My House View With Antennas

My House View With Antennas

Thursday 28 January 2010

How to Install Solar Panels : Battery Banks for Solar Energy

The battery bank gets the needed voltage to individual inverters. Learn about the battery bank for solar power from a professional in this free energy conservation video.

Expert: Roger Bacon
Bio: Roger Bacon is the owner of RGB Home Repair and Renovation in Santa Barbara California. He has experience in all phases of home repair and renovations such as plumbing, heating and solar power.
Filmmaker: Diana Bacon 



Simple Solar Update - Inexpensive Lead-Acid Battery

I was able to purchase this "Lawn and Garden" Lead-Acid battery for less than $20 at Wal*Mart. So, I thought it would be worth experimenting with since its size and capacity will probably reduce the number of times I need to charge it (compared to the smaller gel cells I featured in my previous video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHbx_Q... The battery is rated at 275 "Cold-cranking" amps, which isn't of much value to me since I'm not starting a motor or anything. Although it doesn't say, a quick internet search suggests this battery is rated at about 18 amp-hours - which puts it at about one third the cost of a comparable gel cell. Problem is, it's probably not rated for much of a deep discharge since lawn equipment provides a continuous trickle charge. Nevertheless, I'll keep experimenting with it to see if it's cost-effective. I use an in-line "Watts Up" meter to monitor the voltage. So far, I've allowed it to drop below 12 volts (the QRP radio gear I power with it is very voltage tolerant). With a half day of full sunlight I'm able to bring it back up to well over 13 volts - which last many days of lower power communications on my amateur radio station.

In the video I also mention that I'm now using Anderson "Power-Pole" connectors to eliminate a lot of the clip leads I've been using. Actually, I've been using these connectors for over a year now but just got around to introducing them to my simple solar stuff. They're great connectors and seem to be growing in popularity as a low voltage standard. Although not seen in this video, at times I have used a charge controller, or simple diode, to keep the batteries from discharging into the solar panel when it's cloudy and I can't be as attentive...

This video is in contrast to the one I made later during January of 2009. At that time it was a month after the winter solstice so the panel was pointing almost directly towards the horizon. For this particular video, recorded a month before the summer solstice, the panel is aligned almost straight upward to catch the fullest amount of solar radiation - in stark contrast to its winter orientation. Either way, the theme remains simple, and inexpensive - capturing the right amount of sunlight to charge a battery to power my amateur radio station and some other related equipment.

Here's a link to my personal solar power page:
http://www.rogerwehdell.com/solar.html

And here's a link to a page about my amateur radio station - the place I use most of the solar power I generate:
http://www.rogerwendell.com/qrp.html


N4LS mobile ham radio station

N4LS/M ham radio station installed in a Toyota FJ Cruiser. Kenwood TS480SAT HF radio and Kenwood TM-D710A VHF, UHF, APRS. HF antenna: Hamstick