More controller errors

A treat today; two blogs! Well, we went down to the boat, so I could check our battery bank voltages. It’s been a couple of cloudy days since I put the new fuse in the main solar controller. The 24 volt motor bank was topped off perfectly. When I checked the house bank they had not charged, so I took both controllers off the house bank and brought them home for testing. I have three controllers all together.

The diversion controller, for my wind generator, had taken in some water as well, and needed to be cleaned up. I will also have to get another relay for it. The Mppt solar controller for the house bank had a 40 amp fuse blown in it, so I’ll get another and put them both back on in the next few days.

On the diversion controller I am also going to hook up the load off the Mppt house controller directly to the house bank through a continuous duty starter relay switch. When the diversion controller hits its peak it will shut off the continuous solar charge. I hope that makes some sense? 

For days when I am depleting the house bank quicker than the 30 amp Mppt controller can handle this setup will allow a quicker charge. I will add a diode to the load in case the Mppt diode is not in the load circuit.

I guess staying home this summer to debug all of these problems, and having time to finish off trim, etc. on the boat has been a blessing. I would not have liked doing all of this while on the boat. I do realize that things will come up while cruising, but the basics will be working before we leave, and if anything happens while cruising it will not be too much to fix once all is configured properly.

Finding benchmarks to compare with is not easy and mostly impossible for solar powered houseboats. How far can I go with the solar panels getting good light all day? If the controllers are all working properly, how long can the house bank last with the air conditioner, frig, microwave, etc. running? Will I need to run the generator on occasion, or just have it as another redundancy?

There are many questions to ask when only the math has a definitive answer. But, regardless of the math proving itself, I would still like to test it through using it in a real time situation to back up the math. 

Now Fred would say that it isn't worth the bother, and maybe he would be right. I love to mess around with this stuff, or I wouldn't take the heartache that comes along with trial and error. Nothing ever gets figured out without people like me questioning the norm!