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diy solar

Hello, and some help please

danieljohnjordan

New Member
Joined
May 24, 2022
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3
Hi everyone. I have a system that was installed for me. It consists of:
9x330w panels
5kw invertor
4 X 12v (160ah) sealed solar batteries wired in series.
This is to run my house in Spain. I have very little in the way of load at night, just a fridge freezer and lights. When the sun is up the system works a treat and I can do several washing machine loads without a hitch. At night sometimes the lights go off!
I've been checking the invertor the last few days and the batteries are fully charged at the end of the day and this morning before sunrise they were at 25-50%. Seeing as there is so little load I can't work out what is happening with the batteries. Any suggestions greatly appreciated
 
Do you have a way to see a record of the power output by the inverter over a period of time? It would be helpful to see what the inverter load is doing overnight. You can also search your house for any power load that you might not be taking into consideration. Maybe a freezer that has a problem and runs most of the time, or something like that. I have a water bed heater that only runs about once every 36 hours but it runs for 5 to 7 hours at 400 watts. If left to run at night, it is a battery drain, larger than any other item.
 
4 X 12v (160ah) sealed solar batteries wired in series.
By sealed do you mean Sealed Lead Acid? The lead acid flavors really shouldn't be drained more than 50% of listed capacity, which would make your system 48v * 80Ah = 3840Wh of usable power.

Can you scrounge up the power draw of the fridge, freezer, lights, and inverter? The 5Kw inverters are probably going to want a good 50w just to exist which is 1200Wh of your battery right out the gate. Add in the compressors from fridges and watts go real fast.

If you don't have any kind of data on them, can you find a Kill-A-Watt in your area? They're usually only about $20USD so not expensive at all. You can throw that onto each plug and let it log the power consumption for a day or two to get accurate numbers.

How many lights, what size, and how long are they on for? If you leave a 10w light on in the kitchen or something all the time that's 240Wh right there also.

Think of Watts like Grams, it takes a LOT to do much and you're never going to get totally ripped with a 5000g weight set. :)
 
Hi everyone. I have a system that was installed for me. It consists of:
9x330w panels
5kw invertor
4 X 12v (160ah) sealed solar batteries wired in series.
This is to run my house in Spain. I have very little in the way of load at night, just a fridge freezer and lights. When the sun is up the system works a treat and I can do several washing machine loads without a hitch. At night sometimes the lights go off!
I've been checking the invertor the last few days and the batteries are fully charged at the end of the day and this morning before sunrise they were at 25-50%. Seeing as there is so little load I can't work out what is happening with the batteries. Any suggestions greatly appreciated
It could simply be that on some days, you use more power during the day than the solar panels can deliver, and so the batteries don't get fully charged, and can't make it through the night. That's one possibility. Cold batteries don't perform as well either, could be temperature-related.
 
Do you have a way to see a record of the power output by the inverter over a period of time? It would be helpful to see what the inverter load is doing overnight. You can also search your house for any power load that you might not be taking into consideration. Maybe a freezer that has a problem and runs most of the time, or something like that. I have a water bed heater that only runs about once every 36 hours but it runs for 5 to 7 hours at 400 watts. If left to run at night, it is a battery drain, larger than any other item.
Thanks for your suggestions. The invertor doesn't have anything like that, it just shows me the load at that point in time. The fridge/freezer is the only thing running overnight but it is quite old so I'll look into that. Thank you
 
Do you have a way to see a record of the power output by the inverter over a period of time? It would be helpful to see what the inverter load is doing overnight. You can also search your house for any power load that you might not be taking into consideration. Maybe a freezer that has a problem and runs most of the time, or something like that. I have a water bed heater that only runs about once every 36 hours but it runs for 5 to 7 hours at 400 watts. If left to run at night, it is a battery drain, larger than any other item.
Thanks for your suggestions. The invertor doesn't have anything like that, it just shows me the load at that point in time. The fridge/freezer is the only thing running overnight but it is quite old so I'll look into that
By sealed do you mean Sealed Lead Acid? The lead acid flavors really shouldn't be drained more than 50% of listed capacity, which would make your system 48v * 80Ah = 3840Wh of usable power.

Can you scrounge up the power draw of the fridge, freezer, lights, and inverter? The 5Kw inverters are probably going to want a good 50w just to exist which is 1200Wh of your battery right out the gate. Add in the compressors from fridges and watts go real fast.

If you don't have any kind of data on them, can you find a Kill-A-Watt in your area? They're usually only about $20USD so not expensive at all. You can throw that onto each plug and let it log the power consumption for a day or two to get accurate numbers.

How many lights, what size, and how long are they on for? If you leave a 10w light on in the kitchen or something all the time that's 240Wh right there also.

Think of Watts like Grams, it takes a LOT to do much and you're never going to get totally ripped with a 5000g weight set. :)
Thanks for your suggestions. Yes, they are just lead acid, so I see what you mean, the power is halved. The only thing overnight is the fridge/freezer so I'll get a monitor for it. It is quite an old one so it could be that. Thanks
 
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