Goal Zero Yeti 400 Experiences?

[ChadHahn]

I picked up the Renogy 100W suitcase and was wondering how long the cables can be going from the controller to the Anderson plugs on the side of the Yeti? I have 12 gauge wire going from the controller to the Yeti. Looking at a voltage drop calculator, it seems that I'd only lose a 1/4 of a watt with a 15 ft run. Does this seem right?

It's late afternoon and I plan on hooking it up tomorrow to see if it'll charge the Yeti but was hoping for some advice until then.

Thanks,

Chad

 

[jpgrove]

I picked up the Renogy 100W suitcase and was wondering how long the cables can be going from the controller to the Anderson plugs on the side of the Yeti? I have 12 gauge wire going from the controller to the Yeti. Looking at a voltage drop calculator, it seems that I'd only lose a 1/4 of a watt with a 15 ft run. Does this seem right?

It's late afternoon and I plan on hooking it up tomorrow to see if it'll charge the Yeti but was hoping for some advice until then.

Thanks,

Chad

Its too subjective as the voltage will increase and decrease during the day as the panel heats up and cools down. So you need to take an average of say 15.8V at 100W gives you around 6 amps per hour. With a 1% loss over 5m (15ft) 8 AWG would be needed with a conductor size of around 3.5mm but i wouldn't use that. I am no expert, but i general use 6mm cable for all my solar stuff, that is around 2 or 3 in the AWG charts for conversion, the larger the cable size supposedly the less loss.

Many people who use suitcase panels under estimate how far the panels might need to be from the battery, this is often governed by simple things like location and security, for example campers or hikers might be under foliage cover and the panels need to be some distance away, yet the storage system (yeti) needs to be close to the camp, hence the need for long cables.

I tend to have 10m (30ft) cables with a 6mm conductor diameter for both the + and the - using anderson connectors. GZ supply a 30ft cable but don't tend to answer question on the loss when using the cable, but having stripped one down the cable is well made and the centre + conductor is insulated as well with the - wire running around the conductor followed by the outer sheath.

If it was me, i would be AWG 3 cable knowing that the loss would be minimal, this is what i intend to do with my Yeti 1250 (when its delivered) as my panels will need to be secured to prevent theft and the yeti will also need to be secured to prevent theft, and the distance between them can be 15 plus ft (5m)

I would be interested to hear from anyone else who has experience with this, i don't think it is an exact science due to the variables.

But please keep in mind that many cheap panels are made in China and they don't provide the output that they are sold at, i am sure there is a youtube video of a yeti 1250 which displays around 60W on a 100W panel at its optimum settings.

I use a Bosch 100W folding panel which are used a many of the mid market folding panels here in the UK.

Any opinions etc?

 

[fog cutter]

are the Bosch panels currently in production? searching for a US distributor yielded this article: http://www.forbes.com/sites/william...uts-down-solar-business-suffers-steep-losses/

but it's dated 2013? maybe B restructured?

 

[jpgrove]

are the Bosch panels currently in production? searching for a US distributor yielded this article: http://www.forbes.com/sites/william...uts-down-solar-business-suffers-steep-losses/

but it's dated 2013? maybe B restructured?

You might be correct, i am not sure, mine are listed as Bosch and so are some of the other panels, all are german made. They are definitely better quality than the 100W panel i have on my shed roof.


http://www.photonicuniverse.com/en/catalog/full/31-100W-12V-folding-solar-charging-kit-for-camper-caravan-boat-or-any-other-12V-system.html

http://www.bosch-solarenergy.com/media/bosch_se_online/alle_pdfs/technische_dokumente_1/zertifikate_1/produkte_4/zertifikate_zelle/gen3/110713_BoschSE_Cert_Zelle_engl_300dpi.pdf

 

[ChadHahn]

I built cables to run from my Renogy 100W Suitcase to my Yeti 400 using Anderson Connectors and 12G wire. I had my Yeti plugged into my Dometic CF-50 portable fridge overnight and it used 40% of the battery in the Yeti.

In the morning yesterday I hooked the cables up to solar panel controller and connected them to the Yeti. All through the day I had them connected moving the panels three times to follow the sun. Since the Yeti was charging through the Anderson connectors, input wasn't being shown on the display panel so I wasn't entirely sure that the Yeti was being charged. The display never dropped below 60% full and the controller was showing information which it is only supposed to do if it's connected to a battery so I was hopeful. Last night I disconnected the wires and put the panels away.

This morning the Yeti was still showing 60% so I am fairly confident that the homemade cables worked and that my run wasn't too long for getting juice to the Yeti and that running from a solar controller to the Anderson connectors on the side of the Yeti wouldn't burn up the Yeti. I guess I'm ready to go camping.

Chad

 

[jpgrove]

I built cables to run from my Renogy 100W Suitcase to my Yeti 400 using Anderson Connectors and 12G wire. I had my Yeti plugged into my Dometic CF-50 portable fridge overnight and it used 40% of the battery in the Yeti.

In the morning yesterday I hooked the cables up to solar panel controller and connected them to the Yeti. All through the day I had them connected moving the panels three times to follow the sun. Since the Yeti was charging through the Anderson connectors, input wasn't being shown on the display panel so I wasn't entirely sure that the Yeti was being charged. The display never dropped below 60% full and the controller was showing information which it is only supposed to do if it's connected to a battery so I was hopeful. Last night I disconnected the wires and put the panels away.

This morning the Yeti was still showing 60% so I am fairly confident that the homemade cables worked and that my run wasn't too long for getting juice to the Yeti and that running from a solar controller to the Anderson connectors on the side of the Yeti wouldn't burn up the Yeti. I guess I'm ready to go camping.

