Best Of
Re: Older Used Panels/Equipment Worth Selling?
You might want to check if the landfill will even take them. Many do not!

6 ·
Re: Sudden death of 3 auto batteries inside of a week!
But you gotta love those Cummins engines.softdown said:Yet all quite explainable:
1) 2014 battery was an absolute champ at starting a 454 engine. This summer it sounded like the engine turned over at a slower rate. Yesterday the battery was dead in spite of a new charge. Showed 12.8 volts and and just 160 CCA from a 1000 CCA battery. Bit odd to show normal voltage from a dead battery. A 450 CCA battery then started a warm engine quite easily.
2) 10 month old Prius battery was stone dead in spite of recent charge and trip. What killed it? Left the rear hatch open for at least a day a couple weeks ago. Sometimes a 100% discharge can destroy a lead battery pretty quickly. Bit odd.
3) 5.9 Diesel battery was stone dead after being parked a few weeks. The truck had a faulty brake light switch that seemed intermittent in nature. The brake lights did not remain on when last parked. But the battery was stone cold dead anyway. Could not even charge it again. Bit odd. Perhaps related to not being hooked up to the other battery. Perhaps the other battery (drivers side) realised all of the amp charge from the alternator. Replacing brake light switches can be a real nuisance fwiw.

6 ·
Re: Use cheap controller for LVD
Most charge controllers (cheap or not) don't have load control functions. If you have to go with a cheap controller it will need to be used as a charge controller and the Morningstar as a load controller. Trace/Xantrex/Schnider Xantrex controllers are another brand that will do load control. You may find a used one fairly cheap, or buy new for something north of a hundred bux.

5 ·
Re: Lead calcium acid batteries opinions
I recently switched to LiFePo4 batteries and am quite happy with them.BB. said:.now, LiFePO4 ("almost" the perfect battery, great for hot weather, light weight, sort of expensive, and usually use a BMS to keep battery from being damaged from under/over voltage).
Finding LiFePO4 batteries at a good price--Their longer cycle/service life can mean a lower total lifetime cost. But they are not usually the first battery bank you want to experiment with unless you need them (light weight, small volume, warm/hot weather performance/life, etc.).
-Bill
I built my bank from scratch with 16 230 ah cells, BMS and active balancer. This gives me 460 ah @24 volts of which over 400 ah. are usable This is somewhat comparable to 8 L-16 batteries. with the added bonus of (hopefully) 4,000 + cycles. When you factor in capacity and lifespan I think I did very well for just under $2,000 and believe this is cheaper than Lead acid.

5 ·
Flexmax 60 grounding
My RV's chassis is grounded to the grid power, I've mounted the flexmax 60 directly to the rv wall which means it's also grounded to the grid, is that okay?

5 ·
Re: Need advice and critique of our future solar system
I know I'm using two different emails. I can't find the first one or its password, so I created another. I think the problem has been resolved because my screen isn't filling up with those messages now.
We literally don't have much running. Small 3.1cf freezer, tablet, water heater, sump pump that rarely kicks in. I do leave my electric stove, and washer and dryer plugged in, but they don't get used very much. Microwave gets used about 5 minutes daily and is unplugged when not in use. I use my curling iron less than 5 minutes a day. We have electric heat but it's turned down to 66 or so. Several times daily I use a little aa/aaa battery charger to recharge my batteries. Once in awhile I charge my flip phone. We have a laptop but it is only used about 5 times a year. Unplugged the rest of the time. Once in awhile, maybe 6 times yearly, we watch a dvd and use the tv. Unplugged the rest of the time. That's it.
All new windows even in the basement.
This is just crazy and very frustrating.
Thanks for the links. I can't find any pricing on the energy detective. I already have a multimeter, and a killawatt type gadget but still can't find it. May have to buy another. We did have a "friend" that we later found had stolen from us, so he may have the killawatt as well.
Whenever I've talked to the electric company, they say things like, "this is ONLY $50 more than this time last year", etc. I just want to be free of the @#$% electric company. I've conserved in every way I possibly can but the bill just gets higher.
We may always have to be hooked up to electric because I don't understand how the sump pump works or how to run it off solar. I'd love to move to a home with an easier switch to solar.
Thanks for the advice so far, I do appreciate it. This is gonna be the year we get solar power going.
We literally don't have much running. Small 3.1cf freezer, tablet, water heater, sump pump that rarely kicks in. I do leave my electric stove, and washer and dryer plugged in, but they don't get used very much. Microwave gets used about 5 minutes daily and is unplugged when not in use. I use my curling iron less than 5 minutes a day. We have electric heat but it's turned down to 66 or so. Several times daily I use a little aa/aaa battery charger to recharge my batteries. Once in awhile I charge my flip phone. We have a laptop but it is only used about 5 times a year. Unplugged the rest of the time. Once in awhile, maybe 6 times yearly, we watch a dvd and use the tv. Unplugged the rest of the time. That's it.
All new windows even in the basement.
This is just crazy and very frustrating.
Thanks for the links. I can't find any pricing on the energy detective. I already have a multimeter, and a killawatt type gadget but still can't find it. May have to buy another. We did have a "friend" that we later found had stolen from us, so he may have the killawatt as well.
Whenever I've talked to the electric company, they say things like, "this is ONLY $50 more than this time last year", etc. I just want to be free of the @#$% electric company. I've conserved in every way I possibly can but the bill just gets higher.
We may always have to be hooked up to electric because I don't understand how the sump pump works or how to run it off solar. I'd love to move to a home with an easier switch to solar.
Thanks for the advice so far, I do appreciate it. This is gonna be the year we get solar power going.

