Hi everyone. I have an off-grid cabin in Maine and have an AC200P I use for lights, kitchen stove lighter, and occasional small appliance use. I’m very happy with the unit, but would like to hook it to a 200W ecoworthy solar panel I’m mounting that would only charge this unit.
Questions:
-will the unit charge when it is “off”?
-does it turn on and off automatically to charge? (not the ac/dc outputs)
-does the unit have a built in solar charge controller, or will I need one?
-is a 12V 200W panel going to be enough voltage, or should I use 2, 12V, 100W panels in series for 24v?
1 no it won’t charge when off.
2 it will turn on when enough sun and turn off if eco is turned on after a few hrs with no draw.
3 yes it has built in mppt controller.
4 use your 2 100 panels to 24v
@Ktt , Kerr, point 4 Is not ideally correct, it may, or not, work. The PV input range (Soc) of the AC200P is 35V to 150V, I have one.
I have 2 x 150W panels with a Voc of 21.04V, but under load a Vmp of 18V. In Series the Vmp is 36V and that is in ideal conditions. In less than ideal conditions the voltage is lower. The other array I have, is 2 x 160W panels, Voc of 23.85 and Vmp of 20.05 = Vmp in Series of 40.1, they will work better, but again not ideal.
If you really want to make a dent in charging 2,000Wh of battery, I would suggest either 2 nominal 24V panels in Series for a 48V input, or 4 x nominal 12V in Series for a similar 48V array. The Voc will be up toward 90V.
As the solar input limit is 700W, Which is rarely met, overpanelling 4 x 200W 12V panels (or 2 x 200W - 24V panels) Will work and get close to your maximum solar input. As you already have 2 x 200W - 12V panels, get 2 more of the same type.
As an aside to my reply, I can gang my 4 panels all in Series for a total of the Sum of their Vmp values multiplied by the lower of the 2 Imp values. i.e. Total Array of 620W. Which is; 18+18+20.8+20.8 =77.6V x 7.69Imp = 597W of the 620W rated output. 7.69A is the lower of the panel’s Imp values. A 23W loss is acceptable to me for slightly mismatched panels.
Why I chose 12V panels - I also have 2 x AC70s, 3 x AC180s and the Elite 100 v2. Their Voc max values range from 58V to 60v and 2 x of either array will work, but 4 will not. The Elite 100’s 60V - 20A input, does allow me to Parallel each string and then connect the 2 strings in Series to use all 4 panels. This simply doubles the Vmp and the Imp, less a little.
I also have an AC2A, with an input limit of 28Voc - 8.2A, which only 1 panel can be used to charge it. This setup means I can charge any of my power stations from any of my panels, with differing configurations, but obviously not all at the same time lol.
