I don't post too often about the 2003 Cobra. It typically sits in the back of the garage with a car cover over it. It comes out on very nice weekends when we are taking a cruise. It has gotten a LOT more use recently since the 94GT has been on jack stands for almost two months - See the post about the TKO500 transmission install.
Before winter, the Cobra came out for a trip to Perona Farms. My wife and I were married there, and they have a Sunday brunch witch is OUTSTANDING. We go every year on our anniversary. I noticed when we got to Perona that when I armed the Viper alarm system, it didn't sound right. I unarmed it and manually locked the car. Then I forgot about it. Fast forward to a cruise to the Sawmill in Seaside Heights NJ with the NJ Venom Outlaws. The cruise was quickly approaching, and if we were going we needed to take the cobra since the 94 was still under the knife. I tested out the alarm system - rolled down the window, armed the system, and opened the door from the inside. The alarm tried to go off, but it was stuck in some fast chirp mode. I needed to unhook the battery and pull the alarm control module out of the car. This is the second time this alarm gave me trouble. First time was when the original remote failed.
I stopped by a local shop - Direct Connection in Broadheadsville PA. I spoke to the owner, Marcus. He gave me some history on Viper, which he does not deal with anymore. Understandable when he told me about their history and product lines. The shop is a dealer for Compustar alarm systems. And after reading up on their products I was certainly a fan. I called Marcus on a Tuesday with the task of getting the old alarm out and the new alarm in before the end of the day on Friday. He told me that if I could have the car at the shop first thing Friday morning, it would be done. I got the car there, and he certainly delivered! I couldn't be happier with the work he did. The system installed is the Prime 901. I won't get into the details of the remote other than it has a range of about a mile. And believe me, that statement is pretty accurate! I couldn't be happier with the service and the product!
The cruise to the shore went great. At one point I even forgot to arm the alarm and really tested out the range. It did NOT disappoint!
Thursday, June 8, 2017
Using Renewable Energy: MPPT Controller, Additional Panel
A lot has happened since the last update! I have upgraded to an HQST MPPT charge controller, 40A. I figured if 30A was good, a 40A was just better. It works fantastically! More on that in a moment.
I also added a third panel when I added the MPPT charge controller. I have the panels in series, thinking I should get about 36v out of them. The thought is that the higher the voltage, the lower the voltage drop over a long run of wire. To my surprise, the panels are putting out significantly more than 12v. They are closer to 20v. I've even observed 62v at one point! While the voltage is high, the amps are still on the low side. I don't think I've ever observed 3A. These numbers are from the display on the MPPT controller.
I also drilled a 3/4 hole to get the cable into my house. This makes it super easy to prop the panels against my shed in the backyard, temporarily, until I can get a more permanent solution in place.
The ExelTECH 600W inverter is performing flawlessly. I installed a rocker switch so that I can turn it on and off. It was set up with an internal transfer switch if the power was lost. To turn it on, one of the jumpers needs to be grounded. This made it pretty easy to put a rocker switch on it. From the inverter I run an extension cord to a power strip. this power strip has a bunch of chargers on it. We have charged: iPhones, iPads, Anker 10k and 21k portable battery banks, rechargable AA and AAA batteries - basically anything that can be charged we charge via that power strip. That means that all of these devices have been on clean solar power for a few months now. The only exception we have is when we are in the car when we use the car chargers.
To date the MPPT controller says that it has output 6 Kilowatt hours. Not bad for a small off grid system!
Plans:
Wiring - I'd like to clean up the wiring a bit and make it a little nicer. I bought some new wire to run from the panels to the charge controller.
Panel Mounting - I would also like to put something a little more permanent in place rather than have the panels propped against my shed. maybe something on the shed roof?
BATTERIES - The more I research batteries, the more I realize why more people are not going off-grid. It would be great if there was some kind of inexpensive energy storage solution, but there isn't. Maybe the industry will eventually come up with something efficient and cost effective but it really doesn't exist right now. The best bet is thousands of dollars in a battery bank. And to maintain the life of the bank, only use 20% of it.
