Looks like I can buy direct from China with great cost savings. around 500.00 dollars Canadian per 100amp capacity @ 12 volts. Just have to figure out shipping cost.
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
So my first couple of Lithium batteries arrive Monday. Since I pulled my batteries at the end of May I have just been running on solar power (solar voltage is clipped at 15 volts so the inverter can run) during the day, but I have no storage for evening loads so roughly around 7:30ish I switch over to a generator, dump in a couple liters of gas and it runs until about 11:30 and I go to bed when it dies out. So for funzies I have ran just about every generator I have just to give them a work out so here is the facts from someone doing it, I know everyone and there uncle will tell you that you need a big generator to run your house but it just isn't so, if you don't use the microwave (that's the worst thing I know of), you can run everything on a 2000 watt generator no problem, 2000 watts keeps my fridge, freezer, pressure pump, lights, computers and everything else running just fine, and while I don't use a furnace for heat I do have one and I flicked the switch to spool up the blower motor (I think it is 1/4 hp) and with everything else running my 2000 watt in size generators all ran it ok. My 1500 watt generators would carry everything but not when I then turned on the furnace blower motor, but for those that heat with wood 1500 watts should run most your needs to get by in a power outage. Right now as I type I am running the house on a 1000 watt Honda.I cant run the freezer and fridge at the same time I have to run them on a timer that alternates the power to them (switches every 1/2 hr), and when one goes to turn on the house lights dim for a few seconds but amazingly the little Honda peps up and powers it. I mention this because fuel is the most important commodity in any crisis, not the size of your generator. Big generators are great, I have them too, but fuel use climbs quickly with larger generators, your way further ahead to run roughly 2000 watt generators if you can. Anyway its back to battery power for me Monday, cant wait!
EDIT...just back to add I have and tested one 1500 watt generator I have that does run everything including furnace motor (not that I need it) but its a rare animal no longer made, a axil permanent magnet alternator, two pole, and made with ferrite magnets at that, driven by a 3hp (maybe 3.5) brigs and crapton engine that is thankfully no longer made.
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
Dual channel, battery backed up timers have arrived.Resize.jpg First I should say I spent 2.5 hour trying to get the programing on these things set, was becoming convinced that I would not be able to, instruction were not clear. took a break for a day then came back at it,but this time after about 3 hrs of trying I figured out how to get every thing working nice. I was almost ready to throw it against the wall but patience paid off. The independent clock on these models looks to be bang on. I cant determine even a second off over 24 hrs. These are going to determine when my septic pump can come on, when my fridge and freezer will cycle ( alternately), and when the pressure pump cycles. All these things on at once could draw 100 amp. Not a draw you want to have happen at night when that 100 amps is coming right off your batteries. From now on they will only come on during daylight hours, and consecutively (reducing peak load) so they consume sun power rather than battery power.
Should save you a ton of manual tinkering and make life easier. Guessing you will use that time to plot another project!
My batteries arrived, took most of the afternoon to clean up the inside of the battery box, flush with baking soda and water, I am not going to miss handling battery acid, no more holes eaten into my clothes. I got the batteries hooked up and charged but I have not hooked them up to my inverter, I have added so much capacitance to my inverter input, and I want to keep it, but its so much, that I am hesitant to hooking it up to these type of batteries. I think my inverter input will look like one enormous "short" to these batteries. That wasn't a problem with lead acid but these type batteries have a BMS in the case and I don't want to over current it, so Tuesday I will wrap myself up a 1/3 ohm/multi hundred amp resistor to soft charge the caps up with before directly hooking up the batteries. Probably being over cautious.
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
Wound up a 1/4 inch dia, 20 foot long stick of stainless steel tubing to make a low value resistor with, and it is a good thing I did, when charging up the input caps it took over a minute, maybe a minute and a half before the current going into the cap bank dropped down to single digit level, those supercaps are something else.
I Powered everything up and all looked good. Then I decided to "soft" charge up the H bridge bank. That didn't go so well,(note the arc damage to the left end) I am not reflecting on why right now, some times its better to reflect on the event later over a happy pop. Enough to say that the inverter made a great light and smoke show that would have been better to happen outside my house than inside.
So after hooking up another not so smoky smelling inverter and charging up the input caps again, I was back in business, leaving out adding more capacitance to this H bridge for now.
Everything has been running fine now for over 24 hrs, and just for fun I hooked up a kilowatt meter to record my power consumption for a 24 hr period. The total in 24 hrs came in at 3.8 kilowatts. I will round up and say 4kwhrs a day. That's running a fridge, freezer, pressure pump, the toaster a couple times, the microwave maybe 1/2 dozen times, at least 6 100watt led equivalent bulbs (I think they are 14 watts), a couple computers running,a router, I did do some work in the garage, running a jig saw and a palm sander, just all the normal stuff. Its very easy to live well on 4kwhrs when you don't have a electric stove, or furnace motor to run. I could use less by going back to 60 watt equivalent LED lights but my weak eyes need 100 watt brightness levels.
