Recent content by upnorthandpersonal

You won't get maximum power transfer from the panel to the motor by hooking them up directly. You likely need to do some matching, i.e., by PWM-ing the panel output over a capacitor (check out how PWM charge controllers work, and how electric resistors for water heaters are hooked up to solar PV).

Like I said, second winter here now with snow, as @shadowmaker points out and temperatures below freezing. Perfect for a stew made in the oven of the masonry fireplace:

What is the Voc on those panels?

I wasn't talking about cells getting imbalanced at the end of the charge cycle. I was talking about newly bought cells, to be put in a pack without any preparation, and having the BMS balance the cells over time without a specific balancing step during pack construction. It doesn't even have to...

Definitely what I would do. You can get 280Ah cells from NKON in The Netherlands for under 80 Euro. This saves the hassle we have right now getting stuff from China (and I say this as someone buying cells from China regularly). It also means you don't have the capacity mismatch and other...

I use it similarly: to know if I can dump battery into the buffer with the heat pump or not to maximize energy use. Especially in spring when it's cold, but we have lots of sunny days.

The main reason why is because active balancing BMS are common now. You can just throw the cells together have the BMS balance the cells automatically over time. This means you don't need to go through the step of balancing with a power supply, which we've seen quite a few people screw up with...

From a European perspective: what's aluminium wire? On a serious note, it's used on power distribution, but I've never seen any aluminium wire used in residential in any of the EU countries I've been/lived in.

Closing this thread before it goes out of control.

So, maybe a dumb question... I don't really understand.... I'm in a cold climate, but... Why is one guy wearing a hat indoors while the guy outside isn't?

Connection issue. Maybe a bad crimp on the connector.

I know your pain - I'm at 63 degrees north. My 15kW array makes 0 kWh in the middle of winter. However, with wind you also have maintenance. I assume you, like me, are in an area where you have snow and ice in winter? A small turbine will ice up and lock up from snow build up in no time. 5kWh...

Right now. You can get 304Ah cells from EVE for $66 or so. Even in the EU you can get them for 81 Euro including VAT from NKON for example.

Don't go with small wind turbines unless you have absolutely perfect conditions. It will be a disappointment otherwise. You're dealing with two fundamental issues: - The Betz Limit - The Power in Wind equation The Betz Limit is basically a theoretical number of the maximum efficiency you can...

Difficult to say. According to info like this: https://blog.voltaconsolar.com/knowledge-base/how-to-solve-error-09-in-off-grid-conversol-inverters/ Any chance your PV voltage got higher than allowed?