diy solar

diy solar

Solar dump load

PV heating is all about optimizing a lot of limited options like panel voltage, available heating elements and tank sizes. That solution is workable but far from optimal at efficiently using all the power available from the panels. There are some products available but you have to do extreme searches to find them because heating water is so unpopular. I liken it to auto flush toilets. These were invented in early 70's and it took 40 years for them to become common place.
 
efficientPV -Have you done anything on a circuit for this? I also would be interested to see what you mean with your circuit and how to make it workable?
 
Just this weekend I mounted my home solar panels for heating water now that a few trees have been cut down. I'm using the older tried and true system right now. I built the TL494 board and did initial testing. This is going to someone who won't use it till spring of next year so have not been rushing. Your prior post lead me to believe that this project might be beyond your skill level. I will post schematic in a couple weeks. commercial clients have waited 5 months for me to return and am swamped with projects.
 
Everything mentioned is WAY overcomplicated. Just use an adjustable "voltage sensitive relay" to trigger at a set point to route power to a 12/24/48 heating element, either in your main heater or a separate "preheater" tank.
 
When you go uncomplicated, you get crap performance. True, people in solar generally don't care how poorly their systems run.
 
We need "overly complicated" to discover new ways of solving problems. We can then incorporate those solutions into automated optimizations, which will make it dead simple for end-users. Innovation requires stretching the limits of what we think we can do, and trying different things.

It's not for everyone. On a DIY forum I hope that both the KISS crowd and the insanely technically curious will both have a happy home here, both with a love for discovery and ideation.
 
The easy way to do it it with a TL494, these are like 10 for $1. It has all the features you need. Just operates the inverse of what it is usually used for, turning off at a low voltage and on when it gets high. A resistor and capacitor for the oscillator. Voltage divider pot to turn PV voltage to about 5V. 4 resistors to drive the two FET. Two fet as the output switchers. These FET will be in parallel and you use two to get the resistance down so there is no heating. If you buy a 100A FET, don't use it at over 10A. Two get you 20A easily. They are cheap and no reason to use big heat sinks. Litle perf boards are 5 for $1. There are also thru hole TL494 driver boards cheap that a couple of traces could be cut on.Then a resistor and zener are needed to supply 12-15V.

This is one I built for a famous youtuber that gets millions of views. He just had to make the capacitor bank, that is the boxy thing. So ugly I couldn't figure out what it even was. He got this far and never bothered to hook it up. It uses one of those cheap China driver boards. I'm closing the camp, packing up and leaving today. I won't have time for about a week.
Yes Good on the OP . This got me interested though as I like to look at the circuits and see what can be done with them . Clearly he reckons he's got the answer but he won't share it seems.

Wording...,why post offering info on this devise, then offer nothing but very vague info, no pics, sketches, specs r anything? Are you merely baiting this forum for responses?
Wording used and changed . Whats wrong with giving credit on wording where credit is due . Otherwise its plagiarism . Are you familiar with the term?
 
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Yes Good on the OP . This got me interested though as I like to look at the circuits and see what can be done with them . Clearly he reckons he's got the answer but he won't share it seems.
Yeah same here. Trying to collect as much info as I can on circuits. I plan to get into arduino/pi with solar setup in March or so.
 
Just a note .Been there and done that .Writing the code is the bitch . Where do you set it to turn on ,where off and how to avoid the hysterisis. If you get something useable I'd like to get the code . Build it on a circuit board soldered and in a box . Leaving it in jumpers and breadboard the corrosion affects the reading of analog voltages and it starts doing weird things. I used a $3 mini pro arduino and soldered it in. Can not get it to operate properly though.
 
Just a note .Been there and done that .Writing the code is the bitch . Where do you set it to turn on ,where off and how to avoid the hysterisis. If you get something useable I'd like to get the code . Build it on a circuit board soldered and in a box . Leaving it in jumpers and breadboard the corrosion affects the reading of analog voltages and it starts doing weird things. I used a $3 mini pro arduino and soldered it in. Can not get it to operate properly though.
Will try to get back to you when I get into it. If you PM your email, I'll add that to my notes to notify you then.
 
He's at it again here .

 
He's at it again here .

LOL need to trap his ass until he answers all our questions. He's doing interesting stuff.
 
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