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RE: Solar Power System with Up-cycled Components Part 2
Like your post. I am working on a 1500 watt 24 volt system at new property I just bought. I like your dish Idea. I will think about it, but it will need to be a larger dish for me. It will be interesting to see if I can use the dish to actively track the sun with the panels. Keep posting!
What about the old C band satellite dish mounts. They were motorized to point to different "birds" and those things were quite large. I just dont know what kind of power those motors used and if they could be converted to DC.
You think like I do, LOL! I am trying to get info on the Clark belt tracking on the screw jack on thiose old dishes, to see if I can solar track with it. I use to install those (a little while ago) and the motor was small, hand size and 110 vac. BUT I have a machine shop, I bet I can make a 24 volt motor fit to match the solar system voltage. The Clark belt is 22000 miles up, and I seem to remember it was on the equator, need to check, that might be about right. I have six 255 watt panels, and plan to build at least 1000 watts more, but one of those old dishes would handle that amount of load just fine. Bet I can buy one cheap....
Heck, you could probably find one that someone wants to have ripped out. Just put out a wanted on Craigslist. I knew a guy that was using them for FTA signals. But my wife didnt want all that "junk" in the yard. I did get her to compromise for a big honking TV antenna though. I reasoned that I would be able to get her ABC for the trash tv monday shows. (bachelor DWTS etc etc)
I will try Craigs List, Thanks. I think that if I add a vertical hindged frame, the Clark belt tracking is no longer critical. I can use the original to track the hourly changes, and the new one to track the sun position above the horizion. A little machining, a little welding, and an active solar tracking is born.
I am going to have to add a big TV antenna for the same rotten programs for my sweetie too, LOL! I made a bad mistake, I taught her to shoot....
You would like my batteries, I am stripping them out of expended lap top batteries. I am recovering and testing the 18650 LiIon cells. Place seven in series, by dropping them into plastic tubing, and you have a 24 volt 60 watt battery. I have over 4000 watts of battery power from scrap so far. They can be opened, and the bad cells repaired and returned to service.
How are you charging the 18650's? I have been pulling them also from laptop batteries, but have been putting them in cheap cell phone charger cases for friends.
I love the energy density of the Lithium batteries but I also have a healthy respect for them. A lead acid battery swellls and cracks and baking soda cleans it up. A LiPo swells and cracks and FLAME ON!
Just current limit them on charge, then stop at full voltage. The trick is to watch their discharge voltage, and to draw a reasonable amount at a time. My stick battery is intended to protect from fore. You can NOT extinguish a LiIon by removing Oxygen, as it makes it's own as it burns. But, you can extinguish it if you lower the cell below the required combustion temperature. So to cool the failure, I untend to immerse the stick in water. If the failure happens, the plastic will melt, and drop the cell into the water, thus lowering the temperature below the critical Temperasture level. I will put about 30 sticks through the lid on a 5 gallon bucket, and bury the bucket in the dirt. Burying the batteries will help dissipate heat, which will increased battery life.. I intend to put a MTP3055E T-Mos power FET under the negative side of each battery, and tie them togather on the positive side with a Shottkey diode. The MosFET will allow me to turn off any battery stick that is not holding voltage, etc without shutting down my system entirely. With a couple more parts, I can make the MosFET into a current limiter too. With 350 battery sticks (@60 watts ea.), I will have a 21,000 watt storage bank. I also intend to add wind power to this system, for cloudy days.
After I am running, I will add an arduino (kids toy) to each bucket to watch min voltage, and shut it down by single sticks. Right now, I will set my inverter shutdown voltage at a safe level. The Arduino will give me about 20% more safe storage, once added, because I will not need to be so careful on cut off voltage. Watch the cut off voltages, and they will offer 15,000 full recharges before they begin to fall off.
Total immersion may just work. I honestly don't know, my experience with Hybrid Car accidents are only for extrication. I have never worked a fire with a car that had a LiPo batteries only an old civic hybrid with NiMH cells.
It is supposed to work, according to the battery company, but even if it does not, they are buried, and a LiIon cell has a limit to the amount of fuel it contains. All I have to do is protect the other battery sticks, and let it burn. Either way, it is contained, and I only lose 60 watts.
Here are the initial copper prototypes of a 12 volt, and a 24 volt battery using old laptop cells.
Her is a view inside before solder....