Stage 2 Off Grid Tracking Solar Panel Installation

Originally we had found a large number of GNB Asbestolyte III batteries at a great price and used them on a few sites. The one problem we had with the AGM type batteries were in the winter time if the temp in the battery location fell below 32 degrees the plastic housings would start to crack and the gell would slowly leak out and that cell would die. We came across a great buy on used but new condition Hawker VM1600's and I installed them in place of the GNB's. I used foil covered foam sheets placed under the batteries and put a couple strings of Xmas tree lights under the batteries on the foil. I use a temperature controlled switch to turn the Xmas tree lights on if the temperature in the battery shed fall below 42 degrees. The lights provide about 150 watts of heat and everything has been working great for the last four years. The reason the Hawker batteries had a problem was the owner killed his generator, which at the time was the only source of power to charge the batteries, the solar had not been installed yet. The generator died and the batteries did not get charged for a long period of time, and the cell voltage fell far below the factory receommendation. The inverters shut down when the voltage fell below 21 volts and by the time I was notified by the owner and got to the site many of the cells were below .7 volts each. There was nothing I could do, we had to wait until be got his smaller backup generator, which was being overhauled at that time. When we finally got the back up generator installed and charging the batteries the voltages all came back up to normal levels. Everything look good and ran fine for about three months. Then I started noticing a couple of the cells were not reaching the fully charged level. Slowly over a few more weeks these cells finally would not take a charge at, all and were causing the rest of the cells to not get fully charged. I had to by pass these cells and hook up spare sets of Hawker VM1600's I had been saving for myself. We purchased these Hawkers for about 10 cents on the dollar from a Telecom company in Florida off E-bay. We feel that we have gotten our moneys worth and are now looking at purchasing new Flooded batteries, the cost will be close to $12,000... But they have a twenty year lifespan. The owner ended up killing his newly rebuilt generator after changing the oil he forgot to reinstall the filler cap and all the oil blew out while the engine was running. By the time the engines oil snesor stopped the engine it was to late, there was a very loud rod knock and I had to tell the owner he was now 2 for 2. He has two used generators for sale for parts if anyone is interested in parts. Dave R>

01-03-09 Went to work on my friends system. Cleaned the solar panels with mop, saw no improvment in voltage or performance after cleaning. Made some adjustments to the Outback MX60 charge controller. Installed a chart recorder so I can see how the solar system is preforming, I will let you know the results after a week of recording. Everyone is short on money and my friend who has twelve gas and oil wells on his property said money is getting tight. He talked to some of the oil well workers and most in the area are all being laid off, most of the wells are being shut down and caped, and all future projects are being cancelled due to low oil prices. Oil is down to less than $40 per barrel. He said they told him they expect oil to drop close to $15 per barrel. This country is crazy with the oil prices. Anyway in a couple weeks we are installing eight more 85 watt solar panels and may also start on the tower construction for the wind generator (stage three). His family and mine have been going through some serious illnesses that have slowed the solar work to a crawl. I found that Home depot is now selling Pordex radiant barrier, which for my money is about the best on the market. It is a foil foam foil structure that has an R value of 14.5 and is less then 3/8" thick. I highly suggest you check this out if you are looking at radiant barrier for your home. I have found nothing that can touch it. Dave R> (arcandspark)

2-14-09 Well my friends solar system is on hold for economic reasons. I am trying to lighten the hung weight on the Zome Tracker unit by replacing the steel angle iron cross brackets that the solar panels will mount on, to aluminum to lighten the load on the two bearings. I have the aluminum and I am making mounting brakets for them. I delivered a smaller backup generator today for my friends system, to reduce the amount of propane he uses. Currently he runs the generator on cloudy days when he does not get enough sun light to fully charge the batteries. The smaller generator will use 1/3 the amount of propane as the larger unit. When I get the second set of solar panels installed on the Zome Tracker it will double the amount of power he receives from the sun. Next week I will complete the installation of the generators wiring, propane fuel supply line, and remote start switch. Dave R. Check our photos at

http://alternativeene...

3-14-09 Completed the installation of the smaller 12Kw generator unit, which will use about 1/3 as much as the larger generator and still meet the families power requirements. The system seems to be working fine. The past week he said the solar panels had been able to charge the batteries up into the high 27 volts which is good. The other day he said it was cloudy most of the day so the solar panels did not get much free energy, and later on that day the generator automatically turned on to charge the batteries. The inverters are set up to automatically turn the generaor on if the batteries voltage get below a programed setting. When he called I told him this confirms the system is working as planned. Now I can finish installing the additional 850 watts of solar panels on the Zome Tracker unit. This should provide him with the extra charging capacity he needs for the amount of power he uses each day. After that I will be installing a wind generator to help the system even more. I will try to keep adding pictures of the proect in the Photo's File at :

http://alternativeene...

