Recent content by future_vandweller

I have been testing (& tasting) the water I produce. There are additives available to add back the minerals that distilled water lacks. I want to test the ease of use aspects of the device I've developed.

I'm designing a very high efficiency solar still to make potable water from gray water. Let me know if you want to work with me in testing it.

Combing your 160W panels, in series with the 50W panels will only 2/3 of the 160W panels current.  Just use the two 160's in series with your MPPT controller, or the two in parallel with a PWM.  Don't include the 50's.  Happy to to explain the rationale behind this, if needed.

As others have pointed out, battery voltage is not a reliable indicator of its charge state. In addition, a charge controller does not know the battery voltage if it is actively (bulk) charging the battery.  The reason for this that there's a voltage drop on the wires from the controller to the...

The Renogy PWM controller can tolerate input voltages of up to 26V.  This limit will be reached only when the panels are extremely cold and the batteries are in float (very little current draw).  As soon as you connect a 12 V battery & panels to the controller, the voltages on solar & battery...

Controllers do affect the operation of a panel.  MPPT controllers find the max power point of an array by adjusting the impedance the array sees and maximize the power harvested.  PWM controllers pull down the array's voltage to that of the battery bank and attempt to draw the short circuit...

As to Renogy's response, it's not that can't mix different panels, but it's that you won't see the benefits you're expecting.  Before taking Renogy's words, remember that they're not an engineering company - they rebadge China sourced solar products.  On this forum & elsewhere, you can see...

Amp-hrs based battery charging It discusses the need for Amp-hrs based charging & why it's important

When panels of different ratings (voltage & current) are connected in series, the panels may not operate at their individual 'sweet spots' (Vmaxpower & Imaxpower).  The controller will push the panels to collective max power point.  The current will be limited by the panel with the lowest...

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Flexible panels do not need airflow across their backside since they do not lose heat thru the back Flex panels are made of ultra-thin silicon wafers mounted on a fairly thick (~3mm) polymer backing & covered with a very thin transparent coating on the Sun side.  They lose heat thru the Sun...

Heat and energy are one and the same, with heat being one of many forms of energy.  The fault lies with the US heating & cooling industry.  Instead of accurately describing an AC system as X BTU/hr, they say X BTU's.  The AC unit of your example is capable of removing 5000 BTU of heat each hour...

It's not 180 Amps per hour.  It's just 180 Amps.  Amps is a measure of rate (Coulombs per second) and so, it's like gallons per hour. If you run the hair dryer for one hr, it's 180 Amp-hr.  You'll deplete a 200 Amp-hr battery in about an hour. Estimate the wattage of various items you're likely...

I'm near 100% confident that this over-voltage alarm is due to a poor absorb stage algorithm in the Epever controller.  *All* solar charge controllers (MPPT or PWM) operate in a PWM mode during absorb.  During this stage, there's way more current/power available from the panels than what's...

The AC comment is an educated guess.  I assumed a 5000 BTU/hr unit, a CoP of 10 & a duty cycle of 50%.  That gives me 500 Watts for 12 hrs or 6 kWh.  Add 20% & you get 7 kWh. If you install the panels with a large gap (6-12") over the roof & add a good awning to the South side, you can...