My new solar panels

[fungus]

These are my new solar panels that I got yesterday to power my workshed. They are two 17/18w amorphous panels braced together with plywood and then paralelled. I got them off ebay from seller esolar2004 and they've been great so far. I also got a Haze 33ah SLA battery to charge and a 5A regulator from Maplin. Here is my control box with the regulator and a cig. lighter socket:



And the battery:



I used two 16A 3 core cables to connect to the battery. This gives me three cables, one I've used to connect the solar panels and the other cable for the cig. lighter socket. This gives me one left over to use for something else if I need to. I'm letting it charge up right now and then I can use the power!!

[AbyssUnderground]

Looks like an excellent setup. It should power your workshop for a bit longer than that 7Ah battery would have.

[andyman5002]

Hey fungus nice setup you got going there. How much did the system cost? I hope my panel creates 40W when its finished. Are you using an inverter or just 12 V DC. How did you get on with your small turbine you wanted to make (the 20W one?).

Andy

[fungus]

It cost around £200 total and yes I'm using an inverter although I'm getting a 12v soldering iron and I can plug in lots of stuff through the cig. lighter socket. No, I havent got along with making a wind turbine yet, that'll be next on the list.

[ghurd]

Hey Angus, it looks good!

Quick thought.  One wire runs from the controller, past the cig lighter plug to the battery, back from the battery to the cig lighter plug?

The wire to the battery carries about 2 amps.

The wire from the battery to the lighter plug carries 10 or 20A.

The 3rd wire carries nothing.

Connect all 3 wires to the lighter plug and battery.

Connect the controller wires to the lighter plug.

All 3 wires carry amps to the inverter.

Allow for fuses.

I usually do it that way, often using black & red wire from cheap #10 jumper cables.

One large wire to the battery. All the 'stuff' is in one place. May have a pic if you are interested.

Use that 12V iron. Let it get all the way hot. Solder those crimp connectors on, good and hot, lots of solder wicking up the wire inside the insulation. Give it a little flick to remove extra solder where the screws touch.  It should feel solid a cm up the insulation.

Be ready for a blister from repositioning the hot yellow plastic insulation.

I would expect less problems with the inverter shutting down from a false low battery.

Less problems with corrosion, etc, also.

G-

[tecker]

Is that one cracked or am I .

[AbyssUnderground]

I doubt it. More likely to be a reflection of a telephone wire or power line or something.

[fungus]

It's the washing line on my lawn.

[fungus]

Ghurd, I used the separate cables so I didnt have to have multiple connections with wire crammed in. Thanks for the tip with soldering the connectors, I'll just use pliers to get the insulation back on :-)