Searching for Answers... I am at your mercy

[LKRozier]

Hello everyone,
I have acquired 4 sets of Harbor Freight‘s Thunderbolt Mangum Solar Series Panels and 4 Thunderbolt 45 AH batteries. Please don’t be too harsh on me. Anyway I am starting a small solar project with them. I will use them to power my shed. No heavy machinery like compressors, just lights and may be a radio, small TV, things of that nature. Don’t plan on loading this system at full draw but was wondering what can be done with them and the additional equipment to get. Yes in the future I will purchase additional “Real Panels” but in the meantime I will play with and learn with the ones I have.
This is what is going through my head so far.
12 = 15 watt panels = 180 watts
4 = 45 AH batteries = 180 AH
I do have the kits but the Charge controller that is with it does not seem to be on the quality side of things.
I would like to find a decent and sized charge controller and inverter to make this work correctly.
My first thought was to have a battery for each set of panels, which would have been 8 batteries but was not sure if the batteries were overkill for the panels. That would have been 360 AH and would the charge controller been able or the panels would have been able to handle charging the bank. Also take into account that lights (florescent) and maybe a fan would be ran from this system. There will not be much of a draw most of the time. Only several hours in the late afternoon and or early mornings.

[FloridaSun]

Hello everyone,
I have acquired 4 sets of Harbor Freight‘s Thunderbolt Mangum Solar Series Panels and 4 Thunderbolt 45 AH batteries. Please don’t be too harsh on me. Anyway I am starting a small solar project with them. I will use them to power my shed. No heavy machinery like compressors, just lights and may be a radio, small TV, things of that nature. Don’t plan on loading this system at full draw but was wondering what can be done with them and the additional equipment to get. Yes in the future I will purchase additional “Real Panels” but in the meantime I will play with and learn with the ones I have.
This is what is going through my head so far.
12 = 15 watt panels = 180 watts
4 = 45 AH batteries = 180 AH
I do have the kits but the Charge controller that is with it does not seem to be on the quality side of things.
I would like to find a decent and sized charge controller and inverter to make this work correctly.
My first thought was to have a battery for each set of panels, which would have been 8 batteries but was not sure if the batteries were overkill for the panels. That would have been 360 AH and would the charge controller been able or the panels would have been able to handle charging the bank. Also take into account that lights (florescent) and maybe a fan would be ran from this system. There will not be much of a draw most of the time. Only several hours in the late afternoon and or early mornings.

HARSH? wellll..... the positive... you're right in thinking the charge controller is not on the quality side of things, that goes for the solar panels as well.

the negative... That's a LOT of money to be spending for an introductory to PV systems. For the price paid on 4 @ 45W harbor fright kits (even at the $150 sale price) you could have bought 300w of 12v panels, a good Morningstar MPPT controller and have $$ left over. Also would give you the option of setting up a 24v system.
45Ah 12v AGM batteries? That's an extravagance for a shed system. ($350+?) A learner set of two 100Ah hybrid marine batteries from walfart will only cost about $200, last longer, leaving extra $$$ for the cables, fuses, etc you will be needing.
Read the stickies in off grid and batteries section here to find out what you can do with your.... 'acquired' system
good luck


edit;
Solartown has 240W Monocrystaline panels for $156. That's only .65 a watt. Harbor fright 45w kits cost over $3 a watt!
... but you do get some nice 5w 12v CFL lights with the kit

[LKRozier]

Thanks for the information

HARSH? wellll..... the positive... you're right in thinking the charge controller is not on the quality side of things, that goes for the solar panels as well.

the negative... That's a LOT of money to be spending for an introductory to PV systems. For the price paid on 4 @ 45W harbor fright kits (even at the $150 sale price) you could have bought 300w of 12v panels, a good Morningstar MPPT controller and have $$ left over. Also would give you the option of setting up a 24v system.
45Ah 12v AGM batteries? That's an extravagance for a shed system. ($350+?) A learner set of two 100Ah hybrid marine batteries from walfart will only cost about $200, last longer, leaving extra $$$ for the cables, fuses, etc you will be needing.
Read the stickies in off grid and batteries section here to find out what you can do with your.... 'acquired' system
good luck


edit;
Solartown has 240W Monocrystaline panels for $156. That's only .65 a watt. Harbor fright 45w kits cost over $3 a watt!
... but you do get some nice 5w 12v CFL lights with the kit

Thanks for the reply, that was what I needed... I have not connected the system yet so It may be possible I can get ride of all of it. But I hate to put that on some one else. Is it possible to use these panels with the other panels such as your Solartown 240 watt or is it a complete waste and this project should be scrapped before starting. The possibilities would be endless if I were to replace the panels with the ones you suggested. I may be able to run radio equipment. Thanks again and welcome more comments and or suggestions...

[Sunking]

Thanks for the reply, that was what I needed... I have not connected the system yet so It may be possible I can get ride of all of it. But I hate to put that on some one else.

Not really your problem. You would be best advised to dump it on someone else.

[FloridaSun]

Thanks for the reply, that was what I needed... I have not connected the system yet so It may be possible I can get ride of all of it. But I hate to put that on some one else. Is it possible to use these panels with the other panels such as your Solartown 240 watt or is it a complete waste and this project should be scrapped before starting. The possibilities would be endless if I were to replace the panels with the ones you suggested. I may be able to run radio equipment. Thanks again and welcome more comments and or suggestions...

Forget the panels for now and read Sunking's sticky;

http://www.solarpaneltalk.com/showthread.php?5334-Solar-Off-Grid-Battery-Design

Figure out what you might want to power and design your system from there.

[PNjunction]

Is there any way you can take any of it back / refund?

If you can't, aside from being HF stuff, there are WAY too many points of failure especially with 4 parallel strings of 3 panels in each string! But yes, you could make it useful although at first glance you'll be headed for the dreaded "defecit charging" scenario if you try to use all those 45ah batteries at once.

My suggestion would be to play with only ONE of the kits, AND before buying anything else, get a charger on those ups-style agm's. I'd recommend a NOCO Genius 3500. Charge up all 4, but for now, only use one battery.

Know up front that in your area, you get only about an average of 4.5 hours of "solar insolation", which is sunlight strong enough to actually do some good. So outside the times of about 10a to 2p, your panels won't be running full tilt. What this means is that if you only use 25 percent of your 45ah battery, (about 11ah draw), it will take all day to recharge. If you want it faster, then use TWO sets of those panels attached to just ONE of those batteries.

Also, you'll be wanting to get a decent digital multimeter to make sure your panels are performing properly at 18-20vdc open-circuit, and about 830ma short-circuit each under near perfect sunlight. Also use it to test your thunderbolts. If any of them are reading below 12.5 volts just sitting there (no charge, no load) when you got them, then they have seen better days. Still usable, but you may not really have 45ah batteries due to sulfation, they are now 35ah. Lots of fun ahead!

If you can't take any of this back, then you've got some work ahead. Are you ready? Grab that NOCO charger to keep the batteries healthy when you make a deep-discharge mistake and can't recover from solar in a reasonable amount of time. Goof on the system while reading up here for your real setup later. If all this solar fun doesn't pan out, at least you'll have a nice charger for the car.