New to forum, London, UK based

[OrigamiTiger]

Hi all,

Just to say, this is a great site and I love it.
Long time follower of solar trends and watch Youtubers such as Will Prowse, Off-grid garage, etc. I'm a green horn solar enthusiast, thus browse through this forum from time to time learning bits and bobs and decided to finally join today. I'm in the middle of doing up my first solar setup - a basic one. Just an upgrade to better test solar panels as I have access to solar plants hence sell used and sometimes new panels in London. Currently have stocks of used 290W panels. (If you'll ever need some, let me know or like troubleshooting and in the London area or environs, let me know)

For my basic setup,as already have varieties of panels, so just bought Epever MPPT 30A and a pair of 12V 70ah AGM batteries which I sourced on a UK classified site for a ridiculously good deal. Will probably add 800W inverter later.

Hopefully in the future, when I got my own property I'll be able to install a more extensive setup until then I will continue to watch and awe at everyone else's systems and continue to learn. I also like the new developments in batteries and the affordability. Hope it continues into the future especially now solar panels are quite cheap!

Anyways, enough chit chat. Hope you all have a wonderful day.

 

[45North]

Welcome aboard!
Lots of solar keeners here. You'll fit right in!

 

[OrigamiTiger]

Welcome aboard!
Lots of solar keeners here. You'll fit right in!

Thanks for the kind word. I'll enjoy it for sure!

 

[Substrate]

Welcome aboard! Please consider charging each of those batteries first before placing them into service.

One of my all-time favorites for this task is the British designed Tecmate-Optimate 6. Should be easy to find on that side of the pond. Model TM-180 (EU) or TM-181 (US / Canada)

TecMate – OptiMATE 6 Ampmatic

tecmate.com

Other than obtaining a good charge, it will also pre-test and post-test the charge automatically, and let you know if you are wasting your time with knackered AGM's.

 

[OrigamiTiger]

Welcome aboard! Please consider charging each of those batteries first before placing them into service.

One of my all-time favorites for this task is the British designed Tecmate-Optimate 6. Should be easy to find on that side of the pond. Model TM-180 (EU) or TM-181 (US / Canada)

TecMate – OptiMATE 6 Ampmatic

tecmate.com

Other than obtaining a good charge, it will also pre-test and post-test the charge automatically, and let you know if you are wasting your time with knackered AGM's.

Thanks for the suggestion. I have looked it up and purchased one. Battery was bought for a mobility scooter and never used or so they stated. Managed to do a test yesterday with a small battery meter and indicated good. I'll do further checks on it to make sure though.

Away from that, there was the Powersafe 12V 170AH batteries which seems plentiful here but after checking technical information and not seeing a charge cycle count anywhere, figured they were unsuitable for long term use.

 

[Substrate]

You figured correctly about the Powersafe - they are Telcom batteries, designed for ups standby and spend most of their life on float. Limited cycle life, as excellent as Enersys batts are.

You'll like the Optimate - it goes much further than a battery meter. Despite all the leds that seem to confuse some, you can just attach and walk away. It has a very unique charge profile. Battery nerds like myself have valued it for decades.

Be sure to leave it connected when (if) it finishes the charge for at least 12 hours.

I'm also not a fan of SAE connectors, although theirs are better than many others. Make sure they are tight, and once a year, exercise the connector once of twice just to keep those contacts clean.

A basically new old-stock battery that isn't too far gone, can still be sulfated that tricks most other chargers - that is, even if you get the green light after charge, it watches for abnormal drops in voltage going low too fast, will try another round of charging - and will test it yet again. Basically, it tests the battery every 12 hours. This happens during the 30-minute duty cycle when it floats. Smart! It relies on way more than just simple voltage tests though - it's all programmed into the microprocessor.

Thus those batteries that try to fake-out other chargers will be detected and identified as charlatans.

It's not just a charger, but a nifty consumer tool. ALL leisure battery vendors should hang them in their racks!

Let us know how things turn out. And as you can tell, I'm an enthusiastic user, but not a fan-boy. ...

 

[Stupid Monkey]

Welcome

Also in the UK, but a bit more north.

