diy solar

diy solar

Very new to solar but started purchasing items, not sure of the final specs of the whole system.

I did some testing with how small a fan I could go as I have a 6amp limit for the larger relay on the watchmon. The m8's are set for bypass at 3.39. Settled on this after testing, its 12v and pulls little under .15amp, m8 temperature reduction of 21-24f.
I will be using the mean well DDR-60L-12 to run them and the relay will activate based on temperature that I set.
 

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Since both banks are doing well I decided to do a test and turned off both heltechs. I will update if any changes are noticed. Without the second charge controller and 18 panels I would not be able to keep inverter 1 functioning. This is why inveter 2 is not on. 15 panels could not keep the batteries charged or hanlde the load. Once I get the other 20 panels connected I can see the true totals.

I had another idea but not found a simple solution. I will have two extra charge controllers online shortly. One will be for inverter two the other for additional charging.
I thought it would be great if I had a dc switch that would allow me to divert that charge controller between inverter 1 or 2 without having to unbolt from the busbars. I have yet to find one that will do 250v, does any have any suggestions?
 

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Here's the current status after turning off the heltech.
 

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Still looking good, charge slowed down due to running the 2ton mini with all 3 units on, lights, fan, pc. But still positive with only 36 panels. If they remain well balanced I would consider that good for the heltec. My reasoning would be that it was not affecting the bank in a negative away while being on 24/7.
 

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I really like the solar assistant it’s interesting to see the pv totals. If you noticed the two days that are 21kwh but the generation totals are different. Moderate clouds came in around 3:00 and reduced it to near zero. You can see that it shows 30+ amps going into the battery, the actual amps are 62 with the charge controller. I really like the seeing the solar panel power and I will verify later how accurate that is. Since I was told to do 2 panels but that was too low to run the inverter, I had to go to 3 panels which means I could go over the 150v limit in winter. Interesting to watch the pv voltage drop with some clouds covering up the sun intermittently.
 

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The batteries are still looking great without the heltec, been working on wiring up the fans for the batriums. I bought silicone wire for this as it is very easy to work with.
 

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We have had heavy clouds today and you can see it in the graph.
 

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My power company sent me this qoute to get solar installed, 26 panels 7.8 kW no batteries.
Break even time is looking good.
 

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I got my ddr 60l-12 in early and wired up the middle to test on relay 3. I configured it to come on when bypsss should starts since the draw is so minuscule might as well cool immediately. Observed even better cooling when driven at the full 12v, 69c to 38c.

Both banks are doing very well so far, it appears to be balancing the same without the heltec connected. Totals are very low since we have not once had to run the main for ac or heating yet.
 

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Today was crazy for production at 10:30 this morning it was almost 1000w over normal, it hit the batrium bypass. But for those running batriums the fans do very well. They were in bypass but running room temperature. I had not finished the fans starting at cell 17, so you can compare the temps. with 1 through 16. Before the solar project I bough I an inverter generator since we buy food in big quanties for our clients and the panels are pushing 600 more watts than the surge rating on the generator.
 

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Not sure what caused this, I would not believe this is a solar assist issue as it is only recording what is being reported. Battery power went to -6million load.
 

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All the data will be messed up for this month :( I should have calulated the surge for the nano second the flux capacitor needed for the test, did think it would hit 6.7million watts. Still no idea, checked everything and its all in working order voltages on the banks, cells etc. Also there no zero grid connection, no wires run from the inverter.
 

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The top fans are complete, batteries are doing well despite storms today and lots of amps. I need to brainstorm what else I can add to the batteries in order help wire companies out financially.
 

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I had gotten my watchmon 4 mixed up with my core which has the 5 amp ssr on them. Was .8 over on the watchmon 4 which got very hot. I put a 30v 10mp relay on the watchmon. So far its doing well and the relay is not warm at all.
 

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Circuit breakers came in for the charge controller I wanted to have the ability to charge both banks with out unbolting and moving cables. I thought about how to connect them and make it mistake proof, even though the are only rated for 125 amps. I still did not want two 4p16s banks to suddenly see a single 4p16s. I though the simple way to ensure this is to use 600v 125amp battery connectors. This way I would never be able to mess up by forgetting to switch off one side or even hitting the breaker by accident.
 

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The batteries are doing well, not sure if anyone else is having trouble but I'm unable to get batrium via email or phone. I started to install my core but its stuck in a critical state where it will not update the date or goes to 2106. I have pulled the battery, etc but not fixing the issue.
 

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Had tested the heating and cooling but not the heating for long periods the load stays around 4600. The heating turned on today after running it shut off with error 7. I did not have solar assistant up and had to restart and monitor. After 15 minutes saw the load jump to 19.6kwh which did not make sense. I went to the heater down stairs and found on the back two large breakers 60 amp and 30amp. Found out that these are 15kwh restive heaters so the math adds up. Question is what to do with the issue after researching.
 

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Batteries are still doing well without the heltec on so I would say this would be conclusive that it was not negatively impacting the banks when left on.

John from signature called me back quickly today which I appreciate as I left a message to get a second opinion on the heating strips. John had said to try one on or both off to see.

I called Mr cool today and discussed the universal system which can do 100% capacity for heating even at -5f with no need for coil based heating. The price delivered for 5 ton precharged system diy was $4384.
 

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