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My church gave me a budget of $500 to build a portable power station so they can reproduce for volunteers out in the field to use in unreliable or off grid areas. It was 100% off amazon as I did not know anywhere else to buy. I'm sure it would be much cheaper if I knew where to look. I don't...

Thank you! Attached is the main parts list, other hardware, I just gathered together from my garage.

Hello Sir, Thank you very much for your offer. wish you a great new year!

Hello Maast, Thank you very much for your detailed suggestions. You mentioned disconnects, fuse and breakers. Well, Let me know how critical it is? My though is, there is protection in MPPT, protection in inverter, solar panels have diodes so current can't flow in. I would invest in these but...

Thank you all for your advice. I just returned from my volunteer trip to Niger to upgrade their off grid solar panel system. Hopefully this balance method helped batteries to last longer.

Thank you very much, Gnubie. Fully understood. (y)

Thank you everyone for your comments. I agree with Maast and has ditched the DC to DC converter idea and purchased 2 60A MPPT controllers on Amazon. They have 5 MPPT on site and will add 2 more for 7 MPPT on 50 150W solar panels. 8 batteries will not be in series. All in parallel 12 volts...

I have attached my layout design for the Niger school project. Please let me know if there is any adjustments I should make. I learned all this from google and YouTube so It is hard for me to spot any errors. Thank you in advance.

Thanks SolarRat, That is a very good tip, to connect in parallel for a day or two. I'll volunteer at an off grid place and they do not have charger to individually charge. or run the generator all day just to charge them. While upgrading the panel wiring, we can parallel them and get back to...

Hello, for a 2V GEL battery tied in series to make 24V. Total of 12 1KAh batteries. Does GEL battery need to be balanced / equalized? If so, I did my search but could not find any hardware. Anyone know where I can get 12 string bms for 2V? or is it for 24V? system. Thank You~

Thank you for your quick reply, Gnubie. Much appreciated. Do you have any info / link on charge balancer across cells?

Hello ALL, I want to optimize my wiring so that charge is balanced. I read here about 4 batteries in parallel. https://www.iotaengineering.com/pplib/balancedcharging.pdf I want to set up 3 mppt controller charging 8 12V batteries. Can some expert check my layout and let me know if this is...

Hello All, New to the forum and little experience in off grid design. I'll be on a volunteer trip to Africa. It's an off grid women school in Niger. All their fluorescent lights and ceiling fans are 12V. They have a total of 120 lights & 150 fans. We will put 8 125Ah AGM batteries in series...

I found this on the web. It seems like charge values changes according to how it's wired in parallel. Will it eventually equalize in voltage since it's parallel connection?

Thank you for your support MisterSandals, Every panel has good voltage. I tried to measure current using voltmeter on Amp setting but gives 0.

Hello Jason, Thank you for your input. I started new forum in proper section. https://diysolarforum.com/threads/how-can-i-test-for-bad-cell-or-panel.4020/

Thank you for your comment! There is no external fuses / breakers. My uneducated thought was that inverter has interlock protection, controller has interlock protection and solar panel has diode so current can't flow back in to damage it. It would be nice for maintaince but it was not my...

Hello Mad Max, Thanks for the video link, it will help upgrading my cart with new ideas. Your cart looks good. Those carts can get expensive!

Thanks again SolarRat, I should of asked the forum before I cut up the busbar! Initially I wanted to set up 24V system but main output is for 12V lights / ceiling fans. (I should of left out the inverter in the layout) I gave up the idea of 24V to 12V conversion and go straight to parallel...

Here is the actual result.

Hello all, Just came back from a volunteer trip to Niger, Africa. Women boarding school called grace academy (www.gemforniger.org). Thank you all who helped me with many questions on this forum. Here is my show and tell. One thing I couldn't figure out was how to test for bad solar cell...

Hello all, I'm working with 50 panels divided in to 7 groups. 4 panels in series grouped in 2 parallel (24V output). X 4. 3 panels in series grouped in 2 parallel (12V output). X 3. Below is data gathered. Apparently #1 and #7 is only outputting half of amps compared to others with same...

Gnubie, No they are not new cells. What I want to confirm is, if it's not lithium battery, do you need to balance them? Is it a common practice to balance GEL type batteries? Thank you~