diy solar

diy solar

few questions about solar power....

corporal_Canada said:
rumble.com

wiring.. sort of...

rumble.com rumble.com

I took a video of the current power source that is powering 1 old laptop.... And it has been nearly 2 hours and laptop is still running and it had an empty battery when plugged into the inverter.
..
Click to expand...
Take pictures, not video. It is impossible to tell anything from the videos because the focus changes as you move. With pictures we can zoom in and see much more than video.

With pictures you can check they are in focus before uploading

the 400w panel that the sticker is this big
1690 x 1046 x 40mm

Or 5ft 6in by 4ft 6in

How big is the panel you have?


There is nothing to reference to guess at the sizes of your panels. I get you dont want to crawl out there. So put a yard stick, tape measure or anything to take a picture of. Not video. If we can get an idea of how big the roof tiles are we can guess at the physical size of the panels.
 
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robbob2112 said:
Take pictures, not video. It is impossible to tell anything from the videos because the focus changes as you move. With pictures we can zoom in and see much more than video.

With pictures you can check they are in focus before uploading

the 400w panel that the sticker is this big
1690 x 1046 x 40mm

Or 5ft 6in by 4ft 6in

How big is the panel you have?


There is nothing to reference to guess at the sizes of your panels. I get you dont want to crawl out there. So put a yard stick, tape measure or anything to take a picture of. Not video. If we can get an idea of how big the roof tiles are we can guess at the physical size of the panels.
Click to expand...
i have a measuring tape no worries, and i intend to give you the length and width of the 3 largest solar panels but please give me time to make peace with my Gods before i climb onto that slimy hot grimy rooftop...
 
I commend those that are trying to help in this thread as well as the op for not giving up and continuing to try and make things work.

For reference my 370W, output verified, panels are 175.5cm x 103.8cm.
 

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Assume 200W/m^2 of active area, so 50 x 58mm might be 50W.
60x45 and 70x45 close.

Maybe 200W total there with all panels shown. All together they fit 20A PWM at 12V.
 
200 watts is enough to power my pc.. during daylight hours.... so.. i need an mppt thing to connect the remaining 2 panels to the battery ? or 2 identical charge controllers ?
 
3x 50W = 150W (STC) PV panels.
About 75% to 85% of that will be typically produced (due to elevated temperature).
150W x 80% = 120W
120W / 12V = 10A, 10A / 50Ah = 0.2C during bulk charging
120W / 15V = 8A, 8A / 50 Ah = 0.16C approaching full.

But that math for watts only works with MPPT, which converts high voltage low current down to battery voltage higher current.

You have PWM, so output will just be sum of current from the three panels.

It is a suitable size for charging the 50 Ah battery. Don't go larger unless you have a bigger battery.
 
Hedges said:
3x 50W = 150W (STC) PV panels.
About 75% to 85% of that will be typically produced (due to elevated temperature).
150W x 80% = 120W
120W / 12V = 10A, 10A / 50Ah = 0.2C during bulk charging
120W / 15V = 8A, 8A / 50 Ah = 0.16C approaching full.

But that math for watts only works with MPPT, which converts high voltage low current down to battery voltage higher current.

You have PWM, so output will just be sum of current from the three panels.

It is a suitable size for charging the 50 Ah battery. Don't go larger unless you have a bigger battery.
Click to expand...
so i ineed to get an mppt.. which is more or less the same thing as a scc ? to be able to insert all 3 + and - of all 3 solar panels ?? are you certain thats it ???
 
corporal_Canada said:
200 watts is enough to power my pc.. during daylight hours.... so.. i need an mppt thing to connect the remaining 2 panels to the battery ? or 2 identical charge controllers ?
Click to expand...

Don't bother with the remaining smaller panels, too small to matter.

corporal_Canada said:
so i ineed to get an mppt.. which is more or less the same thing as a scc ? to be able to insert all 3 + and - of all 3 solar panels ?? are you certain thats it ???
Click to expand...

You have a PWM SCC. An MPPT SCC might harvest a little bit more power, but costs significantly more.
Leave this setup for something small. It may harvest 720 Wh/day in summer, 240 Wh/day in winter.

Decide what you want to power, how many Wh/day it needs.
Design a new system with bigger battery, more panels, suitable SCC and inverter if required, or AIO combining those functions.
It may be 10x or 100x bigger than this system.
 