I've learned a LOT so far. I also have a decent idea in my mind of what it would take to go entirely off-grid, which is a pretty sizable price tag mostly because of the batteries. This is why Net Metering is so popular. With Net Metering, the household gets credit for every single watt of power that is produced by the panels. No batteries are needed. With an off grid system, if the batteries are charged, and the house is not using all of the electricity the panels are producing, it's essentially a waste.
I'll post more once more progress is made!
I also added a third panel when I added the MPPT charge controller. I have the panels in series, thinking I should get about 36v out of them. The thought is that the higher the voltage, the lower the voltage drop over a long run of wire. To my surprise, the panels are putting out significantly more than 12v. They are closer to 20v. I've even observed 62v at one point! While the voltage is high, the amps are still on the low side. I don't think I've ever observed 3A. These numbers are from the display on the MPPT controller.
I also drilled a 3/4 hole to get the cable into my house. This makes it super easy to prop the panels against my shed in the backyard, temporarily, until I can get a more permanent solution in place.
The ExelTECH 600W inverter is performing flawlessly. I installed a rocker switch so that I can turn it on and off. It was set up with an internal transfer switch if the power was lost. To turn it on, one of the jumpers needs to be grounded. This made it pretty easy to put a rocker switch on it. From the inverter I run an extension cord to a power strip. this power strip has a bunch of chargers on it. We have charged: iPhones, iPads, Anker 10k and 21k portable battery banks, rechargable AA and AAA batteries - basically anything that can be charged we charge via that power strip. That means that all of these devices have been on clean solar power for a few months now. The only exception we have is when we are in the car when we use the car chargers.
To date the MPPT controller says that it has output 6 Kilowatt hours. Not bad for a small off grid system!
Plans:
Wiring - I'd like to clean up the wiring a bit and make it a little nicer. I bought some new wire to run from the panels to the charge controller.
Panel Mounting - I would also like to put something a little more permanent in place rather than have the panels propped against my shed. maybe something on the shed roof?
BATTERIES - The more I research batteries, the more I realize why more people are not going off-grid. It would be great if there was some kind of inexpensive energy storage solution, but there isn't. Maybe the industry will eventually come up with something efficient and cost effective but it really doesn't exist right now. The best bet is thousands of dollars in a battery bank. And to maintain the life of the bank, only use 20% of it.
I've learned a LOT so far. I also have a decent idea in my mind of what it would take to go entirely off-grid, which is a pretty sizable price tag mostly because of the batteries. This is why Net Metering is so popular. With Net Metering, the household gets credit for every single watt of power that is produced by the panels. No batteries are needed. With an off grid system, if the batteries are charged, and the house is not using all of the electricity the panels are producing, it's essentially a waste.
I'll post more once more progress is made!
Tuesday, April 4, 2017
Using Renewable Energy: The Move to 24v Part2
The move to 24v part 2.
In the first part I listed some reasons to go to 24v and the plan. The plan included an additional solar panel and a decent inverter. I picked up both and went to work.
The first thing I did was to configure the battery bank to 24v. I started with two batteries and wired them in series. Then did the same for the other two pair. This gave me, essentially, three 24v batteries. I then connected the three 24v batteries in parallel. This gave me one large bank of 24v. Here is essentially how the 6 batteries are configured:
I did some testing with my multimeter for voltage. Everything looked good! I connected the charge controller to the right most parallel positive post and the left most parallel negative post. The charge controller read the pack at 24v. This was good!
Next step was to hook up the two panels in series. The first thing I did was disconnect the positive lead going from the existing panel to the charge controller. I left the negative of the panel connected to the charge controller. I put the two panels side by side and connected the positive lead from the existing panel to the negative lead from the new panel. Then I connected the positive lead from the new panel to the charge controller. I brought the panels outside and they began charging the battery pack! While the panels were outside, I connected them with a couple hinges. This made moving them around much easier.
