Author Topic: More panels!  (Read 29764 times)

BruceM

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Re: More panels!
« Reply #120 on: July 26, 2018, 01:06:46 AM »
I rewound mine 2- 1000 watt inverter transformer secondaries today.  Did the trick nicely, peak voltage range is lowered just enough, I think.  I haven't put the 120 turns of 1/2" heat shrink mylar strip around it...that's a PITA and I'm keeping my options open. :)

I'm going to do a jury rig hookup in my battery bank shed so I can test the well pump, which has it's controller/starter there.  The well pump has a wicked surge current, about 3x running current.  I'll have to see if the Antek 1000 watt transformers are up to it. 

The final hookup will have the transformers in a steel box in a far corner so that when I have to do some troubleshooting I won't get immediately incapacitated.  6 feet makes quite a difference when the field is falling off with the cube of the distance thanks to the use of toroids.

I had a good chuckle at myself this AM.  Last night I thought I could "tighten up" the RMS voltage regulation and would take more samples of the recitified and scaled down to 4V peak AC waveform.  On closer inspection this morning, I found that the ATMega328P (Arduino Uno Processor) is so overtaxed that it's a freaking miracle that with 128 usec between samples that my real time RMS voltage computation works at all.  No way it's sampling right on time, it's more like ''semi-random". The A/D takes 100 usec per sample, and the poor little AVR is timer- interrupting 19 times per 16.67 milliseconds. Some of those are time critical 45usec apart as I'm doing some H-bridge hardware functions in software.  32 bit integer math is tough on an 8 bit processor.  I can't use timer interrupts or A/D interrupts since the main 16 bit timer routine is too time critical.  It does warrant some investigation-  I can imagine how it works as well as it does.

I can live with +-2 volt regulation under load, and +5V no load.  If I was planning on developing this further , with features such as variable frequency and/or 3 phase options I'd need a lot more of a processor. 

I like the looks of the Arduino IDE compatible Teensy LC. It's 32 bit, 48Mhz, fast 12bit A/Ds, much more ram, timers, etc. The power consumption is shockingly low if the data I found is to be believed.





ajaffa1

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Re: More panels!
« Reply #121 on: July 26, 2018, 10:59:57 PM »
Hope you can cook better than I do or there is likely to be a nasty outbreak of botulism.

Glad your wife has been given early release, good luck with the logistics side of things.

Bob


ajaffa1

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Re: More panels!
« Reply #122 on: July 27, 2018, 11:28:35 PM »
Hey Glort, when I was living in the UK I had a kettle that held about 4 liters of water but only boiled one cupful at a time. You put  a cup under the spout and pushed a button, twenty seconds later and the cup was full. Saved an absolute fortune on the power bill. Haven`t seen them for sale in Australia but might have a look on one of the online retailers.

Bob

BruceM

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Re: More panels!
« Reply #123 on: July 28, 2018, 01:41:45 AM »
Brilliant idea, Bob. The sales pitch (for the wife) is faster cuppa. 

BruceM

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Re: More panels!
« Reply #124 on: July 28, 2018, 03:30:48 PM »
Someone led you astray on criticizing solar hot water performance in winter. While your Sydney sunshine is lower in June, the rest of your winter looks pretty decent for solar - PV or direct hot water.  You do have less hours of sunshine but you still get the 85% vs 15% efficiency boost heating water directly vs PV.  85/15= 5.6 times more area of PV.  If water heating does prove to be a big part of your winter power load, then solar hot water (of the drain back type) might make sense.  It certainly can make sense for space heating as well... it does for my house in a much colder winter climate.

ajaffa1

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Re: More panels!
« Reply #125 on: July 31, 2018, 09:35:03 AM »
Hey Buddy, sorry to hear the missus is still crook. If she is feeling the cold she may have a bit of a fever please check her temperature as post operative infections usually start with a fever. If caught early they are usually easily treated with antibiotics.

On the subject of panels, had a bit of a problem with my solar installation today. My hot water is provided by an electric immersion heater in a 300 ltr pressurized tank. To make the most of our free solar energy we have a timer which is set to heat hot water, during the day, while the sun is shining. The first timer failed less than six months after installation, it was replaced free of charge under the guarantee. The replacement now looks like this:

Very lucky it didn`t burn the house down, if you have one of these cheap pieces of Chinese crap in your distribution board get rid of it before it kills you! Spoke to the installer and he is going to fix the problem and visit a lot of his clients that have a similar unit.

Bob

EdDee

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Re: More panels!
« Reply #126 on: July 31, 2018, 11:14:37 AM »
Re cooked timer....

