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Thread: Solar system Upgrade

  1. #41
    LHBA Member rreidnauer's Avatar
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    The panel voltages you're seeing are meaningless with an MPPT controller. Only when compared to the amperage does the voltage become relevant. (multiplying the two values to ascertain wattage)

    When discussing electricity, I like to compare it to water, as most people will understand the function more clearly. So, an MPPT controller is just an amperage gate. Think of it like a dam for a small pond. Water level is you voltage, how much water flows out the dam is your amperage. If the dam gates are fully closed, the water (voltage) fills up behind the dam. If the dam gates are fully open, the water drains all out leaving none to flow. If we set the gate just right, we find a perfect balance between maintaining a water level, while getting the most flow down the stream. And this is what the controller is doing. Finding that balance to achieve maximum wattage. Voltages are going to dance around while conditions change. And those conditions aren't just the environmental ones. State of charge of the batteries also affects this balance.

    Back to the water analogy. Let's say the battery is a small town down stream, that has a water tower. As that water tower approaches full, and depending on how much water the townspeople are using from the water tower, the flow into the water tower needs to be modulated by the dam gates. And this too is what the controller is doing.

    So fear not. Your system is functioning properly. Also, the reason you are going into float so quickly, is that your battery bank is simply not large enough to accept four hours of bulk charging. Setting it to two hours will not alter results. There's nothing wrong with the system going to float early. I think setting a cap on bulk time, is more a protection measure to reduce internal overheating of the batteries under heavy charge loading. Seems none of us ever have the problem of too many batteries, for this to ever be a factor.

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  2. #42
    LHBA Member Kola's Avatar
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    Thanks for that Rod !

    I run pellet stove through the night (ahh.. no more feeding the woodstove 3-4 times a night) In morning batt volts are ~26.0. Nice

    So I am safe to assume that I have plenty of power right now (in excess actually) and could easily run more things. I was thinking 12v electric hot water tank and a TV. Maybe a oil radiator too.
    Last edited by Kola; 01-26-2020 at 07:53 AM.

  3. #43
    LHBA Member rreidnauer's Avatar
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    LOL, pretty sure the oil radiator is out.

    I would not say "safe to assume excess power" is available. Again, with the flat voltage curve for state of charge, going by voltage reading in the morning doesn't really confirm much.

    Would be best to use your Kill-o-watt meter, to see how many watt-hours your pellet stove uses in a 24 hour period, but I can make some assumptions since you said it typically draws 300~600 watts. I'll go right down the middle, at 450 watts.
    》 So 450 times 24 hours is 10,800 watt-hours (10.8 KwHr)
    》 Converting watt-hours to battery amp-hours, 10,800 divided by average bank voltage of 26.5v equals 407.5 amp-hours.
    Since you have two 100ah strings of batteries in your bank, for a total of 200 amp-hours, I'd say you don't have excess. Of course, it appears you're not running that wattage continuously, otherwise you would be out of battery halfway through the day.
    Run the Kill-o-watt for 24 hrs, and report back on the watt-hours recorded.

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  4. #44
    LHBA Member Kola's Avatar
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    Ignore the first one (volt reading) loading and deleting pics on this site sucks !

    On low here's the 2 numbers that cycle back about every 5 seconds o the pelly. It's on this setting almost all the time , maybe 85% of the time ~40-70w (much lower than what I stated before, I think that was my old clunker pellet stove.

    I'll see what it reads on start up when the igniter fires up ad what watts is uses when blower is in high --tomorrow.

    And once again another odd way that the pics appear. smh.
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    Last edited by Kola; 01-27-2020 at 05:44 PM.

  5. #45
    LHBA Member Kola's Avatar
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    I give up loading pics on here ! Now it says "I've reached my quotas." ??

    With blower on high and auger on high it cycles from 90 to 104w.

  6. #46
    LHBA Member loghousenut's Avatar
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    Considering that you abandoned the "world" to cut firewood for a living... well, I wish you would just get a woodstove and use the solar stuff for lights and computer.

    This technical stuff is driving me even more nuts.

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  7. #47
    LHBA Member Kola's Avatar
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    I have a wood stove too !

    OK, for start up the pelly uses 450w, I may do that twice a day. muhahahha, love the pelly and the modern world. But I am a raving lunatic still.

  8. #48
    LHBA Member loghousenut's Avatar
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    So Kola, now that the modern world has replaced your wood stove, are you gonna get one of those Traeger pellet barBQ things and use it as a cook stove in the kitchen like the wood cook stove Gramaw had?




    Sent from my LGL83BL using Tapatalk
    Every time I have strayed from the teachings of Skip Ellsworth it has cost me money.

    I love the mask mandate. I hardly ever have to bruh my teeth anymore.

  9. #49
    LHBA Member Kola's Avatar
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    Still have my woody, best heat, IMO. My buddy has a Traeger pelly smoker, thing is badazz. Si amigo. Up early today gotta see one of those modern dentists...lost my pliers.

  10. #50
    LHBA Member Kola's Avatar
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    Abandoning the world and living bare bones and supporting myself was a great trial run for me. I was laughed at and ridiculed. And I still get the sarcastic shit-talkers poking fun at me. Now that I've fined tuned things from those primitive days and know I can handle things- I'm all set. The timing was perfect.

    So yes it appears the time has come. Maybe this is what was needed for us silly humans. Good luck everyone.
    Last edited by Kola; 03-20-2020 at 03:03 PM.

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