Now that the battery pack and panels are configured for 24v the next step is to work on the inverter. The inverter is an Exeltech 24v 600watt. It was originally used as a transfer switch. It was hooked up to AC power, an AC Load and to the battery bank. If the AC Power was lost, it would switch to battery and provide the AC in less than 50ms. My guess is that this was used in the medical equipment field. While the transfer switch is a great feature, I don't really need it. The inverter does not come with an on/off power switch (that's automatic when used as a transfer switch) but it does have a RMT lead. The RMT lead, when grounded to the negative Battery, will turn the inverter on. I installed a rocker switch in between the battery negative and the RMT. Now when the rocker is 'on' the RMT is grounded to negative and the inverter turns on. It works perfectly. I now had a way to turn the inverter on without using it as a transfer switch!
Here is the inverter before I configured it with the on / off switch. Notice the two gray wire clusters for AC Utility and AC Load. That small red wire is the RMT.
Spring can be a tricky season. The amount of clouds we are getting doesn't really help the output of the panes. It does charge the battery pack though. My wife and I are still charging our smartphones and tablets via the pack. One day when it was really nice / sunny out, I put the panels in direct sunlight. I was charging two devices off the USB on the charge controller, and running the stereo in the garage using the inverter. The battery pack never fluctuated, which tells me that the panels provided more than enough power to keep the battery pack topped off, charge the two devices and run the inverter / stereo.
Plans!
The next step is going to be an entry panel to get the wire into the house without having to have a door open (or garage door closed on the wire). I ordered an 'entry panel' for exactly this purpose. It will be time to punch a hole in the wall of the garage somewhere to get a wire to come though. More on this once the entry panel arrives!
I would also like to upgrade the charge controller to something better, like an MPPT 30A controller. That will leave room to expand, I could feed that controller with up to 90v and it will recognize 12 or 24v battery pack. It's just a 'smarter' controller. And the increased voltage will allow me to use a longer run of 10 AWG wire.
I also ordered a 'kill-a-watt' meter. This way I can plug the power strip in my office into it (or anything with an electrical plug) and measure how much power the office is pulling. If it stays under 600watt, I may try and run the office off of the panels / pack during the day.
Stay tuned for the next update!
In the first part I listed some reasons to go to 24v and the plan. The plan included an additional solar panel and a decent inverter. I picked up both and went to work.
The first thing I did was to configure the battery bank to 24v. I started with two batteries and wired them in series. Then did the same for the other two pair. This gave me, essentially, three 24v batteries. I then connected the three 24v batteries in parallel. This gave me one large bank of 24v. Here is essentially how the 6 batteries are configured:
Next step was to hook up the two panels in series. The first thing I did was disconnect the positive lead going from the existing panel to the charge controller. I left the negative of the panel connected to the charge controller. I put the two panels side by side and connected the positive lead from the existing panel to the negative lead from the new panel. Then I connected the positive lead from the new panel to the charge controller. I brought the panels outside and they began charging the battery pack! While the panels were outside, I connected them with a couple hinges. This made moving them around much easier.
Here is the inverter before I configured it with the on / off switch. Notice the two gray wire clusters for AC Utility and AC Load. That small red wire is the RMT.
Spring can be a tricky season. The amount of clouds we are getting doesn't really help the output of the panes. It does charge the battery pack though. My wife and I are still charging our smartphones and tablets via the pack. One day when it was really nice / sunny out, I put the panels in direct sunlight. I was charging two devices off the USB on the charge controller, and running the stereo in the garage using the inverter. The battery pack never fluctuated, which tells me that the panels provided more than enough power to keep the battery pack topped off, charge the two devices and run the inverter / stereo.
Plans!
The next step is going to be an entry panel to get the wire into the house without having to have a door open (or garage door closed on the wire). I ordered an 'entry panel' for exactly this purpose. It will be time to punch a hole in the wall of the garage somewhere to get a wire to come though. More on this once the entry panel arrives!
I would also like to upgrade the charge controller to something better, like an MPPT 30A controller. That will leave room to expand, I could feed that controller with up to 90v and it will recognize 12 or 24v battery pack. It's just a 'smarter' controller. And the increased voltage will allow me to use a longer run of 10 AWG wire.
I also ordered a 'kill-a-watt' meter. This way I can plug the power strip in my office into it (or anything with an electrical plug) and measure how much power the office is pulling. If it stays under 600watt, I may try and run the office off of the panels / pack during the day.
