Tweet
Some friendly tips for the ubiquitous HF 45w solar panel kit owner:
For many, this is your first entry into solar by either direct purchase or gift. It can be a lot of fun, but mere mention of it makes you a target for information overload, or worse.
Is it the highest-quality, best bang-for-the-buck little system out there? NO. But you didn't know. Is it still usable for learning and having fun and getting critical hands-on? YES. But stop now. Flushed with a possible success, don't go out and buy 4 more sets!
Without going into information overload, here are some quick tips about it. These are *generalizations* that later on become more specific with further reading in the forums. But I know you want to get this thing in the sun asap to see what it will do.
* Don't use too big of a battery. It will "maintain" a large battery that is already fully charged, but for cyclic usage in most areas, then using a smaller battery to help ensure a full charge is the way to go. As you know, batteries that don't get fully charged tend to die early.
* A suitable battery that sees quite frequent use are your typical small sealed agm types, like Powersonic, Universal Battery, CSB, Yuasa/Genesis etc - 9 to 35ah would be fine. What you use with this is determined by the somewhat small capacity to ensure a full charge regularly. The biggest mistake is to buy a larger battery, and with only a 45w system, it never truly receives a good charge and dies early from sulfation. This takes a little while, so it can fool you at first but not your wallet!
* Start off on the right foot with an AC charge first! Battery tenders or other small chargers come to mind. The reason is that many small ups-style agm's have sat in the retail chain for a long time and need a good charge. Buy from a reputable dealer that doesn't pawn off multi-year old shelf-queens that won't recover no matter what you do. Typically any agm that measures under 12.5v no-load has sat around. Fresher is better if you can find it.
* While the battery is in use, don't let it fall below 12v. In reality, the most we ever use is 50% of the battery capacity to get any cycle life out of it, and 12v under load, (which at rest comes near 12.2v for most agm's), is about half capacity. If your device drags the battery down to 12v in ten minutes, well then your load is just too large. Strive for it not to fall to 12v any sooner than about 4 hours under load. Longer is obviously better.
* Just know upfront that this "learner" battery is likely to be abused quickly. We have ALL gone through our learner batteries, this is just your first time up to bat.
* Polarity! Note that the HF / Sunforce kits come with quick-disconnect "SAE" automotive style connectors. This SAE connector is used by many other products. Problem is, the POLARITY can differ depending on manufacturer. This means that if you swap say the cable clamps from the HF kit, with a Battery-Tender set of clamps, you need to VERIFY the polarity with a meter or by other means! Just because they "fit" does not mean the polarity is always correct! Be watchful for this.
* UPGRADES - don't go too far! The HF panel kits can be considered kind of a "gateway" fun project to get your feet on the ground. But don't go building a much larger system based on this stuff! FAR more quality, efficiency, and cost savings are realized with more mainstream components discussed elsewhere on the forum. In other words, don't go nuts and buy 5 more HF panels! It is just not cost or quality efficient enough to do so. Much better equipment is out there.
At the most, one common upgrade is to change the controller to a quality Morningstar, Steca, Xantrex etc pwm controller. But now that means you'll have to come up with your own dc-dc converters (like Anker 5v usb car adapters), 12v cigarette lighter outlets and so forth, wiring directly to the battery on your own.
That's about as far as I'd take it - have fun, but if the solar bug bites you, save your pennies for more mainstream solar gear. Right now, you'll just be throwing things to the solar-wall to see if it sticks. If taken too far, this is waaay too costly to keep on doing.
The *right* way to do a solar project it to come up with a power budget first, and THEN run with it. But in the real world with these kits, we often do it backwards.
Even with the HF panel kit, when you get serious about it, you'll want to MEASURE your power needs over time, how much solar insolation you have (which differs from just sunrise to sunset values), your battery capacity, and THIS will more accurately determine how well your panel/battery/environment combo is going to work. That takes reading, some of it may not seem like fun. But it does mean the difference between a toy that gets thrown into the corner of the garage, or something that actually serves a purpose.
So put on your forum-thread flamesuit, do some reading, try not to abuse your learner battery too much, and keep your wallet closed for the time being.
