Comments on: Kingston Solar Power installation.

By: Computer Repair Service

Computer Repair Service — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 18:08:09 +0000

We are looking at buying a house and renovating it, and were wondering about using solar or wind power to power much of our house. We will have a well, be on a septic system…

By: Pat Testing Equipment

Pat Testing Equipment — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 09:43:54 +0000

Latest technology is awesome and don’t know what to do when there are only clouds..??

By: DigitalMind

DigitalMind — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 00:48:57 +0000

Hi Oral,
That is how it is done normally, however you’re right to worry about this. Most inverters can’t handle that and it will literally fry it and it will be unusable. The BEST thing to do is contact the maker of the inverter or look in the manual. (If you tell me what model inverter you’ve got I’ll look for the manual and look it up for you) In my Kingston solar install above I disconnected the bridge between the ground and neutral. It’s very important that your entire system has only 1 real connection to the ground. As far as your other question about the power readings, I’ll get back to you soon with that. Too busy and tired at the moment to start doing the math.

By: oral

oral — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 00:38:27 +0000

there is another issue i noticed the electrician connected the ground and nuetral together inside the panel i believe that this is not correct but he says that is how it is done normally
but i still believe it it wrong

By: oral

oral — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 15:39:25 +0000

hi digital
i have hoisted the tower and the pipe threads held up fine
i used some of my employees as due to business being a bit slow these last days they were at the office just lounging about so i made use of them
i will be sending pictures in the next couple of days
i have partially switched over and now i am running the circuits that controll two tv”s and and all the lights (the fridge ,microwave and washing machine are still on the grid )
this is my experience so far
i ran the tv”s and the lights for about 6 hours and the following morning i had a 0.75 fall in voltage at the batteries ie the voltage fell from 12.6v to 11.85v i noticed however that the panels had a hard time bringing the voltage back above12v until i switched back to the grid even though no load was on (except the little current that is drawn by the electronics at idle )
what are your thoughts

By: DigitalMind

DigitalMind — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 15:10:54 +0000

Hi Don,
let me know if you need any help. It would be my pleasure. Free help in exchange for permission to take some pictures and blog about it.

I bought batteries from Batterie Universelle. I called lots of batterie places and these guys has the best prices and offer excellent service. I highly recommend them.

Batterie Universelle :

http://www.batterie.qc.ca/
514-322-3311
6290 Boul. Des Grandes Prairies,
St-Leonard, Quebec, Canada
H1P 1A2

By: DigitalMind

DigitalMind — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 15:03:02 +0000

Oral, without seeing it, I’d rather not advise on this. It could be very dangerous. What method will you be using to LIFT the tower ?

Good luck and please send pictures to digitalmind @ techienation . com !!

By: Don

Don — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 01:51:08 +0000

Hey there,

Nice quick and simple installion.
I\m in Montreal also and I\m doing some experiments charging batteries with some Canadian tire panels.
Where did you find the golf cart batteries in Montreal ?

Please send along your contact.

Tnx

Don…..

By: oral

oral — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 01:12:53 +0000

hi digital
i am just about ready to raise my tower however i have some concerns
the tower is composed of two galvanised steel pipes the lower one being 20 feet and the upper portion 12 feet and the turbine weighs about 45 pounds . both pipes are coupled together with a coupling about 3 inches long
my problem is i am very worried as whether the coupling or the threads can hold the pressure while being raised
how is it normally done ? i am thinking of welding the coupling and both pipes as one
what do you think ?

By: oral

oral — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 02:12:05 +0000

yes and your effort is highly appreciated

By: DigitalMind

DigitalMind — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 20:02:45 +0000

I actually went out of my way to doublecheck this since you’ve been talking to someone selling them. She’s wrong. IF they are the same VOLTAGE, then you just connect them together and the total output in watts you get is the combination of all your panels. (so 55 + 55 + 130 watts output)

What’s SHE’s talking about only makes sense if the panel she’s selling you is a 24 volt - 130 watt panel. In which case it would drop down to 12 volts and you would lose amps in the charging process.

So basically :
Adding panels together of different wattages is OK as long as they’re the same voltage of output. The panels wattage ratings just add up.

Like I said in the previous comment though, most panels over 100 watts are made to charge 24 volt battery banks.

hope this explains it !

By: oral

oral — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 19:01:11 +0000

i understand but the information does not match with what my supplier told me
she said if i were to use the higher wattage panels there would be a significant loss in power from the 130 watt panel (ie if they were to be coupled in parallel with the others ) they would only put out the same watts as the lower wattage units (55 watts)
what she suggested was i should set up a separate battery bank and have the 130 watt panels charge those exclusively and the 55 watts panels charge another set of batteries
this is a situation i find unworkable for me as it would entail getting another charge controller a situation i am not too keen on
what is your take ?

