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For lead acid, deep cycle batteries are rated based on time (20hr is a common period) and amps delivered over that time scale. So if you wish to test a LA capacity you would takes its AH rating and divide by time to get amps and run your test to see if it can deliver that with not reaching low...

Does anyone have a good rule of thumb number that can be used for estimating the standard loss for a solar panel power setup, wires, fuses/breakers, connectors SCC, battery charge in versus amount out, Inverter in versus out? I realize that it is dependent on the installation and components...

Looking up possible solar panel testers I see a few that are available from China that are all basically the same meter with different names. The two versions are up to 400 watt (in led or panel display) and up to 800 watts. Does anyone have any personal experience with these? It could prove to...

Looking at my arrays wiring to do upgrades which might open up some connector slots on the combiner box it occurred to me that a cap of the unused MC4 plugins to protect against weather would be handy. I had not seen any before but after a quick interenet search it appears there are quite a few...

Looking for recommendations on an AIO in the 3000w 120vAC 24vDC range that can handle being loaded (AC output) near rating for long periods of time. It is hard to ferret out such information from the various companies spec sheets because they tend to give you max limits and not how long they can...

Since I changed my battery from AGM 24vDC to lithium 2 days back I am noticing an odd charging behavior. At some point in the day the voltage cycles at 28.0 when the solar power wattage drops to zero. Then the battery voltage drops to 27.4 before charging starts again until voltage climbs back...

Does anyone know if any 24v inverter or inverter charger is for sale that allows you to adjust the low battery voltage cut off point? All the ones I look at seem to set it so low from factory as to be at battery full discharge. I have this ability in my off grid AIO and it is a feature I think...

Perhaps someone can help explain the interaction of battery charge and load supply when operating off a common DC bus for operation of AIO/SCC. I know that if you are supplying the DC bus from the AIO at a certain amperage (created by the SCC raising bus potential) that loads and the battery...

What is the most likely failure mode of a standard BMS? Does it block all current or does it simply stop performing any safety cutoff functions? If it just becomes a non performing lump, with current flow, I wonder how you would know it was no longer functioning if your charge controller was...

Solar Charge Controllers all seem to use a panel watt rating that they base on max charge current they can deliver to the battery. As an example a 30 amp SCC will say 360w for 12v, 720w for 24v and so on. This causes no end of confusion since way too many people think that potential wattage...

Does anyone have a link to a chart for typical voltage droop under various percent of C loading for LiFePO4 batteries? This is the voltage value under load versus voltage at rest.

Given 4-100w of same manufacture but can only have the voltage from 3 in series to meet already established system. It occurred to me that 2 of the panels could be hooked up in parallel and than the combined panel (double the amperage but the same voltage as 1) could be hooked in series with the...

Recently I changed out the small din rail DC breakers I was using to disconnect my batteries for these rather massive MCCB ones (see image) it got me to looking around the 'net if i could find a tear down or an internal diagram of the insides of one and I came up blank. Does anyone have a link...

Over time my ventures into solar/backup power has led to some unusual setups. Couple that with the free form nature of my place here and it suddenly struck me that when I die, and a stranger comes to takeover the place, they will utter the Title to this thread. 25 years back I bought...

Just got done installing a Easun (iSolar MLV 3KW-U) off grid hybrid inverter. As I am putting it through its paces it strikes me that one feature that would make this a better unit is a clock and timer function. If the hybrid unit could be set to go to AC pass through based on time of day it...

If you are a beginner to solar and DIY it might not occur to you that a part of creating a good lasting setup is to have good tools to work with. This means spending a bit more and not just grabbing your tools from the 99 cent bargain bin at the auto parts store. Screwdrivers are not one size...