Solar panels................
Submitted: Sunday, Jan 01, 2006 at 21:06
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Michael B
Good evening peoples,
I have just purchased my neighbors entire off-road/camping equipment.
Circumstances surrounding this is not relevant to this
forum...however,
I am now the 'proud' owner of a Solarex 80w solar panel, great except that I know not what to do with it..
It has been stored in a purpose made ply-wood cabinet and is as new.
Trouble is no instructions, it has a positive and negative lead coming from the back with alligator clips...'tas all.
Question is, to those learned persons, how do I best utilise this to charge the battery that feeds the fridge? There has got to be an add on or two,,
Treat me gently, 'cos I know diddly about these things, have looked at their site but am still none the wiser.
Another question....among this big heap of goodies were a few jerry cans (plastic) that are full of diesel...it is maybe 6 - 9 months old, how long can diesel be kept in jerry cans and still retain optimum quality.......or do I pour it on the big ants in the back yard??
Regards
Michael B (SA)
Reply By: Lunar - Sunday, Jan 01, 2006 at 22:10
Sunday, Jan 01, 2006 at 22:10
Hi Michael,
There are lots of different opinions on this, and a ot of very knowledgable peeps on this
forum, but you will get different advice and it is hard to work out the best thing to do. Collyn Rivers has a very good book on Solar in camping applications and I'm largely following his advice.
Aftera LOT of research and reading I have come to the conclusion a Solar Regulator is a good idea as a decent one will tell you how much power u are getting from the Solar panel, how much is being drawn from your battery, and the state of charge of the battery. You don't want to cycle your battery (i.e get below 50% capacity) at any stage as this shortens all batteries life spans, so having the metering is the go, I got this one.
http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=MP3129
20 Amps is heaps more than what I will need but it has the readouts and logging which I want. It will also help protect the battery.
So basically you wire up the cell to the controller and the controller to the Battery, and make sure you use good cabeling so you don't get voltage drop along the wire. What type opf battery are you using, again, after a lot of research I'm going for the Fullriver 120 AmpHour from Fridge and Solar as I live on the Coast, at 300 bucks, I want
mine to last as long as possible :). One thing I'm not sure on is if I need a fuse incase somethings shorts, haven't got that far yet :)
Hope that wht's your appetite, but like I said, I'm a n00b at this but the big guns will be along shortly :)
AnswerID:
146250
Reply By: Mainey (WA) - Thursday, Jan 05, 2006 at 16:25
Thursday, Jan 05, 2006 at 16:25
I use a Solarex 80 Watt solar panel... and Steca solar regulator all direct wired to a Deep Cycle battery system....
I would cut off the "aligata clips" yesterday if not even sooner... and hard wire the system into place correctly, using a decent fuse system and correct sized cable.
They work fantastic.
and if you don't know what to do with it, send it to me and I will use it on your behalf L0L
so what is the reason of the plywood case???
storage when NOT in use or in use ??
AnswerID:
146599
Reply By: Michael B - Thursday, Jan 05, 2006 at 17:25
Thursday, Jan 05, 2006 at 17:25
Mainey,
Good afternoon,
I have done some more homework and now have a Plasmatronic charge controller.
Was talking to a customer about the solar panel etc and he offered me this controller that he no longer used......this has been a good exercise thus far, lol.
Intend to hard wire the controller permanently into the back of the truck and conect to panel and battery.
Reason for the case, the guy next door was quite fastidious and only bought good quality gear and tended to look after same. He used to carry the panel in the case when he was travelling (laid it on the bed in his off-road caravan).
Have a good 'un and thanks for your input.
Regards
Michael B (SA)
AnswerID:
146613