JChoz
New User
- Location
- Cotopaxi Colorado
- Occupation
- Retired AF physician
I have a solar set up at an off grid cabin that has been in place for about 20 years, was working great, until I replaced the batteries. I've confirmed that the batteries are not significantly different than prior, so I'm guessing when I powered down the system to replace them, something in the settings went wrong. Either this or part of the system has failed. This is a 48v system (8x6v lead/acid batteries) with a Trace SW5548 Inverter (Power Conversion Center) and a Trace Charge/Load controller tied to solar panels that for years have been sufficient for the system. There is a generator as well, but manually started. No tie to network AC. (power usage is minimal as I'm only there on weekends, so I'm sure I haven't drained it with over use) Consistently the charge controller has a flashing green light showing the solar is charging, with 7-10amps reading out on the charge controller, but I'm not sure it is getting to the batteries, as they don't seem to be charging. With the generator running, the Inverter shows AC2 in good, bulk charging and charge controller shows 10-18amps input, and the batteries bubble, showing they are charging. Without the generator, the solar cells show 6-8amps input on the charge controller, no input on the Power Conversion Center metrics, and the batteries don't bubble, so either not charging or weakly charging. First, is there a basic way I can tell if the power generated by the solar cells is getting to the batteries? With solar charging, I also don't get a bulk charging indicator light nor "AC2 in good" indicator on the power conversion center. Switching off the solar cells drops the amp reading on the charge controller to zero, and turning it back on returns amps to 7-10 and also shows battery voltage increase from ~46v to 48-50v. Does that mean it is trying to charge, and possibly my solar cells are just putting out too little? The user menu settings are as best I can tell back to what they were prior to disconnect: Inverter set to "on", Generator mode set to "on" while the Setup Menu map is exactly what it was previously. (prior owner left notes here) Batteries are new as of ~4 months ago, and testing the specific gravity on the fluid shows all are in bad shape. Any help anyone can offer would be greatly appreciated. I hate to pay a technician to drive an hour up into the mountains to tell me I've simply got a setting wrong.
