Of things electrical (batteries, solar panels, fridges etc)

Submitted: Friday, Sep 19, 2003 at 06:10
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Well, we have finally made it to our new home in Lorne, Vic after a trip through then Top End and the Gulf, a few days at Cania Gorge (what a blast!) and a “new” van from Bushtracker- at least it looks like new after they did a superb job of repairing a hail damage. Jan and I have had a great time and can’t wait to head out in the BT again – it looks like about 4 weeks from now! We travelled about 13,000km of which about 3,500km was on dirt roads varying from good condition to heavily corrugated and badly eroded. The BT didn’t miss a beat. Hardly any dust in the van and apart from a couple of halogen lights vibrating themselves loose, no other problems. As those of you who were at Cania Gorge will know, we did have some concerns about power. It seemed that the most we could go without connecting to a power source (other than solar) was about 4 days. I began to suspect that the hail had damaged a solar panel. Got BT to check it all out when the reskinned the van. The panels were OK and as far as they could tell so were the batteries. That didn’t tell me what had caused the lack of power on the trip. I got BT to install a 4th solar panel while they had the van. Guess what? Problem solved! Today, I had the local Supercharge rep (suppliers of the ACX Delco batteries) load test my three batteries – all OK. So. Where does that leave us? Well at least we now seem to have true self-sufficiency in terms of power. Why didn’t we have it when we were in the Top End? It was hot and the fridge was working hard to meet our demands (Including cold beer and ice for the whisky and G&Ts). Could it be that we simply didn’t have enough net solar amps to charge the batteries during the day? The extra solar panel lifts our solar capacity by 30%. I have recently read somewhere that the efficiency of Solar Panels declines as they get hot. Is this a possible factor? Do the newer batteries require a different charging regime? Whilst we seemed to have removed the problem, I am still curious as to what occurred in the first place. Were 3 panels not enough? Does hot weather affect the efficiency of solar panels to that extent? Will we experience similar problems again if we go North? Comments appreciated By the way – thanks to all those people at Cania Gorge who endured my questions on this subject.
Motley

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Reply By: Bushtracker Buck & Babe - Friday, Sep 19, 2003 at 06:24

Friday, Sep 19, 2003 at 06:24
Collyn, I had my receptionist read that paragraph (which I also had no trouble reading) and she confirmed that she has dyslexia, which she had kept quiet about but I always had my suspicions. I have heard that there is a special "sheet" or something that dyslexics can lay over words and they appear in "dyslexian" and therefore easier for dyslexics to read. Anyone know anything about them or any other treatment options? Angie
AnswerID: 559644

Reply By: Bushtracker42 - Friday, Sep 19, 2003 at 06:25

Friday, Sep 19, 2003 at 06:25
Reminds me of one of my favorite jokes.

-----

What does DNA stand for.



National Dyslexic Association



----------------------

Gary Harding

TriSys Engineering/III





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Reply By: Motley - Friday, Sep 19, 2003 at 06:26

Friday, Sep 19, 2003 at 06:26
Or the dyslexic, insomniac agnostic who lay awake all night wondering if there really was a Dog...
Motley

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Reply By: Deleted User - Friday, Sep 19, 2003 at 06:27

Friday, Sep 19, 2003 at 06:27
Hi Angie. "The Gift of Dyslexia" by Ronald D. Davis with Eldon M. Braun (in book or book plus tape published by Perigree Books of the Berekley Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Putnam Inc ISBN 0-929551-24-9) offers some interesting insights - quite a paradigm shift really. Worth trying to get hold of (even second hand if necessary - copyright 1994 & 1997, so not too old). Grif
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Reply By: F Troop - Friday, Sep 19, 2003 at 06:28

Friday, Sep 19, 2003 at 06:28
Hey Motley, You got Graham. I had to explain about there really being a dog. PS. I susspect that he really is the dyslexic, agnostic, insomniac who'd never given a thought about dog. Jan
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Reply By: Deleted User - Friday, Sep 19, 2003 at 06:29

Friday, Sep 19, 2003 at 06:29
Taht is amzanig Cllyon. Even the misspelled important still stood out.(what's the correct spelling for mispelled) .
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Reply By: Bushtracker Buck & Babe - Friday, Sep 19, 2003 at 06:30

Friday, Sep 19, 2003 at 06:30
Thanks Griff, I will check out the Westminster library system for a copy. Fantastic system they have here. Angie p.s. wonder if this is why texting on mobiles is taking off so much.
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Reply By: Deleted User - Friday, Sep 19, 2003 at 06:31

Friday, Sep 19, 2003 at 06:31
Rib and Jedy, My missus reckons I take missteps and therefore misspend and I often misstate .... but every time I take aim at her I just plain miss ..... [WyattEarpsmile] Regards Antknee Explore this Great Land ...Do it Easy ... Tow a Bushtracker
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Reply By: Luvntravln - Friday, Sep 19, 2003 at 06:32

Friday, Sep 19, 2003 at 06:32
Hi I am using this old thread to bring up this subject AGAIN Why Kyocera 120s/125s instead of the uni-solar 64s? A dealer I just spoke to indicated that the size is almost the same; however, the price is $250 per panel cheaper. I am told that the uni will give about 60 amps per day and the 120s about 70 per day. Would 5 uni which would be about the same price as 4 120s and provide more amps per day be a better way to go? Will they fit on the BT? Does anyone know why BT does not use the unis? Is it size? Cheers, Jay
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Reply By: Deleted User - Friday, Sep 19, 2003 at 06:33

