Monday 24 April 2017

Free power (Ithink)

I constructed a simple frame for the solar panel out of an old bed frame and a few other bits and pieces.  My mooring is south facing which makes for an easy installation.  The panel can be set at two different angles and can be folded flat too.



The cable enters the engine room via a bottle top filled with CT1.


So its all wired in but is it working?  I would guess so, but I am not really sure.  I bought a little ammeter but I must have wired it up wrong because when I plugged it in, the fuze blew. When I get home from work, the sun is low so there is nothing for my clamp meter to measure.  And if the batteries are nearly charged, they will not be accepting any great amperage anyway.  I will try and take a voltage reading at night with all the lights off but that is a bit hit and miss since the batteries should be rested without charge or discharge for at least an hour before testing.   I think the thing to do will be to test voltage and amperage at every opportunity over the next few weeks and try and build a picture from that.  

Thursday 6 April 2017

Sunshine


Now that we are being treated to that rare commodity, sunshine, I decided to invest in a bit of solar.  Its been on my shopping list for a while but without a clear idea of what I need, It remained on the to-do list.  I know I don't use a lot of power, but having done a proper power audit, I was surprised to discover just how little I use.

I tried to be generous and over estimated where possible but I still came up with a figure of around 12ah in a 24 hour period.  This is for all my 12 volt systems lights, pumps etc.

This put a new perspective on my solar purchase as it looks like 80 to 100 watts would be enough and although a mppt controller would make more efficient use of the power generated, a cheap pwm unit would suffice.

So I bought an ebay kit solar kit  for a very reasonable £112.  My mooring is south facing which means it should be reasonably easy to make a frame to elevate the panel to 50 or 60 degrees to get the best from it.