Search results

I'd like to know how you calculate watts thru the day. Are you using theoretical power that can be obtained? For example, going to 2X the ideal resistance should greatly increase daily production.

That sounds like a good idea, but it isn't. Switching in an element usually drops the power in half. It isn't seasonal, but many times a day it is needed. Manual switching just isn't practical. Having a timer for the two peak hours at noon will see a slight improvement. Measuring current and...

"the 180w of difference for those times isn't going to matter" That is what most think. That 180W of extra power is what heats almost all of my water.

I recently obtained a nice 12V ball valve and could imagine using this as a bypass when the water is hot. This ball valve only takes about 9ma to run so having it on all the time would not be an issue. A check valve on the instantaneous water heater input would provide enough resistance to...

You don't state what panels you have. Normally the power supply wouldn't care. Three 12V panels in series could exceed the output capacitor voltage specification as well as the diode.

It is microprocessor controlled that looks at battery voltage constantly with preventions from hot starts. Should it run too long it automatically shuts down and resets after a period. This prevents inverter faults from shutting down system. Freezers typically have short run times and the...

I took a totally different approach as I consider a freezer a battery. I have MSW inverter, an old car battery for starting surge only and run almost exclusively from panel power. Battery will only supply 5 minutes of runtime if sun goes away. Fridge only starts when battery is past float and...

I used ultrasonic sound to grow plants back in 1963.

I used to grow plants with ultrasonics, made them grow like crazy. Hard to believe ultrasonics would stunt algae.

Vinyl siding, YUCH. Cement board is the only way to go with siding.

Why spend $150 on an inverter when a $15 one and buck converter will do the job.

Blown fuse is in the current shunt section and would not affect voltage measurment. Did you use the right connections on the meter. Short circuit measurements don't indicate much. Half the panel could have bad cells and still indicate correct current. Two panels in parallel could blow a 10A...

Because electricity is just magic to 99% of the people here and they just regurgitate what someone else has said. For things that go arc in the night, get the bible on such things, Gaseous Conductors by James Dillon Cobine. That is probably my most referenced book.

It is for the adults because you have to make some effort to build it. This isn't kiddie table solar stuff. I don't see how the XY6020L would be much good without extensive modifications that only a half dozen people here could do and things like that don't last very long. This is an array DC...

There are dozens of ways to do this, none off the shelf. It costs more to do Rube Goldberg designs and they don't work as well. This is a Lithuanian video of someone who built one of my designs. He had no prior experience in electronics and even managed to make his own circuit board, I mean...

All you need is an ON DELAY TIMER with a NC/NO relay contacts (or external relay). When pump is to be powered on, the delay timer starts. Power to the pump goes thru the NC contact. The delay starts and when it exceeds 30 minutes, the relay opens. It can be reset once the power to the timer...

It has to be a proportional design or it won't work well. The nice thing is that this is very inexpensive to implement. Even have one on my dishwasher heating element. Even the clothes washer runs off array power. I have 3,000W of panels, a 500W charge controller and a single battery for a...

I have a 12V house and have an inverter for the fridge that only turns on when needed. Same with the dishwasher which draws less than 100W. Older TVs are 12 or 19V. I see no need for upgrading to 120V and just wasting power.

I have three dump controllers all connected to water heaters. The first water heater is small and has priority getting any excess first to heat a small amount of water to serve most needs. The second is a slightly larger preheat tank for water. It has a lower priority and heats next or takes...

Upper thermostats have an extra two switch contacts in the over temperature switch in case the thermostat fails. This breaks both sides of the line AC coming in in case the heater element shorts to earth. Go to a big box store and compare them on the rack.

I would suggest you replace the lower thermostat with an "upper" one which has an additional temperature disconnect. I am unsure if you are talking DC or AC on this element.

Many manufacturers suggest a breaker just for the protective device. This protects them, not so much you. A breaker includes inductance and resistance which will impair the effectiveness of the surge protector. If you want to protect the mini split, put the protective device on that breaker...

You are over thing and under thinking this. The differential voltage will be the same no matter where you put the switch. If those string lights are just the resistor and LED type in series, the differential voltage will be less than 20V.

Send me an old one to take apart. I've taken AC models apart and it is shameful what they use inside. One 40A unit used the same triac that is in my kitchen stand mixer, and that was one of the better ones. Really, do you think those terminals can take 100A. I use a simple relay to open the...

You can change out the heater elements to lower wattage ones. You don't need that much wattage if you can heat for a longer time. I heat water with diverted PV efficiently. No need for inverter or battery capacity. Amazing that nobody else here can do it.

Actually, techluck makes a PV voltage limiter. It is a variation of the water heater board. It is still absolute crap like their water heater board. It is prone to totally destroying itself with a voltage spike.

That pictured inverter is not well suited for DC operation. It has a voltage doubler and will not work on DC unless switched to 220V due to the two input capacitors. Transformer ratio is designed to work with very high voltages well over 200V. As a simple rule, do not use a power supply rated...

This one is well suited for batteryless operation. Well built and nice auto reset. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CQG38GCD

SMPS generally work down to 60V or less. Below that they will bump unless the startup resistor is changed. I have one that works down to 17V. Best to oversize a little because of higher input current. With fan demands of less than a watt, they will be working before and after anything else.

I use switching power supplies to power 12V fans. I think it is elegant. You get full isolation and if the supply shorts it won't destroy the fan or anything else. I am very leary of many buck converters.

There is the next generation of cheap 12V inverters that will shutdown with low voltage and start up again when voltage returns. These will work with a buck converter set to 12V. Be sure to add extra caps on input and output or you will be sorry.

More internet garbage. The diode is backwards. And just what is he running? Solar panel voltage will be ok for many switching regulators. I run a washing machine without batteries, but it needs an inverter to create AC for the motors and solenoids. I run a house with only a car battery...

Looking at pictures of the lamp, why are the probes connected? Current is thru the clamp. Connect brown and blue together and also connected to one leg of power. That would determine if there is leakage to concrete. Reversing brown and blue would also be an interesting test for leakage.

Not likely at all.

Are these bulbs really cheap. Your inverter is putting out some HF noise and the capacitance of the cable is enough to supply power to the LED. A LED will light with a couple nano amps of current. The lamp has to have some external load to drain off this leakage. A 100K resistor or .022...