diy solar

diy solar

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  • Post in thread: It’s time to say goodbye

    Depending on where you are, there may be a recycler that'll pay you per pound. I have one local to me that I've taken a TON of dead SLA UPS batteries to for a handful of cents per pound.
  • Post in thread: Ressurecting/rejuvenating batteries

    I believe the NoCo10 does have some sort of auto repair, but supposedly it's a very mild repair. It also has a manual repair that's supposedly much stronger. I only used the NoCo initially to bring them up from dead, from there I've only used the 10A power supply as was suggested. Edit: When...
  • Post in thread: Ressurecting/rejuvenating batteries

    So I've started getting the batteries charged - Making the harnesses to convert the packs from series to parallel is kind of tedious lol. I've gotten 16 charged with the NoCo so far and another 16 are in process... According to tester, the batteries, at least the ones that I've charged with the...
  • Post in thread: Paralleling solar panels

    I found this post regarding bypassing panels - I'm guessing this is the kind of setup I'd want if I want to be able to bypass a panel if it's shaded? What would the best way to accomplish wiring this up be?
  • Post in thread: Paralleling solar panels

    Here's the box on the back of the panels - looks like it should have diodes in it... in theory...
  • Post in thread: Ah/Wh and runtime doesn't add up

    I've got my really small experimental setup that has two 100w solar panels wired in series, connected to a Renogy Rover 40w MPPT charge controller, with a 35Ah Duracell deep cycle sealed/AGM battery, and the load on it consists of two PoE IP cameras, a really small switch, a wireless bridge and...
  • Post in thread: Ah/Wh and runtime doesn't add up

    I know that generally speaking, you won't get 'full capacity' out of a battery, but only 50% is crazy (Batteries should be sold advertising USABLE capacity)... if a battery legit only can give you 50% (or less), that seems like massive false advertising. The thing is when I ran a capacity test...
  • Post in thread: Ressurecting/rejuvenating batteries

    So I got all 12 packs charged up with the noco to halt any further degradation, and I got the 'harnesses' build to convert the packs from series to parallel, put them all back together in their new configuration, paralleled them all together and connected the noco again to top them all off...
  • Post in thread: Ressurecting/rejuvenating batteries

    Thanks again for the info - yes, for charging, parallel for sure. The UPS is designed for using them in series - my UPS has 10 in series in the pack, the UPS these came from have two 8s packs in series. The only amperage marking on the batteries is 'Initial Current: Less than 2.0A', and the PDF...
  • Post in thread: Paralleling solar panels

    The panels are these from Harbor Freight. Can't really give any more specs on the panels other than 100w 18-19VDC because the info doesn't seem to be there. The controller is a Renogy RNG-CTRL-RVR40-US, wiring is all 10Ga, from the panels to the controller is 10', maybe a tad longer and from the...
  • Post in thread: Growatt inverters and Gyll 100Ah LiFePO4 as a UPS

    Thanks for the Wh explanation. Makes more sense now. Yes, you're right, the batteries would be 12v nominal, so in my case, it would be 120v DC nominal, however, at 100% SoC, the pack is reported as 136.1v DC. I didn't realize that the Gyll/EG4 packs can communicate directly with the growatt...
  • Post in thread: Paralleling solar panels

    Well, I grabbed a fairly cheap inverter and gave it a test with the panels in parallel and in series and I'd say the results were pretty good. The only issue was when I stood in front of one of the panels to see if they could continue generating power with one of the panels covered, current...
  • Post in thread: Best inverter to use as a UPS

    I'm looking into setting up a fairly small setup with two inverters, not because I need 6000w of power but for inverter redundancy, and I'm thinking of starting out with two 12v 100Ah LiFePo4 packs in series, which would provide 2400Wh of energy at 24v - roughly 4x the capacity of one of my...
  • Post in thread: Ressurecting/rejuvenating batteries

    I finally was able to finish the second and third charges (14.8 for 8 hours, 13.8 for a week), and the results are below. IR-1 is the test before I did the extended charges and the IR-2 is after. I don't recall the IR-1 temperature, but the temp today when I took the IR-2 was 90*, so being...
  • Post in thread: Paralleling solar panels

