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March 12, 2016 | #1 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Mid-Atlantic right on the line of Zone 7a and 7b
Posts: 1,369
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Solar Panel To Battery Help
So I did some searching online to figure out how to recharge my marine 12 volt battery with a solar panel.
I'm confused. Basically I use a battery to run my pump for nutrients. It runs 3 minutes, 8 times per day. There are two hours in between waterings. Trying to figure out what size panel to recharge this battery. A lot of them seem to just provide enough juice to keep an idle battery from discharging. I want to actually charge mine. My pump is AC but I might get a DC so I don't have to use an inverter from the battery. Pump specs: Material metal, aluminum Power Source ac Voltage 115 volts Wattage 104 watts Amperage Capacity 0.9 A I will return with battery specs shortly. |
March 12, 2016 | #2 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Mid-Atlantic right on the line of Zone 7a and 7b
Posts: 1,369
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March 12, 2016 | #3 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: Wales
Posts: 66
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I've used a system like that before. It was only used when I went away for a few days so the size of panel wasn't a problem for me. I would recommend using a 12v DC Caravan water pump, one of those worked fine for me.
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March 12, 2016 | #4 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: Zone 6a Denver North Metro
Posts: 1,910
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Always rounding corners, streamlining. That is a very nice quality Pure.
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March 12, 2016 | #5 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Den of Drunken Fools
Posts: 38,539
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Wrong battery for application.
You need a deep cycle battery that has the amp hour rating on it so you can figure out what you need. The amp ratings on your battery are in cranking amps and cold cranking amps. This is the amount it will put out for about 30 seconds and then be recharged quickly. You need to look at solar powered gait openers to get any kind of good information you can use. Worth |
March 12, 2016 | #6 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Mid-Atlantic right on the line of Zone 7a and 7b
Posts: 1,369
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It is a deep cycle battery.
Is t the RC on the label "resting currency" It says RC 150 |
March 12, 2016 | #7 | |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Den of Drunken Fools
Posts: 38,539
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Quote:
RC means reserve capacity. This is the amount of minutes the battery will discharge 25 amps at 80 degrees until it reaches 10.5 volts. https://www.batterystuff.com/kb/arti...-basics.html#4 Worth Last edited by Worth1; March 12, 2016 at 09:32 AM. |
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March 12, 2016 | #8 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Den of Drunken Fools
Posts: 38,539
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I also want to add you need to dump the AC pump and get a DC pump.
Any time you change voltage and or go from 110 vac to low voltage DC you use up electricity. I looked into putting low voltage DC lights in my yard and did the calculations. I was going to use more electricity than if I would have went with 120 VAC lights. This is the reason all of your irrigation systems use 24 VAC in their zone wiring. In your case you are going from DC to AC. |
March 12, 2016 | #9 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Den of Drunken Fools
Posts: 38,539
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You are going to have about 20 hours of use with a 5 amp draw.
So this would be about a 100 amp hour battery. Since it is a deep cycle battery you can get away with it because it was meant to be used on a trolling motor and to be ran down all the way but you wont be. Worth |
March 12, 2016 | #10 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Den of Drunken Fools
Posts: 38,539
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Here is a link that will get you what you need.
Worth http://www.solardealz.com/Solar-Gate-Charger-s/1836.htm |
March 12, 2016 | #11 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Mid-Atlantic right on the line of Zone 7a and 7b
Posts: 1,369
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Thanks for the info Worth.
Still trying to figure out what size panels |
March 12, 2016 | #12 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Den of Drunken Fools
Posts: 38,539
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If you can give me the power consumption of the inverter I can figure it out for you.
Or tell me what brand and model it is. |
March 12, 2016 | #13 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: May 2007
Location: North County, San Diego
Posts: 419
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You may want to post in a solar forum. Arizona Wind and Sun http://www.solar-electric.com/ has a good one. http://forum.solar-electric.com/cate...attery-systems
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March 12, 2016 | #14 | |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Mid-Atlantic right on the line of Zone 7a and 7b
Posts: 1,369
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Quote:
I have Worth! But I will still probably check that out at some point, thanks! Last edited by PureHarvest; March 12, 2016 at 12:29 PM. |
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March 12, 2016 | #15 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Mid-Atlantic right on the line of Zone 7a and 7b
Posts: 1,369
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