Thread 2926704

Previous >>2903345

I will Get a Huge 167ah Battery this year.

Reminder to read shit before axing stupid questions.
https://rentry.co/solarshit
https://rentry.co/heatshit

Currently "cooling with heat pump" is being updated in heatshit, as I experiment with my system more. Did a lot of work changing the distribution design and implemented reversed flow/return for radiator cooling. Might make a video or stream later to go over the entire thing.
Cooling an entire not too well insulated house eats up a fuckton of power though, it's doubling my power consumption.

>>2927613
I'm into soft, sensual, kissing.
I like to make love.
How will going solar affect this?

>>2927633
Pros:
1. You can run electrical sex toys on "free" electricity
2. In your soft sensual love making moments you do not have to be distracted by stray thoughts of high electrical bills
3. With solar and possibly a heat pump, you can achieve better thermal comfort in your home, on the cheap, contributing to a good environment for love making
4. Buy a jacuzzi and run it for free, make more sexy times
Cons:
1. Talking about your cool solar setup to women will not make their peepee harder
2. In extremely first world places, your HoA might bully you, interrupting your sexy times by resident Karens ringing your doorbell to tell you about how you may or may not be violating the HoA ruurus
3. You could pay many hookers for the price of the solar system

>>2927634
>1. Talking about your cool solar setup to women will not make their peepee harder
you dont talk to the corrects girls or use the correct words. alternative girls like that, you just need to use more hippy words
i almost get laid recently like that talking about solar, insulation, passive houses and canadian wells, but then i was barely able to contain my cringe when she was bullshiting me with astrology and i fucked up

>>2927637
>talk about solar, insulation, passive houses to w*man
>responds with astrology
I think I'll just die a virgin instead.

>>2927638
you dont get always that back, it is just what the last time happened
i am an astronomer, i was cringing haaaaaard

bump

Had a power outage for about two hours. Ran my fridge off a battery / inverter. It was eating around 200 watts. I used my battery ryobi fan and aimed it at the coils / compressor. Power use dropped to around 190 watts.

What are my chances on smuggling lifepo4 cells on my check luggage? Airfare and taxes are like 150% the cost of the cells.

>>2930176
0%

But if you manage to stuff them in your Shoes then you are Gucci.

>>2926704 (OP)
Anyone ever run their reptile room off solar power? I am looking into buying a snake soon and I want to use solar power for the heater and thermostats

>>2930744
It's going to be exactly as inconsistent as any other solar application. If at all viable, it's always better to do whole-house applications than "small" individual projects. Quotation marks because you'd probably still need at least a half-size 200W-ish solar panel, maybe even a 400W if you want it to work somewhat in the winter.

>>2930766
>If at all viable, it's always better to do whole-house applications than "small" individual projects
Why?

>>2930782
Because cost usually scales better. For this reptile thing, if you made a simple DC system with DC heaters and battery, you'd be looking at maybe $200-$300 cost (guessing, because I don't know how big you want to make it and what conditions it is in), with maybe 10-20% system utilization (because you have to scale it to winter consumption if you want it to be pure solar), so you're saving maybe $20 a year. A whole-house system is around $5-6k, but it might be saving you $1k+ a year.

>>2930744
buy two solar panels, one bigger and one smaller, connect them directly in series, put the smaller one in the terrarium bellow the sand, earth whatever, it will be used as a diode heater, maybe insulate bellow it, now you just need a thermostat capable of cutting of dc, a fuse that kind of basic electric stuff
>>2930791
well the trick is to not use a battery or a controller at all. dirt works as a thermal battery

>>2926704 (OP)
Greetings, Gotten my hands on a cheapo hybrid inverter that runs on 48V and has a RS485 port. No panels yet.
Ordered 2 identical 24V lifepo4 batteries for it on sale. Pic related. Both batteries have internal BMS for their cells but no output port. I reckon these 2 batteries would be better off balanced between themselves as well. Would an external BMS be up for the tasks (i.e. hook it up to the +&- on the batteries but not to their internal BMS'es) or should I crack the 2 batteries open and connect the external BMS to their invididual cells directly?

>>2930881
Probably thinking too hard for the grade of the battery. Top balance them on 24V in parallel at the start, then check them here and there if they are mostly the same voltage. Even if there is some capacity difference from the factory, it shouldn't drift significantly. And then if it does, you can worry about it then.
Chinks have these https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005008869277316.html balancer units, but if you end up with this, make sure to fuse it and don't put it near anything flammable.

