Newbie Questions I cant find answers to.

[Isle of wight]

Hi

To give you some background. I have built a little off grid system for my garage. It consists of 4 x 120W panels in serial. 1 x 1500 watt Pwer inverter with low voltage disconnect. 2 x 110mh batteries ( these were old ones that charged up fine but I have no idea as to their performance) a Votlmeter to read the power output of my Inverter a MPPT 30A charge controler.

I am running
6 x 7W DC lightbulbs directly from the controller
4 x Motorcycle chargers, 1 drill charger, 1 vacume charger, that are constantly drawing 1.5amps
I also have a PIR floodlight that takes 3 more amps when its on.
I also run power tools occasionally which the system has been happy with.

So here come the questions.
One of the panels glass is shattered. I cover in clear plastic to hold this together. Will this effect my array? Would I get better perfomance by removing it and just running 3 x 120V ? Could I then on a seperate cable run attach it to my controler to al least get a little bit more coming in?
How can you test these old batteries to see how efficiant they are? Like on my phone is shows my battery degrading so its currently all good at 92%. Again would it be better to have one 110 new battery than a matching pair of old ones.
As we are coming to winter, and I live in a very windy location, I thought I would add a small wind turbine claims 800w but most only get 100W from it.. Can I add this to the batteries with a seperate charge controller. I asked the dealer if i needed a 'dump kit" and he said "the controller of the wind turbine has an unloading resistor, which can automatically brake." which left me confused.
Fuses. None of this small system is fused. Do I need to on such a small one? If yes what do I need and where to you plug it in?

Thanks all in advance.

 

[chrisski]

One of the panels glass is shattered. I cover in clear plastic to hold this together. Will this effect my array?

Anything that blocks UV light will effect it. My car window reduces output by two thirds. I put my hand over two cells on a single panel in a three panel system, my output goes down by one third. Not sure what plastic does to a shattered panel.

Best to measure this shattered panel to find the Effects. I would think if you have not assembled, don’t put it in, and if you’ve assembled if you see a reduction in output replace or go 3S right away, if there is no reduction leave it in until a replacement ordered right away can get installed.

As we are coming to winter, and I live in a very windy location, I thought I would add a small wind turbine claims 800w but most only get 100W from it.. Can I add this to the batteries with a seperate charge controller. I asked the dealer if i needed a 'dump kit" and he said "the controller of the wind turbine has an unloading resistor, which can automatically brake." which left me confused.

I don’t have a wind turbine, but there is truth to that statement. What’s left out is what happens when that load controller fails. That risk would not be worth it for me. This is the book I get most of my wind knowledge from. This will teach you how to make a wind turbine and contoller.

 

[Al D]

Shattered glass on the panel will degrade performance. Did you remove the shattered glass before covering in clear plastic?
You can test the performance of the panel with a digital multi meter (DMM). That is my first recommendation.

Running a single panel to the controller while you have three others in series running to the same controller is  not a good idea. You are effectively putting 3 series panels in parallel with a single panel. It's not going to work like you want it to.

I'm not sure what kind of batteries you have, but you can test them by charging them up to full capacity and then by draining them with a known load (a space heater works well). That will tell you how much power can be delivered. Divide that number by the advertised power capacity and you'll have the number I think you're looking for. Be warned, low voltage disconnects will reduce your capacity, but are important for the longevity of your battery. Different battery chemistries dictate different voltage disconnects.

Two old batteries will probably still hold more power than a single new one (when all specifications are equal), however, you will have twice the weight and space being used. I'm only saying this based on your description of the battery degradation figure you achieved on your phone. (Or did you mean your phone's battery was at 92%?)

It's always a good idea to put appropriate fuses in the right places.

I don't have experience with wind turbines. However, there is a place on this forum dedicated to wind power. Scroll down on the main page to find it. Here is the link to get you started:
Wind Turbines

 

[Hogheavenfarm]

[wind turbine] While it will brake "automatically", strong winds and gusts can overpower the "brake" ( which is just shorting the ac lines together) and will create heat in the primary wires of the phases, and can catch fire. Runaway turbines are really hard to stop. A manual furling line is recommended, but automatic furling is better. I would run a dump load such as a water heater or heating element, many wind charge controllers have this ability, but solar ones do not normally have them.

 

[Isle of wight]

Thanks for all your replies. The panel gave me enough to keep everything topped up and I have now got my turbine in place but not connected as I have inverter issues to fix first. To overcome to potentials “run away” I built a the pole to be lowered. It’s fixed to the wall with two brackets and the ground with a hinge plate. If we get a storm forecast it’s 4 bolts and lower to the ground. When it’s past up it goes. Again.