Trying to understand and evaluate factory solar system

[Jimblackjim]

I have a 2023 GD2670MK, with a factory installed 165W solar panel, a Furrion MPPT Solar Charge Controller and a Furrion HP Battery Monitor.

Over the last few weeks while on the road, I have been checking the battery monitor as a way to try to quantify what the solar panel is contributing to my power. I find that the meter always shows approximately -2 amps. This is the case wether it is sunny or dark; we are on shore power or running off of batteries; battery disconnect switch on or off. I have even shut off the 12 V refrigerator. It changes a few tenths of an amp, but stays right around -2 amps.

I would expect to see more variation in the readings.

Can anyone give me an idea if this is normal?

I could use some guidance on ow to go about evaluating the performance of this system.

[howson]

I have a 2023 GD2670MK, with a factory installed 165W solar panel, a Furrion MPPT Solar Charge Controller and a Furrion HP Battery Monitor.

Over the last few weeks while on the road, I have been checking the battery monitor as a way to try to quantify what the solar panel is contributing to my power. I find that the meter always shows approximately -2 amps. This is the case wether it is sunny or dark; we are on shore power or running off of batteries; battery disconnect switch on or off. I have even shut off the 12 V refrigerator. It changes a few tenths of an amp, but stays right around -2 amps.

I would expect to see more variation in the readings.

Can anyone give me an idea if this is normal?

I could use some guidance on ow to go about evaluating their performance of this system.

Welcome to the forum.

First place I'd start is checking the calibration of the Furrion Battery Monitor. Most owners are not aware that it could be off because GD does not provide the battery with the trailer (the dealer installs it) so they should do the calibration but most don't.

There's several threads on this topic. One is here: https://gdrvowners.com/forum/operati...r-instructions

Note that no one on this forum recommends following the Furrion instructions to drain your battery all the way down to calibrate the monitor. As TucsonJim stated in another thread on this topic, "...that's just nuts!".

[howson]

Jimblackjim -- unlikely, but another thought hit me. If the solar controller fault light is on check out https://gdrvowners.com/forum/solar/9...wired-backward

Howard

[Jimblackjim]

Thanks for the welcome and the feedback. I have reviewed the post on how to calibrate the meter for measuring the % of battery life. While I think it would be OK to discharge down to 10.5 volts once for the calibration, I am not too interested in this feature. I think monitoring battery voltage is good enough to determine the state of charge.

My interest is in monitoring the current flow into and out of the battery in order to understand and quantify how much power the solar panel is providing. This amperage is measured as a voltage across the shunt resistor. I don’t think the calibration would make a difference.

The fact that the meter always shows approximately two amps being drawn from the battery, regardless of conditions, makes me suspicious that the system is not working correctly or is not wired correctly.

I would be interested to hear from anyone with a similar setup and learn what your meter shows.

I would also be interested in any thoughts on how to evaluate the performance of the solar system.

[Jimblackjim]

Jimblackjim -- unlikely, but another thought hit me. If the solar controller fault light is on check out https://gdrvowners.com/forum/solar/9...wired-backward

Howard

Thanks. I don’t think there is a fault light on. I’ll check in the morning.

[ncitro]

WondersAwait is the only person I know who has one, he's since replaced it as part of a bigger upgrade but I think it worked properly before that. I agree something sounds wrong. I was going to suggest it might need to be zeroed, but if that were the issue you'd be getting wrong readings but they'd at least be changing...

[WondersAwait]

Yeah I remember the display acting wonky from the dealer. I can't remember exactly what we did but we got it calibrated and it worked fine for what it was. If I hadn't already planned the much bigger system that we installed I would have been happy to have that furrion meter instead of just the basic 4 led control panel gauge.

[Mitchell & Kitty]

Jimblackjim - I have the 2022 2670 and after a couple of months of scratching my head, I found that the Furrion charge controller was wired backwards: panel wires going to the battery and battery wires going to the panel. In the process of trying to figure this out, I bought a cheaper PWM controller with a bluetooth readout and replaced the Furrion controller with no readout what-so-ever. Over the course of last summer and this winter, I figure I routinely get about 50% of the 165 w panel mainly due to sun angle, inefficiencies of the PWM, etc. I have seen over 100 watts occasionally when the sun is just right. One thing to try that I should have thought of sooner is to put a clamp-on amp meter on the controller wire to the battery. I bought an amp meter for about $30 on Amazon.