Stay tuned for the next update!
Wednesday, March 22, 2017
Using Renewable Energy: The Move to 24v
Moving to 24v has some advantages. First would be the wire itself. I'm using 10ga wire from the panel at 12v. This wire can support 12v at 8amps (best output of the single panel) for a length of 11.5 feet before seeing a 2% voltage drop. The wire I have connecting my panel to the charge controller is already longer than that. If we change to 24v, the length doubles. At some point I want this solar array ground based in my back yard, which is going to require a good length of wire to get the power into the garage.
Next, I have been doing some homework on inverters. It seems that the 300w inverter I have is a square wave inverter. In short - it doesn't really deliver clean power. A Pure Sign Wave inverter would be the most desirable, as it will produce 120v exactly like what is coming out of your wall receptacle in your home. A friend of mine said he has one he would part with - 600w pure sign wave inverter, and it's a good name. I'll enter more info on this when I have it. The inverter requires 24v, so I will need to reconfigure my battery pack to be 24v. There are 6 batteries. I'll pair two batteries in series to make 24v. Then take three pairs at 24v and run them in series to increase the capacity. That should support the inverter.
The charge controller is 12/24v (auto) so it should pick up that the pack is 24v right away.
Lastly, I'm going to need another solar panel to run in series with the one I already have.
These things are all in the works. Stay tuned for an update here!
Next, I have been doing some homework on inverters. It seems that the 300w inverter I have is a square wave inverter. In short - it doesn't really deliver clean power. A Pure Sign Wave inverter would be the most desirable, as it will produce 120v exactly like what is coming out of your wall receptacle in your home. A friend of mine said he has one he would part with - 600w pure sign wave inverter, and it's a good name. I'll enter more info on this when I have it. The inverter requires 24v, so I will need to reconfigure my battery pack to be 24v. There are 6 batteries. I'll pair two batteries in series to make 24v. Then take three pairs at 24v and run them in series to increase the capacity. That should support the inverter.
The charge controller is 12/24v (auto) so it should pick up that the pack is 24v right away.
Lastly, I'm going to need another solar panel to run in series with the one I already have.
These things are all in the works. Stay tuned for an update here!
Using Renewable Energy: In Progress!
A lot has happened since the last post about renewable energy. On Saturday 3/18/2017 I received the order that had the MC4 connectors and the charge controller. Those were the last pieces that I needed to start pulling power from the sun.
From the previous posts, you know that I have a bank of 6 batteries wired in parallel. This gives 12v but multiples the capacity of 1 battery by 6. It was finally time to hook up the charge controller to the battery bank. I had a few lengths of 10/3 600v stranded wire that I got years ago - someone was throwing it out. It came from old Uninterrupted Power Supply units. Those UPS units had batteries that failed, and it was cheaper to replace the units completely than to pull them apart and replace the batteries. I wish I would have taken the whole units back then knowing what I know now. Instead I just took the wire thinking I was going to recycle it. There are three conductors in that wire, all 10ga. I did not use the green wire. I stripped back the sheathing on the black and white wires and crimped a eye on each one. I also opened up the connectors in the charge controller, stripped the other end, and inserted black into negative and white into positive and tightened it down. Next I connected black eye to the far right negative battery post and white to the far left positive battery post. This will charge the whole bank evenly. So if the batteries were numbered 1 through 6, I had positive for the charge controller on battery 1 and negative on battery 6. The charge controller came to life and told me the pack had 12.6 volts in it. This was great! Next was time to connect the panel.
The panel comes with MC4 connectors - you can check them out on Google and YouTube. There's plenty of videos and pictures. I needed to put these connectors on another length of the 10/3 wire. Again I stripped back the white and black. Then looking at the diagram / instructions that came with the pane, I found that lead that was positive. I put a piece of red electrical tape on it to make sure. Then I found the MC4 connector that would match that positive and assembled it on the end of the white wire. I did the same for the negative side. This gave me MC4 connectors on one end of the wire. I forgot to mention that this wire was originally going to be an extension cord for my parent's RV, so it was double the length of the other wires at about 15 ft. Before connecting the wire to the panel, I connected it to the charge controller. Then I covered the panel with a piece of cardboard (even though I was still in my garage, I wanted to be sure) to make sure that it wasn't making any power / electricity. Then I connected the MC4 connectors. There was no change on the charge controller display.
