B2B Charger...Adding Solar

Hi all,I'm going to install some solar panels after the winter but I'm not sure how many watts of solar my B2B Charger can take,can any of you electrical geniuses look at the specs and give me a clue? Also I was wondering if I can go over the max recommended wattage to account for low winter harvesting?
Thanks,Dave

https://www.redarc.com.au/dual-input-40a-in-vehicle-dc-battery-charger

Can't help with your question really, just wondering how your canine nut nuzzler is doing, it's been quite a while since he met mine in Portugal
 
Can't help with your question really, just wondering how your canine nut nuzzler is doing, it's been quite a while since he met mine in Portugal

Hi Oppy,he's good as gold,just hit 4 years old and still a puppy *sigh*,thanks for asking,hope you and yours are all good.
 
may be some help

Hi . I don't know a lot about b2b charging but I think you may get some useful info from these guys . Motorhome/Caravan Servicing, repairs for most Battery Chargers they have a menu with b2bchargers half way through the list of options. may be an answer there? good luck. Dj
 
Hi Oppy,he's good as gold,just hit 4 years old and still a puppy *sigh*,thanks for asking,hope you and yours are all good.

Struggling at present with our health, but hoping to get out to Iberia later in the year for a period so maybe the hound of death can threaten me again, he really is the most wonderful staffie type one could ever hope to meet, you're not so bad either, but your tea needs a few lessons !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Not being a genius of any kind, let alone electrical, all I can think of is to compare your B2B/MPPT with a spec that does show you maximum permitted solar input. This link is to a pdf giving the specs for Victron's 30A and 50A controllers... yours is bang in the middle isn't it?
https://www.victronenergy.com/uploa...charge-controller-MPPT-100-30-&-100-50-EN.pdf
Please everyone no teasing if I'm just being dense... pretend I didn't post... nothing to see here... move along now blush.gif :wacko:
 
Hi all,I'm going to install some solar panels after the winter but I'm not sure how many watts of solar my B2B Charger can take,can any of you electrical geniuses look at the specs and give me a clue? Also I was wondering if I can go over the max recommended wattage to account for low winter harvesting?
Thanks,Dave

https://www.redarc.com.au/dual-input-40a-in-vehicle-dc-battery-charger
Pretty sure it is 40A max for the Solar + Alternator, with Solar taking priority. The Output power is quoted as 600W (which pretty well ties up with a 40A output at 15.3V Max), but the maximum I have seen out of my Redarc BCDC1240 is around the 450W mark.
With charger inefficiences, I would imagine you would be safe with upto 650W worth of panels (I don't know why Redarc don't make it clearer in their Manual what the Solar Specs are). What happens if you go over? I would think it will just ignore the excess just like it would ignore Alternator power over the allowed input but if you are putting that much solar on the roof, you might want to check.

I must admit I am not a massive fan of the combo Solar+Alternator units at the midrange power size. You will be maxed at 40A input when you are driving even if you had great solar available. If you had a separate Solar Controller, you could be getting 40A from the Alternator AND 40A or so from the Solar as well.
 
Pretty sure it is 40A max for the Solar + Alternator, with Solar taking priority. The Output power is quoted as 600W (which pretty well ties up with a 40A output at 15.3V Max), but the maximum I have seen out of my Redarc BCDC1240 is around the 450W mark.
With charger inefficiences, I would imagine you would be safe with upto 650W worth of panels (I don't know why Redarc don't make it clearer in their Manual what the Solar Specs are). What happens if you go over? I would think it will just ignore the excess just like it would ignore Alternator power over the allowed input but if you are putting that much solar on the roof, you might want to check.

I must admit I am not a massive fan of the combo Solar+Alternator units at the midrange power size. You will be maxed at 40A input when you are driving even if you had great solar available. If you had a separate Solar Controller, you could be getting 40A from the Alternator AND 40A or so from the Solar as well.

Thanks for that wildebus,I vaguely remember reading 600w somewhere but can't recall where so I think you've confirmed that at least. I went for the combined unit simply because I wanted to keep things easy as I'm hopeless with electrics,but I did like that it prioritised solar over the alternator,presumably giving the alt. a longer life.
I might drop them an email and get a definitive answer on how much solar i can max out at,I'll let you know if I get a reply.
 
hi probly no help but the alternator puts out 14.5 volts of charge .
any good solar mppt box can be set at what volts u want the solar to switch off on lcd screen.
normally solar panels only put out 80% of what they are rated at .
with all that in mind
I have 2x100w solar panels on roof to a 40w mppt witch will not charge batterys over 14.5v
 
The Redarc b2b controllers can (and do) handle slightly more than the spec suggests. Mine is a 40 amp one and regularly hits 44 amps output, which must be near 50 amps input.

If we assume that you stick to 40 amps at 14.5v, that's 580 watts. Few motorhomes have space on the roof for that many panels.
Asterix has a 7.5t Ex-Horsebox ;)
 
I have 400W but could have easily installed 500 if I didn't have a Rear Rack, while still keeping the Light bar and Roof Fan. 600W would have been easily doable as well BUT would have meant loosing the fan, which is too important to loose.
If I had the roof space of a 7.5t van, I reckon I would be running an array of around 800W (panels nowadays are very cheap)
 
Can't see the point.

I work on the principle that too much of a good thing is always better than not enough:)


Thanks all for the replies,not had signal for a few days so just caught up with this thread.
 
FYI here's the reply to my query from Redarc...

Thank you for your enquiry.



There is no limit on how much solar you can input into a BCDC. The only limiting factor is how much charge current the BCDC will produce.

In your specific case 40 amps is what the charger can produce. The benefit you get from having more than 40 amps of solar charge available is you are able to produce 40amps of charge from earlier in the day untill later in the day.

So the short answer is add as much as you would like David, just remember that the BCDC will only ever produce 40amps of charge max.



For any further questions, please don’t hesitate to ask either by reply email or contact our technical support line on (08) 8322 4848.



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REDARC Electronics

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