EPEVER MPPT Solar Charge Controller 40A 150V PV Solar Panel Controller Negative Ground W/ MT50 Remote Meter for LiFePO4 Battery [Tracer4215BN]

Keeps up with demands on battery and fully charge

Excellent charge controller for six gauge cable

I recently upgraded my solar panels from 235 watt to 305 watt panels. My old controllers won't handle that power so I purchased this unit. Easy set up and use with the temp sensor and MT-50 remote meter keeps my batteries topped off and working great. The older charge controllers sometimes got very hot, but not this unit. The large heat sink keeps it cool. I wouldn't run it without the MT-50 remote as this provides much more information than the flashing LED's on the charge controller. It's important to note that you really need to read and understand the instructions on how this charge controller works. I've read a lot of reviews on this charge controller and in many, there's confusion by the reviewer as to what the charge controller is doing. I'm pleased with its performance. UPDATE: 6/26/2017 - I'm still impressed with this controller. I took it up to my ranch in Colorado where it performed perfectly, and continues to do so. What I mean by this is that typically I tow my travel trailer (and all solar equipment) back home after my Memorial week camping trip. This year i left all up at the camp. I left everything connected, hoping there would be no issues. Yesterday I had a friend check on the controller and inverted. Everything is working perfectly. There is little draw on the batteries over night so it doesn't take long before the charge controller is done for the day after topping off the batteries. It spends most of the day dissipating the energy from the solar panels. My friend said the fins on the controller were just warm but not hot. The controller is reporting everything is good. I'm very pleased it's doing such a good job for my return vacation this coming July 4th week. UPDATE: 8/2/2017 – Just as above I left my entire solar power system including this charge controller connected and fully operational. Now into August, I had a check made on the system again. It hasn’t been touched since I left shortly after July 4th. It’s still working perfectly! Here’s what I’ve got set up: Two 305 watt solar panels connected in series. The panels go into the SolarEpic MPPT 40A solar charge controller at about 75 volts. Out of the charge controller I go to 4 Trojan 6 volt T-105RE batteries. The batteries are set up into two 12v pairs. The positive lead goes through a 40A fuse. The positive and negative are connected to opposite ends of the battery bank. This provides a complete charge across all the batteries. The leads going to my inverter are on the exact opposite to discharge the batteries evenly. This seems to work very well. The inverter is a Ramsond SunRay 1500 Pure Sign Wave inverter. From there I go into a Kill-a-Watt meter to keep track of power used, line voltage..etc. Out of the Kill-a-Watt meter I go into a fused power strip. Using a 30amp travel trailer adapter to 15amp plug I plug in my travel trailer into the power strip. My travel trailer lights have been fully replaced with LED lights. Everything in the trailer runs (TV, DVD, furnace, fans) with the exception of the air conditioner. The refrigerator and freezer in my trailer are both 120v, so they also run off the solar power system. All these items with the exception of the solar panels, batteries, and refrigerator were purchased from Amazon. With the four T-105RE batteries I can run for two days with no sun. I’m adding four more batteries for my next visit starting in September. I’m also upgrading from the Ramsond SunRay 1500 inverter to Power Tech-On 3000 watt inverter. The larger inverter should run my microwave oven and possibly even start my A/C (not that it’s needed at 7000+ feet in Colorado). It’ll be another four weeks before I return, but I expect the SolarEpic MPPT charge controller and all the rest of the equipment to continue doing their job as I designed. One note – I do have two 36 watt light bulbs on timers in the trailer. They turn on/off randomly at night. This provides some drain on the batteries for the next day’s charging cycle. Wire used is 0/1 awg throughout on the 12v side. From the solar panels I’m running 10awg, also purchased from Amazon. Overall I’m very pleased with how all these parts are working together to provide me with fully off grid power. Do your homework, study, and there’s no reason you can’t create a fully off grid power system that is reliable. This is all for my final retirement home on the same property which is over five miles from any utility. See the picture I added. This is of my travel trailer in Colorado running on my solar power system now for almost two full months with absolutely no intervention. In my trailer I have two 45 watt(eq) LED bulbs on timers. The lights turn on and off throughout the night. My trail camera picks up the light in the morning just before shutting off for the day. The use of the lights helps to bleed some of the power from the batteries allowing the charge controller to do its job. The light can be seen coming through the door window and front window of the trailer. Just three more days and I'll be heading back up for my final week of the season. I've learned with these controllers, make sure you have them connected up correctly, don't push them to their max, and they run and run.... Best controller I've purchased yet. Just as expected, the controller continued to opperate and keep my batteries at the optimum capcity. My new plan is to mount two 305 watt and two 285 watt panels on the roof of my travel trailer. I'll mount the charge controller and my full sign wave inverter inside my trailer. The battery bank will in a battery box I'll build outside the trailer. I plan on purchasing one more of these charge controllers. Last summer I made it through the entire summer with just the two 305 watt panels. Now that I'm adding the two 285 watt panels I'll have more than enough re-charge capability and power. I actually used the light (load on/off) feature on the charge controller to turn a 12v fan on during the day and off at night, aimed at the controller to help keep it cool. I never had an overheating issue, but not being up at camp during most of the summer wasn't something I was willing to take a chance on. After all, there was more then enough energy created to charge the batteries and run the little fan, so why not. Great charge controller. https://youtu.be/IE3O9eQDGXQ

User setup straight forward, see what is happening at a glance.

This is a good MPPT charger. I can set my own battery parameters using the MT50 monitor.Other off grid folks notice the same problem I used to have with my old chargers...a lot of times my old charger would go in float and shut my solar array off and I would be running things off my battery bank during sunlight hours!!! I have a large battery bank and have set absorb to 3 hours and would have set it for more hours because my batteries can be in absorbtion or boost charge for 12 hrs. I set my float charge up to 14.5 volts. I want my batteries charging as long as the panels can gather energy and I definitely do not want to be running off batteries before it is night time. I could not figure out what my earlier chargers were doing in float but they allowed my batteries to drain a little in afternoon and then kick back into charge mode when a preset low volt level was reached in float mode. This usually occurred right about the time the sun was setting so my batteries would not be at the maximum charge and surface charge as I headed to night time. Check your settings on your charger if you are off grid and your battery bank voltage at night. It took me a summer to figure out was going on and made me mad to find the sun was shining and I was running my home off the batteries instead of the panels!!! I love all my free daytime solar power..crank my freezer up full blast and charge up all my tools, phones, computers, run tools etc. After my batteries are full all the surplus electricity is free!! This Solar Epic has a 20 amp load outlet and shows the battery being charged and the load powered by your panels. Love the Solar Epic and have extra current and panels ( not over 130 volts) hooked to it so the charger is always getting max power to it. You can have more than 40 amps going into it but do not go over 130 volts. READ THE OWNERS MANUAL! UPDATE...unit is working great!!! The tracking seems to react quickly to passing clouds etc that some reviewers had complained was slow. I may buy another unit in the future. UPDATE.. I bought another of these Solar Epic chargers and added more panels. I have the MT52 remote for lithium batteries now and put MT52 remotes on both chargers. I have ten panels on each charger but keep the voltage way below the max of 150 volts...the excess amps are handled by the charger to a max of 40 amps. I also replaced my lead acid batteries with Eve 304 lipo4. Yahoo! I will probably be building bigger. I added a 43" TV and new freezer...off grid life is good with all this new technology and drastically lower price on panels and lithium cells! I already have a panel up with room for a couple more of these Solar Epic chargers. I noticed Will Prowse on YouTube had good things to say about this charger (I hope I am allowed to include this). I have electricity when the power is out!