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How to replace a solar panel with mains

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  • How to replace a solar panel with mains

    Hi there, my first post so please be kind. I have a Response wireless alarm system with wireless siren. I have south facing garden so my only current working siren with it's solar panel for charging the internal batteries faces south for good charging but this is on the rear of my house so not a lot of people can see or hear it if it were to go off. I have bought another wireless solar siren to mount on the front of my house & the manufacturers recommend not mounting it facing north to prevent possible charging issues with the PV panel, so my question is this...
    • How do I effectively replace the solar panel with a mains fed system?
    • Use a power supply & get rid of the battery? Of course output has to be rights amps to allow siren & LED strobes to fire correctly.
    • Use a charger permanently connected to the battery or the solar panel leads? (that i'll probably cut off if I do it like this).
    • The battery is a 6vDC, 1.2 Amp hour lead acid unit.
    • I intend to take a feed from my upstairs lighting circuit for the power duties (6Amp MBC) which I'm sure will be able to handle the relatively short & infrequent use it may get.
    • I intend to mount the siren unit high on the house & drill a large(ish) diameter hole for the cables so I can have all my power on the inside of the house in the loft to aid maintenance tasks in future. I will need to solder some flying leads onto wherever I need to within the siren box itself for the 9v back up battery & also for the main charging or power leads that I am asking these questions about.

    If anyone has any other suggestions that I haven't mentioned, please do so as I am a bit lost as how to get the result I want. It must be possible to do as it just looks like replacing a small source for charging with another small source for charging.

    I have tried to get some spec off the manufacturers' website but there is no technical detail regarding solar panel output (this must vary somewhat dependant on light levels? does it??????) Is there normally some sort of current limiter for when it gets really bright?

    Thanks for reading & any answers given, Gregg.

  • #2
    Since you already have the battery as part of the unit, I would keep it in place so that the alarm is still functional when the power fails or is deliberately turned off.

    You can get a wall wart type DC supply that delivers roughly the right voltage and current for charging the battery and use that as long as the unit has some sort of charge regulation to keep the battery from being overcharged.

    In the normal use of the unit the solar panel would be primarily for float charging the battery rather than recharging the battery rapidly after an alarm incident.
    SunnyBoy 3000 US, 18 BP Solar 175B panels.

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    • #3
      A lot of your focus sounds like it is on amps, but really voltage is what you need to match. The siren and strobes are not likely to be current limited, or they would draw way too much current from the battery you described. If you give them the right voltage, they will just draw what they need.

      Something like this is where I would start. If 1.6 A turns out to not be enough amps (LED's are dim, or siren is weak), look for one with more amps.
      CS6P-260P/SE3000 - http://tiny.cc/ed5ozx

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      • #4
        Could you just disconnect the solar panel and put longer wires on it to locate it facing south? Keep the siren north, but panel south.
        Solar Queen
        altE Store

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        • #5
          Originally posted by Amy@altE View Post
          Could you just disconnect the solar panel and put longer wires on it to locate it facing south? Keep the siren north, but panel south.
          Hiya cheers for the reply. I've thought of this already but it would mean my alarm housing losing its water proofing ability. I could install an additional one if i ran cables across from the north side to the south. how much are they for a small unit?

          Link to the product here for a visual for guessing the size...

          http://www.responseelectronics.com/b...FagfwwodvgsA7w

          Cheers, Gregg

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          • #6
            Originally posted by sensij View Post
            A lot of your focus sounds like it is on amps, but really voltage is what you need to match. The siren and strobes are not likely to be current limited, or they would draw way too much current from the battery you described. If you give them the right voltage, they will just draw what they need.

            Something like this is where I would start. If 1.6 A turns out to not be enough amps (LED's are dim, or siren is weak), look for one with more amps.
            Hiya cheers for replying. Yeah I know what you're getting at. I just thought you had to match the output of the battery with the power supply cos it's 1.2amp hours for a reason. I know this is how much the battery can provide for an hour but I would have thought the power supply ought to match it. Cheers

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