Morningstar 30 and solar panel voltage

[catsketcher]

Hello all

I have a 250 AH AGM battery bank linked to a 400 watts of solar panels. I use a 30A Morningstar controller to regulate the supply.

My question is with the voltage the Morningstar gets up to. Sometimes the regulator is putting 14.6 V into the batteries. This seems a bit high. I have the battery setting set to gel so that the voltage is reduced.

I thought AGMs were okay up to 14.1 or so but I feel uncomfortable letting the system get up to 14.6. The controller doesn't always do this but I catch it sometimes going high and turn the solar panels off.

Is this just some sort of equalisation? Do I have a dodgy regulator?

I also totally turn the whole electrical system off when I leave the boat, panels as well. So unless the Morningstar has a little battery of its own I don't think it could remember the charge history of the batteries.

cheers

Phil

[john61ct]

I would not own a charge source where I couldn't adjust the setpoint.

Equalization should be manualonly.

[Bleemus]

If set to gel that controller should not equalize and it shouldnt put out more than 14 volts in bulk. I would contact Morningstar first and consider getting a controller that has a dedicated AGM setting.

[catsketcher]

Thanks for the feedback.

I have contacted Morningstar. The issue may be that it is winter here and I found out that the system is temperature compensated. So the colder the day the higher the voltage applied. At about 12 degrees the regulator will put in about 0.5 volts higher than at 25 degrees C. I didn't know chargers variued with temp.

[john61ct]

Yes good ones do. Ideally via a separate sensor wire to batt positive.