Outdoor Lighting Powered by Solar Problems, Need Troubleshooting Help Please.

[russ]

The item the link goes to is a useless toy - a total waste of money except as a trickle charger - should be worth maybe 1$ as a toy.

[russ]

The fool is now gone - permanent ban.

[Beanyboy57]

http://sunforceproducts.com/product_...?PRODUCT_ID=58

Features:
•Charges 12 Volt batteries with the power of the sun
•Made of durable ABS plastic and amorphous solar cells
•Works with boats, SUVs, RVs, electric fences, deer feeders and more!
•Completely weatherproof for added durability
•Amorphous solar panel works in all daylight conditions, even on cloudy days
•For indoor or outdoor use
•Built-in overcharge/discharge protection
•Maintenance free and easy to install
•Plugs into 12V DC Plug or directly to the battery
•Maximum power output: 5 Watts and 350 Mah



P.S. (The real genius on here that just finished reading it for the first time, knows already how many times I used the word xxx!)
Thanks)

Later xxxx (<---- HA there's another one)

What was that movie again... I think it was called Deliverance....I am sure you are familiar with it. haha Good luck with your $2 system.

[Sunking]

I don't vote, thanks though . Ok, I get what admin said...sunking...I hear you, honestly I do. But NOBODY has answered my question yet. The chit has been sitting up there connected for 60 fricking days with no load.

They went dead because you had no charge controller or blocking diode. You connected the battery directly to the solar panels, so your batteries back fed the panels at night and discharged them to ZERO, NOTTA, NOTHING.

[Beanyboy57]

I don't vote, thanks though . Ok, I get what admin said...sunking...I hear you, honestly I do. But NOBODY has answered my question yet.

If you think that nobody has answered your question then you should start thinking about why! It seems that you certainly are good at avoiding the real issue. You just won't think about all the references the experts (not including myself in that) on this site have made about the voltage of your battery..If your battery is under 10V there is a high probability that it is dead then nothing will work. Just for the hell of it, why don't you hook up your (working) battery from your chevy to the inverter and see what happens! The panel you bought was very cheap, do you ever wonder why they were so cheap? Some panels of very low wattage will just create heat inside a battery and not much else.
Take out your car battery charger and hook it up to your battery, see what happens after 10 hours or so. Zippity Doo Daa Blah! (whatever that means)

[russ]

[QUOTE=themachinist;58900 I'm still calling BS on the panel taking 2 weeks to charge that battery. I mean what the flip is that panel good for if thats the best it can do. Its made for maintaining batteries not charging them from the dead. So If I got a battery big enough that wouldn't die by morning, the 5watter would be fine??!!?? And I'm sure it would help If I would take the "curly ques" flo.bulbs and use led instead. [/QUOTE]

Kind of hard to call BS on a point when you have zero idea about that point. Apparently you know even less about light bulbs.

[themachinist]

I don't vote, thanks though . Ok, I get what admin said...sunking...I hear you, honestly I do. But NOBODY has answered my question yet. The chit has been sitting up there connected for 60 fricking days with no load. Why in the blue 40 woohaa is my battery dead. Admin you may be right. The battery did seem to charge, but only when I took the inverter out of the loop. And when I connect the inverter back in, it may drop back down to nada...since someone here said inverters pull a little even when off. If thats the case, then I'm glad its just the battery. But WHY? Bad from the start? Panel Over charge it? Do I need a darn controller for this size of system or not? Zippity Doo Daa Blah!

Ok so Sunk, I'm still calling BS on the panel taking 2 weeks to charge that battery. I mean what the flip is that panel good for if thats the best it can do. Its made for maintaining batteries not charging them from the dead. So If I got a battery big enough that wouldn't die by morning, the 5watter would be fine??!!?? And I'm sure it would help If I would take the "curly ques" flo.bulbs and use led instead. I could cut the voltage by at least 50%. Oh boy, can't wait to see the next reponse. HEhE

[Sunking]

And that is the correct answer.

That is what I want him to discover on his own be he votes tomorrow.