Hedges said:
Don't bother with the remaining smaller panels, too small to matter.



You have a PWM SCC. An MPPT SCC might harvest a little bit more power, but costs significantly more.
Leave this setup for something small. It may harvest 720 Wh/day in summer, 240 Wh/day in winter.

Decide what you want to power, how many Wh/day it needs.
Design a new system with bigger battery, more panels, suitable SCC and inverter if required, or AIO combining those functions.
It may be 10x or 100x bigger than this system.
Click to expand...
Summary, take the wires from your 3 biggest panels and connect the positive wires together in a bundle and the negative wires in a bundle.

Put those into the PWM input. Connect to your battery.

Still need to figure out how to either set your battery type or charge voltages.


Take all of your smaller panels and sell them so you can start saving up for a larger system.
 
robbob2112 said:
Summary, take the wires from your 3 biggest panels and connect the positive wires together in a bundle and the negative wires in a bundle.

Put those into the PWM input. Connect to your battery.

Still need to figure out how to either set your battery type or charge voltages.


Take all of your smaller panels and sell them so you can start saving up for a larger system.
Click to expand...
can i use the scc i have now ? just enough power to keep my pc,monitor and modem... off the coal powered power grid during the daytime ?
or is itr really adviised to get an mppt ? which im sorry to say "looks" and "functions" very much like an scc ...
becaquse i think 1 T in mppt means Tracking and any mppt i order off an available resource or app will not physically shift any of my 3 large solar panels...
 
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corporal_Canada said:
can i use the scc i have now ? just enough power to keep my pc,monitor and modem... off the coal powered power grid during the daytime ?
or is itr really adviised to get an mppt ? which im sorry to say "looks" and "functions" very much like an scc ...
becaquse i think 1 T in mppt means Tracking and any mppt i order off an available resource or app will not physically shift any of my 3 large solar panels...
Click to expand...
Your PWM will handle your 3 largest panles at once.

The smaller panels I am saying to sell are so small any output they will cause you issues if you try to use them. If you choose to hook thrm up against advice you are on your own with them.


this is how they should be.

wires from three biggest panels all hooked to the PWM.

on the output from the positive post of the battery a fuse

on the other end of the fuse has the inverter and the positve out from the PWM.

negative of the battery has the inverter and the negative from the PWM


once you have it hooked up take a picture of the front of the PWM and post it. not a video, just a clear picture. see that all 3 large panels are in full sun.

once you have that posted we are done until you save up 25000p to 30000p and find a local solar shop so you dont get ripped off again

1713631263340.png
 
robbob2112 said:
Your PWM will handle your 3 largest panles at once.

The smaller panels I am saying to sell are so small any output they will cause you issues if you try to use them. If you choose to hook thrm up against advice you are on your own with them.


this is how they should be.

wires from three biggest panels all hooked to the PWM.

on the output from the positive post of the battery a fuse

on the other end of the fuse has the inverter and the positve out from the PWM.

negative of the battery has the inverter and the negative from the PWM


once you have it hooked up take a picture of the front of the PWM and post it. not a video, just a clear picture. see that all 3 large panels are in full sun.

once you have that posted we are done until you save up 25000p to 30000p and find a local solar shop so you dont get ripped off again

View attachment 210473
Click to expand...
perfect, wll gve that a go today at noon.. and m afraid there is no solar store or any sort of camping store on thisparticular island....(7500 islands remember?)... it is strongly recommended to order everything online and more economic too with a standardized shipping cost of 125 pesos for all items from source island to my island..

and i fuly intend on purchasing an AIO from .. i dunno.. alibaba ? im just nervous about the quality of the lithium china uses after their most recent invasion of..... nevermind.. yes my pc monitor modem ran for 2-3 hours on the 12v 50h battery but i suspect that was from whatever charge i had IN the battery and none from the solar panel.
AND all those "petite" solar panels are for other accessories like solar lights.. solar fan... usb charger.. so on and so forth....
 
pc/monitor ran today for roughly 3 hours while i napped.. butr battery dropped down to 1 bar according to the scc.... might nor mean much to any of you but that is success to me.. also to point out.. it was a cloudy morning.....
 
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