Then I opened the back door to the garage and brought the panel outside. Even though it was cloudy, the charge controller still showed that the panel was charging the pack!
Here's a picture of the charge controller and panel outside: Charge Controller and Panel
I was pretty excited. It didn't take that long for the voltage to climb up to the 13.7 float charge the charge controller is configured for. After a few hours I took the panel back inside.
The next step was to start using the battery bank to charge various batteries. The first step was some AA batteries. I hooked up my 300w inverter to the pack the same way I did the charge controller. Then I loaded the AA batteries into my sunJack AA/AAA USB charger, and plugged that into the USB port of the inverter. I let those charge overnight. As I looked at the setup, I had an idea.
I found an old set of alligator clamps that came with a battery tender I have. I had cut the end off of it to make a connector for my parent's RV, but still had the clamps. I stripped the wires and connected them to a replacement automobile cigarette lighter receptical I had left over from another project. I could now clamp that onto the battery pack and use any charger or device that would typically plug into a car cigarette lighter port. I grabbed the Scosche dual USB 2.1a cigarette lighter charger from my car and plugged it into that receptical.
So at this point I had a bunch of ways to charge things. I had the 300w inverter with the two AC plugs on it, the two USB ports on the inverter, the two USB ports on the charge controller, and the two USB ports on the cigarette lighter receptical.
So far I have charged my iPad, the AA and AAA batteries, and the New Trent IMP120D (12,000 mAh ) battery pack. I've been using the New Trent (which is loaded with power from Solar) to charge my phone a few times, the bluetooth keyboard to the iPad and my jawbone ear piece. the IMP120D will help me from needing to go into the garage every time I want to charge something. It makes the power much more portable.
The only drawback here is that there is some loss going from device to device. What is nice is that the panel will charge the large battery pack up very quickly. And when I say very quickly, it was apparent to me that I'm barely tapping the output of the panel. I realized to really take advantage of this setup, I'm going to have to do more than just use it for recharging batteries in our devices.
From the previous posts, you know that I have a bank of 6 batteries wired in parallel. This gives 12v but multiples the capacity of 1 battery by 6. It was finally time to hook up the charge controller to the battery bank. I had a few lengths of 10/3 600v stranded wire that I got years ago - someone was throwing it out. It came from old Uninterrupted Power Supply units. Those UPS units had batteries that failed, and it was cheaper to replace the units completely than to pull them apart and replace the batteries. I wish I would have taken the whole units back then knowing what I know now. Instead I just took the wire thinking I was going to recycle it. There are three conductors in that wire, all 10ga. I did not use the green wire. I stripped back the sheathing on the black and white wires and crimped a eye on each one. I also opened up the connectors in the charge controller, stripped the other end, and inserted black into negative and white into positive and tightened it down. Next I connected black eye to the far right negative battery post and white to the far left positive battery post. This will charge the whole bank evenly. So if the batteries were numbered 1 through 6, I had positive for the charge controller on battery 1 and negative on battery 6. The charge controller came to life and told me the pack had 12.6 volts in it. This was great! Next was time to connect the panel.
The panel comes with MC4 connectors - you can check them out on Google and YouTube. There's plenty of videos and pictures. I needed to put these connectors on another length of the 10/3 wire. Again I stripped back the white and black. Then looking at the diagram / instructions that came with the pane, I found that lead that was positive. I put a piece of red electrical tape on it to make sure. Then I found the MC4 connector that would match that positive and assembled it on the end of the white wire. I did the same for the negative side. This gave me MC4 connectors on one end of the wire. I forgot to mention that this wire was originally going to be an extension cord for my parent's RV, so it was double the length of the other wires at about 15 ft. Before connecting the wire to the panel, I connected it to the charge controller. Then I covered the panel with a piece of cardboard (even though I was still in my garage, I wanted to be sure) to make sure that it wasn't making any power / electricity. Then I connected the MC4 connectors. There was no change on the charge controller display.
