Comments for TechieNation.Com

Comment on Solar Investigation : How many solar panels do you need? by Lukman Aluko

Lukman Aluko — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 23:11:20 +0000

Dear Bob

sorry it was a mistake 18 12Volt Battery to give an out of 216 Volt, I do not mean 220amp “220 Volt”, for example if am using 30 numbers of 12Volt Battery Each, connected in series to give an out put of 360 Volt DC for an Inverter of 360 Volt DC input and using 30 12 Volt 160watt solar panel to produce an out of the same voltage to charge the Batteries.

My Question is since i can not get a 360 volt charge control “ONE” how many we be needed and how to connect them?

Thank You.

Comment on Random Cartoon – Why College ? by ultrasound school

ultrasound school — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 11:21:56 +0000

I got this site from my buddy who shared with me about this web page and at the moment this time I am browsing this web page and reading very informative content at this place.

Comment on Collapsible Shower for Camping, Cabin’s, RV’s, and Off-Grid Homes by austin

austin — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 06:46:28 +0000

This is brilliant if the water flow is good. Pumping as needed is fine. Maybe built the stand so the water container (without water) sits on part of it so stand stays up easily??? I saw someone do that with pvc pipe stand…seemed to work. Is your stand out of copper for the looks? I line that circular copper shower rod I was just trying to figure that out….didn’t think of copper. Again, amazing stuff, very cool you shared. We all would love to hear your other thoughts as to how to do this better/cheaper, etc. Thanks!

Comment on Solar Investigation : How many solar panels do you need? by tracy

tracy — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 16:45:56 +0000

very interesting read to say the least, and I havent read it all. would love to chat but i do not see the link you referenced to earlier near the top left side bar. my wifes parents both passed away this year and we would like to move to my wifes old home place. the old house is in really bad shape but does have power. we were looking at setting up a mobile home there, that is untill the local big shots shot us down. It seems they have a scam going on, and a darn good one at that. they come out for a perc test for sewage tell you it wont perk but you can install a $20k treatment system that most people in this area cant afford. then if you appeal it (which i did and won) it still cost almost as much if not more. then i get a letter in the mail from a proerty buyer from up state wanting to buy our property. sure sounds like a scam to me! any way back on topic, we have water, we have power for now and could tie into the house power but figure if we did that they would condem the house so we are needing our own power. thats when i ran into this site. I defenitly agree that a gas fridge & freezer would be worth the investment, we already have a gas range, water heater, and clothes dryer and we heat with a wood stove. so my main concearn is lighting. I am not looking to power the whole house at this point, i do have a generator to run things such as the water pump or washing machine. thing is gasoline is expensive so the generator needs to be run as little as possible. for those of you out there in a simular deal i have figured out how to have water without running the generator but for about 10 minutes a day. my system is set up for 100 gallons per day. I havent tried it yet but i am 99.9% sure it will work. it is really simple to build all you need is enough pressure tanks, in my case 5 20 gallon tanks and run the generator long enough to fill them. shoot me a email if you would like to talk. kaiser_willys@yahoo.com

Comment on Why Solar Power isn’t common by tracy

tracy — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 15:58:03 +0000

just spit my drink all over the monitor LOL thanks for a good laugh I really needed it today.

Comment on Remembering the BBS Days by XxSwitchBladexX

XxSwitchBladexX — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 11:35:47 +0000

Have always been a big fan of BBS and or alike. Alot of the stuff still does exist today as it were just a bit differently in the sense. The Commodore BBS’s were the ones i grew up on, spent many of hours calling all the ones that were available in New Jersey. I’m glad i have been a part of that and was able to experience the many different levels of BBS’s and Chat systems that existed back then.

Comment on Solar Investigation : How many solar panels do you need? by bob

bob — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 03:20:08 +0000

i checked the batteries 2 of my 85 amphrs the gravity state of charge is of the scale thats very good, the other 85 has 1 cell that is still low and so is the 90 ah so i got them on a battery charger to see what happens.
evryone i found out that those battery checkers you can buy at the auto store is ok but doesnt tell the true story about batteries.
its best to buy a acid tester it reads the gravity on batteries it will tell you the whole 9 yards if you got flooded deepcycles its a must to have….

Comment on Solar Investigation : How many solar panels do you need? by bob

bob — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 01:37:51 +0000

i forgot to tell you with the inverter and the heaters i was pulling 16 amps from the batteries

Comment on Solar Investigation : How many solar panels do you need? by bob

bob — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 01:33:52 +0000

yes the voltage was 12.5 without load went load was applied it dumped 10.5 i did checked the batteries some cells were low and the gravity was as well so i bought new acid and filled them and put a asprin in each cell havent went back to retest i guess i need to tonight.
but i didnt think about the wattage till you ask that 350 inverter ran them well, it didnt even give off a overload alarm and shut off. it ran the wood heater good.i did do a single battery check my 85 amp hours lasted 8 min each my 90 amphour lasted 9 min but one of my 85 ah lasted 3 min and i pulled it loose and found low acid and two cells had low gravity as long as you leave the charge conroller on it the heater will run all day but since the battery voltage goes back to 12.5 the controller stops sending power to batteries cause it thinks the voltage has topped out. the batteries isnt storing the current anymore. guess if what i done didnt work i will have to replace them they are up there in age anyway and was only used as backup.

Comment on Solar Investigation : How many solar panels do you need? by Digitalmind

Digitalmind — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 14:56:56 +0000

Hi Bob,
do you mean you checked your batteries AFTER the heater went out and they were still good ??? Why are you putting a 456 watt load on a 350 watt inverter????

