And then the rains came...
 

With barely any sunlight falling on my tiny solar panel this morning,
I'm wondering if it will even try to track the sun as it moves behind the rain clouds.

So, I figured this would be a good day to test the remaining charge controller
to see if these things help? Or hurt the SOC on a cloudy day and at night..

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...lar/2batts.jpg

I've started a log to see what happens to the voltage during these next few rainy days.
Right now, the LEDs are indicating the LAs are charging, but the panel juice is very very low..
Only when the sun peeks out a little does the PV voltage move towards the 14 to 21 volt range.

I would be very surprised (and pleased) if my little 5-10 watt panel can
keep the tracker LA charged, while keeping my two big car LAs in the
ham shack topped off..
When the clear weather comes back, we shall find out! :)

Cheers,
Rich

Edit: 3-21-10
After 4 or 5 cloudy days (and about 7" of rain), all of the batteries still had a good SOC.
Now that it's been sunny for a few days, all three LA batteries are charging normally.
It's hazy out now and old CRV batt (Panasonic) is charging at 14.11v and the Toyota batt is at 14.16v.
The spec says they chargers will shut down at 14.2v.. One more sunny day? :cool:
http://www.ramsond.com/solarpanel/ra...specs2.jpg.jpg

Oooh, quite interesting.

I too have had a couple of cloudy/rainy days. Its totally putting a cramp in my solar hot water testing!

End of the second sunless day. Not one ray of sunshine all day long! :(
However, even when it's very overcast, the two LEDs light up. (Red & Orange, it thinks it's really charging)!

The two car batteries don't seem to have discharged much (if any).


I've done a related post here,
http://ecorenovator.org/forum/applia...ad-heater.html
after finding a cheap way to run some tests that will allow me to see just
how well a Solar-assist Oil burner will work..

If it does work, I'll have the first Hybrid Oil-PV hot water source on the block. :cool:

I went ahead and ordered the 250 watt Boiler heater and will install it sometimes next week.

In the meantime, I need to figure how to log the run-time of my burner..

Haha! Just found my timer. I can stick an AC outlet on my burner, that is parallel with the blower/oil pump motor,
and plug in my Kilo-a-Watt. It's got a 100 hour timer built in..

Edit Friday 20:07
I looked at the job and it seemed like too much work. Plus, I needed a double wide box.
Then, I realized that my power monitor wasn't being used!

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...r/NCL/F160.jpg

I just popped open the breaker panel, moved the probe over to the Burner relay,
changed the voltage setting in the display unit to 120 and I've got instant logging!

In Standby, the burner is using 10 watts. When the upstairs circulator pump is on, 80 watts.
When it's burning oil 290 watts, burning oil & circulating, 350 watts are used..

So, All I have to do is keep the same kind of log I had for the heatpump,
and I'll have a kWh number that equates to the amount of oil burned per-day..

It stayed East-parked all day
 

Had my first failure with the tracker today..
It was heavily overcast all morning, and by the time we got some good sun,
the earth had already rotated so much, that no sunlight could reach down
deep inside the sensor array to steer the mount over towards the West..

So, I missed out on about 2.5 hours of afternoon charge time.
Maybe enclosing the photo-cells inside a clear case is a better idea.?.

I guess that's why you see so many of those Red Rock Trackers
inside Peanut Butter jars!

Maybe if I install a small mirror just under the glass on the east side
of the tracker, so it will reflect the any afternoon sun down inside.?.
That might make it track close enough to get a 'lock' on old Sol.
Like an early version AIM9 Sidewinder.. :p

Perhaps you can just move the circuit board up closer to the glass surface in its enclosure? Or won't that be enough?

I could move the sensors closer to the glass, but the divider (light block) between
the two photo-cells needs to be fairly tall, or else the pointing accuracy will be low.
When I was building the module, I was thinking about gluing the divider outside the glass..
That would work a bit better, but would be less weather & whack proof..

I think that I've figured out a way to get manual control. Just add some
NO push-buttons across both of the photo-cells. Pressing the West side button
will make the mount move west.

A simple solution and it also will get me out of the house on sunny afternoons.. :)

Well, it's sunny today and again, I am surprised at quickly the sun is getting higher in the sky..
I've been making seasonal adjustments to the elevation screw every few days, it seems.

Today, the shadow under the Stick was about 1/2" long at noon.
I moved the adjustment nut down about 1/2" to raise the elevation so the panel was pointing dead-on at the sun..

I can see how a tracker with both Azimuth & Elevation could be an advantage to people who aren't retired.. :D

Do you have any idea how much 1/2" translates to in degrees? I think I recall something like you don't loose a ton of power until you start getting beyond 10-15 degrees...

I know it's not much. The difference in power from a 5-10W panel has to be less than a few miliwatts.
It's just interesting (to me) that I can easily see the change in just a few rotations.

No solar here today, we are starting another 20 year flood this morning..
NWS Enhanced Radar Mosaic: Northeast Sector Loop

Cheers,
Rich

My two indoor car batteries are sitting on a damp rug, but since it's been mostly sunny as of late,
the two 'Charged' LEDs were on today. :)

The tracker is working very well, but our budget is being crushed by flood damage repairs..
I might have to scale back any PV purchase I make this summer.. :(

Just in case, I've been taking care of some shading problems..

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...lar/cyndee.jpg


Cheers,
Rich