Help with my current solar setup

[vitallica]

Hello to you all!

I'm a leader in Scouting i lead a group with 12 to 15 year olds. I wanted to make a solar setup for our summer camp because it's on a remote location with no electricity.

This is a picture of the setup: http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/3597/bvab.jpg

This is a link to my solar setup: http://img826.imageshack.us/img826/1959/aiyp.png (file was to big to upload here)

System specs:

• solar panel 36cells
• CMP 12 solar charge controller automatic voltage detection 6V/12V/24V
• 2 battery's 51 Ah each (connected in parallel)
• a power inverter 150watts

You guessed it... i have some problems with it.

When i power a lamp of 100 watts it lights up fine.
When i put on the fridge alone it doesn't work. there is a blinking red light showing up on the power invertor.

So i thought it was too much current 100watts (for fridge)/12vdc = 8.33 Amps

Can i make it work with setting up my batteries in series? 100 watts/ 24vdc = 4.16 Amps


A whole other question:

I want to make a shower too. I bought a bilge pump rated for 1100GHP. the pump operates on 12VDC 3Amps

on the wire is a tape that says connect to + only. The other wire i need to go to the ground. But i don't have a ground connection there. Is it okay i put a 8 foot long steel bar in the ground and connect my ground to that?


All connections are visible in the link i put at the top.

Thanks in advance!

[Naptown]

That system is way undersized to run a refrigerator.
Second the inverter should connect directly to the battery with fuses (also fuse the charge controller)
At this size system there is no need to ground. better to float it
The - on the bilge pump should connect to the - on the batteries.

[vitallica]

That system is way undersized to run a refrigerator.
Second the inverter should connect directly to the battery with fuses (also fuse the charge controller)
At this size system there is no need to ground. better to float it
The - on the bilge pump should connect to the - on the batteries.

Thanks for your reply!

that's not good news
I thought it was possible to run a refrigerator of it. it is only ~100watts and the inverter is up to 150watts.

I rewired the bilge pump earlier this day to positive and negative.

When i connect the inverter to the battery will it be protected against deep discharge?

When you mean fuse the charge controller should i put fuses on all 6 connections?

Thanks!

[Naptown]

Thanks for your reply!

that's not good news
I thought it was possible to run a refrigerator of it. it is only ~100watts and the inverter is up to 150watts.

I rewired the bilge pump earlier this day to positive and negative.

When i connect the inverter to the battery will it be protected against deep discharge?

When you mean fuse the charge controller should i put fuses on all 6 connections?

Thanks!

Are you sure about the watts on the regrigerator? But worse is you don't have enough battery or panel to support it. Try wiring the inverter directly to the battery and see what happens Generally the charge controllers output are severely limited in what they will support.

Your inverter should have a low voltage disconnect built in to it.

Fuses are battery to output of charge controller and batteries to inverter. Fuse both + and -