MPPT VS PWM SOLAR CONTROLLERS

Demonstration of an MPPT controller vs PWM controller - Power increase .

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• MPPT
• PWM
• SOLAR
• ELECTRICITY

[MandrakeSolarPower]

sparktastic1 - I believe the wattmeters work on Ohms Law - whether or not that is what "really" happens is inconsequential to the fact that an MPPT under certain circumstances will produce more useable Amp output than a PWM controller - which is the point of the exercise ..

All MPPT manufacturers claim an increase in "power" by a magnitude of 10-20% ..

As a reseller of MPPT controllers it was good to see it worked .

[smclane6]

I agree something doesnt add up... I agree with what top meter is reading between both chargers, on MPPT current is lower but voltage is higher and Watts is basicly the same from the PV panel. Something not right with bottom display.

[sparktastic1]

A more realistic power reading would be 30w in and maybe (best case scenario) 29w out of the MPPT. This assumes some power/conversion loss inside the MPPT unit.

I would be interested to see some accurate measurements on these Chinese MPPT's.

Another video posted here, shows the inner workings of one of these cheap MPPT's and there weren't even any inductors inside. Basically, they just worked as a DC-DC step down converter. Morningstar Sunsavers seem to be the best, small MPPT at the moment.

[sparktastic1]

Thanks for the video, but something doesn't add up.

MPPT is not a power 'amplifier' and does not produce watts out of thin air.

My point is, it is not possible that you have more watts coming out of the MPPT than you have going in. In this case nearly 45w coming out of the MPPT and only 30 watts going in.

I would suggest maybe that it is the 'dirty', high frequency square wave signal the the MPPT is producing on it's output that is causing erroneous readings on the power meter.