Dave R. (arcandspark)

Update 3-21-09 My friend called and said the inverter was showing an error code that was for the generator. What I had done was to plug the 12kW battery charger into a power outlet that is inside the generator. Thinking that this would provide a trickkle charge to keep the generators main battery ready so it can start the generator. The problem is the generator never ran long enough to give a trickle charge to the battery, the batterys charge went low and it was unable to start the generator when it was asked to. After reading the installation manual again, closer it said to plug this trickle charger into a separate continuous power source. So this weekend I ran power (120 VAC) to an outlet I installed inside the generator housing and plugged the trickle charger into it. Ever since then everything has been working perfect. The fixed solar panels have been providing good power to the system through the MX60 and the next step will be to finish the installation of the additional 850 watts of solar panels on the Zome Tracker. I have found a way to reduce weight on the Zome Tracker by using 2" by 2" aluminum brackets to mount the solar panels to the assembly instead of the factory supplied heavy steel angle struts. This should shave off about 150 pounds which will allow the unit to move easier and have less wear on the two bearings that support the super structure. One problem I am researching is how to connect the tracking panels to the fixed panels. The fixed panels mainly provide power between 10:00am and 3:00 pm. The tracker panels will be able to provide power from around 8:30am to 4:30pm. If I connect the two systems together then into the MX60 their might be a problem due to voltage differance between the fixed and tracking panels. I will be using fast acting low voltage drop diodes to keep the two systems separate electrically. Hope it works, otherwise I might have to install a second MX60 charge controller. Things have been going slow on the installation due to major family illness, which I can finally say is behind us now. Dave R.

Greg,

I have not installed the tracking panels yet. I had to build the combiner box for the tracker unit and I installed it this last weekend 5-3-09. I have completed fabricating four of the eight brackets needed to install the solar panel mounting bars. I did not want to use the heavy iron angle brackets provided with the zome tracker. It seems like just to much weight on those two bearings that hold the entire system in the air, so I am making as much out of aluminum as possible. We also found carpenter ants in the battery shed and have been working on getting them to leave. I will continue to do this installation and let the group know how it works. We plan to add two more panels to the fixed PV system and when we do if the diode circuit does not work we will add a second MX-60. I feel the MX-60 is the best charge controller I have ever used. It will take a lot to get me to purchase anything other than the Outback MX-60, it works so well. It has been working perfectly ever since I installed it. David R.

Update 6-13-09 Last week my we found another battery cell that was not taking a full dharge. So this Saturday I will be replacing four bad battery cells that will not take a full charge. The summer time is the hardest time on the batteries. The air conditioners will be running and this really puts a hard load on the batteries along with the high temperatures during the hottest part of the day. I have made a harness sling to pull the bad cells out of the battery shelves. Each cell weights about 180 pounds. We will use a truck that has a boom lift on it to remove and install the batteries. The temperature should be around 98 degrees so it will be a hot day for me. The tracker system is coming alone slowly. I am ready to install four of the eight panels but I had to order a larger electrical box that will replace the current box on the fixed solar system. The electical code gives required clearance measurements and the current box is too small for me to add the diode array and the new double power terminal block. I found one for a great price on Ebay, save my friend about $80.00... I will add new pictures once the box is installed. David R. KD5EWT

Update: We replaced four bad 2 volt cells with new ones. I also added two more volts to each battery bank so we are running with 26 volts instead of 24 volts now. I made adjustments to the MX60 solar charge controller for the higher voltage and to the Trace SW4024 inverters charge program. My friend had to replace one of his three 5000 BTU window air conditioners because it had a bad starting capacitor in it. I have called him a couple times this week and he said everything is working great. The batteries are taking a charge during the daytime from the solar panels and the generator only gets run for about an hour in the morning and an hour at night. That is because the water pump is still being powered by the generator and not the inverters. I have plans to install a 24 volt water pump which we have but are going to wait until I finish installing the other 850 watts of solar panels on the Zome Tracker system. Sorry I have not posted new pictures yet, I hope to get them on line soon. Dave R. KD5EWT

I just want to briefly say "Thank you" for all the people posting. I do read or at least skim these posts when time permits.
I am sure that others also read them. My hat is off to you all who post this information.