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Rebuilding my Solar Power System after 3 years Storage

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oztules:
yep, I reckon 5kv@40 amps will shake up the crystals if anything will. The best I have seen out of my fencers was 10kv@40 amps.... thats as far as the galligher tester went... it may have been more current than that, don't know.... but certainly looked nasty enough to split any molecule.


...........oztules

WooferHound:
In my last post I had fully intended to have a day trying to tickle the batteries back into taking a proper charge, Instead I spent 2 days getting wire into the house and setting up enough connections to use and monitor the power more easily inside.

-- Day 1 --
Hammered a Star Chisel for an hour to make a 3/4 inch hole through the cement block on the side of the house. Pulled twelve 14 gauge wires through there which has a capacity of 15 amps each. They will be used like this...
4 wires for 12 VDC power, 2 Positive & 2 for Negative. 30 amps total.
3 wires for 120 VAC power from a 400 watt inverter. Has wire for ground going outside to  a ground Rod.
4 wires for charging, like pedal power. 2 pairs of wire going out to individual Bridge Rectifiers.
1 spare conductor, possibly a Ground wire.
Also ran an Ethernet cable which is 4 pairs of 24 gauge wire. Two pairs for LED Dump Load indicators and two spare pairs.

-- Day 2 --
I use this power in areas around my computer so everything mounts to my computer desk where I can reach it.
Mounted 12 VDC Distribution box with 50,000 mfd capacitor to prevent surges then 4 fused outputs.
Mounted box with 3 Cigarette Lighter outlets and a single USB output
Modified a Switch Panel and mounted it to control; Lights, Fan, Audio Amplifier, Modem & Router. Six switches leading to a terminal strip, so anything I want to hookup.
I mounted the LED Dumpload Indicators on this switchbox plus some Red LEDs to show if anything is On, showing that power is being used.

It is a lot nicer being 20 feet away from the system because it is easier and less expensive to run all the wiring that I want to experiment with.
Pictures soon, I am working today. Will play with the batteries in a coupla days.

bj:
  Lots of progress.   Envious of the energy.

Pete:
Geez Woof, a star chisel, that takes me back. Surely one of your neighbours had a tungsten drill bit that would have done the job?
I once spent many days in the bottom of a well with a star chisel, making holes to put plugs of gelegnite in to blow rock out of the bottom of the well.
I understand the job, I hope the mortar in your walls is strong, and that you didn't make too many cracks in the wall in the process.
Sounds like you are having lots of fun with setting up your system. May the sun always shine on your panels.
Pete

WooferHound:

--- Quote from: Pete on September 24, 2018, 05:09:42 pm ---Geez Woof, a star chisel, that takes me back. Surely one of your neighbors had a tungsten drill bit that would have done the job?
I once spent many days in the bottom of a well with a star chisel, making holes to put plugs of gelegnite in to blow rock out of the bottom of the well.
I understand the job, I hope the mortar in your walls is strong, and that you didn't make too many cracks in the wall in the process.
Sounds like you are having lots of fun with setting up your system. May the sun always shine on your panels.
Pete

--- End quote ---

Hmmmm ... I didn't tell these stories, but since you bring it up . . .

I have a 12 inch long 1/2" Tungsten drill bit and have tried to use that bit to drill through this particular wall in the past, but could not drill through the second Cement Block layer, so I stopped and then made it work somehow a foot further away on the wall. Early in this project I knew that I needed to make this hole and did not want to buy a hammer drill just to make this 1 hole even though my neighbor has one to borrow. So the star chisel was ordered while the cabinet was being built, $22 shipping and all. The Big Box stores did not have them in stock locally.

The previously started hole was too small for what I wanted so I just enlarged it with the Chisel. The second block layer proved to be difficult again the second time and great amounts of chisel hammering were involved untill a soft layer like wood was encountered. Went inside the house and could see where the point was trying to drive through the sheetrock. Then I noticed the power was off for the computer & entertainment center.

What The Fuk, that wiring is not where I'm chiseling. Checked many things, even Pulled the Mains fuse thinking that maybe a Phase had blown, but everything seemed fine after 30 minutes looking. Went back to that one outlet that was powerless and inspected closely. It was 8 inches away from the intended hole and had a fist sized Surge/Noise power filter and a couple of multi-tap power cubes hanging on it. The vibration of the nearby chiseling had vibrated everything apart enough to break the connections. Difficult to see until I got close to it.

Where was I ... oh yeah, I was trying to pound a hole through the wall. Decided to try and finish the hole with the 1/2 inch tungsten bit mention earlier. Since I was only a few feet away from the system cabinet, I plugged the hand drill into the 400w Inverter. First time I've ever tried to do anything useful with the inverter. I was quite surprised that it was working so well with a 1/2 inch bit on concrete and in 2 minutes I had punched completely through the wall. Spent a little more time and enlarged the hole to 3/4 inch with the star drill working from both sides of the wall.

That's the story of the hole in my wall.

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