Project Journals > Users Projects
Rebuilding my Solar Power System after 3 years Storage
WooferHound:
Guessing that all the panels have about about 6 amps charging power combined. Monitored battery voltage all day yesterday, started at 11.3 volts in the morning and eventually worked up to 12.0 volts Max when the Sun was shining and 11.7 volts as clouds crossed over, then back to 11.3 volts this morning. So there was not any gain at all.
This morning I unhooked the series connection on the 2 batteries and connected the charging cables to only one of the 6 volt batteries. So I'll see if I can push the voltage up past 6 volts on that battery today. Would love to get up to an equalizing charge of 8 volts on these two batteries. Want to see some vigorous bubbling in there.
DJ:
I can't say I think your location of the panels will be very good for max yeild.
The proximity of the house next door looks like it will kill your winter generation and then there is the tree and the section of fence.
I would suggest you consider moving the panels to a clearer spot in the yard. The DC side is a lot less susceptible to fall off if you use suitable cable than AC is. It does not look like you are pushing a lot of power anyway so even modest cable should carry the load without too much resistance. You could leave the controllers where they are and just run a cable back to them. Looks like you have a suitable facing section of roof where you could split the panels easy west so that may be a good place to put them as well.
That would have the advantage of giving you max hours of relatively even charge as against highest peak. If you are using the power at night, always a good thing to start putting charge back in them as soon as possible. You are probably missing out on a lot of valueable amps if your panels are not charging till 10 am.
WooferHound:
It's been 10 days from my last update, but it has been more of the same battery revival as mentioned in my last post.
Plus have been working long hours at my job so haven't had much time to mess around with it.
So the plan has been to charge each 6 volt battery individually to try and drive that voltage up to something that I can use.
Working with one battery at a time and alternating connection to each battery every 2 days. In the beginning each battery was sitting at 5.7 volts resting. During the days the panels will drive the voltage up to 6.2 volts max. Over the past 10 days the resting voltage has gone from 5.7 up to 5.9. I have not tried to connect any loads to them so not sure about their ability to actually supply power.
When I get time I want to try some more drastic measures. I have an 80 volt transformer that has two 10 amp secondary outputs. I plan to put a single diode on the output and pulse the batteries with halfwave 60hz pulses that should be at 110 VDC peak, possibly using both secondary outputs for 20 amp pulses to try and wake them up that way.
Another thing to try would be trying to put drastic loads on them, or even pulse them with a 15000 volt neon transformer I have.
oztules:
A few dollars will get a cheap SG tester ( bulb thing with the floating stick inside).
Without this, it is very difficult to even guess at whats going on inside the batts..... I suspect not as much as we wish).
Fiendishly tidy set up there :-[
........oztules
WooferHound:
--- Quote from: DJ on September 09, 2018, 05:02:36 am ---
I can't say I think your location of the panels will be very good for max yield.
The proximity of the house next door looks like it will kill your winter generation and then there is the tree and the section of fence.
I would suggest you consider moving the panels to a clearer spot in the yard. The DC side is a lot less susceptible to fall off if you use suitable cable than AC is. It does not look like you are pushing a lot of power anyway so even modest cable should carry the load without too much resistance. You could leave the controllers where they are and just run a cable back to them. Looks like you have a suitable facing section of roof where you could split the panels easy west so that may be a good place to put them as well.
That would have the advantage of giving you max hours of relatively even charge as against highest peak. If you are using the power at night, always a good thing to start putting charge back in them as soon as possible. You are probably missing out on a lot of valueable amps if your panels are not charging till 10 am.
--- End quote ---
I guess that I didn't mention the way that this system is used.
At this time I have 150 watts of panels and this system is designed to provide 12 DC power and I use the power that way. Everything runs on 12 volts.
Radio, TV, Lights, Fan, Modem, Router, Phone Charger, Laptop, Etc.
I have a 400 watt inverter available for the refrigerator in case of a power outage. I expect that I save about $3.oo a month on my electric bill, but when the power goes out it is priceless.
So this is pretty much a Hobby System that supplies power for nonessential loads. Yes, my neighbors house is rather close to mine and the shadow of the roof peak may cross the panels for awhile at noon in the Winter, but I'm good with that and will enjoy the power that I can get. Sure, I will maximize this location as its is the best spot that I have, Trim back that Crepe Myrtle tree and add 4 more panels in better locations for morning and evening Sun.
If you want more detailed information about the components you can visit this link to the previous installation of this system in the shed.
timmythy.home.mindspring.com/re-power.htm
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version