Here’s my goal:
To utilise my solar PV array just to power a couple of freezers, and dump any excess on long summer days into the hot water cylinder. i.e. No requirement to store power for on-demand use. Don’t have much in the way of financial resources.
What I do have is 6x 140-watt PV panels (840 Watts), and a 40-Amp Tracer MPPT charge controller.
Because I am only powering freezers, the power doesn’t need to be on-demand, it can just come on when there is sufficient output from the panels. Therefore I believe I should be able to minimise battery storage and use the battery sort of like a capacitor (to handle compressor startup loads) rather than a long term storage device.
My proposed setup (proposed changes welcomed!!): PV panels configured in two series-strings of 3 panels, going through the 40-Amp MPPT charge controller into a 24V battery, then out through a pure sine inverter to the freezer loads (pure sine wave required to run a compressor)
The freezers each draw about 150 watts while running, with a 1KW surge on startup. I would like to stagger the startup timing so that only one surge load happens at once (bright ideas anyone?)
But my big challenge is to find a cost-effective battery or battery-substitute solution that will provide a short term boost to handle the startup load, and is able to handle up to 40 amps of charge current without being fried. It can be minimal in capacity, as I am fine with it switching the load on and off as PV output permits.
Does anyone have any knowledge they could share to get me on the road with this?
To utilise my solar PV array just to power a couple of freezers, and dump any excess on long summer days into the hot water cylinder. i.e. No requirement to store power for on-demand use. Don’t have much in the way of financial resources.
What I do have is 6x 140-watt PV panels (840 Watts), and a 40-Amp Tracer MPPT charge controller.
Because I am only powering freezers, the power doesn’t need to be on-demand, it can just come on when there is sufficient output from the panels. Therefore I believe I should be able to minimise battery storage and use the battery sort of like a capacitor (to handle compressor startup loads) rather than a long term storage device.
My proposed setup (proposed changes welcomed!!): PV panels configured in two series-strings of 3 panels, going through the 40-Amp MPPT charge controller into a 24V battery, then out through a pure sine inverter to the freezer loads (pure sine wave required to run a compressor)
The freezers each draw about 150 watts while running, with a 1KW surge on startup. I would like to stagger the startup timing so that only one surge load happens at once (bright ideas anyone?)
But my big challenge is to find a cost-effective battery or battery-substitute solution that will provide a short term boost to handle the startup load, and is able to handle up to 40 amps of charge current without being fried. It can be minimal in capacity, as I am fine with it switching the load on and off as PV output permits.
Does anyone have any knowledge they could share to get me on the road with this?
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