jumped in solar/wind pool... shallow end...head first.. w/out reading the signs ;-(

[b0ardski]

4day followed by 2 day power outage was the impetus.
1st glad I found this forum; thank you busting my green dream bubble right of the bat no "just out to sell you something" here.
I'm a partly employed skibum on a pbr budget with microbrew tastes, wanted to start with quality and expandability. Bought a 6.5k gen day after the storm, "cheap powermate" to keep the fridge & freezer going.
ordered 4 100w windy nation panels the next day; bought 4 92ah agms, and a steca 30amp pwm. Mounted each pair of panels to old satellite dishes to easily rotate/tilt through the day/season. have an old tracker 1500w inv.it's a start.
upgraded to a xantrex true sine sw2000 12v, wished i'd gone with a 24v

Just found this forum and been on a solar 101 crash course for a few days now. the link to smartgauge got the battery wiring balanced, and I have a xantrex xw mppt 60a on the way; plan to grow into it eventually, hopefully end up with grid tie to reduce/reverse the meter and not care when the grid cuts out.

A couple ?s for my 1st post;
1 Do I need more battery right away to take advantage of the bigger inv and cc?
2 I've got 60' of 8awg to the panels, will that be sufficient when I go to 24v from pv to cc?

[Mike90250]

Welcome.

A couple ?s for my 1st post;
1 Do I need more battery right away to take advantage of the bigger inv and cc?
2 I've got 60' of 8awg to the panels, will that be sufficient when I go to 24v from pv to cc?

You are OK on battery/PV
Do you have the controller set to AGM so you don't cook them ?

as to 60' of wire, it will depend on the voltage/amps in the wire. As you go up in voltage, the amps will decrease for the same watts.

[b0ardski]

thanks for a quick reply!
I figured the bat/pv was balanced, definitely set to agm/gel on the steca cc, just hoping the sw2000 inv and soon to install xw mppt60 aren't overkill for my starter setup.
will be adding a 400w wind turbine to keep charged on sunless winter power outrages. Not sure if I can attach it's cc to the same batt bank w/out issues.


Another ? I have 2 freebee trojan L16 that were allowed to freeze and have slight cracks/leaks in the seam of the case. could these be sealed with sealall or some kind of epoxy and revived or are they worthless?

also would it be efficient to set the pv & batts to 24v and step down to the 12v inverters?

[inetdog]

thanks for a quick reply!
I figured the bat/pv was balanced, definitely set to agm/gel on the steca cc, just hoping the sw2000 inv and soon to install xw mppt60 aren't overkill for my starter setup.
will be adding a 400w wind turbine to keep charged on sunless winter power outrages. Not sure if I can attach it's cc to the same batt bank w/out issues.


Another ? I have 2 freebee trojan L16 that were allowed to freeze and have slight cracks/leaks in the seam of the case. could these be sealed with sealall or some kind of epoxy and revived or are they worthless?

also would it be efficient to set the pv & batts to 24v and step down to the 12v inverters?

What you cannot see would be any potential cracks in the internal walls between the cells. Those would not be repairable.
Plus mechanical damage to the plates and connectors inside the case.

[Mike90250]

Another ? I have 2 freebee trojan L16 that were allowed to freeze and have slight cracks/leaks in the seam of the case. could these be sealed with sealall or some kind of epoxy and revived or are they worthless?

worth $10 each at the recycle yard.


Adding wind. You will need a wind rated charge controller. Since you have solar, you should look for something that diverts the wind genny power away from the batteries, and into a beefy load. With no load on the wind genny, it will overspeed and shred itself. You don't want a controller that connects the battery to a heavy load. That will get all messed up from the solar controller.

[b0ardski]

the wind gen is a nature power cheapo with it's own mppt charge controller, ac in dc out. no connection for dump load just turbine break. Maybe it should have a separate batt bank or I'd rather not have to spring for another controller right away.

[russ]

the wind gen is a nature power cheapo with it's own mppt charge controller, ac in dc out. no connection for dump load just turbine break. Maybe it should have a separate batt bank or I'd rather not have to spring for another controller right away.

You described the turbine partially as a cheapo - the other half of the description is boat anchor.

[b0ardski]

You described the turbine partially as a cheapo - the other half of the description is boat anchor.

ha ha, yeah but it's a free boat anchor and this seasons budget is blown. I could maybe scrape the $ for another cc for wind by winter but the xantrex mppt 60a took the last of our cash, $2,800 so far and still need a couple 100' runs of wire to get the turbine out in the open.