It has been a long while since I last posted anything, doesn't mean I have not been busy ;) Balancing life, work, hobbies and fun time. I have completed a number of new projects from a fully autonomous quad (yes Ardupilot). Solar Power solution for the home (we Live in South Africa so are now plagued with Load Shedding (Random Power outages due to lack of fore though and planning by our state power utility.) This is mostly at peak times (early evenings) and is totally inconvenient. This spurred me to get all the lighting, security(alarm & electric fence), entertainment (TV & Satelite Radio etc.) and of course the internet computers including the Server which is required for Business.
First course of action was to convert all the lighting to Led and other low power options, secondly calculate the power requirement to run all, then put together a system that was as balanced Solar Panels (collection/accumulation) and Batteries (storage) and Output (load) for a cost effective solution to get these items off grid.
Although this actually fairly basic to do, anyone planning to tackle this must do their home work, it would be very easy to spend a lot of money and be very unhappy with the outcome, seek professional advice if you are not sure.
I settled for the following a 48 volt system, (high voltage systems means less current and generally a more efficient system)
6 x 300 Watt Solaire Panels These are almost 2mtrs x 1mtr in size and are connected 3 in series and these 2 sets of 3 in parallel so a total power output of about 130 volts @ 16 amps.
4 x 100 Amp hour Ceil/(Excide) 6SGL 100 Batteries these are gel batteries (no maintenance) that according to the documentation could last up to 8 - 10 years. ( This I have to see as I have had one failure already and am monitoring each battery carefully)
Electronics wise I have gone for equipment that will allow me to double the size of the system. I also chose to use products manufactured here in South Africa as I have already suffered an expensive lesson with a Chinese Inverter that could not be repaired here and had to replaced. The South African company Microcare manufacture a fantastic range of products and have also been very helpful with advice and service. I am using a
Microcare 40 Amp MPPT controller
Microcare 3 KW Inverter
Both are fully programmable easy to use and work very well.
Installation and wiring was a breeze.
On the AC side I isolated the circuit breakers used for lighting in the DB Board, and have wired in the plugs boxes required for the low current items on these circuits and used the computer red plug boxes with flat earth pins so that high current items can not be plugged in by mistake.
First course of action was to convert all the lighting to Led and other low power options, secondly calculate the power requirement to run all, then put together a system that was as balanced Solar Panels (collection/accumulation) and Batteries (storage) and Output (load) for a cost effective solution to get these items off grid.
Although this actually fairly basic to do, anyone planning to tackle this must do their home work, it would be very easy to spend a lot of money and be very unhappy with the outcome, seek professional advice if you are not sure.
I settled for the following a 48 volt system, (high voltage systems means less current and generally a more efficient system)
6 x 300 Watt Solaire Panels These are almost 2mtrs x 1mtr in size and are connected 3 in series and these 2 sets of 3 in parallel so a total power output of about 130 volts @ 16 amps.
4 x 100 Amp hour Ceil/(Excide) 6SGL 100 Batteries these are gel batteries (no maintenance) that according to the documentation could last up to 8 - 10 years. ( This I have to see as I have had one failure already and am monitoring each battery carefully)
Electronics wise I have gone for equipment that will allow me to double the size of the system. I also chose to use products manufactured here in South Africa as I have already suffered an expensive lesson with a Chinese Inverter that could not be repaired here and had to replaced. The South African company Microcare manufacture a fantastic range of products and have also been very helpful with advice and service. I am using a
Microcare 40 Amp MPPT controller
Microcare 3 KW Inverter
Both are fully programmable easy to use and work very well.
Installation and wiring was a breeze.
On the AC side I isolated the circuit breakers used for lighting in the DB Board, and have wired in the plugs boxes required for the low current items on these circuits and used the computer red plug boxes with flat earth pins so that high current items can not be plugged in by mistake.
