Help! Simple Panel & Battery

[shirsch]

Hi all,

I am working on a school project and would love some help with the set up of a basic PV system. I only need to power a few ~5V DC motors. My current plan is this: an 18V / .55A panel with a charge controller to a 12V battery (or 2?). If i did need multiple batteries, what's the best way to link them (I don't have much experience wiring so I don't know the safest/most efficient real world methods).

Here to consider any and all advice.

[edit] How well will the battery hold its charge if it is initially fully charged and there is heavy cloud cover for a few days?

Thanks!

[inetdog]

Hi all,

I am working on a school project and would love some help with the set up of a basic PV system. I only need to power a few ~5V DC motors. My current plan is this: an 18V / .55A panel with a charge controller to a 12V battery (or 2?). If i did need multiple batteries, what's the best way to link them (I don't have much experience wiring so I don't know the safest/most efficient real world methods).

Here to consider any and all advice.

Thanks!

You can either put two identical 6V batteries in series or two identical 12V batteries in parallel.
You can find really good information about hooking up batteries in parallel at this site: http://www.smartgauge.co.uk/batt_con.html
There is a lot of other neat information in the Technical Notes at that site, but the one above is most relevant to what you are asking.
Do NOT interconnect a charged battery to an uncharged battery. Charge them both fully individually first.

[littleharbor]

Is this project just for a brief demonstration or long term, continuous use, or ? The 10 watt panel you are talking about using may not be enough to support a full time gadget/gizmo/whatever you are powering.

With more info on motors and actual function we may be able to tell you if your equipment will work as intended

[shirsch]

Is this project just for a brief demonstration or long term, continuous use, or ? The 10 watt panel you are talking about using may not be enough to support a full time gadget/gizmo/whatever you are powering.

With more info on motors and actual function we may be able to tell you if your equipment will work as intended

This is a long term project, but use of the motors is intermittent. Basically, we are building a mechanism that is on the side of the stream/creek that will dip a cup down and take a sample of the water (think of a rail road crossing boom barrier). We are connecting it to a 3g signal, and we need power to keep connection 24/7. Then, you can command the motors to activate on a website we made.

The motors will not be activated twice in one day, so there is usually going to be time to recharge the batteries (we expect it to be used about 2-3 times a month).

[Sunking]

Tap the breaks a bit before you spend a whole lot of money for things you do not need.

Batteries and panels must be matched up. Your project is so small With a 10 watt panel, it can only support a single 12 volt 3 to 5 AH battery. About the same capacity as a tablet or netbook. Cannot tell you if that meets your needs or not, but a 10 watt panel does not do much. What I can tell you in about a years worth of time the panel will generate roughly $1.50 worth of electricity and battery replacement every year or two. That is extremely expensive electricity with an extremely heavy carbon footprint.