A solar panel is a grouping together of individual solar cells to produce an electric current. The electric current leaves the solar panel and goes through a solar regulator then into a battery. While you can run a 12V appliance or light directly from some solar regulators, a more basic setup connects everything to the battery. Gcr Solar Regulator Manual. According to the steca manual, this indicates a fault in the solar panels. If I disconnect the loads, the fuse and then the panels, the regulator resets itself. It then works fine. Originally the time between faults was 1 month, now it's a matter of hours. The regulator model that I have is the BP Solar GRC 20.
PeterD wrote:Daryl, your BP regulator is a re-badged regulator, Steca I think. Steca, and the similar Plasmatronics regulators may be extended with external current shunts and proprietary circuitry to measure currents not passing through the regulator. They are used where you have heavy loads like inverters and additional battery charging facilities. These external shunts feed charge and discharge currents to be added/subtracted from the solar panel current so that your SOC readings continue to be reliable.
If you have a DC-DC charger or 240 V charger on your battery system and you are not using the external shunt system your SOC readings will be unreliable.
Quote 'Can anyone supply me with any info or advice on the SOC metering, and if the dc to dc charger can still be used in conjunction with a regulator.' The short is answer you can still use your SOC readings if you use some add-on circuitry to your solar regulator.
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Hi Peter, to what extenet are the readings unreliable. I service a van with 135 watt solar panel & 15 amp Steca. All load is drawn through the regulator, except a purpleline caravan mover that can pull up to 40 amps. The battery is also charged directly from the tug when driving. I can understand the readings being incorrect after a load or charge directly on the battery. Would the reading be corrected after a couple of days with charge & load going through the regulator (parked up on solar), or do they always remain incorrect???
Hope you can make sense of the question,
Cheers Pete
PeterD wrote:
Daryl, your BP regulator is a re-badged regulator, Steca I think. Steca, and the similar Plasmatronics regulators may be extended with external current shunts and proprietary circuitry to measure currents not passing through the regulator. They are used where you have heavy loads like inverters and additional battery charging facilities. These external shunts feed charge and discharge currents to be added/subtracted from the solar panel current so that your SOC readings continue to be reliable.
If you have a DC-DC charger or 240 V charger on your battery system and you are not using the external shunt system your SOC readings will be unreliable.
Quote 'Can anyone supply me with any info or advice on the SOC metering, and if the dc to dc charger can still be used in conjunction with a regulator.' The short is answer you can still use your SOC readings if you use some add-on circuitry to your solar regulator.
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Hi Peter, to what extenet are the readings unreliable. I service a van with 135 watt solar panel & 15 amp Steca. All load is drawn through the regulator, except a purpleline caravan mover that can pull up to 40 amps. The battery is also charged directly from the tug when driving. I can understand the readings being incorrect after a load or charge directly on the battery. Would the reading be corrected after a couple of days with charge & load going through the regulator (parked up on solar), or do they always remain incorrect???
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Hope you can make sense of the question,
Cheers Pete