Friday, Sep 19, 2003 at 06:33
Jay, Me thinks someone is having a lend of you with the Uni-solar 64's making 60 amp per day !!!! Their official output is 3.88 Ahr. 60 divided by 3.88 gives over 15 hrs of daylight .... very, very optimistic and thats at full output. If you draw a line between Alice Springs and Brisbane about halfway on the Peak Sun Hours contour map says about 8 peak sun hrs in January. In July its about 4 . If you multiply the peak sun hrs from the map by the output of the cell you get the output for the day in that area. So in January you would get 8x 3.88 = 31amp (ish) A long way from 60 mate !!! In July its half that ..... Anthony Explore this Great Land ...Do it Easy ... Tow a Bushtracker
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Reply By: Deleted User - Friday, Sep 19, 2003 at 06:34

Friday, Sep 19, 2003 at 06:34
Jay, I'll add a comparison for both ...and leave solar hrs aside as both panels only get sun when they get sun ..... The Kyocera 120 give 7.1amp .... giving they lose .5% output for every degree above 5c (Thanks collyn) lets take an average panel temp ..say 35 degrees ....(very conservative). This gives the Kyocera a loss of 15 % at this temp that the Uni-solar doesnt incur. 7.1amps x 15% gives close enough to one amp so at 35c temp the Kyocera is still giving 6.1 amps ...a long way from 3.88 for the Uni-solar. In fact its about 57% more output from the the 120 Kyo than the Uni64 ... a big solar gain. Even at 70-80c thats still a good gain ..... Multiply this by 4 panels and you are looking at 8amp more for the Kyo's per hr. This would make 6 Uni64's needed to equal the output of 4 Kyo120's at 35c. This takes up more space on the roof. The costings now change markedly ...... These temps quoted above are panel temps not ambient. Panel temps might get very high making the Uni-solar equal to the Kyo. Collyn might be able to comment here. Given there is a loss of .5% per degree above 5c ....and the Kyo has about 57% more output that gives a panel surface temp of 119 deg C before they become equal. I'm really not sure what panel temps are average .....Collyn ??? I'd like to now how this dealer gets 60-70amp per day per panel ??? Maybe on Mercury or Venus with the non-affected by heat Uni's ...... [smile] Anthony Explore this Great Land ...Do it Easy ...Tow a Bushtracker
AnswerID: 559654

Reply By: Deleted User - Friday, Sep 19, 2003 at 06:35

Friday, Sep 19, 2003 at 06:35
Re solar module output, the 3.8 - 3.9 amps that Anthony quotes really is about the best you get - and this equates to around 25 amps/day in most places you'd go to willingly. The Kyocera 120 watters are likely to turn out about 42 amps a day under the same circumstances. The Uni-Solar do not lose power as they heat up, and are more tolerant of part of their area being shaded. But a problem with Uni-Solar is that the amorphous technology they use is less efficient than most hence they are much larger per watt . That's probably why BT don't use them - even with a big BT roof there's imply not enough room. My 28 module home system uses Uni-Solar because i've got 10 acres available. My OKA has Solarex because there's not enough room only a a couple of Uni-Solar. I suspect the Cania problem was substantially that module ouput went down by about 15% due to heat and fridge consumption went up for the same reason. Also you really do need more than two modules to drive those fridges! Three's a bit tight - four is comfortable. Collyn Rivers
AnswerID: 559655

Reply By: Deleted User - Friday, Sep 19, 2003 at 06:36

Friday, Sep 19, 2003 at 06:36
Anthony You were responding at the same time as myself - but pressed the Send button sooner! The ratings are made at a cell surface temperature of 25 degrees C - as these acells re blackish and under a hot sun they reach that at about 5 degrees C ambient. The industry has a 'standard' called NOCT (Nominal Cell Operating Temperature) that it uses to estimate temperature loss etc. Typically at an ambient of 20 degrees C the NOCT (ie. cell temperature) is 48-49 degrees C. If you have a look at the little panel on the back of most (say) 80 watt modules you'll see a note that says somethinhg to the effect that at an NOCT of 48 degrees output is about 58 watts. From this one can work out the temperature loss. As the loss is 0.5% per degree C even at 20 degrees C ambient you are looking at quite a loss. At Caniated temps the loss could be 20% or more. The industry does spell out the bad news - trouble is it's in Gallium Gluck techno-speke. Collyn Rivers
AnswerID: 559656

Reply By: Luvntravln - Friday, Sep 19, 2003 at 06:37

Friday, Sep 19, 2003 at 06:37
Hi all No matter what the business community says, I can always count on fellow Boggers + Collyn of course to keep me on the straight and narrow. Thanks, tgintl/jay
AnswerID: 559657

Reply By: Turist - Friday, Sep 19, 2003 at 06:38

Friday, Sep 19, 2003 at 06:38
There is new technology coming for solar panels, less weight, more output etc.
Check this site for details, too much to fit here.

http://solar.anu.edu.au/pages/epilift.html

Regards
Turist
"Do It While You Can"
Nobody is getting any younger.

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