Chad

The chaining port on the yeti 400 is not designed for charging, however it is connected directly to the battery, however it has no fuse in line. So it should charge as long long as you have an external charge controller, which you state you have.

The only issue could be that the internal software of the Yeti is linked to the charge port, so it might show the correct battery capacity if the Yeti 400 is reset. To reset it press the display button and hold it for 60 secs this should reset the unit.

Did the charge controller on your panels show the battery full?

How long was the cable length?

You may have suffered some reverse path loss, even though charge controllers are supposed the prevent that, what model is it?

Try reseting first and let me know how you get on,

Regards

 

[Longtallsally]

I think you experienced what I did in that the Yeti charge controller struggles with updating the percentage of the battery if the input is not through the GZ variety. The only way I got it to accurately display was to plug the 110v into the input so it could "update".

 

[ChadHahn]

The cable length was 20 feet. I didn't look to see if the controller said the battery was full, I'll try that next time. This morning when I plugged it in to the 110 outlet the 60% was flashing so the drain was somewhere between 60% and 40% I guess. When I came back later it was showing 100%. Once again this makes me think that it got to be 100% as it was charging during the day since before I plugged it into the solar controller I had it hooked to the fridge over night and it went from 100 to 60.

I'll try it again and see what the controller reads and try to reset the Yeti by pressing the display button.

Chad

 

[codename607]

After reading most of these post I decided I should get one of these systems. Today I ordered the Yeti 400, Venture 30 and 2 of the Nomad 20 solar panels. Ready to put these to the test. Thanks to all who have shared their experiences.

 

[spikemd]

After reading most of these post I decided I should get one of these systems. Today I ordered the Yeti 400, Venture 30 and 2 of the Nomad 20 solar panels. Ready to put these to the test. Thanks to all who have shared their experiences.

Its a great plug n play system. Depending in your usage, you may want more than 40 watts of panels. This weekend, it was running the fridge and I charged up phones and tablets. Works great.

 

[spikemd]

Bought a 60 watt foldable PowerFilm panel from a buddy this weekend. It is an amazing panel and folds up as small as the 27watt GZ panel. Output for the PowerFilm is excellent based on testing I have read. There is an adapter made that connects the panel to the 4mm connector which I then daisy chain to another GZ panel or into my 4 to 1 GZ connector. Now I have too many panels and will start selling some off.

With my panels charging the Extreme350 (with the new battery I installed last month) it showed full charge all day and only dropped 20% overnight. I had the 60w powerfilm, 27w foldable GZ, 30w GZ briefcase and 13.5w foldable GZ in cloudy and semi-shady conditions.

 

[codename607]

Its a great plug n play system. Depending in your usage, you may want more than 40 watts of panels. This weekend, it was running the fridge and I charged up phones and tablets. Works great.

Thanks for the info. Right now I plan to use this to power my Indel B fridge when I'm stopped at camp. Since I usually only spend one night at a camp site I figured I would charge the Yeti back up while I'm driving from place to place. Do you think the two 40 watts are going to be enough?

 

[ChadHahn]

I took my Yeti 400 and Dometic CF-050 camping last weekend. We were gone for 3 nights. Where we camped it was cool, dropping into the 70s at night. I used 100 watt solar panels for a few hours two of the days we were there but I think the Yeti would have had enough juice to keep the fridge running for the three nights. For over nights, I think just charging the Yeti in the vehicle the next day would be enough.

Yeti says that their 90 watt panel will charge the Yeti 400 in 9-18 hours so I think 80 watts wouldn't do much charging parking in the afternoon and packing up the next day.

Chad

 

[jpgrove]

I took my Yeti 400 and Dometic CF-050 camping last weekend. We were gone for 3 nights. Where we camped it was cool, dropping into the 70s at night. I used 100 watt solar panels for a few hours two of the days we were there but I think the Yeti would have had enough juice to keep the fridge running for the three nights. For over nights, I think just charging the Yeti in the vehicle the next day would be enough.

Yeti says that their 90 watt panel will charge the Yeti 400 in 9-18 hours so I think 80 watts wouldn't do much charging parking in the afternoon and packing up the next day.

Chad

Domestic use Danfross BD35F compressors, which are very efficient compressors. They can draw as low a 2amp per hour. Depending on the ambient temperature and the temperature you have chosen the fridge to work too, then you can reliably run the fridge for weeks, assuming you have good daylight. The problem i found is that opening and closing meant consumption increased, and there are some known problems with that compressor model. IMHO it is still one of the best on the market, but if you are running it 24/7 in the Sahara Desert then your milage might be different.

 

[jpgrove]

Bought a 60 watt foldable PowerFilm panel from a buddy this weekend. It is an amazing panel and folds up as small as the 27watt GZ panel. Output for the PowerFilm is excellent based on testing I have read. There is an adapter made that connects the panel to the 4mm connector which I then days chain to another GZ panel or into my 4 to 1 GZ connector. Now I have too many panels and will start selling some off.

With my panels charging the Extreme350 (with the new battery I installed last month) it showed full charge all day and only dropped 20% overnight. I had the 60w powerful, 27w foldable GZ, 30w GZ briefcase and 13.5w foldable GZ in cloudy and semi-shady conditions.

The Powerfilm folding panels are superb, but they are very expensive, and i am unsure of the long term reliability of them in comparison to a folding briefcase style panel. But they are specifically designed for the military and expeditions where weight and size are the determining factors in any purchase.

I am after a Goal Zero cable to convert the MC4 cables to the Anderson Powerpole connectors, but they are not available in the UK :-( I have made one myself but the GZ product seems to have some strain relief in the design.

Regards