Conversely, a good 16s high current BMS is at least $100, closer to $200; if you're gonna spend that much on balancing alone, you might as well just build the whole battery from scratch, probably end up with something better than C-grade Aliexpress packs.

>>2930814
>dirt works as a thermal battery
If it's enough for the terrarium, then yeah. Getting an AC backup heater for winter days is probably also much cheaper than any kind of battery setup.

>>2930885
Thanks, guess I'll be using them without an external BMS for a while. The batteries themselves are to be placed in a non-flammable environment though there's to be a long line of breakers about 1 meter directly above them.
The reviews on these chiesiums are surprisingly decent, apparently some folks have been running them for years with little to complain about; I've been planning on getting another pair to bring the system to 200Ah if these two (+ the inverter) prove to work well. A $100-200 BMS is justified in my eyes in this case.
The problem with BMS'es in general from a newcomer's perspective is that most of the time they're either already installed inside a commercial battery or are more of a DIY solution wherein they're wired to individual 3V cells. Just surprised there's so few examples of something in-between i.e. this particular case with 2 commercial batteries in series. I'd assumed these can just be treated as 2 basic cells, i.e. internal BMS take care of the 3V cells and the external one balances the two sums.

Guess we'll see how it goes, maybe I'll follow your other advice and just make somethng custom out of cells and a proper BMS. For now the immediate concern was that the system would immediately go up in toxic smoke due to no balancing between the two 24Vs.

>>2930900
>I'd assumed these can just be treated as 2 basic cells, i.e. internal BMS take care of the 3V cells and the external one balances the two sums.
That's exactly what the aliexpress thingy does that I linked.
>For now the immediate concern was that the system would immediately go up in toxic smoke due to no balancing between the two 24Vs.
No, only if the batteries had some massive fault. The BMS would always trigger a disconnect from overvoltage.

I just like custom builds because I know what cells are inside and what BMS I am using with what voltage thresholds, as opposed to mystery meat, but known brands can be okay. Or stuff that Will Prowse tests and tears down, you can see what's inside and how it works.

>>2930905
Oh alright, my bad. Couldn't figure it out until I found a picture showing that the part that goes into the 4 pin input port is just 2 pairs of positive and negative terminals. Will probably get one (or something similar) just in case, cheers.

Is going all out on Maxeon 7 panels and a 180 kWh Anker battery solution the most retarded thing one could do?
(main motivation behind all of this: spite)

>>2930918
For panels it's pure quantity > quality nowadays, for batteries it's quantity > quality as long as you have some bare minimum. Inverters are arguable on price/quality, and with safety devices you definitely want quality.
Maxeon have their warranty going for them, but why Anker batteries?

Getting my 7.5kW penis extension next week, gonna have almost 13kW total. Should hopefully cover most of the running costs of the heat pump, saving about $2k a year on gas.

Still working perfectly. Probably the first time getting the hv pack down to around 70%.
Whole lot of grinding/welding I've been putting off.
Still only have ~1.2kw of panels so I must have used a little over 6kw lel

Getting a new shed soon. Quote for running power out to it is insane. All I really need is some lighting. Are there any good options to simplify that as much as possible like maybe some sort of lights made for an RV that I could run straight off 12v? I've got deep cycle lead acid batteries scavenged from a UPS but I wonder how they'll handle hot cold cycles seeing as they've meant to be for indoor use. Are the hobo freight solar kits good enough for something like that or are they too shit even for this sort of thing. I'd want to run some decent flood lamps for maybe like 6 hours tops so I can work on my cars behind the shed.

>>2934731
Work out the watts of the lamps you want and post your approximate location. "Solar generators" would probably be good enough.

>>2934789
Mid-Atlantic. The solar part of things should be viable. I've got people around here that are full solar and there's a couple little solar farms that are supposedly viable. I'm more looking to see if my poorfag batteries will work and some suggestions for the lights.