Then I opened the back door to the garage and brought the panel outside. Even though it was cloudy, the charge controller still showed that the panel was charging the pack!
Here's a picture of the charge controller and panel outside: Charge Controller and Panel
I was pretty excited. It didn't take that long for the voltage to climb up to the 13.7 float charge the charge controller is configured for. After a few hours I took the panel back inside.
The next step was to start using the battery bank to charge various batteries. The first step was some AA batteries. I hooked up my 300w inverter to the pack the same way I did the charge controller. Then I loaded the AA batteries into my sunJack AA/AAA USB charger, and plugged that into the USB port of the inverter. I let those charge overnight. As I looked at the setup, I had an idea.
I found an old set of alligator clamps that came with a battery tender I have. I had cut the end off of it to make a connector for my parent's RV, but still had the clamps. I stripped the wires and connected them to a replacement automobile cigarette lighter receptical I had left over from another project. I could now clamp that onto the battery pack and use any charger or device that would typically plug into a car cigarette lighter port. I grabbed the Scosche dual USB 2.1a cigarette lighter charger from my car and plugged it into that receptical.
So at this point I had a bunch of ways to charge things. I had the 300w inverter with the two AC plugs on it, the two USB ports on the inverter, the two USB ports on the charge controller, and the two USB ports on the cigarette lighter receptical.
So far I have charged my iPad, the AA and AAA batteries, and the New Trent IMP120D (12,000 mAh ) battery pack. I've been using the New Trent (which is loaded with power from Solar) to charge my phone a few times, the bluetooth keyboard to the iPad and my jawbone ear piece. the IMP120D will help me from needing to go into the garage every time I want to charge something. It makes the power much more portable.
The only drawback here is that there is some loss going from device to device. What is nice is that the panel will charge the large battery pack up very quickly. And when I say very quickly, it was apparent to me that I'm barely tapping the output of the panel. I realized to really take advantage of this setup, I'm going to have to do more than just use it for recharging batteries in our devices.
Tuesday, March 14, 2017
Using Renewable Energy: The Foundation
Using Renewable Energy: The Foundation
In the first blog, I had some great ideas. Since that post I have done a LOT of research. Finally when my curiosity got the best of me, I spent some $$ for the next phase of the experiment. There are essentially four parts: The solar panel, the charge controller, the battery bank, and the power inverter. I also purchased a USB AA/AAA charger and 8 each of the AA and AAA batteries.
The Solar Panel
I purchased a HQST 100 Watt 12v Monocrystalline Solar Panel from Amazon Prime: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B018BMGTTO/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s02?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Update. Solar panel is HERE
I have high hopes for this panel. What is nice about it is that I can add another panel whenever I'm ready (and my budget allows). I think that two panels in series (24v) will allow for a better usage of the charge controller. After that I'll add another two panels in series, but combine 2+2 in parallel for more amperage. At max, one panel will be 8.33 Amps. So the four in that combination will be 16.66 Amps at 24v. But for now, I will have only this one solar panel. I also ordered the mc4 connectors.
Charge Controller
I went by the amazon ratings. I'm not looking for the absolute top of the line charger controller right now. I just needed something that will charge a battery bank. I bought this 20A charge controller / battery regulator: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MU0WMGT/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
The price was right. Hopefully it does what I expect.
Power Inverter
This inverter spent a lot of time on my wish list, and eventually someone bought it for me for Christmas! Its a 12v to 110 AC power inverter for a car - which also can be hooked up with alligator clips to a battery. It has dual 3.1A USB ports and two AC plug recepticals. Also from Amazon Prime. It is the #1 Best Seller in Power Inverters. This is what is going to drain the battery bank and provide AC Power.
Batteries
I also bought 8 AA and 8 AAA rechargeable batteries: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LW4AL1O/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&th=1
And a charger that will work via USB: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00PZ6V99U/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
The thought is to recharge those batteries via the battery bank and inverter.