By: DigitalMind

DigitalMind — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 18:37:23 +0000

Hi Oral,
The wattage doesn’t really matter, it’s all about the voltage that they output. You can mix and match panels of different wattages as long as they’re the same power output. So if you’ve got a 12 volt battery bank, and they only sell the 130 watt panels to charge 24 volt battery banks, then that’s no good. Often with wattages of over 100 watts they’re setup as 24 volt panels only. If you can afford the 130 watt panel and it matches with your battery bank, then go ahead.

Do you understand what i’m saying ? (I’m not sure if I’m wording it right)

By: oral

oral — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 18:16:57 +0000

hi digital
this is the latest
i have set up two 1500 watt inverters,charge controller one of two transferr switches and an auxiliary panel
i am still awaiting the tower fittings to arrive so i can set up the wind turbine
i have temporarily set up two 55 watt panels in parallel and now that i want to order additional panels from my supplier in the states i am informed that there are no more 55 watt panels they only have 54 and 130 watt
what do you suggest ?
i have pictures of the incomplete installation

By: DigitalMind

DigitalMind — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 15:05:18 +0000

Since inverters do have power losses when on EVEN WITH NO LOAD on it (meaning the inverter is on but it’s not powering anything) it’s not a bad thing that you have 2 inverters.

This way the inverter for the fridge is always on, but the other for lights and such you only turn on when you’re home.

Can’t wait to see the pictures !

By: oral

oral — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 11:36:35 +0000

the two inverters are actually by accident ,i was trying to get a 3000 watt pure sinewave inverter but my supplier was not able to source one so he suggested two 1500 watt
i gave it some thought and decided to go ahead as my reasoning was i can run the fridge and microwave exlusively on one and the other circuits ie the tv’s and lights etc on the other ,only problem is i would need 2 transfer switches and two circuit breaker panels
that way if mother nature does not feel like giving a lot of energy on a particular day i can always shut down one part of the system to lessen the load on the batteries
i want to set up the wind turbine next week as i do not want to miss out on too much of what we call in jamaica “christmas breeze” it tends to get very windy this time of year

By: DigitalMind

DigitalMind — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 00:41:58 +0000

It’s ok. Jumper cables was a good start, although maybe not for a fridge. I’m glad you figured it out!

I always saw a small spark when connecting the batteries to the inverter. Always freaks me out. I guess it’s normal.

What do you mean you’re using TWO inverters ?? (one for fridge and one for other stuff that you turn off when not needed?)

Pictures will be great once you get something up and running !

By: oral

oral — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 00:03:59 +0000

i am a little ashamed of myself as i should know better
actually i used a piece of old jumper cable(with the ends cut off)i had ,my view was that a jumper cable should be able to carry a significant amount of current afterall to start a car requires a lot of current ! but i did not remember that i had retired this cable as it just could not start anything even though an ohmeter put accross the ends will give continuity and a voltmeter will read the voltage accurately in an open circuit but it just could not carry the current
i am going to buy new cables tommorrow
i think i will use 2awg and also try to shorten the run
i am not yet set up i have only setup a few components on the backboard i could send some pictures or wait until everything is set up most of the items are coming from the states
lastly is it normal for the inverter to arc when connecting the battery wire even though it is turned off? i am using two 1500watt pure sine

By: DigitalMind

DigitalMind — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 21:30:41 +0000

Hi Oral,
I’m glad you posted your experiences with this. 12 volts is hard to carry along cheap wire. You need REALLY good and expensive wire. I paid about $5 per foot for the cabling between the batteries and inverter. I think I used 2 guage wire. Basically, go to the electrical section of your store, find a guy who knows electricity, and tell him you need to carry 12 volts and 150 Amps. (Plain old electrical cable that’s usually used for 120 volts will NOT due) The reason I say 150 amps is because you have a 1500 Watt inverter. 1500 Watts divided by 12 volts = 125 amps.

What kind of cable do you currently have between the batteries and inverter???

By: oral

oral — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 13:57:53 +0000

hi digital
i tried sending a comment earlier but it went astray
anyway remember when i said i was checking ebay for a motor to build a wind turbine ? well i have changed my mind and bought a wind turbine and some panels from ARI
i have not completed the setup just yet however i wanted to test the inverters to see if my refridgerator could run on the 4 100AH i connected in parallel and connected to a 1500 watt pure sinewave inverter
the strangest thing happened , whenever the compressor on the fridge wants to engage the inverter shuts down momentarily with a low voltage warning so i initially thought it was the batteries and i was getting confused as, based on my calculations four batteries ideally should be able to deliver 4800 watts at least for 1 hour and with the rating of the fridge being 450watts i at least should get 10 hours
i connected a voltmeter at the inverter dc input and realized that the voltage fell to 8 volts each time the compressor attempted to turn on in doing my investigations i realizes that there was a significant voltage drop along the line carrying the dc current ( it is 8 feet long)
at the inverter connection the voltage measured 8.9v but at the batteries it measured 12.58volts.
this situation really boggled my mind
what are your thoughts