My 2 year old AC300 w/a pair of 200W panels had been working great. In the last 2 months one of the panels won’t register at all on the screen. The other one was ok and pulling the normal 140-160 in good sunlight. Now the working one can’t get above 90 and I’ve cleaned it as suggested. Would really like to get both of them up and running again bc now it’s really SLOW (only gains about 2% even after a couple hours). How can I get the first panel to connect again (I have the dual cord that came with the set) plus get the other one to perform to get normal charging for a 200 panel?
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Hi @Reneemike0828, We would like to know the specific model of your 200W solar panel. Could you take a photo of the nameplate for us? Additionally, we would like to know how you are connecting the solar panel. Could you record a video showing how you are connecting and charging, upload it to a cloud drive, and share the link with us?
We suspect that the solar panel may have worn out after long-term use, leading to degraded performance and a subsequent reduction in charging conversion efficiency.
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Thanks for such a quick reply. See attached pics and video. Ironically when I hooked up my 2nd panel (that isn’t working) to the first panel again, the watts for the 1st panel went up to over 175
. Conversely when I uplug panel 2 the watts plummet to under 75 (2 screen pics attached to show the difference). So definitely see that both panels have to be plugged in to get normal wattage with #1. Now the issue is that the 2nd panel (back one in the pic and video of me adding it with the plug ins) isn’t registering. Could it be the cord?
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Sorry for the double pics in the previous reply. Here’s the video link showing me plugging in the 2nd panel
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Also, just purchased all of this in Feb of 2022 so would be pretty frustrated if this issue was due to equipment failure. We only use it at home for charging lawn equip etc but keep it charged overall in case of Power outage. Probably don’t charge it but every 6-8 weeks if that
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This might be because of your testing, but in the 2nd picture (the close-up of the MC4 connectors) the black cable of the upper pair does not have the MC4 connector fully seated. Try pressing them together until the tabs lock into the other plug. The lower one might be the same, but it’s a bit harder to see if the tab is locked in or not.
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Thank you so much for taking the time to look at the pics etc to help with the issue. I’ll definitely check that but I think I’ve usually had those connected all the way. If I make sure they’re fully connected and it still doesn’t register the 2nd panel could it be something in the cord? The way the cord is attached to the first panel I can’t switch the position of the panels to see if it’s actually the panel itself or the cord. Of course they’re all just 2 years old
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It certainly could be something in the cord. You may have done this already, but try changing the “bad” panel with the “good” panel on the PV input cord to the AC300 to see where the issue goes. And just to make sure you know, if you touch the PV icon on the display the AC300 will show the voltage and wattage input for each of the MPPT controllers (ie: each of the inputs) and you can see what each panel is doing.
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I’ve been out of town so will be able to check this tomorrow. Thank you so much for your input! I’ll respond back so you can see if changing the panels can troubleshoot the issue
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