AlaskanNoob
Solar Enthusiast
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MPPT puts out 100A to a single battery connected to the bus with a positive and negative cable. Is it 100A going through both cables, or 50A going through each to the battery?
Super noob question - are amps going to battery split between + and - cables?
- Thread starter AlaskanNoob
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fat_old_sun
Solar Enthusiast
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Think of Amps as gallons/min flow rate. One Amp is equal to 1 Coulomb of charge flow per second. In your case, the MPPT controller sends 100 Amps to the battery thru the positive cable and 100 Amps comes out of the battery thru the negative cable and goes back to the controller. In that process, the charge flow loses some electrical pressure (voltage drop) and performs the 'work' of recharging the battery.
AlaskanNoob
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No kidding, had no idea. Battery is charged through the positive cable and discharged through the negative cable? I did see a battery diagram recently where instead of the battery having a positive and negative cable labeled, it had a "charge" and "discharge" label. This might explain it. Thanks for the education!
Checkthisout
Solar Wizard
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100 A round trip.
You'll measure 100 amps on either the positive or negative cable.
DIYrich
Solar Wizard
Technically the negatively charged electrons are moving from the negative terminal to the positive terminal. The chain propagates the push at the speed of light, but a single electron only moves about 1 inch per second.
100 amps moves through both wires in a big circle.
100 amps moves through both wires in a big circle.
Ampster
Renewable Energy Hobbyist
That may be an explanation of what is known as a dual port battery management system which controls charging and discharging through separate connections, My BMS controls it through one connection and in that case positive is always connected to positive and negative is connected to negative.
