Learjet's dodgy 12V solar installation

[zeke.damien]

just moved back from mackay from living there for 2 years i was working when we had that cyclone that cut the power for a few days and also when that substation blew up and they distributed power on 1 hour on 2 hours off until it was replaced i used a geni back then lol now i am back in vic and can actually do things to the house i am going to start small and work my way up i can do it all on a detached shed which has a large flat surface

so expect posts from me soon just need to work out how to start all this off with charge controllers and panels and batteries

btw been awesome seeing the pics and reading all about it,

whats the latest that has been happening

[Learjet]

whats the latest that has been happening

Well no more cyclones yet, but the season is young.

A second 75ah battery failed. It started getting warm and I see some slight wetness at the top indicating some electrolyte seep. There are two 75ah batteries left. They are 6 year old ex UPS batteries that were given to me a year ago. The two remaining look to be in better condition, but it's hard to tell with these things as they drop dead suddenly.

I'm looking at getting two 120ah batteries to replace them soon.

Looking forward to seeing your setup when running.

[Learjet]

Okay, two 120 A/H deep cycle batteries have been purchased, along with a 12V 200watt panel. I now have about 700 watts in total.

[Mysterex]

i was given a dead deep cycle battery - i ran a desulphator on it for about 2 months and it seems to be back to near normal capacity

always worth a try...

[Learjet]

Mmmm. I'm glad you've had success. I don't know if this is the same type of thing, I bought a battery refresher / rejuvenator from Jaycar.

It didn't help. The battery has to be above 12.6 volts for it to kick in, but my old sick batteries were down to 11V and got hot if I tried to bring the voltage up. Plus when the thing was working it used to spew RFI from DC to daylight. Even when I did get the voltage up, it didn't stay that way. Though I only tried it for a week or so at a time. I guess I'm being too impatient, but the RFI is unacceptable.

[Learjet]

It has been very dark with heavy cloud cover and rain in Mackay over the last few days. I'm generating a lousy < 500ma for every 100 watts of panels. That's less than one tenth of sunlight. There's no wind either so a wind turbine wouldn't help.

I can see places that run stand alone solar in these conditions turning on their generators.

[Learjet]

Here is my latest addition to the 12 volt solar dump house, a 12 volt, 6 speed reversible ceiling fan. It's an electron miser. At low settings it barely registers on the amp meter, at full power it's only 1 amp. Not quite the 12 volt air conditioner I wanted, but this draws so little power that I think it's worth it. Comes with 434 meg remote.

I wonder how it will cope with 70cm ops.

[gordon_s1942]

You would be surprised how much air a ceiling fan can shift in both summer and winter.
In Winter I flip the switch to run them aniticlockwise and I have seen a digital thermometer sitting on a shelf a metre from the floor rise by 3C, not much you say but when its minus 5C outside and that sweet sou-westerly straight from Antartica comes calling, you need all the heat sitting up on the ceiling down to you.

[Learjet]

So that's what the reversing is for. There are other 240V ceiling fans in the house but they are 34 years old and don't reverse.

I'm always on the lookout for interesting 12V appliances.

[Learjet]

Just got last quarter's electrickery bill. Only 83 dollars. Most of that from this power hungry i7 desktop with Geforce AMP vid card in it. If I get a laptop my bill will be darn near zero.

[vampyre]

Here is my latest addition to the 12 volt solar dump house, a 12 volt, 6 speed reversible ceiling fan. It's an electron miser. At low settings it barely registers on the amp meter, at full power it's only 1 amp. Not quite the 12 volt air conditioner I wanted, but this draws so little power that I think it's worth it. Comes with 434 meg remote.

I wonder how it will cope with 70cm ops.

I killed my house alarm remote with 70cm.It operated on 433.Fail.

[Learjet]

The 70cm band is home for all sorts of garbage. My weather station is on 434 meg.

[mechakey]

I really like the setup. Despite being years on from first post, this kind of ad hoc solution is impressive.

I wonder how is it holding up...

[beer4life]

I couldn't help myself, I raided Fort Knox and bought another Engel. This one the MT-35FP model to run as a freezer. Plenty of room for me.

Unfortunately one of the 75ah batteries in the main battery bank died. This leaves me with 3 x 75ah now. I load tested the remaining 3, they seem okay but being 6 years old already, these things seem to just drop dead fairly suddenly. I may actually have to buy some batteries in the near future.

How to extend life of your LA batteries.

This higher concentration of acid at the bottom of the battery causes additional build-up of lead sulfate (sulfation), which reduces battery storage capacity and battery life. In order to prevent Battery Stratification, an Equalization Charge (increasing charging voltage to 14.4-volts) must be applied periodically. The automatically selects its EQUALIZATION MODE (14.4 volts) every 21 hours for a period of 15 minutes. This Equalizing Charge feature is standard on our Marine chargers.

As you have learned, in order to properly charge and maintain a lead acid battery you must use an intelligent charging system. Progressive Dynamics, Inteli-Power 9100 Series RV converters with a Charge Wizard installed, or one of our Inteli-Power Marine Battery Chargers will provide the intelligent charging system your battery needs for a long life, with low maintenance.

[Learjet]

I really like the setup. Despite being years on from first post, this kind of ad hoc solution is impressive.

I wonder how is it holding up...

Sorry about the late reply. I've been away...

The dodgy solar system is holding up very well and is in constant use every day. The electricity bill is low too. The cheap ebay panels are holding up fine so far.

[SpankedHam]

How many $ do you reckon you've pushed into the setup so far?

[tristen]

Sorry about the late reply. I've been away...

The dodgy solar system is holding up very well and is in constant use every day. The electricity bill is low too. The cheap ebay panels are holding up fine so far.

Thanks for keeping us updated, Learjet.

It's always interesting to know how your system is performing.

[Learjet]

The only problem I have is the trees on the northern side have grown, so in winter I get a lot of shade from them. I'm thinking of buying a shed and mounting panels on the shed roof out the back where it would get more winter sun.

[Learjet]

Up to 2.6 kW now.

[Learjet]

You are probably wondering what caused this rather large upgrade. This year when cyclone Debbie blasted through it took out a 100 watt flexible panel (Apparently they are crap anyway, I won't buy another flexi), leaving me with 600 watts of panels. The servos run out of fuel for the generator and the day after the cyclone it was (as usual) very dark and rainy. We struggled through a week without grid power on just 600 watts in cloud and I realised we needed more to be comfortable. So I went a bit mental and now have 1.7 kW on the western side shed roof and another 900 watts on the eastern side observatory. It's also a bit neater. Gone are the pots and bricks holding them up, though there's still a bit of wood in there somewhere.

There's lots of 36v ex grid connect panels out there going cheap these days and I have a few of those too. The limiting factor is not the panels, it's how to store all that energy on the cheap.