Has anyone had a problem with leisure battery after installing solar?

[mat080667]

Hi everyone, we have just had solar installed on our 2020 Grand California 680 and it seems to have confused our battery / control panel.

The solar panel has a Victron MPPT and, having had the solar checked it all seems to be working properly. However, our control panel shows a battery voltage of 13.7 when the solar is charging it, which I'm told is good, it shows around 13V when not charging, and the current goes from -1A to + 1A depending on how much sun there is. The green bars also show that the battery is charging, as does the Victron controller. However, the the amount of time remaining on the battery shows around 3 hours and this doesn't ever change, even if I plug in the hook up. It also doesn't show a % charged any more.

It seems like the control panel is confused by what is going on which may mean a sensor issue. You can probably tell that I know nothing about camper electrics so any experience or advice would be very welcome.

 

[Betsycalifornia]

Where is the earth wire from the solar panels connected?

 

[G-A-R-Y]

Hi everyone, we have just had solar installed on our 2020 Grand California 680 and it seems to have confused our battery / control panel.

The solar panel has a Victron MPPT and, having had the solar checked it all seems to be working properly. However, our control panel shows a battery voltage of 13.7 when the solar is charging it, which I'm told is good, it shows around 13V when not charging, and the current goes from -1A to + 1A depending on how much sun there is. The green bars also show that the battery is charging, as does the Victron controller. However, the the amount of time remaining on the battery shows around 3 hours and this doesn't ever change, even if I plug in the hook up. It also doesn't show a % charged any more.

It seems like the control panel is confused by what is going on which may mean a sensor issue. You can probably tell that I know nothing about camper electrics so any experience or advice would be very welcome.

Leave it on charge overnight, it will reset itself.

 

[Roger Boeken]

I see same behavior sometimes on oceanT6.1 . Still investigating .
Normally going on EHU or letting motor run a while and off again will reset the counter.
My guess is that under certain circumstances the leisure batteries are charging the starter battery very short with high current, the time counter then calculates how long this discharging current can be applied with the leisure batteries.
Another thing you can try: turn on all the lights in living area or use other load on leisure batteries. This current will then be used to recalculate time left, very low current around zero is not used to recalculate probably because too in inaccurate(hence display > 60h) . According to VW self-study program the time is calculated as the mean discharge current since last reset (reset=alternator or EHU used). That is why after long waiting it seems to act normal again after longer period , because the short and high discharge current is low mean current over longer period.

 

[mat080667]

Where is the earth wire from the solar panels connected?

Hi, thanks for your response, it now seems to have reset itself so hopefully, all ok.

 

[mat080667]

Leave it on charge overnight, it will reset itself.

Thanks, that is exactly what has happened.

 

[mat080667]

I see same behavior sometimes on oceanT6.1 . Still investigating .
Normally going on EHU or letting motor run a while and off again will reset the counter.
My guess is that under certain circumstances the leisure batteries are charging the starter battery very short with high current, the time counter then calculates how long this discharging current can be applied with the leisure batteries.
Another thing you can try: turn on all the lights in living area or use other load on leisure batteries. This current will then be used to recalculate time left, very low current around zero is not used to recalculate probably because too in inaccurate(hence display > 60h) . According to VW self-study program the time is calculated as the mean discharge current since last reset (reset=alternator or EHU used). That is why after long waiting it seems to act normal again after longer period , because the short and high discharge current is low mean current over longer period.

Thank you Roger, much appreciated.