Comment on Solar Investigation : How many solar panels do you need? by bob

bob — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 01:01:22 +0000

lukman did you mean 220 amps and also if the charge controller you need is wwhat ever amps ypor panels are putting out.
in other words if your panel is 3 amps each on output add them together like 3 time 19 which will be 57 amps i would get a 65 to 70 amp controller or if you plan to add on i would get a 100 amp 12 volt most controllers have multistage voltage if it says 12 24 36 48 then it will except those voltages.

Comment on Solar Investigation : How many solar panels do you need? by bob

bob — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 04:59:47 +0000

i have my solar system partially set up i done a test and was upset either my batteries are bad or math is wrong, i hooked my wood heater up to a 350 watt inverter to see how long it would run.
my heater has 2 120 volt motors that pull 1.9 amp each which adds to 456 watts for both, i got 4140. watts of batteries it didnt last but a hour and a half. i checked my batteries with a battery checker it says they are good but somthing isnt right any ideals

Comment on Solar Investigation : How many solar panels do you need? by Lukman Aluko

Lukman Aluko — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 21:29:51 +0000

Dear Digitalmind

During my research i find out that some inverter use up to 220V DC Input (Batter) and all The charge controllers that have come across are 12 Volt, 24 Volt and 48 Volt.
My question is how many charge controls will be needed if am using 19 solar panel 12 Volt each to charge the batteries and how to connect the charge controllers.

Thank You

Comment on Solar Investigation : How many solar panels do you need? by ahmed

ahmed — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 06:04:15 +0000

Dear

I would like to switch on 2500W AC with rating woltage 220V during dayyime only, so no need for battereis

I would like to know how many solar panels I need and invertors if any

Thanks

Comment on More Solar Power articles coming soon ! by Art Moore

Art Moore — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 03:35:39 +0000

when are you going to put out how many batteries you need for an off-grid solar power system, you have given us a great way to figure out the panels but we can’t go any further without knowing the battery configureation also to go along with your example with the solar panels… i hope you will keep with your needing 1500 watts per day as with the panels.

Love your site…

Thank You,

Art Moore

Comment on Kingston Solar Power installation. by Ossie Osman

Ossie Osman — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 03:55:12 +0000

Hi DigitalMind, I am waiting for your response.

Tks

Comment on Free Tech Support for Norstar* Phone systems and Voicemail by Leala

Leala — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 13:55:28 +0000

I was hoping you might be able to help me with a small issue I have regarding my Norstar phone. On Friday I was told to go into the phone systems and change the extension names, well I did so and now for some reason when I call the extension (Janice) it goes to a different extension (Diana) I wasn’t trying to call and when the call goes to Diana’s extension it says “Janice” which is the person I was trying to call. I think it has something to do with the “DN’s” in the systems? Please help me!
Thank you,
Leala

Comment on Kingston Solar Power installation. by Ossie Osman

Ossie Osman — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 23:50:02 +0000

DigitalMind, thanks you very much have what just mentioned can be a backup plan ie Battery Charger.In fact I could draw all the power from the Cottage but I dont want to do that. I want to try out the Solar power concept and if convienced it can be done then I will slowing expand this for the whole cottage and say goodbye to Hydro company who are charging $ 45.00 just for delivery of power plus consumption and taxes.

Given your above calculations.

1. What kind of batteries and how many would I need for 4800 watts?
2. What kind of Fuses should I use. ( Amps )

a) Between Solar Panels and Controller through Combiner Box.
b) Controller and Batteries.
c) Batteries and Inverter.
d) Inverter and Main Control Panel to Camper.

The Controller and Inverter have their own Fuses. What are these for if we have to still fuse them.

Final question. Do I have to Ground the Solar Pannels direct or can that be done through combiner Junction Box? Should the Charge Controller andf Inverter be grounded also?

Rgds

Comment on Kingston Solar Power installation. by DigitalMind

DigitalMind — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 15:12:26 +0000

Ok, sounds good. The big question here is how many nights in a row would you be staying there and how much time in between people staying in the camper.

For the sake of explaining what you need, I’m gonna pretend you only use it 4 nights a week. We’ll see how much time it should take to recharge your batteries so you can use it for another 4 nights :

So 4 nights worth of power = 2400 watts. If we’re doing this on the cheap, we can say that we’re ready to drain your batteries up to half way. (best case scenario is that you don’t drain your battery bank more than 20%, but that would end up being expensive). So with that in mind, you need a battery bank of atleast 4800 watts.

You said you have 45 watts worth of panels and that you get 7 hours of sun per day (lucky bastard). That means you add 315 watts worth of juice to your battery bank, daily. Sooooo, 2400 watts spent, divided by 315 watts added daily, equals 7.6 days to get the power back that you used. That’s really not bad for a place that won’t be used all the time.

What kind of power do you have in the cottage ?? Is it far from the house?? You can always have a battery charger in the house with an extension cord that goes to the RV to recharge your batteries quicker.

Take care, let me know !

Comment on Kingston Solar Power installation. by Ossie Osman

Ossie Osman — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 06:08:34 +0000

Thanks for responding so quickly. I have a camper at the cottage which will be permantely fixed there and not move. The only time I will use it is when too many of us turn up at the cottage and we need room to sleep. Therefore most of the time it will not be used. But when we do use it the following will be consunption.

Appliances Watts Hrs
Satellite dish 30 5 = 150 watts
TV: 25″ color 70 5 = 350 watts
25 W lights 25 5 = 125 watts
Total = 625 watts
Approximately 600 watts per night there when camper in use.

I am new to this and am trying to spend minimum to achieve this.

Does this help.

Rgds

Ossie