    Yes, that was in series. As a noob, based on bits I've read, I thought that in a series string, if one was shaded or not producing for whatever reason, the diodes would allow current from the other panel(s) to bypass the shaded panel and continue to power the controller/load. But of course, I...
  • Post in thread: Charge/discharge meters

    So I ended up ordering it - It is exactly as pictured in the amazon images, not a sensor like WoodySolarVan posted. That being said, I haven't tinkered much yet, but so far it seems like it'll work. As WoodySolarVan suggested, it doesn't show 'charge' and 'discharge' per se, but instead the...
  • Post in thread: Ressurecting/rejuvenating batteries

    I just acquired several UPS external expansion batteries that were BNIB, never been attached to a UPS, but have been sitting in box on a pallet for 'several years' - based on the manufacture date, I think somewhere around 2.5 years. So obviously, self-discharge is an issue. I was expecting them...
  • Post in thread: Paralleling solar panels

    Well, the label on these panels say not to connect in series.... They have a box on the back that looks like it should contain a bypass diode, so I don't know... Any ideas why? So I'm guessing there's nothing special that needs to be done to parallel the panels like diodes or something, and my...
  • Post in thread: Charge/discharge meters

    You know, I didn't think of putting the charging through the sensor... technically, if the charging wire goes through the sensor as well as the load wire, the net effect should be the same - if 15A is going towards the battery through the sensor and 20A is going away from the battery, the 15A...
  • Post in thread: Paralleling solar panels

    That post you quoted - I'm assuming the poster was referring to HF panels? TBH, I didn't read the quote at first, I read your reply, but when I re-read it, apparently the poster has hooked them up in series. Could the reason they say not to hook up in series be because they expect/intend that...
  • Post in thread: Ah/Wh and runtime doesn't add up

    Interesting read, but in this particular case, my capacity test was done at a very similar draw (within half an amp or so, and not intentionally) of this particular load. The Renogy is set to a LVC of 11.6v. The problem is the info out there is pretty generic, and most seems to be related to...
  • Post in thread: Growatt inverters and Gyll 100Ah LiFePO4 as a UPS

    I currently have my 'home lab' environment running on two APC SMX3000 UPS units. These units each have ten 5Ah batteries wired in series, giving an output voltage from the batteries into the inverter of about 136v fully charged. My math could be off, but as each 12v 5Ah battery has about 60Wh...
  • Post in thread: Ressurecting/rejuvenating batteries

    Thanks for your help - I replaced the 30 batteries in one of my UPS's (APC SMX3000LV) and it's external battery pack (one of the RBCs from the external pack measured about 9 volts, when fully charged is 136, so they were just a 'tad' dead :oops:), and after running a runtime calibration, it's...
  • Post in thread: Ressurecting/rejuvenating batteries

    Thanks for the info - for more detail, the batteries inside are 'Vision CP 1250HC' 12v 5AH Valve Regulated batteries, and the info on the side states '14.5-14.9v Cycle use' and '13.6-13.8v Standby use'. Edit: I found this datasheet on them...
  • Post in thread: Charge/discharge meters

    Does anyone have any experience with this charge/discharge meter:https://www.amazon.com/Charge-Discharge-DROK-Voltmeter-Watt-Hour-Multimeter/dp/B07YWVCBRN/ref=sr_1_35?crid=15KI8IZIMQPXI> If so, is it any good? If not, can anyone suggest something decent but not crazy expensive that'll track...
  • Post in thread: Paralleling solar panels

    This is going to be a dumb noob questions... I've been running a Harbor Freight 100w solar panel for a small experiment setup and just grabbed a second one with the intent being to parallel them (They say not to use in series - any ideas why?), but they don't say anything about parallel. When...
  • Post in thread: Ressurecting/rejuvenating batteries

    Wow this went off the rails lol. What mikeinnyc posted may work and whatnot, but it's far outside of the scope of what I was asking... Nobody advocated overcharging the batteries. The voltages sunshine_eggo mentioned are within the ranges printed on the batteries, these batteries have never been...
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