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I prefer copper coz it's purdy. ? Of course then I go spoil it all with heatshrink!!!

I've been following this thread with interest and wondered if anyone might want to see my efforts at building a Warpverter. It's been a long slow slog over several years but it is finally up and running ... and will finally be connected to run our place within a week. And I have to thank...

My Warpverter has now been hooked up to the house and workshop ... since yesterday morning ... and has been running happily ever since. While it had run up 373kWh of testing, it was still a bit nerve wracking to let it loose on all our household electrics ... and with five of us in the...

I built a solar air heater several years ago and it is on its third winter now. It is basically 18 of the evacuated tubes normally used for heating water but without the copper collectors inside (didn't come with the batch of tubes I scored). There's a thread over on thebackshed forum and...

Interesting to come across this thread as I don't spend that much time in this forum. As Warpspeed has described above is exactly what I've done to take our pool filter pump off grid and save us considerable dollars ... in fact he was instrumental in encouraging me to try out the idea in the...

Interesting comment. I haven't heard of anyone who will try it ... always so many reasons why it can't work though. Having said that, I've been running my pool pump for three and a half years directly off 6 x 250 watt panels in series, running a treadmill motor and a belt to the original AC...

Who are you people? Doesn't anyone make an effort to fault find before they condemm thousands of dollars worth of equipment to the bin.

Well I gotta say you guys are the biggest bunch of hypocrites I've come across yet. I read these threads from time to time and always see someone being blasted, mocked, ridiculed, for not doing something perfectly ... and now I see that most of you are as bad or worse with your gear than the...

Howdy, I just happened across this thread and it got my attention because I fix electronics for a living. From what I've read so far, my thoughts are that it is quite likely an electrolytic capacitor that has 'dried' out ... and has got a high esr (effective series resistance) ... which...

One of these came up for sale on marketplace recently ... a TSF32K ... basically a box of bricks interspersed with big oven type elements ... 4,571 watts with an additional 1,500 watt element. Rating 7 hrs ... 32kWh Only wanted $100 but it weighs 176kg and it all seemed too hard so I let...

Very nice. That is definitely art. Not sure what it is about copper but I love it when it's all new and polished up. Not so much once it's tarnished and green. ?

I second this answer. I know a guy who has done the same for years with a couple car cooling fans in series with a 250w panel. When the sun shines, they spin ... when the sun goes down, they stop. No speed controls, no timers, no nothing extra needed. The same can apply to pumps as well ...

Thanks for the links Woody, I've been reading up on all them for a while. Yes, you are correct, it's only the tubes that are available with no heat tubes unfortunately. What has my attention is the price ... 100+ tubes for $100. I can buy heat tubes from ebay etc ... but tubes plus...

I posted a link in another thread to a "box of bricks" storage heater and thought a picture from the manual might be worthwhile here in regard to element placement etc. Can also see the full manual

Hi RLW, I'm new here too, just discovered the forum this morning. You've already got some impressive maths from svetz and I can't argue or compete with that, but I can give you a real world example with a pool pump running on panels alone. I'm not quite sure why you have two pumps, must be...

My dad was a farmer and did everything needed doing. I wasn't always keen to help but so thankful he made me help as I learned a lot and can tackle anything now too. I've recognised for years that he's who I got my work ethic from. I'm still trying to teach my 10 year old son similar skills but...

Just an update on my Warpverter build. I started to run out of battery a few times after getting a bit carried away running everything I could on all this "free energy" ... so I fitted the extra panels I had planned and hooked them up to the other two mppt controllers. So now 48 panels set up...

That was really more in reference to me finally getting my butt into gear and off of facebook and various platforms, and doing the tasks needed to complete what I started. :) Having said that, when I first fired it up and started checking it out, I blew 6 mosfets on the medium tx bridge. I...

I like jobs like that. Best of both worlds. Effectively three identical circuits with one still working. ... and all in the same box. Well worth trying what you suggested. I'm always surprised at how often just a couple parts cause all the grief, though of course there are always exceptions...

Thanks for the link and your reply Jo67. I had seen reference to the food steamer some time ago, but it seems the company behind it are no longer around ... but I haven't played with heating water directly yet ... I must try that. I have made considerable progress with an air heating...

Yeah, I read all the way through to find out "why". Would like to know more.

Hi, yeah it had run successfully for a full three years and I only retired it when I got the Warpverter going and decided to use the panels in my complete array ... and of course the power is now essentially free, so the pool's not a worry any more. This is the thread where it was discussed...

I think you have your answer. I'd replace those two caps at the bottom to start with, though I would buy 105° caps for insurance. And if I had that in my workshop and if replacing the first two caps fixed it ... I'd still replace all electros on that board ... but that's just me. I have a...

Wow, thanks for the kind words. Yeah I wasn't thinking when I planned this. I did have another heatsink that was already black so I should have chosen that. Has been a lot of drilling and tapping so I'd rather not have to do that again.

No, they are the same copper material as the horizontal links ... 12.7mm x 3mm I tinned them first and then soldered them to the boards. I first tried to tin them by lowering them into a solder bath, but because the bath was not big enough the coating was not all that even. Then I remembered...

No, not generally any visual evidence of damage to electrolytics. Once in a while you may see the outer layer of plastic on a cap might appear to have shrunk by a small amount. Occasionally I'll pull some caps out and just one off them will feel funny ... too light for its size ... or out of...

Haha, yeah it might take me a while to get to that stage. I had enough trouble pulling the trigger on my 2kW compressor. Good comment, I really need to start trying those sorts of loads. I didn't realise quite how hard it is to test something like this until I started running around looking...

You are probably correct, but don't forget I scored 140 odd tubes (including 4 or 5 stands and a heap of reflectors) for $100 ... and three inline exhaust fans for $50. At times I have wondered how it would have compared to a 'normal' solar air heater with soda cans or flywire ... but I'm...

Thanks for all the answers. I have no idea why some of those didn't show up in my searching. I'm not sure I need all that much monitoring with 16 pickups but I've learned a lot just reading the links you've provided. Thanks again.

Thanks, I've had a good read of the specs and manual and can't find any reference to a max supply temp. I'll keep looking. Good point, and yes it's really only on an extension from a bath so should be easier to do than ripping out the mixer in the shower alcove. My understanding of the...