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Justme

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    http://www.trailertraining.cymru

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    Pwllheli
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    Driving Instructor

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  1. We bought our solar when it was at about £3 per watt for the panels & about £800 (the Outback FM80 controller is £600ish) for all the other bits to go with it. I did a full calc on costs of the solar, power produced & savings made re not running the genny. Using 3kWh per day (aprox 250ah) it took 4 years to repay the full install costs. If we had mains elec it would have taken more like 20 years. With current costs closer to 50p per watt a year would do it even using the FM80. Most boats would use a much cheaper controller but also use less energy per day.
  2. Our trusty washer finally got to the stage that it was not worth fixing. We replaced it with a Beco. It works fine from our Multiplus but stops mid cycle on the genny as the hertz drops to below what it wants. If we have the genny / inverter on auto then the genny comes on for the heat cycle & then goes off. That allows the washer to continue with the cycle. If the genny is on to recharge the bats then we cant put the washer on.
  3. High efficiency in low light / clouds is actually pissing in the wind. There is so little actual energy there it does not actually matter if you collect at 10% or 30% cos both are will be diddly squat of actual energy collected.
  4. There is no way that 200 watts of panels did 7.5kWh in one day. In the peak of summer you would expect a max of about 8 times rated wattage so 1.6kWh ish. My 1200watt array peaks at about 8kWh per day in summer.
  5. Licence / certificate needed will depend on:- On the road or public space or gated off private land? For work or personal use? 1, Tracked digger or wheeled digger? Tracked digger Cat H Wheeled digger dep on weights and usage. 2, Agricultural tele handler or industrial one? 3, An agricultural tractor can be driven on a cat F licence. All car drivers get one when the pass cat B However this use would not be agricultural so would need either C1 or C dep on MAM of the tractor. Plus the E add on if towing a trailer.
  6. You can find energy audit tools on the web. Most are biased for mains but normally you can work it out. Realistically all you need is a list / spread sheet. List all the items that use power. then the peak wattage (forget amps as they are voltage dependent) then the usage factor. So it could be:- tv 30 watts 3 hours = 90 wh water pump 10 watts 1 hour 10wh etc etc Total up all the wh. Times by 1.2 to allow for charging losses & if using an inverter another 1.2 for that too. Thats how much power you will be using each day. I personally like to have 3 to 5 days (prob ecessive for boat use so use 2-3 days) autonomy & work to 50% SOC / DOD. So that is times above total by 2 or 3 & then times by 2 to see total bat capacity needed in wh. Div by 12 to get ah capacity.
  7. Use a Victron multi plus. Small genny & for the short bursts the Victron will top it up.
  8. Yes & No Will dep on what you are welding & what you are welding it with. I can use our 6kVa to weld cars & thinish stuff (up to about 100 amps which is about 3 kVa) but as soon as I need to turn the welder up I have to use the tractor powered genny. Even on thin stuff it welds better on the big genny. You get cold starts on each arc strike as the smaller genny cant cope with the inrush current.
  9. Got it. So you need solar each & every day as you cant go to two days with no charge as you will be at 33% soc. Your heading for trouble / costly recharging. For long term live in use you really need a few days of autonomy. Even in summer you can get 2-5 days in a row of poor performance.
  10. I think I am not getting what you have said. You usage is 150ah at 12v. You want 3 days usage to max 50% DOD 3 x 150 x 2 = 900ah@12v or 450ah at 24v. With rounding up to 200ah@12v x 3 days x 2 (50%) = 1200ah@12v or the 600ah at 24v So you are looking at 12 x 100ah 12v bats Your solar will cope with 90% of your usage from March to October. Just needing top ups for those spells of crap weather that last a few days in a row. Outside of that virtually all of your power will come from the genny. What size charger will you use?
  11. Is that 600ah at 12v or 24v? How many days usage is that & to what depth of discharge? The usb & 12v outlets will use power all the time unless you switch the 24v feeds.
  12. They isolate the input from the output so that as above the panel can run at its sweet spot. Whilst a PWM chops the power/voltage in to match the voltage out. They also allow you to have a much higher array voltage which means you can use thinner cable from the array to the controller.
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