Wiring 2 Charge Controllers in Parallel

Discussions about solar power and solar energy projects.
Solar98632
Posts: 246
Joined: Tue Jan 15, 2013 3:10 pm

Wiring 2 Charge Controllers in Parallel

Post by Solar98632 » Mon Feb 23, 2015 7:07 pm

I am showing the battery Cross Over .
Which is what I done to the charge controller.
i did the exact same cross over technique using both solar in and Battery out and the same technique to the inverter.

My question is will this harm anything or does it even out the loads ?

my main goal was to evenly distribute all loads.
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Cross Over
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Solar98632
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Re: Wiring 2 Charge Controllers in Parallel

Post by Solar98632 » Mon Feb 23, 2015 9:58 pm

Finally an image lower then 256k...
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techman
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Re: Wiring 2 Charge Controllers in Parallel

Post by techman » Thu Feb 26, 2015 10:53 pm

If you run both charge controllers truly parallel then there will be no harm done. It is quite common to run multiple charge controllers as you expand your system

But I am not sure from your diagram if that is exactly how you have it?

Run the output of each charge controller straight to the battery. Each one separately. So both of them are connected with their own wires right to the battery and not passing through the connectors of another one.

Solar98632
Posts: 246
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Re: Wiring 2 Charge Controllers in Parallel

Post by Solar98632 » Wed Mar 04, 2015 8:57 am

I see what you are saying, yes the commons are connected

oh. side note.

Yetti 150 won't run the modem over nite.. woke to no net and dead battery ouch.. it died at 3 am.

It went from 6 pm to 3 am on battery only.9 hours is not that bad.

techman
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Re: Wiring 2 Charge Controllers in Parallel

Post by techman » Wed Mar 18, 2015 12:59 pm

The problem, as I have discovered recently, is that a modem takes about 300 watts of power to run every 24 hours. That is a lot of power.

Solar98632
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Re: Wiring 2 Charge Controllers in Parallel

Post by Solar98632 » Wed May 06, 2015 11:08 pm

Ouch..I suspected that. I had to ditch century link.it was one issue after issue, first it was a bad line, then it was service on and off..I finally bagged the it..Comcast...runs a high powered modem. It seems to play nice with the inverters, I can run it all day on solar well, 4 hours for the most part due where my panels are located.

I would move them but I don't. Need them stolen.

I need to get more batteries ..but f has a sale coming up. Buying my final 2 sets and will be working with those.

Next will be the yettiy 400 as it has a pure sign wave inverters. So that will give me 800 Watts on separate units for separate purposes.the yettiy 400 will be powering my TV.

Solar98632
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Re: Wiring 2 Charge Controllers in Parallel

Post by Solar98632 » Mon May 11, 2015 10:30 pm

Wait , what, 300 watts? Eh Troy, the modem I have uses way less power than that from Century Link. This thing is only .5 amps?

techman
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Re: Wiring 2 Charge Controllers in Parallel

Post by techman » Thu May 21, 2015 10:22 am

Mine is rated at one amp. That is 12 watts per hour. That is 288 watts.

Now it probably does not use that much at all times but when calculating solar power requirements it is always best to go with higher numbers.

Solar98632
Posts: 246
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Re: Wiring 2 Charge Controllers in Parallel

Post by Solar98632 » Thu Jun 04, 2015 8:35 pm

techman wrote:Mine is rated at one amp. That is 12 watts per hour. That is 288 watts.

Now it probably does not use that much at all times but when calculating solar power requirements it is always best to go with higher numbers.

Ok , now in get it..watt hours....

I just got a kill a watt. I am going through a few things to get a better understanding..and dang, we are power Boggs. Everything. We have sucks a lot of power being off...oh and it is funny....how the small things get ya...a lot of small chargers...that Will be my next test.....I got a bad feeling about all the little devices we have...

Oh I do have a pure sign wave inverter on the way...it's 300 watts but it will only be for my tv that is 210 watts and may be for the lap top.

I find one can get a tad greedy with the power but not by much.

I won't over drive something.

Plus in a real situation. Lime power outage I would run our 95 watt slow cooker...yup you heard righ..well the "kill a watt" says it is 97.3 . watts... Little sneaker..

Yes I found alt of things that are higher and or lower that rated. Lower stuff is good..higher stuff...not so much so.

techman
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Re: Wiring 2 Charge Controllers in Parallel

Post by techman » Thu Jun 11, 2015 9:53 am

Wow I had not idea the slow cooker could be that low on power. Interesting.

I did know that many items are over rated in their power usage. They show the max wattage, not the average.

All those little devices are called vampires. They cause a constant drain on your power. I unplug anything not currently being used.

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