Does this system need a battery?

[jvs]

We have a solar system to create electric to run a 12 volt irrigation pump,2 panels(36 volts) and a off grid solar cell battery charge controller.

 

http://www.solar-thailand.com/EN/Product.asp?Data1=ST1-30-12V-24V

My question is ,do i really need a battery in this system or can the battery be replaced with a resistor of some kind?

Better to ask a dumb question than to blow up my solar converter or worse the panels?

 

[Lamkyong]

i have a small solar system  12 volt   not to sure how you achieve  your 36 volts   as your controller would step this down to 12/24 v    as for a resistor  in the system  surely this would defeat the storage of power   therefor only work   when the solar panels are activated

 

please i am a novice   so you can probably   tell me what a resistor would actually  do

 

not for power storage i think   all that being said   a good post of interest to many budding eco power   fans here in Thailand    does this company www  solar thailand ship FROM thailand  ??     

[stubuzz]

I think you may mean capacitor, not resistor.

[jvs]

I do not really know what i mean,when i bought the system i was told there was no need for a battery.

We hooked it up without a bat.and it would not work,placed an old motorbike bat and it worked.

We only use the pump in the day time so no real need for energy storage.

It has been running for about four months now and it performs really good,sometimes it stops but i guess that is due to not enough sunshine,would an extra panel help for that?

The garden looks a lot greener compared to years before and trees carry a lot more flowers/fruit.

We even use this power for a waterfall and it also runs 4 sprinklers at the same time.

The pump puts out 3500 gallons per hour or around 12000 liters(at the source)I think we get about half of that

delivered at the nozzles and i am happy with that but i am thinking about upgrading to a bigger system so we can

keep the pond full as well,but the pond is a story of its own.

[Lamkyong]

i would suggest you install a new 12 volt battery  about 45 amp hour   yes more panels will increase the amp charging capacity,   what is the actual wattage rating of your panels?

 

at a rating of 40 watt  it will charge at a   1 amp approx    so you can calculate power usage of your pump and see the result  as to the amp i charge  you will require    added to that  an installation of a panel sun tracker will improve the  power capture    i would not consider eliminating a battery in the system  you will be stressing the panels to much

[jvs]

Lamkyong,

I just went to have a look,not 36 volts as i stated before but 30.6 volts and 250 watts.

I bought a new battery for the truck a few weeks ago and am using the old one for  the solar system now.

I don't recall how many amps it is.

Any idea how much a sun tracker would cost?I would think that would give me about 2.5 hours a day extra.

[Lamkyong]

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[Litlos]

Yes you need a battery for this charge controller to work correctly.

 

Something to think about for optimising solar panel performance is to keep them clean, the electrical connections tight and the panels at the correct angle to the sun.  If you are not familiar with this then have a look at http://solarelectricityhandbook.com/solar-angle-calculator.html

 

The other thing to consider is unless you have some way of storing the charge (batteries) or using the developed power during the period of daylight then optimising will not really help.  It is hard to use the developed power continuously as the charge will drop during periods of cloud cover etc, so back to the batteries again to get the most out of the system continuously.

 

Another thing to consider is wiring size.  DC power is notorious for voltage drop problems due to undersized wiring.  So if the wiring is undersized you will be wasting power creating heat in the wiring.  A simple way is check the voltage at the beginning of the wiring to the load and again at the load when running.  If you are running the system as 12volt and the difference in voltages measured is 1,2 volts that is a 10% loss.

 

Cheers

 

 

[Gary A]

I have a one HP submersible water pump that is powered with a 5,000 watt generator. I seriously looked at a DC solar powered pump. It was a serious effort as for me getting a quote and describing what I wanted. The system took four 250 watt panels. Between the panels and the pump was some sort of expensive control unit. There were NO batteries required. The pump would run when the sun was shining and stop when the sun went down. Everything was totally automatic.

 

The bottom line is that the system was far more expensive than I thought it would be. I decided that since I already had the AC pump and the generator, I could afford to buy a LOT of benzine for the generator. When my current system needs to be replaced, I'll take another look. Since that solar system needed no batteries, I had thought it would not be that expensive.

[jvs]

55 minutes ago, Gary A said:

I have a one HP submersible water pump that is powered with a 5,000 watt generator. I seriously looked at a DC solar powered pump. It was a serious effort as for me getting a quote and describing what I wanted. The system took four 250 watt panels. Between the panels and the pump was some sort of expensive control unit. There were NO batteries required. The pump would run when the sun was shining and stop when the sun went down. Everything was totally automatic.

 

The bottom line is that the system was far more expensive than I thought it would be. I decided that since I already had the AC pump and the generator, I could afford to buy a LOT of benzine for the generator. When my current system needs to be replaced, I'll take another look. Since that solar system needed no batteries, I had thought it would not be that expensive.

To upgrade i was thinking about this set-up,cost 42000Baht.No battery needed.

http://www.beliefsolartech.com/product/50/รถเข็น-โซล่าเซลล์สูบน้ำเคลื่อนที่-พับเก็บได้-1-แรงม้า

[jvs]

10 hours ago, Litlos said:

Yes you need a battery for this charge controller to work correctly.

 

Something to think about for optimising solar panel performance is to keep them clean, the electrical connections tight and the panels at the correct angle to the sun.  If you are not familiar with this then have a look at http://solarelectricityhandbook.com/solar-angle-calculator.html

 

The other thing to consider is unless you have some way of storing the charge (batteries) or using the developed power during the period of daylight then optimising will not really help.  It is hard to use the developed power continuously as the charge will drop during periods of cloud cover etc, so back to the batteries again to get the most out of the system continuously.

 

Another thing to consider is wiring size.  DC power is notorious for voltage drop problems due to undersized wiring.  So if the wiring is undersized you will be wasting power creating heat in the wiring.  A simple way is check the voltage at the beginning of the wiring to the load and again at the load when running.  If you are running the system as 12volt and the difference in voltages measured is 1,2 volts that is a 10% loss.

 

Cheers

 

 

Just to check if the old battery was still ok i hooked up my pick-up battery yesterday and the system run all day without

a whimper.with the old bat.it would stop and go all the time.

Bought a new bat. this morning and five sprinklers going fullblast!!!!

I installed good size wiring and they never warm up to the touch,also the distance from the panel to the pump

is very short.

The pump only cost 1250 Baht and i am surprised by the way it performs,i know it will not last for ever but even

if i have to buy a new one once in awhile i'd still be happy.

 

[Hereinthailand]

Get a 20/30 amp MPPT controller and a deep cycle battery.