driving. 🚶 I think being a bit tired from the walk makes it easier to enjoy nature. 🐇🌳🌼

I thought about hammock camping up in the Heldebergs tonight but I decided against that. ⛺ I’ll be camping next week and I’m trying to save money wherever possible as rent is due next week. Gas for my big jacked up truck ain’t cheap. ⛽I just needed a weekend that wasn’t so busy, even if it was pretty cool and clear, almost like an autumn weekend. Camping is fun but the set up and take down is exhausting.😯 This autumn isn’t going to be so busy at work so I should have plenty of autumn weekends to travel and explore. 🍁 The West Virginia trip is coming up quickly.

Tonight will be partly cloudy 🌤, with a low of 54 degrees at 4am. Five degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around September 9th. Maximum dew point of 56 at 11pm. North wind 6 to 8 mph. In 2018, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It was somewhat humid. It got down to 62 degrees. The record low of 35 occurred back in 1940.

The sun will set at 7:42 pm with dusk around 8:12 pm, which is one minute and 37 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for partly clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 68 degrees. The dew point will be 54 degrees. There will be a north breeze at 8 mph. Today will have 13 hours and 30 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 41 seconds over yesterday.

Tomorrow will be mostly sunny 🌞, with a high of 74 degrees at 1pm. Five degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around September 11th. Maximum dew point of 58 at 9am. North wind 6 to 8 mph becoming east in the afternoon. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 81 degrees. The record high of 99 was set in 1947.

I was sitting back at Jay’s Home Run at Five Rivers 🐸 reading the plaque about the life of Jay Gallagher, the late Capitol Newspaper 📰 reporter. Honestly, I didn’t know he had passed but it happened when I was working in 2010 out in Syracuse. Pancreatic cancer ♋, just like the late Assemblyman Frank Skartados. Cancer is a nasty disease 😞, I can’t imagine going through all that medical treatment in those plastic everywhere hospitals. 🏥 I’ve always thought if I ever end up in such a situation just to take a road trip and see as much of America that I can before I’m too weak to go on. 🚙 I mean, what’s a few extra months in a hospital bed unable to get out and travel?

Back in 1967, the Yippies of Abbie Hoffman’s Youth International Party temporarily disrupts trading at the New York Stock Exchange 💱 by throwing dollar bills from the viewing gallery, causing trading to cease as brokers scramble to grab them. 💵 As they say, it’s all about the money.

Looking ahead, there are 4 weeks until the Average High 70 🎑 when the sun will be setting at 6:54 pm with dusk at 7:22 pm. On that day in 2018, we had mostly cloudy, rain showers and temperatures between 71 and 65 degrees. This weekend with the cooler weather is a reminder, it’s just around the corner. We hit a record high of 95 back in 1895.

Low clouds

The night the lights went out

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Removing the reset switch from the low voltage disconnect on my truck was a stupid mistake.

I removed it when I had previously wired up the second assessory battery – to reduce the tangle of wires – and figuring I would never need to reset things as low voltage conditions are relatively rare now with the extra capacity.

That was all fine until two hours of reading with the 15 watt LED bulb and other lights in the campsite – drawing over 30 watts caused the voltage at the low voltage relay to sag below the cut off of 12.1 volts for more than 30 seconds. After three days of camping with only partial sun due to shading and clouds on the panel, the batteries also lacked a full charge going into the evening.

It’s good it cut the load to protect the batteries but I did not enjoy having to open up the low voltage disconnect to reset it. I could have started the truck up and used the alternator to feed it voltage to reset it or waited until the sun rose tomorrow but I didn’t feel like doing that – especially knowing that as soon as I reset the relay and cut the load I’d be fine – and not wanting to lug the alternator with a heavy load.

Needless to say I will be hooking up the switch again, as sometimes having a reset is important.