@Hedges : Yes, sadly, my income is practically non-existent at the moment. So I'm cursed with baby-sitting cheaper flooded lead acid from year to year. Poor health and bad choices in life... Still, you learn how to nurse lead very very well when it's all you've got. But I own an acre of the...
Hello everyone!
I've been banging my head against the solar puzzle wall for the past eight years. I managed to successfully live off-grid in a box truck on the streets of San Diego on 1100 watts of mixed panel sizes connected incorrectly for only 900 watts max output (Well, I know that now)...
"...current limit...?" That's my guess, but I'm not sure. The manual makes no mention of over current protection.
I do like the Medea A/C you linked. Crazy "U" design. I'm currently using a very efficient 10,000 BTU Frigidaire that uses 916 watts at full capacity and am strongly considering...
So, I got into a debate with a friend who said that if you convert your 12 volt 400 amp hour battery bank to 24 volts, you'll lose half your charge capacity (i.e., 400 amp hours would be reduced to 200 because running batteries in series increases the voltage, but the amp hours stay the same). I...
I was curious about that myself. But the company says right on the web site (https://watts247.com/product/spf-3000tl-lvm-es/?wpam_id=3):
I messaged with one of their technicians who assures me that a 5S3P array should work just fine with 4000 watts in from PV and 3000 out from the inverter.
As...
It all sounds fascinating, but each sentence left me more and more in the dark. You lost me at "air-to-air heat exchanger..."
You'll have to forgive me. I was a technical writer in the I.T. industry. I know computers, hardware, software, networks and communication protocols. So, solar and...
So, fill a top lid chest freezer with a maze of frozen water bottles and never open the lid. Then push air through a circuitous pipe or expansion coil (?) to a blower fan on the other side. As for the nightly BTU requirement, it can't be much since I would limit it to a 100 square foot enclosed...
I hope it's true. I reached out to Mr. Prowse on his YouTube channel suggesting he test this claim during his upcoming review. I hope he finds this useful information for his viewers.
But what if the array is 10 feet tall, 32 feet long, and weighs nearly a ton? For tracking, I would have to group the panels by weight and then spread them out to avoid overshadowing. Each panel weighs 62 pounds.
Wow @Hedges !
That's great info and I understood about half of it. I'll need time to absorb. But thank you so much! Clever use of panel angles for early day and late afternoon activity while also limiting daytime total input. I hadn't considered that option.
Sadly, here in the deep desert of...
Sadly, LiFePO4 is WAY out of my budget for the moment.
Curiously, my efficient Frigidaire 10,000 BTU is doing just fine with my 3500 watt pure sine inverter on the 600 amp hour flooded lead acid bank. Sure, it dims the lights a bit when the compressor kicks in, but it stays the course.
I'll...
I have considered ice in a brine solution with a submerged evaporative coil circulation system, but I suspect the cost per pound of ice production is too low within my budget. This was the most affordable option for me to consider but it only puts out 100 pounds per day...
Yeah, I thought that was curious. Max PV input on one device is 4000 watts, but then somehow the inverter can surge 5 seconds at 6000? How does THAT work?!
As for the sun angle concern and lowered array output, doesn't the MPPT compensate to some degree?
Luckily, I have two very efficient...
Sorry @curiouscarbon, I got all caught up in my problem, I forgot to be neighborly. Thank you for welcoming me to the forum and responding so quickly to my message. Very kind of you. ?
@Hedges : Thanks for the quick rundown on MPPT. I suspected as much, but for the time being I was just chalking it up to "magic". But I do experience the functionality of it everyday. Right now, in fact, I've been running the swamp cooler and my MorningStar has been equalizing the batteries from...
@Supervstech : My apologies if I was not clear. The 3000TL is a 48 volt all-in-one and can even be run without a battery at all. I've run both 12 and 24 systems in the past with mixed results. Most recently, I ran a 24 volt with two parallel Orion DC-DC converters for 24 to 12 volt conversion to...
Sadly, I placed the panels completely flat on top of mason bricks and then immediately contracted COVID and was sick for 61 days. By then the Arizona Summer was at full pace with daily temperatures well over 110° and I haven't touched them since. At the very least, they should be tilted to allow...
I agree. I was able to obtain my new panels at a massive fraction of the cost I paid for my hodge-podge of panels over the past eight years.
Just a side thought: I have to wonder if an arched array might provide a constant daytime power feed.
"dolly under the hitch"? Ever seen a travel trailer...
Sound advice. Thank you. Here in Southern Arizona, the temperatures rarely even get close to 32° F. Not sure what effect that would have on the panel voltage. Now, 120° F in the Summer, that's my problem!
My only experience with wind turbines so far has been an inexpensive horizontal Chinese 5-blade. It made a heck of a noise as the wind here spun it up significantly and then eventually ripped it off the roof. It lasted about a week and didn't generate enough electricity to even run a small fan...
Correct. Phoenix is just far enough North to worry about freezing temps. Dateland is just 40 miles from the Mexican border as the crow flies, and is the second hottest area of the desert in Arizona second to Yuma. It snowed here once in January 1969 for half an hour and it never hit the ground...
While I agree the numbers don't appear to match up well for my situation, I did receive confirmation from Ian Roux with the company...
The device is smart enough to switch between power sources and snychronously parallel with additional units, so I suspect the device is smart enough to deal...