Been there, had that.... What I found was the sparky was using his special "low torque" screwdriver to tighten the terminals... The internal contacts were well within rating, but the things were overheating at the ecternal terminal junctions.... Got out my special heavy duty screwdriver, a 6ft pipe to extend the torque, and then leaned 2x 300lb gorillas on the end to get the terminals nice-n-tite.... Well, not quite, I maybe exaggerated just a wee tiny bit, but you get the idea...

Since then, no more problems... but I do check over ALL the terminal screws in a box that I have been working in every time before I close it.... Saves a lot of expensive smoke in the long run....

Cheers
Ed
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ajaffa1

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Re: More panels!
« Reply #127 on: July 31, 2018, 12:54:30 PM »
Spoke to my mate who`s a sparky, he tells me that these cheap units are sh1t and should only be used to trigger a power relay that CAN cope with the load. The draw on the heater element is just shy of 15 amps and the timer is rated at 15 amps, so at it`s limit and will burn out in no time.  I`ll wait till the installer replaces the timer and then fit a power relay after it. May be illegal for me to mess with the electrics but clearly I know how to do it and they don`t and it`s my bloody house that could have burned down! >:(

Very glad to hear you wife is making a good recovery Glort. Keep up the good work with the nursing.

Bob

ajaffa1

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Re: More panels!
« Reply #128 on: August 14, 2018, 12:00:02 PM »
Hey Glort, one thing I have found is that it is much cheaper to keep a home cold/warm than to heat it or cool it once it has become uncomfortable. Hook the AC to your solar and use it as much as possible during the day, much cheaper to come home to a cold/warm house than to come home to a hot/cold one and try to heat/cool it down using imported electricity when it gets dark. Ditto hot water, which should never be heated at night. I have also found that when boiling the kettle, it is a very good idea to put any excess hot water into a thermos flask. Your next cuppa costs nothing.

Bob

BruceM

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Re: More panels!
« Reply #129 on: August 29, 2018, 03:36:44 PM »
Game cameras with IR motion detector is what you want, I think.  I've not used them but was considering them when a meth junkie was crowbarring into my secure mailbox once a week.  They eventually caught the two women who had been raiding all the rural mailboxes in the area for half a year.  The county sheriffs have zero hidden camera gear.  Apparently too busy with petty drug busts to be bothered with preventing/solving thefts.


BruceM

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Re: More panels!
« Reply #130 on: August 29, 2018, 05:16:35 PM »
In small town, very rural US, the police have been militarized by federal funds, and even in a tiny town of 5000 actually have heavily armed, black suited SWAT team that look like Gestapo to me. All part of the "war on drugs", while big pharma profits obscenely every day by creating new opioid addicts.

I know a guy who lives in town who had long hair, surrounded by Mormon neighbors who didn't like that. His wife is an artist and makes stone statues of dragons that are very cool. The local Mormon Justice signed a warrant based on his electric power bill being $15 more than his neighbors(!), for suspected pot growing. A dozen man SWAT team with automatic weapons smashed in his door with a RAM, trashed his home and found...absolutely nothing. A year later he was still trying to get reimbursed for the damages.

Last year, my county rolled out their big SWAT team to make a big drug bust- on an elderly man with terminal cancer living in a rural area outside town who was licensed to grow his own pot in a walled in, secure area per the law.  He moved there to pursue his treatment. His son and daughter in law were his caretakers and were also licensed to grow, but the daughter in law's license was recently expired. So there were a few plants too many (cancer treatment takes a lot of pot) given her expired license so they seized all the plants, and threw the son in jail and pressed charges against them.  There was no evidence or even suggestion that they were selling pot. 

The county wants more tax money for more officers. They want more money for more prisoners, the bulk of which are there for petty drug offenses or waiting for trial for same.
It sure doesn't remind me of Mayberry, RFD. 


 











mike90045

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Re: More panels!
« Reply #131 on: August 30, 2018, 04:25:43 AM »
Calling 911 in rural California?
Danger might be close, but the law can be hours away
  ( 911 is the USA emergency number that goes to the dispatch center for
fire, sheriff or traffic control )

Most of inland and California north of San Francisco, is rural.  My area has 1 patrol sheriff officer to cover about 1,000 square miles.

https://www.sacbee.com/latest-news/article215453050.html

excerpt
"Kristine Constantino, had dialed 911 from her cabin five hours northwest of Sacramento and hung up. The closest deputy was en route from the county seat of Weaverville, 97 miles away. But the drive — through rugged forest and over steep passes — would take almost three hours"