So from a previous post I said I thought I would build my new bank up to 8 kwhrs, that would be twice my daily needs, giving me lots of head room., But its actually even better than that, because of the four kwhrs I use in a day at least during half the year that power is coming fully off the sun, not out of my batteries. My batteries are only suppling lighting and entertainment (computers (2), watching a movie) through the evening and overnight. So at worst lets say 2 kwhrs from my batteries and I have 13.1 x 100amphrs x 2 batteries= 2.6kwhrs of storage at the moment. So enough, just. Once I am up to 6 batteries and 8kwhrs if I am cycling through 2khrs a day (more in winter, maybe 3 from the batts) then I am really only using a 1/4 the capacity of my battery bank, and with these lithium cells that means I am likely good for 20+ years, and I don't have 20 years so these are the last batteries I will be buying.
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
These Lithium iron PO4 batteries were available 7-8 plus years ago when I bought my previous lead acid batteries, but they were obscenely expensive at the time, something like only NASA could afford, now they are only indeceintly expensive. Give it a few more years and maybe only blushingly expensive, or the way the cost is falling maybe they will beat lead acid pricing by then. I know I am paying a premium for them but I think the cost worth it, and I say that as a cheap man, who doesnt like spending more than needed.
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
You had avocated lead-acid batteries in the past. What changed your mind? You had seemed negative on lithium less than a year ago...
None you improvise, one (or more) is luxury.
You had avocated lead-acid batteries in the past. What changed your mind? You had seemed negative on lithium less than a year ago...
No not lithium, that was a discussion about carbon lead acid that was coming out, and My main complaint was the premium being charged for what I perceived to be a real world marginal gain. I am a fan of lead acid, Characteristics so well known, few components and all recyclable. If I was a decade younger I might still go with one more lead acid bank again, but I am not a decade younger, and I don't know where my health will be 10, 15 years from now, but I would be into yet another bank of lead acid after using the one needed now. So at a minumium I know I would have to buy 2 more banks of lead acid at least, assuming I get 7 years like on my last one + 8 or 9 with my next. So by buying lithium I am spending the same amount of money (a little more )as if I bought two lead acid banks, So I am in the ball park price wise looking at long term. So Health was one reason, length these lithium cells last was another reason, cost has fallen is another reason. The last reason is the performance claims of lithium are now credible, Credibility has firmed up for me in the last 5 years or so do to better doping of the lithium, better manufacturing practises, and depending on the manufacturer better BMS board that can more likely last the length of the cells life span.
Regarding lifespan it is 3000 complete cycles from full charge to zero state of charge, but in the real world complete cycling like that is never done due to the following, not all days will you get enough current from solar for 100% charges, and they never really get taken down to 0 state of charge. just this fact will ( I am estimating) add 1000 cycles to your bank ( from 3000 cycles), So 4000/365= 10.95 years Now because , see above post, I will have a larger bank than I need, 8kwhs but only needing 4kwhrs. Cycling them to 50% gives another 50% more cycles so that would be 6000 cycles/365= 16 years. So I am in the ball park for 16years full power years. Now here is the kicker unlike lead acid that is used to exhaustion, the end of life for these cells is specked at 80% of capacity remaining. So that means Having my larger than needed bank, 8kwhrs, 6 hundred amp hours still has 80% left, so 600 x 80%= 480 amp hours or 480 x 13.1=6288kwhrs. So I am still left with 6kwhrs of capacity that I can keep using and I bet I can squeeze 4 more years out of them. So its possible with these, my life is over before these batteries are unusable. That's why I have moved from lead to lithium. The likely hood of 20 years, with no worries is possible.
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
Sounds like it would be a wiser choice for anyone. All this and maintenance free. No battery acid to worry about (cost savings on clothes). 🙂
None you improvise, one (or more) is luxury.
I have had time to reflect on what happened when I hooked up my cap bank to the H bridge input for soft charging.I should have just hooked it up and then turned on the inverter. I suspect the inverter does its own soft charge before it enables the H bridge to output 120 vac. So two mistakes, not just letting the inverter charge it up (as before), second mistake was using the same resistor sized for charging up the 13vdc input bank. The H bridge was at 160 vdc when I attempted to hook up the cap bank, I was putting a near dead short across 160 volts. Minor, I can fix it, and that's how I learn.
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
Question for peppercorn and others on solar panel optimization
Can anyone post a link to the best sites they have found for canada. Goal being to obtain the best angles / 35,45.... degrees and magnetic North settings for solar panels and per time of year.
I am aware of automatic systems but for now I am simply wishing to experiment with smaller mobile systems.
Thanks in advance
https://pvwatts.nrel.gov/pvwatts.php
What do you define as a smaller mobile system? 300 watts, 500 watts, 1000 watts? With panel sizes getting so large watt wise, as little as 4 panels can get you over 1000watts (1200+ watts, for roughly 900+ dollars)
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
For now, simple 100 watt panels.
I would like to know what sites provide good info on angles to mount and is magnetic south the best year round or...?
So far the battery replacement has gone fine, Had to make a few slight changes in charge controller settings but after that it appears everything is running smoothly. I thought maybe my 30 volt panels would have a problem with the BMS charging the lithium at 12, but no problem at all.
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
https://pvwatts.nrel.gov/pvwatts.php
What do you define as a smaller mobile system? 300 watts, 500 watts, 1000 watts? With panel sizes getting so large watt wise, as little as 4 panels can get you over 1000watts (1200+ watts, for roughly 900+ dollars)
Peppercorn, thanks for link, I didn’t see it on my iPhone when I first checked your feedback. Appreciated and will look into it and see how it works for me. Cheers
