LIVING OFF GRID

This blog is about our travels in our solar powered "Airstream" and living off grid, in our passive solar home, near Bancroft, Ontario, Canada.

If you have any questions send us a comment; we love to hear from our readers.
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Tuesday 17 January 2012

Solar Problems

We've had cloudy weather conditions the past few days which isn't good for those depending on solar power. When the sun did briefly appear I expected to see our volt meter jump up into the positive reading scale and show 21 amps going into our battery. Not the case. It still read -0.5 with no loads on the system.


Did some investigating and this is what I found, melted fuse holder. Not good. This wire was too hot to hold and the problem is the spring in these fuse holders, it is too small to carry the current. If you have such a set-up in your system, keep an eye on it. The spring acts as a resistance and soon melts and cuts off the flow to your batteries.


Phil came over, and installed a "Maxi-Fuse" . This is a monster fuse and holder, excellent connections, no springs and very little voltage loss. Thanks Phil.


My panels are rated at 7.6 amps per panel which should give me 22.8 amps on a sunny day.


With the new fuse holder and larger wire I'm getting 24.7 amps and should have fully charged, happy batteries in a couple of days.


Out in the desert, enjoying the solar power once again.

Thanks for your help Phil and Paul. I appreciate you guys so much for your assistance, help and suggestions whenever I have a problem.

Safe travels everyone.

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