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Forum Index : Solar : Free Solar Panels
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Bryan1 Guru  Joined: 22/02/2006 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1343 |
G'Day Guy's, This isn't a thread about advertising free panels but rather what I found while at work where I found 6 off 190 watt solar panels in a scrap pile. Now as it was a Friday I did have my merc there and there was no way those panels would fit in the car so redneck style they went in the boot for the 200 K drive home. Last weekend I put them up on my shed and as they are grid tie panels with an open circuit voltage of 40 volts hooking them all in parallel meant a heap of wire so some 15 amp 240 volt cable was used. With the weight of the panels on the shed roof I did find in the rain due to the weight of the panels a leak has developed which is close to my whole power system. O'well the battery did get a good clean but my cheap DMM finally bit the dust. So in one week this 1.14Kw solar array did in fact fully charge a 24 volt 735AH Forklift battery. Even after using power in the shed since 7.30am the batteries were bubbling as soon as the sun came out and checking with my battery meter did show the SG shows it's fully charged. So for week 2 I'm going to put all my homebrew in that old ammonia fridge that uses 380 watts and see when I get home next Friday if I have nice cold beers and a charged battery. Now these panels do have a date stamp and 2018 was the date so with with a 5.7 short circuit current I am seeing 20-23 amps so a MTTP will made as I do have the boards here. Cheers Bryan |
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| Confused Newbie  Joined: 02/05/2023 Location: IrelandPosts: 17 |
Hello There, Thanks for Inclusion on TBS. I'm TRYING to set up an off grid PV Solar system. I have a 10ft concrete Bank with a concrete base with Galvanized Frame to secure Solar Panels. All painted white for reflected light. Intended to mount Mono Bifacial Panels. My idea is to Heat water directly from PV Solar Panels to Heating Element as simple a system as possible. IS this idea a NO NO from the start. I have read that the common problem with most ideas Is Arcing. I have read one idea that matching the PV Solar Panels output with the Heating Element and allow for the min and max surge. The Panels I'm viewing are 395W Vmp 37.32 Imp 10.60 Voc 44.77 Isc 11.02. NOT Adding the output from Back of panel. I'm In Ireland where most popular Heating Element is 3000W/2000W. To the many knowledgeable posters posting on TBS I though someone would give me an opinion. Sorry for long winded post. ATB and Thanks again. |
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| rogerdw Guru Joined: 22/10/2019 Location: AustraliaPosts: 852 |
Hi Confused, welcome to the forum. There have been a number of threads in the Solar section about this idea. The most recent was by Murphy's friend here ... And another here ... ... and there are others some time back as well. You may have read them, but possibly start a new thread with a descriptive title and I'm pretty sure you'll get plenty of help. Good luck. Cheers, Roger |
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| Confused Newbie Joined: 02/05/2023 Location: IrelandPosts: 17 |
Hello Roger, Thanks for the reply. Yes I have read a lot of them. I'll check out the one you have high lighted. Just trying to find out how any of the ones that were built are working and find out If there is any modifications that would be advisable to make.I'll try your suggestion aswell. Best Wishes J.S |
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Murphy's friend Guru Joined: 04/10/2019 Location: AustraliaPosts: 648 |
Have a look at an update I made to my original post (link above). |
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| Bryan1 Guru Joined: 22/02/2006 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1343 |
G'Day Guy's, Well had a bit of fun pulling this grid tie inverter apart and the big chokes were a huge surprise as instead of wire it used a a copper film sheet only 0.3mm thick. 3 off E-core sets held together with that yellow tape I have here and a spacer for the e-core gap. Pic's to come later and I do think winding some of that heavy gauge wire on the former may be the go. It will be next weekend when my LCR meter arrives that PD gave the link to and I'll have to build that board then the real fun can start. Cheers Bryan |
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| Bryan1 Guru Joined: 22/02/2006 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1343 |
G'Day Guy's, Well stripped out that choke and found it had 9.725 metres length, 30 x 0.3mm in width. So with the former being 85 long x 25mm thick and 36mm in height gets us 220mm a turn. With the thickness of the former being 11mm I can easily get 2 and possibly 3 layers in for a rough total of 18 turns. Here is a pic of the E-cores and the transformer and it does have spacers for separating the E-Cores.  Here is a pic of the former  Cheers Bryan |
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| Davo99 Guru Joined: 03/06/2019 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1578 |
