I’ve been using a jackery 1000 with 200 watts os solar to run my 12v fridge 24/7 for 2 years. I “upgraded” to an AC200max and have had issues achieving the same amount of solar charge. When i had my jackery it never ran dry and now with the AC200max I’m lucky if i get 2 weeks.
Wondering what could be the issue here. As an example i switched back to the jackery and it was showing a much higher charge. Switching back and forth between units the jackets always showed it charging almost 2x more.
Hello
Can you specify the characteristics of your panels? and if there are several how are they mounted?
what is the solar charging power on your jackery and on the ac200max?
do you plug your 12v fridge into an ac-dc adapter then into an AC socket on your jackery or your ac200max?
If you plug your fridge directly into a DC socket, is your AC socket activated on your ac200max?
2 renogy 100 watt panels mounted to the rack on my van
The fridge is connected to the 12v 30amp Plug using a BLUETTI every plug on the ac200max as and on the jackery 1000 it’s plugged into the the 12v 10amp cigarette outlet
With the elements you have given: I suppose (do not hesitate to confirm) that your two panels have the following specifications:
Max Power at STC: 100W
Open Circuit Voltage: 24.3V
Short Circuit Current: 5.21A
Optimum Operating Voltage: 20.4V
Optimum Operating Current: 4.91A
As for your Jackery 1000 the specifications would be:
(Jackery Explorer 1000 V2) : 2 x DC 8mm Ports: 12-16V(Working Voltage)⎓8A Max,
Double to 8A Max; 16-60V(Working Voltage)⎓10.5A Max,
Dual to 21A/400W Max
Can you confirm these elements?
My hypothesis (it’s up to you to confirm) is that you have wired your 2 RENOGY panels in parallel, they then provide 20.4V and 2 X 4.91A =9.82A. As the specifications of the jackery explorer 1000 V2 indicate that between 16 and 60V, it takes 10A maximum, you recover all the power from your 2 panels in parallel (20,4V x 9,82A).
On the other hand, when you switch to the AC200max, you should know that for voltages lower than 30V, the AC200max limits the intensity to 8A. If the voltage is above 30V the AC200max takes up to 15A.
As your panels are (perhaps) mounted in parallel, you are at 20.4V so below 30V, you are limited to 8A, so you lose 2A (around 20% of power : 20,4Vx 8A). If your panels are mounted in parallel (you can easily find out, press the solar panel icon on the AC200max screen and read the voltage: if you are at 20V and not at 40V and more, your panels are mounted in parallel), I therefore advise you to change the wiring of your panels to mount them in series, you will then recover 20% more power.
Attention !
if your jackery 1000 generator is not a V2 but an older model, I believe that the max voltage of the DC input is limited to 30V. If you change the assembly of your panels to put them in series, the voltage will exceed 40V… the AC200max handles this very well, however you should not reconnect your jackery 1000 (V1) because you then risk grill the solar imput.
Thank you. I’ll give it a try.
Hi @Osidelee, We’d like to know if you’ve followed Snips1’s suggestion to reconfigure your solar panels in series, and if that helped resolve the issue. We hope the problem has been resolved. If not, please record a video of the solar charging process, upload it to a cloud drive, and share the link with us for further troubleshooting.
Thanks to @Snips1 for the valuable input—you’re truly a solar expert!
@Snips1 you are correct. Thanks for the valuable insight and detail. I should have posted here a year ago!
