"Larry Jaques" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 12 Nov 2017 09:05:14 -0500, "Jim Wilkins"
wrote:



At noon the wattmeter on the controller input peaked at 180W.

Are they tilted properly, or just flat? 180 is pretty nice, but...

It's 90% of MPP for two 100W panels, on a PWM controller. I used my
UT210E clamp-on to adjust them for the maximum current, though some
misalignment didn't hurt much.


I will retest with the battery type set to Gel which drops the 2
hour
voltage limit to 14.2V where my batteries don't gas as much. A
published threshold for concern is 14.3V. It's easy to see if they
are
or aren't fizzing or bubbling but difficult to measure the rate. At
the APC1400's 13.6V default float setting there is virtually no
bubbling, but the recharging rate is too low for daily cycling.

Why is it inside, again?

The high current, heavy cable parts are close to the load, which is
the fridge and computer desk. The indoor layout makes sense for a
closely watched experimental manual backup system but wouldn't for an
automatic daily cycling one. Once I have a better idea of what I need
and have space for I may move the batteries and a larger inverter into
an outdoor enclosure, or change to AGMs or Lithium.

At this point I hopefully know enough to be able to snap up good deals
I may happen onto, like these Home Depot panels.

-jsw