 

[OrigamiTiger]

You figured correctly about the Powersafe - they are Telcom batteries, designed for ups standby and spend most of their life on float. Limited cycle life, as excellent as Enersys batts are.

You'll like the Optimate - it goes much further than a battery meter. Despite all the leds that seem to confuse some, you can just attach and walk away. It has a very unique charge profile. Battery nerds like myself have valued it for decades.

Be sure to leave it connected when (if) it finishes the charge for at least 12 hours.

I'm also not a fan of SAE connectors, although theirs are better than many others. Make sure they are tight, and once a year, exercise the connector once of twice just to keep those contacts clean.

A basically new old-stock battery that isn't too far gone, can still be sulfated that tricks most other chargers - that is, even if you get the green light after charge, it watches for abnormal drops in voltage going low too fast, will try another round of charging - and will test it yet again. Basically, it tests the battery every 12 hours. This happens during the 30-minute duty cycle when it floats. Smart! It relies on way more than just simple voltage tests though - it's all programmed into the microprocessor.

Thus those batteries that try to fake-out other chargers will be detected and identified as charlatans.

It's not just a charger, but a nifty consumer tool. ALL leisure battery vendors should hang them in their racks!

Let us know how things turn out. And as you can tell, I'm an enthusiastic user, but not a fan-boy. ...

Great stuff and knowledge you're impacting. Grateful to come across you and learn. I'll have the Optimate meter about tomorrow. Will hopefully get it set up over the weekend and let you all know how it goes.

 

[OrigamiTiger]

Welcome

Also in the UK, but a bit more north.

Thanks for the welcome. Nice to see there's more of us here. From one solar enthusiast to another, hope the sun continues to shine bright for us all.

 

[Brewman]

Cheers?

 

[Substrate]

The great part is that the Optimate lets you know where you stand, so if there's a problem with solar, you will know if it's the fault of the battery first and not chase your tail elsewhere.

While I'm not a big fan of used batteries, there is the off-hand chance that if you were given a leisure battery, or got a good deal on one, the Optimate will let you know up front when you may be wasting time.

AND, even for new batts - it sets them up properly so that the internal cells are nicely balanced, which often doesn't happen when using just weak solar to start out. Single batts only - it was designed for basically a 6-celled battery, not some huge 4P bank. 2P you might get away with, but I still like doing it individually first before slapping them together.

Even better - if you upgrade to LFP, where this charger should not be used, the lead-acid Optimate is still very useful for any vehicle that might welcome a decent charge now and then. So no money wasted..

 

[Substrate]

Decades ago I lived in Bedford for a few years. Quick taxi-train-tube rides into London..

I wasn't into solar then, but today, if using agm such as the 70ah example, I'd definitely try to take advantage of getting my panel power close to the typical 0.25C limit of them as I could. Such as 300 watts of panel. At the very least two common 100w panels in parallel.

And, MPPT solar charge controller for sure!

LFP changes the game of course, but agm's - if kept healthy and mindful of Peukert, can be fun...

 

[OrigamiTiger]

Decades ago I lived in Bedford for a few years. Quick taxi-train-tube rides into London..

I wasn't into solar then, but today, if using agm such as the 70ah example, I'd definitely try to take advantage of getting my panel power close to the typical 0.25C limit of them as I could. Such as 300 watts of panel. At the very least two common 100w panels in parallel.

And, MPPT solar charge controller for sure!

LFP changes the game of course, but agm's - if kept healthy and mindful of Peukert, can be fun...

Lucky for us now, solar panels aren't so much expensive. I have just couple of them close to 300W. LFP are the future, prices are currently competitive but slowly creeping up. I'll soon transit into lithium where discharge levels at up to 80% won't affect as much AGM cells.

 

[Eastgip]

Welcome to the forum, pal)

 

[Surferdudemi]

A friend of mine may purchase a flat in London. In the pictures I noticed a couple of good options for solar (rear is south-facing). They asked me to help plan something.

Any thoughts or info on solar in London? I'm very familiar with most of the US issues, but know nothing about UK and London specifically. E.g., grid connection limitations, solar panel restrictions. Don't mean to hijack your thread, but wondered if you've researched this.
Thanks!