I have 3 Renogy 175w panels hooked up in series. Each panel has an OCV of 21V and the AC200Max shows 57-59v on the PV screen but I only seem to get about 330w on charging. Anyone know why that might be? Is it something to do with the total voltage from the panels?
Also why does the Bluetti mobile app not show this data?
Sadly, all panel ratings are fairy tales. You never get the rated wattage.
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You are well within the AC200 Voc input range so that’s no problem (145V).
You could have 6 panels in series and still be below the max Voc, for 1050 theoretical watts. Real world watts would be around 800W, which is also less than the rated solar input of 900W of the AC500.
So, you could keep adding more panels in series over time (using the same brand and spec panels). That’s what I ended up doing for my AC500. I kept buying more Renogy 100W panels over time. I ended up with 18 panels to get to one of the 1500W rated inputs.
@volksman The intensity of the sunlight, the angle you place the solar panel and the conversion of the solar panel itself, all those factors will affect the final efficiency of solar panel.
Do you mean the AC200MAX screen displays the input, but the APP does not?
Yeah we just had 2 days of the best conditions possible and the AC200Max was only pulling in 330w max. This same setup was able to pull in 470 - 490w in the past. I spent the day yesterday measuring the voltage from each panel to ensure that they were all working. This seems to be something to do with the AC unit as it’s a replacement to my original. I also seem to lose a lot of power overnight. Like 30% of my combined 4096wh (I added a b230). Still testing but I am pointing my finger at the AC or b230 at the moment. I had great success with the AC unit for almost 2 years before it needed to be replaced. This new unit has only been in play for about 4 days now.
Oh and the bluetooth access to the app should show the secondary battery and individual power levels and status. It doesn’t, it simply shows a combined view.
Hello
It is possible that it is the AC200max which has a problem. But before coming to that conclusion, I will try to eliminate all other possibilities.
my first question is probably ridiculous because you must have paid attention to it, but have you checked in “settings” that the setting for “PV input source” is on “PV” and not “Others” ?
![image](//community.bluettipower.com/uploads/default/original/2X/6/6e45fdafc11d213968b8be92c98463c10f482782.png)
Can you inspect your panels? do you see hotspots?
explanation
I will also test each panel, in direct sunlight, connected alone to your AC200max (of course if the panels are not on your roof!) just to see if a panel has problems…
Thanks for the responses!
Yes I’ve confirmed that the charge option is set to PV. Not sure it would take any load on Other but an interesting thing to check, so I did.
There are no hotspots on the panels that I can see. I did rinse them off recently so they are clean.
I also mentioned that I did climb up to the roof and checked each panel for voltage, which they are all within spec. The only reason I would be willing to do that again was if there was a way to test the actual output at the moment without attaching them to the AC that I think is at fault. There must be a way to measure potential coming from the panels?
Either way, I think there is something else going on proving that the AC unit isn’t healthy. This setup is fairly new, RMA replaced AC with a new B230 to double the capacity. Typically overnight for my application on a winter night I would loose about 30% of my capacity to appliances attached (with only the AC unit). With the double capacity and lighter loads (no longer need a heater fan etc) I was expecting to consume about 8 - 12% at most. However it still seems to be consuming 30% of total capacity!
So tonight I will unplug my solar panels and see if there is a reverse load issue happening.