5 ·
Re: Mini Split update for Offgrid
Hey Ralph,
Up 2 stories is steel. The snow does not drop on the splits but just in front. The plywood piece is for insurance to protect the refrigerant lines as the LG sticks out a foot more. Sun is out and they both are heating.
I never have had to go on that roof and neither has anyone else. A 6 in 12 from Canada hey
When we did rough plumbing we installed a 3" vent and a 2 way clean out in an accessible area of the attic just in case.
This storm fooled us as it was suppose to just rain. I think the weather guys are having a bad year. Hope you are doing well !
Vancouver BC area or am I off? Cheers!
Up 2 stories is steel. The snow does not drop on the splits but just in front. The plywood piece is for insurance to protect the refrigerant lines as the LG sticks out a foot more. Sun is out and they both are heating.
I never have had to go on that roof and neither has anyone else. A 6 in 12 from Canada hey

This storm fooled us as it was suppose to just rain. I think the weather guys are having a bad year. Hope you are doing well !
Vancouver BC area or am I off? Cheers!

5 ·
Re: What's in a name? With Industrial/Forklift batteries everything you need to know.
I'm looking for a good new/used forklift battery supplier in Northern Arizona. I have a 2004 Raymond 36v r30‑c30tt. It is also going to be my SHTF backup battery but they are super expensive from what I see.

5 ·
Re: Should I upgrade from a PWM to an MPPT with only 170 watts of Panels?
Thanks. Makes sense. OK, I'm bored... you tubing... re-searching... I was seeing that the new hotness are battery temp sensors. I wouldn't know if I had a problem. I mean my batteries seem to charge... but.... they are on the tongue in a box... I am in south Texas... should I upgrade my PWM Sunforce 30w to one with a temp sensor on it?
Being an amateur ... I still can't imagine 170 watts of panels overheating 2 6volt golf cart batteries. I mean I also have a progressive dynamics 91xx charge wizard on there that runs all year mostly. It doesn't have temp sensor... I do top off the water in the batts monthy... just a little.
yawn...
Maybe I should take up knitting.

yawn...
Maybe I should take up knitting.

5 ·
Re: Under performing LiPo
Thanks for responding. The batteries are Renogy lithium iron phosphate LiFePo4. The main question I have is, why on the occasions when The bank does get above 12.8v it seems to lose voltage very quickly. Example, last night Before I parked for the night at around 9:30 I went for a ride and charge the batteries up to 13.1V, (12.9 when I turned the charger off) I turned off my fridge and had only my Maxxair fan and one LED light on. I had to run the engine/charger at 1:30ish because the voltage had dropped to 11.8 and experience has been that won’t make it through the rest of the night without shutting down. So from 9:30 to 1:30 my vent fan and one 15 watt LED took my bank from 12.9v to 11.8v. I may be wrong but that seems excessive.
As for adding panels to my array I sized the charge controller so that I can add two more 100 watt panels but as I said in my post I’m laid off now so that’s not an option. Thanks again for responding.
As for adding panels to my array I sized the charge controller so that I can add two more 100 watt panels but as I said in my post I’m laid off now so that’s not an option. Thanks again for responding.

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