Now that I’ve done the rainy weather test to see how long it would take to replenish our battery bank from a 4 or 5 day stretch of inclement weather it’s time to see how the solar panels will do in sunny winter weather.
I discharged the battery bank down to 75% again, this time to a 109 amp deficit. Our battery bank is 4 220 amp hour 6 volt batteries, with two hooked in series to create 12volts at 220 amps, then then those two pairs hooked in parallel to create two 12volt, 220 amp batteries yielding us a 440 amp battery bank. It being winter, I wanted to see how long it would take to replenish our power to 100%, being that the sun is low in the sky and the days are much shorter.
Even though we have yet to deplete our battery bank down to this level, we need to be able to recharge after a long rainy or overcast spell and since we tried it with a battery charger a few days ago we need to see how long it will take our solar to do the job.
So at 8 am I plugged in the disconnect I had removed from our solar system to draw down the battery bank. At the time the sky was pretty overcast still, but that was supposed to burn off during the day. I was wonderin’ if I should wait for a clearer day but what the heck. With most things I have infinite patience, but when it comes to playin’ with my toys, and I get an idea rollin’ around in my head, I gotta’ ‘Get ‘er Done’!
At 9:30 am I checked our TriMetric meter and the sun was puttin’ 5 amps per hour back into the battery back. Not great but the sky was still kinda’ overcast.
By 10:30 we were getting’ a whoppin’ 6.1 amps, but the sky hadn’t changed too much. The next check was at 12 noon and the sky conditions finally had improved and we were readin’ a respectable 9.9 amps charge goin’ into our batteries.
A noontime Florida sky.
About an hour later I had a brainstorm! This is the winter right? We’re one month from the shortest day of the year and the sun will be the lowest in the sky at that time, right?
DUH!!!
Why don’t I tilt them panels up on the roof that I built them tiltin’ mounts fer?
So up on the roof I go and after tilting the first panel about 50-55 degrees, I came down and check the meter. Yeah now it’s readin’ 11.5 amps.
So up I go again. This would be easier if I had a helper to just tell me the changin’ readin’s but my helper is built-in. That means I talk to myself when I’m doin stuff, drives the DW crazy. She says “Are you talkin’ to me?” “No I’m talkin’ to my helper”. Anyway she’s just jealous cause the voices in my head don’t talk to her!
After tiltin’ the last two panels I see on the meter that it has shot up to 15.4 amps. One hell of a change, 5.5 amps additional just from tiltin’ the panels. That’s like the added benefit one additional panel or more. Our 85 watt panels are rated at 4.69 amps maximum each, times 3 panels = 14.07 amps total. Were getting’ 15.4 amps, that’s almost 1.5 amps more that the rated power and we don’t have one o’ them fancy, overpriced MPPT charge controllers.
With varying sun conditions the power goes up and down with shading from cloud cover. I didn’t catch it at 15.4 amps for a photo.
By 3 pm sun power was wanin’ and by 4 the sun was dippin’ behind the trees next to us and I watched our chargin’ go down to nuthin’.
So at the end of the day we brought the batteries from 108 amp deficit to a 40 amp deficit, 91% full. I’m sure we could have done better under the same conditions if the panels had been tilted the entire time or the sky conditions were clearer. Tomorrow we’ll top off our charge and get ‘er to 100% I hope, cause there is a cold front a comin’ through.
So that’s all for today and this test of the solar charging capabilities of our system.
Maybe I shouldn’t worry about getting’ a bigger battery charger right now, as we seem to use very little power in the boondockin’ that we’ve done. I attribute this to my mentor Handy Bob, who some feel is out in left field when it comes to solar energy. But I feel this guy knows his stuff after learnin’ the hard way. This is a man who along with his wife has been full timing the boondocking lifestyle for over 9 years, never pluggin’ in to power and never ownin’ a generator. They live normally, but not wastefully, runnin’ any appliance they want from the sun. Bob’s wife is a quilter and runs her sewing machine and even an iron. His system is not huge, 345 watts of solar and four batteries. If they can do, we can do it!!
Under his guidance, I purchased and setup my system and our batteries are charged to 14.8 volts and held there for two hours before they taper of to a float charge.
We do get a 100% charge on our batteries!
This keeps our batteries in top condition and we have lots more power from four batteries and they don’t deplete far in 24 hours of boondockin’.
I guess if really desperate maybe I could piggyback the charger that we have, the available sun power and the built-in charger on the generator. Not sure if that’s possible but that gives me another thing to test. Cloudy skies, some solar chargin’, 12 amps from the battery charger purrin’ at low idle on the generator, while havin’ the generator’s built-in 8 amp charger hooked up direct to the batteries as well. If that works we could get 22-25 amps per hour, maybe more. We’ll have to see another day.
Until then, we hope to see ya’ down the road as we’re;
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