>>2934731
just use 12v led strips, or go to 12v lamps and bulbs. that is what i used in my house until i finish fixing it and live there. temporary construction site connections are stupidly expensive here
you will need a solar panels, charger, battery, wire, fuses and switches, that is it, no need for a kit. given that you have the batteries is 100 bucks at most not counting the panels, some more if you go premium like victron for the charger
you can also get car lighter sockets so you can plug car usb chargers and other useful stuff

>>2934863
You can get 12V/24 chink truck lights that are decent in all kinds of wattages, you can use those for floodlights. Spend at least a little on the charge controller though, that's the one part that can potentially catch on fire. If possible, go for a 24V system over 12V, since lights are still easily available for 24V and you can save a bit on wiring and reduce amps. You can still get a fairly cheap 24V-12V converter to run car stuff off if you ever need that.
The absolute cheapest charge controller that might go without catching on fire is something like this https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006973513514.html
Avoid those $20 small blue ones like the plague, they claim anywhere between 20-100A rating but are actually at most capable of 5A safely, and they don't have proper internal limiters.
You can get away with cheaper MIDI fuses for fusing the system. 1-2 400W solar panels should do, ideally in series.

>>2934870
>car stuff off if you ever need that.
most car stuff can be found as a 24v variant or working on both voltages as big trucks are 24v

>>2934865
>>2934870
Bitchin. I can work with that. I'll see what AliExpress and eBay can net me and do some wattage calculations.

>>2926704 (OP)
I want to buy a battery that be be discharged and charges at the same time, to power a tiny computer plus the computers screen 24/7 so other than the port for input power from the solar panel, it would need a minimum 3 USB ports.
There are lots of batteries like this. But the place I need to run it has horrible winters and it will get down to maybe -15F at worst. So the night will be long and cold and the computer will still need to run through the night. What kind of battery is one supposed to buy for this type of area? What do Alaskans buy which also has 3 USB ports on it?

>>2935215
The battery charger/inverter and the computer will both put off an amount of heat. Perhaps get a big storage tub and insulated it a bit and just put the whole setup in there. Have them take care of each other then take the lid off in the summer. I don't know how much heat a PC would really put off for something like that but I figure if it has no room to breathe it'll be decently warm.

>>2935215
LTO is very low temp resilient, but as >>2935343 says, with enough insulation you should be able to trap residual heat from the electronics. Think 20cm thick polystyrene box, air sealed.

If you were ever wondering how bad it is when a tree shades most of your solar panels in full sunlight, I have the answer for you.
At 1PM the shadow moves to only cover 3 panels, at which point software limitation kicks in for legal reasons, so real performance at that point could've been higher, but the entire morning being fucking dead is the tree.

>>2936861
Funny how YT just showed me a video of guy testing the effect of shadows in various positions and coverage with solar panels just before my monthly check up on /diy/.

>>2934731
the 12/24v solar charge controllers often have a load output, if you run your led lighting out of that you usually also get undervoltage protection so you don't have to worry about leaving the light on for too long

>>2935215
some bms boards have output pins to wire up to a heater, so you could send the solar power to some sort of thin-film heaters placed between your prismatic cells until they're up to temp
otherwise your bms will stop your lifepo4 cells charging at below 0 celcius anyhow, assuming you put the thermistor somewhere sensible

>>2936861
series or parallel panels?

>>2938184
Series, parallel would be maybe somewhat better. I've hit 6kW after cutting some branches, at least.

>>2938377
Series is definitely worse for when panels might be clouded, as the current must pass through all panels. But then again, parallel is worse for needing thick wires and splitter cables. Some combination of both is probably best.

I'm thinking of building an outdoor weather + air quality station. I'm talking arduino/esp32 type project. Where I can build the thing and leave out there year round to ping data to my house. It will have temperature, humidity, wind speed, particulate matter
Maybe I'll add more sensors later if this works. I want to put it in a little dog house type box outside with the solar panel on the roof of it and the electronics+battery inside.
What kind of solar setup do I need?

I was thinking a 12V lead acid battery. Maybe a 10W-20W panel. Some basic charge controller. Am I on the right track? It's probably oversized to run some little Arduino project but I don't know of a smaller scale setup. I thought of repurposing some 18650 solar light. But lithium is supposed to be no good to charge below freezing.

> If your application strictly requires charging a battery in freezing temperatures, lead acid can theoretically go all the way to -40°C - with many caveats
Where I am the temperature range is -20C to 35C (-4F to 95F). Realistically the cold temperature range is -10C to 0C. Maybe a few days year does it go to -20C range. I read elsewhere that lead acid can also freeze??? But this here guide says it can do -40C with caveats. What are the caveats?
I can't tell who is being pedantic internet nerd vs practical use.

