diy solar

diy solar

Life in a PSOC using LiFePo4

Sojourner1

Itinerant
Joined
Sep 30, 2019
Messages
762
Location
USA
For new folks researching or wondering what benefits might be in using LFP, here is just 1_ PSOC (partial state of charge). Here is a typical day living off of the system, the batteries are charged by solar 99% the time throughout the year. 1,072 continuous days of boondocking is the longest stretch I have had so far. This is only 4 days of poor solar production which had heavy cloud cover/ rain and even brief snow flurries off & on (snow in the middle of June) got to love boondocking! This is what it looks like on the system during periods of late Nov, Dec, Jan, early Feb when the days are shorter and then throw in overcast/ rainy days. The longest period of time of PSOC is over 40 days but nothing to be 7-14 days before solar can recharge to my full SOC capacity.

Solar production:
KWH harvest_ what was produced that day.
Max PV_ 14.1v is my absorb setting, 13.6v is my float setting.
Min Battery_ lowest voltage on the batteries.
Hours on work time_ period of time the solar charge controller wakes up to turns off (sleeping mode).
AH to battery
Max Power & Time_ peak solar production, the display just shows as an example 1.0 which would be 1,000 watts but it could be 1,075w the same as 1.1 (1,100w) it could be 1,199w. The display doesn't record the 4 digit # unless I actually scroll through the display at a particular time to see whats being produced in live time.
Battery SOC% morning_ capacity % before solar starts charging.
Battery SOC% evening_ what ever the highest % # was during the day.
Sunset to Sunrise DOD_ Total of battery % used during the non charging time. This is how I keep a rough # of total lifetime cycles on the battery pack.

It seems like a lot of work but it's more of a habit now after 4+ years, plus I like #s from an uncontrolled environment to see how these LFP batteries perform. ;)
Solar Prod 6_18_20.PNG
6/19 it did get back to 100%.

There was a pot of coffee made before I started to record some #s, the microwave was used for lunch for 5 minutes and I did use a Craftsman 2.5 hp shop vac for roughly 45 minutes cleaning a couple of trucks.
Looking at the top explains the different section of recordings.
Green area columns are from the battery "Elite Power Solutions CPU/ EMS".
Yellow area columns from the Magnum inverter (me-arc)
Daily Use 6_18_20.PNG

These batteries have not been taken apart for rebalancing since they where put in to service in April 2016 and stay between 40-60mv of each other at any given time, some feel that every cell has to perfectly match but in my experience so far they have performed nicely with over 525+ full combined cycle life. The system has not been turned off (other than a 1 day battery protection mode shut down last November) including the inverter which is always on and consumes 48ah in a day.

This is why it's helpful to learn your system as a whole so you can live or use the batteries without worrying that you have to get back to full before using them on a daily basis. It does help to pay attention to weather that's in the forecast if solar is the main charging source. :)
 
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