Battery Bank
I've done a bunch of research on batteries. I found the absolute best AGM deep cycle battery ( Odyssey 31-PC2150S Heavy Duty Commercial Battery ), and the battery I think I will eventually use for going off-grid ( Trojan T105 RE ). With that being said, I needed something to experiment with. I searched Craigslist and came across someone selling batteries that were taken from medical equipment at the hospital. He was selling each one for 10$ so the price was right. I met him and bought 8 - 6 for me and 2 for a friend. The batteries are Panasonic LC-X1228AP. I wired them in parallel using 10GA well pump wire and put them on a battery tender. The battery tender topped off the battery bank nicely. This will get me ready for the solar panel and charge controller. I also have to come up with some solution to make the battery bank somewhat portable.
In the first blog, I had some great ideas. Since that post I have done a LOT of research. Finally when my curiosity got the best of me, I spent some $$ for the next phase of the experiment. There are essentially four parts: The solar panel, the charge controller, the battery bank, and the power inverter. I also purchased a USB AA/AAA charger and 8 each of the AA and AAA batteries.
The Solar Panel
I purchased a HQST 100 Watt 12v Monocrystalline Solar Panel from Amazon Prime: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B018BMGTTO/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s02?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Update. Solar panel is HERE
I have high hopes for this panel. What is nice about it is that I can add another panel whenever I'm ready (and my budget allows). I think that two panels in series (24v) will allow for a better usage of the charge controller. After that I'll add another two panels in series, but combine 2+2 in parallel for more amperage. At max, one panel will be 8.33 Amps. So the four in that combination will be 16.66 Amps at 24v. But for now, I will have only this one solar panel. I also ordered the mc4 connectors.
Charge Controller
I went by the amazon ratings. I'm not looking for the absolute top of the line charger controller right now. I just needed something that will charge a battery bank. I bought this 20A charge controller / battery regulator: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MU0WMGT/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
The price was right. Hopefully it does what I expect.
Power Inverter
This inverter spent a lot of time on my wish list, and eventually someone bought it for me for Christmas! Its a 12v to 110 AC power inverter for a car - which also can be hooked up with alligator clips to a battery. It has dual 3.1A USB ports and two AC plug recepticals. Also from Amazon Prime. It is the #1 Best Seller in Power Inverters. This is what is going to drain the battery bank and provide AC Power.
Batteries
I also bought 8 AA and 8 AAA rechargeable batteries: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LW4AL1O/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&th=1
And a charger that will work via USB: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00PZ6V99U/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
The thought is to recharge those batteries via the battery bank and inverter.
Battery Bank
I've done a bunch of research on batteries. I found the absolute best AGM deep cycle battery ( Odyssey 31-PC2150S Heavy Duty Commercial Battery ), and the battery I think I will eventually use for going off-grid ( Trojan T105 RE ). With that being said, I needed something to experiment with. I searched Craigslist and came across someone selling batteries that were taken from medical equipment at the hospital. He was selling each one for 10$ so the price was right. I met him and bought 8 - 6 for me and 2 for a friend. The batteries are Panasonic LC-X1228AP. I wired them in parallel using 10GA well pump wire and put them on a battery tender. The battery tender topped off the battery bank nicely. This will get me ready for the solar panel and charge controller. I also have to come up with some solution to make the battery bank somewhat portable.
Wednesday, March 1, 2017
Using Renewable Energy: The Beginning.
The start of using renewable energy.
This will seem a bit unusual of a post for a blog that is mostly Mustang Upgrades and Technology Posts, but I thought it would be relevant. I think that if we all built a habit of using a renewable energy when we can, it will be easier for everyone.
It all started today when the batteries on my wireless mouse were getting low. I use the Energizer rechargeable, 2450mAH batteries. I have a box in my desk that has a mix of AA and AAA rechargeable batteries. I pulled out two, put them in the wall charger and waited for them to charge up. Then I realized that at least one of the (very old) AAA batteries was starting to leak. I sifted through the batteries, and discarded the ones that I can't even remember how old they are.
