Today I completed the install of the earth wire and the 6 panels. I started by adding the earth clamps to the rail and attaching the earth wire. It’s important to bond each rail to earth, and for there to be no joins in the earth wire. As I have four rails, I needed four…
Before installing the panels, I wanted to make sure they were all OK. I performed two tests: Short Circuit Current – Using a current clamp to measure current. Insulation Test using a Megger Short Circuit Current This step is rather easy. Simple connect the positive and negative plugs together on your solar panel and point…
Fathers day! What better day to install solar racking. Here are some progress shots. The first step was working out the spacing of the feet. My first attempt wasn’t so successful. I was using this spacing method: Foot – 5 empty Ridges – Foot – 4 empty Ridges – Repeat It became obvious using this…
We are in Week 8 of Covid lockdown and I wanted something to do on the weekends and as I haven’t done much on my power wall of late I figured adding more solar would be a good small project. My shed currently has 12 panels and the lean-to has enough room for 6 panels….
As we progress into winter I noticed ESS Battery life doing its thing. You an see in the screen shot below, from around 22nd May 2021, Battery life has been altering the minimum state of charge by ~ 5% per day as there is nowhere near enough solar to charge the battery. The effect is…
I didnt take many progress shots, but today the system is finally up and running as 21P.
I wanted to balance all 14 cells so I created a makeshift wiringloom that allowed me to create effectively a 2S 147P battery. The cells were all fairly close, so the balancing current was low. It was dodgy. Next time I wont make it like this
Today was the first day we got real sunshine since connecting the 12 shed panels. Yay me – I’m in the 100A club now The above image shows the two new 150/35 MPPT’s combined into one ‘PV Charger’ – producing 2538w between them.
I have been working away at making the bus bars required to connect the new stacks. Here are some progress shots from various stages.