Search found 144 matches

by AccordGuy
Fri Jul 25, 2008 6:19 pm
Forum: Alternative Power
Topic: Beware modified sine inverters!
Replies: 3
Views: 7537

Pure sine ones might have replaced mod-sine inverters technically but the stores round here only stock mod-sine ones (all the way up to 5kW) as "there's no demand for pure sine ones". I asked about the Cotek one they claimed to stock but it's a 4 week pre-order to get one... She said they'...
by AccordGuy
Thu Jul 24, 2008 10:36 am
Forum: Alternative Power
Topic: Beware modified sine inverters!
Replies: 3
Views: 7537

Beware modified sine inverters!

I'm looking to take back my 600W inverter to the shop I bought it from a couple of weeks ago. It works ok (in so much as modified sine ones can) but while the lights and the laptop work on on it, the LCD TV doesn't care much for it. The TV works but makes a loud mechanical 100Hz buzzing from it's po...
by AccordGuy
Thu Jul 24, 2008 9:48 am
Forum: Alternative Power
Topic: Battery Score!!!
Replies: 9
Views: 11022

Gosh, I wish I could find stuff like that... There used to be a "magic skip" at the back of the engineering department of my university. It was magic because no matter how much stuff they put in it - it never got full. Engineering students would routinely scavenge stuff from it (old electr...
by AccordGuy
Thu Jul 10, 2008 5:18 am
Forum: Alternative Power
Topic: Solar cookin at the Slabs
Replies: 6
Views: 6434

Not to mention the user burn hazard... My wife often burns her fingers and melts assorted plastic items on our halogen ceramic hobs. With a perfectly flat black surface that gets just occasionally red hot (when the halogen element is on) it's really easy to forget the surface is hot (especially as s...
by AccordGuy
Wed Jul 09, 2008 12:46 am
Forum: Alternative Power
Topic: Just getting started
Replies: 82
Views: 128993

Was there a reason for using 6v batteries rather than 12v ones in your set-ups? - other than the problem of lifting such massive 350Ah batteries? My wife was mentioning my experiments to her family on a web cam the other day and my father-in-law piped up "Oh we're getting solar power installed ...
by AccordGuy
Tue Jul 08, 2008 10:20 am
Forum: Alternative Power
Topic: How often do you replace your solar batteries?
Replies: 3
Views: 6130

Hahahaha... I'm so minor league :D I've got an old 70Ah leisure battery that I've had kicking around for about 7 years and a bunch of car batteries in various states of ruin. At the moment I've got the leisure battery and a new 70Ah car battery in parallel for this solar experiment. The car battery ...
by AccordGuy
Tue Jul 01, 2008 8:40 pm
Forum: Alternative Power
Topic: How often do you replace your solar batteries?
Replies: 3
Views: 6130

How often do you replace your solar batteries?

I've been looking at different types of deep cycle lead acid batteries for solar use and it seems the best ones are carbon fibre ones that are rated to around 1000 80% discharge cycles. On a daily use, small scale solar system that could mean replacing these quite expensive batteries every 3 years.....
by AccordGuy
Tue Jul 01, 2008 1:11 pm
Forum: Alternative Power
Topic: Just getting started
Replies: 82
Views: 128993

Thanks Sharkey. Although an electronic engineer (in the past) I'd never played with PV cells beyond some little toy kits. Incidentally, for anyone else who wants a good primer on PV technology and theory you can look through this on-line study guide. http://www.udel.edu/igert/pvcdrom/index.html It's...
by AccordGuy
Mon Jun 30, 2008 1:39 pm
Forum: Alternative Power
Topic: Just getting started
Replies: 82
Views: 128993

Just getting started

I'm just playin' around with some cheap PV panels... I've got 6 panels so far (2x 12w 17.5v and 4x 15w 17.5). The 12w ones have blocking diodes built in and the 15w ones don't. If wiring them all in parallel, do I need to add blocking diodes to the ones that don't have them? I'm running them through...