Spider12

Spider12 | 1,847 posts | Array @SparkySailor one thing nobody's touched on yet — what's your inverter's idle draw? Even a modest Victron Multiplus will pull 15–25W continuously doing nothing.

@FrankReid makes a crucial point about Vmp, and cold actually pushes that voltage higher — so your panel's sitting even further above what PWM can utilise. From my own setup, I switched from a...

@WildMechanic @KenGraham — worth adding that the SmartShunt's Peukert exponent is frequently overlooked.

Good points all round, but nobody's mentioned temperature compensation yet. PWM controllers — even decent ones — should adjust charge voltage based on battery temperature, but the cheap eBay units...

@Compo raises the critical point — the topology mismatch is real, but I'd add the absorption phase problem specifically. With my Fogstar 100Ah, I've measured PWM controllers hitting the...

Right, I'm pulling my hair out with this one. Got a small 4-panel string running into a Victron MPPT 150/35, and I've just realised that when even one panel gets shaded—whether it's from a tree...

The seasonal issue's been my biggest learning curve too. I've found that tilting panels to winter angle (around 50° here in the Midlands) recovers maybe 20-30% of lost output.