[Naptown]

Sunking that sounds like overkill for 2 bulbs 8 hours a day. Hell would be cheaper just to run a wire and power them ac. Inetdog, the panel does have the diode built in. That's why I bought 3 of them. Found them on clearance at Lowe's dirt cheap. Maybe I'm not being clear about wats happening here. When I checked the battery with everything hooked up it read. 5v. The solar panel has a plug so impossible to hook backwards. I used a battery tender cable with same plug. Manual with panel showed me whick lead was pos and neg. I unplugged the connector and the voltage coming out the panel was 19.5v. So its working fine. I connected them back together and then disconnected post wire from inverter and then checked battery and it read. 5v but started to climb as if the panel started charging it when I removed the inverter from the equation. Within 5 minutes the battery had reached 3 volts. So it appears the battery was dead but able to charge. I left it like that and I'm hoping to go home later and check it and see that it has fully recharged. So my question still remains.... what could the inverter be doing to keep my battery from charging.? Thanks for all the responses guys!

And that is the correct answer.
By the time you factor in all the equipment, batteries (including replacements) it would be far less costly to run the electric line.
If you have a 12V battery that is at 5V it is history. It is probably so sulphated that it will appear to take a charge but the voltage collapses as soon as any load is placed on it. the inverter in idle mode uses something and generally not much.

[Sunking]

Sunking that sounds like overkill for 2 bulbs 8 hours a day.

Think what you want, I do not care. You asked what is wrong. Not my problem you do not like the answers.

Fact is you use 2 bulbs at 13 watts each for 8 hours per day. That is 2 units x 13 watts x 8 hours = 288 watt hours.

To generate 288 wh of usable power with a cheap pwm controller means your panels need to generate 2 x 288 watt hours = 576 watt hours. Depending on where you live in winter with only 3 sun hours will take a minimum of 588 wh / 3 h = 196 watts.

So no overkill my friend, a 120 watt panel may not be enough to do the job.

You wanted to know what is wrong. You got it. Your chit is way undersized to do what you are asking it to do. Either fix it or give it up. I do not care what you do. It is not my problem.

[themachinist]

Sunking that sounds like overkill for 2 bulbs 8 hours a day. Hell would be cheaper just to run a wire and power them ac. Inetdog, the panel does have the diode built in. That's why I bought 3 of them. Found them on clearance at Lowe's dirt cheap. Maybe I'm not being clear about wats happening here. When I checked the battery with everything hooked up it read. 5v. The solar panel has a plug so impossible to hook backwards. I used a battery tender cable with same plug. Manual with panel showed me whick lead was pos and neg. I unplugged the connector and the voltage coming out the panel was 19.5v. So its working fine. I connected them back together and then disconnected post wire from inverter and then checked battery and it read. 5v but started to climb as if the panel started charging it when I removed the inverter from the equation. Within 5 minutes the battery had reached 3 volts. So it appears the battery was dead but able to charge. I left it like that and I'm hoping to go home later and check it and see that it has fully recharged. So my question still remains.... what could the inverter be doing to keep my battery from charging.? Thanks for all the responses guys!

[inetdog]

The panel has built in protection for that...!?

Protection for what? The panel has a current limit which is based on the amount of light that hits it. It may or may not (most likely not) have a series blocking diode to prevent the battery from discharging back into the panel at night (although that should be a relatively small current anyway).

There have been cases in which the + and - leads of the panels were mis-marked, so are you trying to charge your battery in reverse?

Once the open circuit voltage of a lead acid battery gets less than 10 volts for a 12 volt battery and stays there for awhile (and for sure when it gets less than 1 volt!!!!) it has been destroyed, as Sunking stated, and any further experiments with it are perhaps interesting but ultimately fruitless.

If the voltage has gone down to 6 volts, there is a good chance that one or more of the cells in the battery have been reversed, leading to even more damage. Or that there are internal short-circuits in one or more cells. Did you start with a new battery? Or a used one in unknown condition?

[Sunking]

The battery went from. 5V to 3V in less than 5 minutes.

Less than 10 volts = DESTROYED BATTERY a Boat Anchor. You are wasting your and out time with this. Your system is not capable of doing what you want.

You need a minimum:

120 watt solar panel
10 Amp PWM Charge Controller
12 volt 100 AH battery.

Go get it.

[themachinist]

The panel has built in protection for that...!?

[themachinist]

The battery went from. 5V to 3V in less than 5 minutes. I'm only going to be running 2 13W bulbs for 8 hours or so. By my math the battery should be more than enough for that. If my setup is all wrong then so be it lol. Could anyone tell me what I need to run 2 bulbs from dusk til dawn? Suggestions on different panel, inverter, or battery?