M14 Forum

geeck

Yes they are, that's why a warned you it's about the "SELL" with them. But there is some information to be gleaned on the website. They usually present it in a manner that you don't need to be an Solar engineer to understand. Their prices are not too bad on some thing though.

Unfortunately, as you've found out, pumping water reliably from a deep well is not an easy or cheap thing to do with Solar Power.

huntinghawk

12VDC pump isn't a very good option. I'm restricted having a 2" well & having to draw from 117ft. Draw 34amps for the submersible pump that would work. But only 1.13GPM at best. That is about 1/3 what I get now.

So 12VDC pump doesn't look like a very good option right now.

HH

huntinghawk

Finally got the gauge today. Alittle wet outside so not climbing up a ladder today. But let me say this about that; Anyone doing anything with solar panels should spend the $5 for one of these gauges.

HH

huntinghawk

Panels set at 40 degrees to the horizon. Overcast right now so don't have a good reading as per amps to controller.

huntinghawk

Some clouds rolling threw from a cold front. Controller was reading 21.9amps but didn't get that pic.

HH

huntinghawk

huntinghawk

In theory, I have enough panels to get 30amps. But their ratings are like vehicle manufacturer's MPG ratings, just not going to happen. I actually believe my system fine tuned is capable of 25amps. But getting a reading of 23.8amps today really makes me happy.

HH

huntinghawk

I got a deal on a used one of these last night I just couldn't refuse. An internet friend is upgrading his solar system which makes this unit obsolete for him.

http://www.tripplite.com/en/products...txtModelID=178

HH

huntinghawk

May be time to drop my panels angles alittle.

HH

svandamme

Solar invertors to all kinds of fancy work to make sure the voltage and signal is clean. If ou hook up the panels directly to the batteries, you'll get A bad performance out of yer panels, B wear out he batteries really quickly.

Ideally you need an invertor designed for solar application, it will offer much better efficiency and if it's an offgrid unit , will also end to your batteries needs a lot better.

I have the on grid version of this one



14x 240Watt peak on 2 strings.

Today was a grey, dark day..That netted me about 2.93 kWh

So the setups i read in this thread, 2 x 90 Wattpeak.. I'm sorry but unless you live in the Sahara, at the equator... that won't give you much to work with.

I won't even run a fridge year round..

sure you can setup a mcGyver solar system for cheaps.. and sure it will get some power out of the sun and into your batteries.

But it will be inefficient and insufficient... You get what you pay for.

CharlieEcho

I know so little about solar power it's a wonder I can spell, solar. I have read most of the posts but there are thirteen pages.

Anyhow, last saturday was openhouse at the University of Illinois School of Engineering. Lots of interesting stuff to see. Lots of alternate power sources under study.

One example of solar power was shown using graphite, glass panels, titanium oxide and Raspberry juice. This being an example of using as much organic products as possible. The glass, two small 1 inch square pieces, was coated with graphite from a pencil. A mixture of titanium oxide and Raspberry juice placed on one sheet of glass and sandwiched between the other glass against the graphite sides. Wires were epoxied on opposite sides of the glass and the panel set aside to dry. With very little light the small one inch panel gave a voltage reading. I know some fruits produce an electric current, but the students explained that the Raspberry juice was chosen for it's color retention.

huntinghawk

I dropped my panel angles alittle. Didn't put the gauge on it. But probably down to about 35 degrees.

HH

huntinghawk

I'd dropped the angles to 34 degrees & increased panel output by over 2amps.

HH

svandamme

There are so many things that affect Solar production.

Last thursday we had , what seemed to be a perfect spring day.
blue sky, not a cloud in sight all day.

My PV chart was a near perfect curve..




Well, in fact it was not an optimal day
My panels maxed out on 2.4 Kw at the peak, i did have a record day of 14.5 Kwh

But yesterday, we had an on/off cloudy/sunny day.
My curve was all over the place, with a major dip , almost nothing in the morning.

Yet now i had peaks of up to 2.9 Kw and a total of 12.5kwh

My point is.. Even on a clear sunny , cloudless day .. you can have atmospheric dust and particles that affect your result.. measuring amperage won't give you good data to work with. It will not tell you the Kwh's.

think water
voltage = diameter of the pipe
amps = pressure
Kwh = Liters << this is what you need to measure with PV, not Amps.

For optimum angles you can just look at solar charts for your location.
Looks like this


And as you can see, the angle , really does not make that much difference, if aimed due south, from 20 to 50 degrees angle, it hardly makes a difference, beyond that, it will.


But from your picture, you should look into moving that pole.. That pole will cast a shadow that moves over your panels in the morning. And especially with a non PV optimized invertor, that will kill efficiency because your invertor has an ever changing signal to deal with : invertor losses are higher.

huntinghawk

Inverter draws its power from the batteries so not affected I believe.

HH