kevtherev wrote:Yes I saw your video and listened to your comments.
In honesty I have not been concerned with the operation of my current controller.
It just works for me and keeps the battery charged.
I have recently fitted a larger wattage panel (100 to 150) to help in the winter months as the lower light levels were not helping.
As I run a heater all night.
This bigger panel has been much better. Again in honesty unless I get 4 hrs of sun during the week the capacity dwindles toward the end of it (I work away)
When I plug in a largish load on the battery like an electric coolbox in the summer the controller seems to handle the demand (according to the readout) and puts in the amps.
Would this Victron do it differently?
I'm open to suggestion. But the cost must be beneficial
Without seeing what's inside your controller (easiest way), we can't be sure if it's just a voltage regulator or actually an MPPT.
The thing is, we all love to have solar, it's great when the van is laid up. We buy the panel/s, the wiring, spend ages making it all look nice and we fit what we think is an MPPT (some are) and it's not as good as we expected.
So we change the panel for a larger one or we fit another panel. Me too!!! Maybe for no other reason other than the controller isn't doing the job it's supposed too.
Some of the really basic controllers LVD is 10.8V! Your batteries AGM,GEL, LEAD ACID won't last long if they get to this state of discharge a few times. 11.7V at the lowest, although with the VE controller we have it has a 2 min buffer.
This is similar to my previous controller. I loved the fact it had a display and I could set the parameters
myself.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/T8-30A-MPPT- ... SwFnxaZh9R
When were started living full-time in our westy, it soon became apparent that our battery bank was failing. In Turkey we managed to find a distributor for Trojan, we fitted 3x 27TMX. - But still something didn't seem right.
I went through all of the wiring, checked loads etc. By mistake, I shorted the load side of the controller. I opened it up the repair it and realised it wasn't an MPPT.
The difference for us has been huge, I no longer need to keep looking at the controller and because of the buffer of the LVD I get more from my batteries. - If I do want to check charge rate, battery state etc I can do it on my phone whilst sat outside, drinking a beer!!
You can get VE controllers without the built in BT for less money.
I can't answer your question without having first hand experience of your setup. I'm sure someone on here could make a rough calculation from your panel (150W?) voltage into your controller and output of Volts and Amps to see whats watt - see what I did there!!
I'm heading back to Greece in a couple of weeks. Once I reinstall the controller I will post up the data to show how everything is performing. This will give you more insight into how the VE performs against what you have. I have 100w panel (Baird) same as your previous one, I think? And a 150w one too. But that is kept under a kayak and we only slide it out if we need to.
I hope this helps.