That left me with two AAA batteries, and 4 AA Batteries. I decided to do some shopping on Amazon. I know that the Amazon Basics line of rechargeable batters are pretty good. As I was shopping ( I did not buy any yet ) I read in the description "Batteries come pre-charged using soloar power". This peaked my interest.
About a year ago, I purchased a solar USB charger during one of Amazon's lightning deals. It was about 30$. I bought it for camping in case we needed to charge anything. It folds out into five panels, four of which have a solar collector on it. I thought to myself, maybe I should just keep charging those AA and AAA batteries using solar!
My goal is to use solar to power my iPhone, iPad and the rechargeable AA and AAA batteries. I also did some searching and found a AA and AAA battery charger that will use USB instead of a home power outlet. Now, I don't want to have the chargers plugged directly into the solar panel charger - that would take forever and limit mobility while the charging was happening. I had an idea. I also have a New Trent IMP120D - 12,000mAh battery pack, which is great for traveling / camping / hiking. My wife has an Anker Power Core 10400 which is a 10,400mAh battery pack. My idea is to use these battery packs to charge the AA, AAA, iPhone and iPad batteries. Then when the battery packs need to be charged, use the solar panel charger to charge them!
I only came up with this idea on 3/1, so it may take some time to get used to. If I run into any issues or challenges, I'll report back!
UPDATE 3/13/2017
I have realized that the Solar USB charger I have is not only old, but it does not put out the amperage that is needed to charge the battery pack. The other thing I've learned is that the solar charger likely does not prevent charge back - so when the sun goes down, it may actually pull power from the battery pack. It's been a almost two weeks, and that solar charger has still not yet charged the battery pack. It's pretty obvious to me that this isn't going to work.
With all that being said, I spent some $$ and we are about to expand our experiment a little more!
This will seem a bit unusual of a post for a blog that is mostly Mustang Upgrades and Technology Posts, but I thought it would be relevant. I think that if we all built a habit of using a renewable energy when we can, it will be easier for everyone.
It all started today when the batteries on my wireless mouse were getting low. I use the Energizer rechargeable, 2450mAH batteries. I have a box in my desk that has a mix of AA and AAA rechargeable batteries. I pulled out two, put them in the wall charger and waited for them to charge up. Then I realized that at least one of the (very old) AAA batteries was starting to leak. I sifted through the batteries, and discarded the ones that I can't even remember how old they are.
That left me with two AAA batteries, and 4 AA Batteries. I decided to do some shopping on Amazon. I know that the Amazon Basics line of rechargeable batters are pretty good. As I was shopping ( I did not buy any yet ) I read in the description "Batteries come pre-charged using soloar power". This peaked my interest.
About a year ago, I purchased a solar USB charger during one of Amazon's lightning deals. It was about 30$. I bought it for camping in case we needed to charge anything. It folds out into five panels, four of which have a solar collector on it. I thought to myself, maybe I should just keep charging those AA and AAA batteries using solar!
My goal is to use solar to power my iPhone, iPad and the rechargeable AA and AAA batteries. I also did some searching and found a AA and AAA battery charger that will use USB instead of a home power outlet. Now, I don't want to have the chargers plugged directly into the solar panel charger - that would take forever and limit mobility while the charging was happening. I had an idea. I also have a New Trent IMP120D - 12,000mAh battery pack, which is great for traveling / camping / hiking. My wife has an Anker Power Core 10400 which is a 10,400mAh battery pack. My idea is to use these battery packs to charge the AA, AAA, iPhone and iPad batteries. Then when the battery packs need to be charged, use the solar panel charger to charge them!
I only came up with this idea on 3/1, so it may take some time to get used to. If I run into any issues or challenges, I'll report back!
UPDATE 3/13/2017
I have realized that the Solar USB charger I have is not only old, but it does not put out the amperage that is needed to charge the battery pack. The other thing I've learned is that the solar charger likely does not prevent charge back - so when the sun goes down, it may actually pull power from the battery pack. It's been a almost two weeks, and that solar charger has still not yet charged the battery pack. It's pretty obvious to me that this isn't going to work.
With all that being said, I spent some $$ and we are about to expand our experiment a little more!
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