For many, this is your first entry into solar by either direct purchase or gift. It can be a lot of fun, but mere mention of it makes you a target for information overload, or worse.
Is it the highest-quality, best bang-for-the-buck little system out there? NO. But you didn't know. Is it still usable for learning and having fun and getting critical hands-on? YES. But stop now. Flushed with a possible success, don't go out and buy 4 more sets!
Without going into information overload, here are some quick tips about it. These are *generalizations* that later on become more specific with further reading in the forums. But I know you want to get this thing in the sun asap to see what it will do.
* Don't use too big of a battery. It will "maintain" a large battery that is already fully charged, but for cyclic usage in most areas, then using a smaller battery to help ensure a full charge is the way to go. As you know, batteries that don't get fully charged tend to die early.
* A suitable battery that sees quite frequent use are your typical small sealed agm types, like Powersonic, Universal Battery, CSB, Yuasa/Genesis etc - 9 to 35ah would be fine. What you use with this is determined by the somewhat small capacity to ensure a full charge regularly. The biggest mistake is to buy a larger battery, and with only a 45w system, it never truly receives a good charge and dies early from sulfation. This takes a little while, so it can fool you at first but not your wallet!
* Start off on the right foot with an AC charge first! Battery tenders or other small chargers come to mind. The reason is that many small ups-style agm's have sat in the retail chain for a long time and need a good charge. Buy from a reputable dealer that doesn't pawn off multi-year old shelf-queens that won't recover no matter what you do. Typically any agm that measures under 12.5v no-load has sat around. Fresher is better if you can find it.
* While the battery is in use, don't let it fall below 12v. In reality, the most we ever use is 50% of the battery capacity to get any cycle life out of it, and 12v under load, (which at rest comes near 12.2v for most agm's), is about half capacity. If your device drags the battery down to 12v in ten minutes, well then your load is just too large. Strive for it not to fall to 12v any sooner than about 4 hours under load. Longer is obviously better.
* Just know upfront that this "learner" battery is likely to be abused quickly. We have ALL gone through our learner batteries, this is just your first time up to bat.
* Polarity! Note that the HF / Sunforce kits come with quick-disconnect "SAE" automotive style connectors. This SAE connector is used by many other products. Problem is, the POLARITY can differ depending on manufacturer. This means that if you swap say the cable clamps from the HF kit, with a Battery-Tender set of clamps, you need to VERIFY the polarity with a meter or by other means! Just because they "fit" does not mean the polarity is always correct! Be watchful for this.
* UPGRADES - don't go too far! The HF panel kits can be considered kind of a "gateway" fun project to get your feet on the ground. But don't go building a much larger system based on this stuff! FAR more quality, efficiency, and cost savings are realized with more mainstream components discussed elsewhere on the forum. In other words, don't go nuts and buy 5 more HF panels! It is just not cost or quality efficient enough to do so. Much better equipment is out there.
At the most, one common upgrade is to change the controller to a quality Morningstar, Steca, Xantrex etc pwm controller. But now that means you'll have to come up with your own dc-dc converters (like Anker 5v usb car adapters), 12v cigarette lighter outlets and so forth, wiring directly to the battery on your own.
That's about as far as I'd take it - have fun, but if the solar bug bites you, save your pennies for more mainstream solar gear. Right now, you'll just be throwing things to the solar-wall to see if it sticks. If taken too far, this is waaay too costly to keep on doing.
The *right* way to do a solar project it to come up with a power budget first, and THEN run with it. But in the real world with these kits, we often do it backwards.
Even with the HF panel kit, when you get serious about it, you'll want to MEASURE your power needs over time, how much solar insolation you have (which differs from just sunrise to sunset values), your battery capacity, and THIS will more accurately determine how well your panel/battery/environment combo is going to work. That takes reading, some of it may not seem like fun. But it does mean the difference between a toy that gets thrown into the corner of the garage, or something that actually serves a purpose.
So put on your forum-thread flamesuit, do some reading, try not to abuse your learner battery too much, and keep your wallet closed for the time being.
Comment