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herringcove
Member
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# Posted: 3 Nov 2013 18:52
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Hi,
I just set up my solar system, first time off grid living full time. 750 watts of solar lying flat on my deck below where they are to be mounted. Outback FM charge controller, four surrette 6v L600s in a 12v bank.
It was a cloudy day today when i switched on for the first time, but I think I should have made more than 6amp hours! Is something wrong here or is that what I should expect in these circumstances?
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basrijn
Member
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# Posted: 3 Nov 2013 20:29
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Hi,
Is that 6ah @ 12V or at the voltage of the panels (ie much higher)
Were the batteries fully charges when you started, and how much did you consume from them. Ie, was there "room" to deliver energy into.
Lying flat (at this time of the year), will make a big difference as well
Bas
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Truecabin
Member
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# Posted: 3 Nov 2013 20:34
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clouds reduce it a lot im not suprised if you get 10% also was it dark cloudy or light cloudy?
panels flat gives 30% less than 45deg depends where you are if your in canada they should 70deg almost vertical
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analogmanca
Member
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# Posted: 4 Nov 2013 00:14 - Edited by: analogmanca
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herringcove
Laying flat this time of year is real bad, performance will suffer big time. Because of how subjective "cloudy" is, its just hard to get a ballpark est for you. What I do is describe a cloudy day this way. Cant see the sun and no shadows, or cloudy and a slight shadow (from objects,trees etc)
Or cloudy but a strong shadow.
What are the settings on your controler at, I use 15 and 13.4 (my batts are in a cool place) cant help much with the controler as I dont know it. I use a simple controler with just two knobs, I refer to them as my happy knobs (bulk/float). Some of these new controlers require a minimum input before they can putout, maybe someone famillar with this controler will know.
My google "foo" skills must be off as I cant find l600 battery info, I found s600 and thats a 450 amphr battery and if you have 4 of them at 12 volts you have 1800 amphrs and in my judgement lots of battery and little power to drive them to bulk, I think these batts will be destroyed in just a few years if thats all thats driving them, even in the summer. (voltage will be blamed, 12volts:confused 1800 amphrs is a lot of capactity, and I read your post about your consumption of 3kwhrs a day, I am at 2.5 myself so I have a solid idea of what is needed. Others, and experts will dissagree with me but you need to up your power generation right now to save your batts. Even panels mounted near vertical wont save them with your 3khr daily load this time of year.http://pv.nrcan.gc.ca/index.php?lang=e go to this site and enter where you are located, I can help you with the data it puts out.
I would call up Rob Beckers with Solacity in Ontario, explain your price sensitive, and need panels cheap, take seconds (they are still great) I bet he can get you 250watt 24 volt ones for below .80 cents a watt. Order 5 (so .80x250x5=1000.00 its a lot more coin than you want to spend but you need to save those expensive batts now! Take two and mount them vertical and east so they get the roughly 8 am to noon sun full on, take one and aim it south(with your other panels) , take the next two, mount, and aim them west (near vertical) so they get 3-4 pm to 8 pm sun. Hook these 5 directly up to your batts (Add a blocking diode) you do not need a controler(others will beat me up for saying that but I stand by it, no controller needed). Best would be if you could take these 5 panels mount them on a tiltable stand to aim as needed. Anyway, what I suggest should do the job through the summer and shoulder seasons.....winter is still ugly... save those batts now, as you have paid good money for them, If you want tips on what I have done to reduce power consumption just ask.
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analogmanca
Member
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# Posted: 4 Nov 2013 00:58 - Edited by: analogmanca
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Just correcting a mistake regarding battery capacity. Was too quick to type....too slow to think..... That would be 900 amphrs at 12 volts...so you have enough panels...Forget my suggestion of needing more (though I sure would add more at a 3kwhr demand) get them mounted!
(reference to direct panel hook up only if the additional amphrs is 1.5% or less of the banks amphr capacity)
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creeky
Member
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# Posted: 4 Nov 2013 08:01
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herringcove. get your panels to a 45 degree angle and then wait for a sunny day. you'll be okay.
i have 1kw of panels and I made a massive 270 watts of solar thursday under heavy cloud. and my panels are at 45 already.
did i run my genny. ah yup.
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Truecabin
Member
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# Posted: 4 Nov 2013 12:06
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a little shade on a panel knocks out almost the whole output think of it like stepping on a waterhose the cells are in series like a hose
you get more power on a cloudy day no shade than sunny and one spot of shade on a panel
lots to learn but your on your way
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creeky
Member
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# Posted: 6 Nov 2013 08:54
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so. what happened? did you get your panels mounted? are you knocking back the amp hrs?
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herringcove
Member
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# Posted: 8 Nov 2013 17:14
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Hi everyone!
The panels are still not up as I'm designing the brackets to be manufactured locally. Just to give you an update, we decided to cut down our power usage to 1kwh per day, only use it to run lights and a 12 volt water pump. Since my post, the panels have generated more electricity per day, between 100-40AH per day. The highest watts recorded so far was 500watts, beats the 20watts we had on the first day! I will take the specific gravity this weekend for our record.
Indeed there has been lots to learn, but I'm glad to get this far!
Much appreciate all your input!
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