CowboyRam
Well-known member
I finally got my solar system running, and pumping water again. I had been fighting is for over a couple years after we had a lightning strike take out the charge controller and fried the diodes in the solar panels. Replaced them, but it just never worked right. A year ago I bought two new 320 watt panels to replace the cheap RV panels I had. I also had been fighting charge controller, replaced several of those. Just before Christmas my system went down. I decided it was time to stop being so cheap, and buy a good quality charge controller, add in another battery, and convert the system from 12 volt to 24 volt.
Now after spending the last three weeks swapping out batteries to keep the pump going during the day all of my parts finally arrived. I put the two solar panels in series, put the four batteries in series parallel to make a 24 volt system. Added in a converter to drop the voltage from 24 down to 12 because the pump is 12 volts. Put in a breaker so I can cut the power from the panels and a breaker between the batteries and the charge controller. Yesterday when I started working on this the temp was not to bad, but then the clouds rolled in and it got cold; I did get it all done yesterday. Looked at it this afternoon and everything is working great; the batteries are full charge. The cows seem happy that they have nice clean water to drink.
Note to self when you try to be cheap cheap cheap, you are going to pay pay pay.
I think I may just have this solar thing figured out, well until something else come up.
Now after spending the last three weeks swapping out batteries to keep the pump going during the day all of my parts finally arrived. I put the two solar panels in series, put the four batteries in series parallel to make a 24 volt system. Added in a converter to drop the voltage from 24 down to 12 because the pump is 12 volts. Put in a breaker so I can cut the power from the panels and a breaker between the batteries and the charge controller. Yesterday when I started working on this the temp was not to bad, but then the clouds rolled in and it got cold; I did get it all done yesterday. Looked at it this afternoon and everything is working great; the batteries are full charge. The cows seem happy that they have nice clean water to drink.
Note to self when you try to be cheap cheap cheap, you are going to pay pay pay.
I think I may just have this solar thing figured out, well until something else come up.