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Forum Index : Solar : 1st April 2007, 2 new solar panels.
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Gizmo Admin Group  Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5107 |
The 2 80 watt solar panels I ordered from Trev arrived, along with 2 100ah deep cycle AGM batteries and a Megapulse. I had a old welding robots electrical control cabinet that I had been saving for use as a battery box, so over the weekend I stripped out all the remaining wires and connectors, added a shelf and some wheels to make it easier to move around the workshop. I then man handled the two batteries into position, these things are heavy! By Saturday night I had the batteries, Megapulse and a 600 watt inverter all connected up and running. Sunday I climbed onto the workshop roof and tied down the 2 new solar panels. The panels are hooked up in parallel to give 12 volts, 160 watts. 
The roof faces north, so is perfect for solar panels, in the southern hemisphere at least. I rigged up my PicAxe based windmill controller as a solar controller, turned it on and was greeted with 12 amps charging current into 14 volts, thats 168 watts! Later in the day it was over cast, but I still had 2 amps into the batteries. This is so easy! 
In the next few weeks I'll add some panel meters to the front of the cabinet, connect up the PicLog to log the daily power and watt hours, and add a solar tracker. Good fun. The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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Art_ Newbie  Joined: 22/10/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 30 |
What does the picaxe program do for the windmill circuit? If not actually, then potentially. |
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