I get LOADS of free panels from some installers. Many of them now are new. Because of the stupid ( but beneficial to me CEC regulations, panels can only be on the approval list for 2 years. After that they become unsafe or whatever BS the CEC uses as an excuse to charge another approval fee on something new. The installers often end up with leftovers they can no longer uses so they dump them. Sometimes I get a couple, sometimes I get 18, whatever they have left. Sometimes a customer requests a specific panel they may not ordinarily use but if customer accepts quote, Fine. They can only buy by the box so again, if they only need 2 panels out the box and the rest are leftover. they may or may not hold them for a while then they ditch them. Of course they often get used panels from upgrades they have to dispose of as well and from what I understand, not all scrapyards will take them so I provide a service in removing their rubbish. I don't even bother picking up anything under 250W now. Can't sell them other than to people whom want them to put on vans or trailers whom want 1 or 2 at a time and are pains in the arse to deal with. I put measurements in the ads, they ask the size and I tell them again then so many will tuen up and I bring the panels out and it's " Oh, I didn't realise they were so big" . Like WTF? You can't read a tape measure to mark out the size even if you can't visualise it?? They all want 500W panels the size off a 50W panel and go off looking for something like that oblivious to the fact there are no panels half the size for the output. Aaaggghh! People say I am " Lucky" to get all these panels. Luck has nothing to do with it and it's a bit annoying when people say that. I sent loads of emails, made calls and paid companies Visits to establish I was legit in wanting their old panels and would be reliable in collecting them. It's basic sales to make yourself known and establish a rapport. Yeah, I got some thart were, come round the back and load up the first time but most were Sus at first and I was not put off by the Default NO from the receptionist that didn't have a clue and was arse covering. Talk to the real decision maker not the clueless minion. If you are in a major city in Oz at least, I don't think it would be hard to find panels in any of them. One just needs to get off their arse, put in some effort and ground work and you should be able to get more panels than you can use and an ongoing supply if you want. I got a bit too focused on getting them in the first place and I soon found I had all I needed then it was like " We have more panels here for you" and I though oh ow. Turned out they were better than I already had so I got them, replaced the ones on the roof and sold the old ones for more than I had paid for those. They kept coming so I kept getting them and set up a nice little sideline selling the things mainly up the country where I could get a better price and less hassels. I did a test advertisement and got commitments from people to take them. Took them up there and they were all gone in an hour and everyone said More please. I took up more and when they had all they wanted, they said I have a friend and the next lot went to them and they referred someone and so it went . Advertised once and the rest was WOM. Convid threw a spanner in the works of course and now the price of used panels has dropped and so has the amount of people out there looking for them it seems. Few pains in the arse wanting to send them OS and want to pay nothing for them but I don't bother with those clowns. They were OK when I got a lot of small, crappy panels no one else wanted and I got a few bucks for them but the quality of what I get now has GREATLY improved with so many new ones so I don't bother with these people any more whom are universally difficult, unreliable and lack basic manners it seems. Panels are NOT hard to come by most places if one takes the time and makes the effort with the SOURCE in the first place. I think some places are selling them to the people sending them OS which stops a lot getting to the used market in the first place. Might only take a slab of Liquid Currency for the boys to enjoy on Friday afternoon to get plenty of panels. :0) |
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| Bryan1 Guru Joined: 22/02/2006 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1343 |
G'day Guy's, Finally got that frontuis inverter all stripped and found this  Each side has 12 turns 2 in hand on and all the connections out at the base so it may just be the first choke I try. Cheers Bryan |
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Revlac Guru Joined: 31/12/2016 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1020 |
That green one is a common mode choke, ok for the AC output, not good for a transformer primary choke. What else you have there? Cheers Aaron Off The Grid |
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| Murphy's friend Guru Joined: 04/10/2019 Location: AustraliaPosts: 648 |
Bryan, the best you can do with that choke is rip off the wire and look at any markings on the core. Google them and if you find its a powdered iron core its useful. Find two or 3 more of identical cores, stick them together, wrap some decent size cable (similar to expected primary current) around it and you have a good choke for an inverter. You might get 6-8 turns around it, depending on the hole size. |
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| Bryan1 Guru Joined: 22/02/2006 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1343 |
G'Day Guy's, Well that choke I showed above just had to rewound with 10 turns of my 6.5x3mm wire I had here, did have to make a join so just filed down the end 20mm long to 1/2 the thickness and after soldering put some heatshrink over.  and a pick of it finished  As I do intend to get a mppt finished first this choke will go on that and with only 1.1Kw of panels it won't be run that hard. Also hopefully anyday now that kit for the LCR meter should turn up as it will be interesting to see what value this choke is. Cheers Bryan Edited 2023-05-15 14:05 by Bryan1 |
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| Confused Newbie Joined: 02/05/2023 Location: IrelandPosts: 17 |
Anything to look out for when buying Solar Panels. I'm going to purchase Bifacial. I have a very suitable position for them. Anybody know about " Lion" Recom Mono- HJT-390W-6BHE or are all panels fairly similar. Thank's. |
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