Am I overthinking or can I just make some basic 12v lead acid setup. Then make sure my electronics sips little battery as possible so it's basically always near full charge.
I've already made battery powered temperature/humidity sensor and PM2.5/CO2 sensors. They operate at very low poll rate for long run time. I'm looking to make larger scale weather station thing. I don't know what I'm doing with this solar stuff.

>>2939938
Within the scope you have, there's a plethora of options.
I'd say the easiest option by far is to just get a large enough NMC 18650 battery that it can outlast the winter. These esp32 sensor projects can have very very low power consumption if they are sufficiently optimized, you can run one for several years off just a single 18650 with a single charge.
Now, since you want a weather station, weather station will probably have sensors that run on interrupts, so you can't utilize deep sleep mode and as such won't get the ultra low power consumption, but you can still achieve about 50-100 days off a single charge of a single 18650 with light sleep and some reserve for broadcasting data in intervals. Get 3 18650 in parallel and you should easily get through winter. Repurpose a 5V solar power bank's circuitry or whatever else for charging, maybe give the esp32 functionality to disable charging when it detects enclosure temperature under 0C. There are lots of various solar-lithium charging modules on aliexpress, you can even just get a 5V solar panel and connect it to a USB-to-18650 charging circuit's input.

More complicated options would be LTO, Na-ion batteries or an insulated enclosure with a built-in heater that uses the solar panel to heat the enclosure before starting to charge the NMC battery.
>caveats for lead acid
Decreased capacity, decreased efficiency, risk of freezing if you discharge the battery too much when it's too cold. Lead acid is still workable, I just wouldn't use it in any project, because the longevity of the batteries is so bad even without the low temp factor.

Insulating the electronics box really well could also be enough to maintain 0C+ inside even without additional heating. Maybe putting a tiny resistor on the solar side to dump like 0.1-0.2W inside the box all the time from solar.

big oil won
they laugh at solarfags

>>2939970
Chinks will laugh at big oil soon enough. Arguably already laughing.

Given electricity is 20 cents a kwh it seems a waste to generate it oneself. For me I prefer having batteries and power stations just for those rare occasions when I get a power outage.

>>2940093
A solar system is somewhere in the range of 5 cents per kWh over 20 years, it's even worse if you already pay out of the ass for meme generators as "backup".

>>2940094
And as soon as you think of running a 1500 watt electric heater it makes solar/battery look foolish.

>>2940110
Because of what?

>>2939950
>More complicated options would be LTO, Na-ion batteries or an insulated enclosure with a built-in heater that uses the solar panel to heat the enclosure before starting to charge the NMC battery
Honestly Na-ion wouldn't be hard to do properly, the worst thing about that chemistry is the large voltage range, you wouldn't be able to use something like a HT7333 to step the voltage down to 3.3V with minimum quiescent current like you can with NMC. If you wanted to run the MCU off a single sodium ion cell with no step-up converter it would need to be able to run at like 2.9V, which may not be suitable for an ESP. Apparently the units without internal flash memory can run down to 2.3V, so it might be an option, but I'm unsure about the RF parts. Running 2S or 3S means cell balancing if you plan on charging them in situ, running 1S otherwise means both step-up and step-down.

As for charging, the CN3795 is an excellent variable voltage low-power "MPPT" solar charge controller, suitable even for tiny panels.

>>2940110
Because gas heaters or heat-pumps make more sense than ever trying to use a 1500W heater on an energy budget?

Is it me or is the government auctioning off all it's solar panels for nothing right now?

>>2942389
Old solar panels are literally worth less than nothing. Not because they don't perform well, but because anything under 400W will have you waste more money on the mounting frame components than it would cost to buy brand new panels.

>>2942449
Not when I mount them with 2 by 4 lmao

>>2942449
I am just throwing those things in the lawn or jerry rigging shit with scrap metal.

>>2927613
Thanks for the great solar guide, anon. I wish everything was written in 4chan style, textbooks could reference "being (financially) raped" or getting "jewed" and it would make them a lot more entertaining.

>>2927638
Show name?

>>2943048
Boku no Pon

>>2943097
Can’t find it on nyaa