Posted: Tue May 11, 2010 9:34 pm
Been away for a while but there's been no shortage of tinkering and upgrades here.
Shortly after I got those 80W panels, I discovered that the new Morningstar MPPT controllers had hit the UK (finally) and so it was time for a major upgrade...
I went the whole 9 yards and ordered the Tristar MPPT-60 and its optional meter. This meant I could dispense with the multimeters blu-tacked to the wall and talk to the thing over Ethernet rather than just a serial port.
Mmmmm Shiny.
Got it all installed on the wall and only demolished one bit of plasterboard corner than will need some plaster patching (ahem...).
I was pootling around in the local HW store looking for rubber grommets to go in the HUGE knockouts (wot don't knock out without a 50lb lump hammer >:() and saw some neat two slot consumer unit-type-things and next to 'em... 100A dual pole two slot MCBs! I'd been wondering how to upgrade the existing disconnect switches that I had (puny 20A automotive ones) and had toyed with the idea of 45A cooker switches. But 45A still isn't enough for a 60A charge controller. These 100A MCBs are ideal though (assuming they'll actually work at 24V-46V DC).
I'd never got round to putting disconnects on the PV inputs to the charge controllers before but as there were two sets of these things in the shop, I went for it. So I used one double pole MCB to break the two PV inputs to the two controllers and the other one to break the outputs of the controllers to their fused battery connections. Of course, normally both breakers will be closed and I'd try not to go opening them when under heavy load (that's how one old 16A switch burned out). I'd looked at "proper" solar DC disconnects but they are very expensive and I don't actually need switches rated for switching 400V DC.
I uprated all the battery wiring to the controllers (10mmsq all round for the old 15A SunSaver and 20/25mmsq for the new TriStar)... Pity that the feeder from the junction box outside was only 6mmsq... More on that later.
And with a bit of the magic yellow thing in the sky...
THAR SHE BLOWS!!!!
Shame about the cheap yellow rubber buttons wot you have to stab quite hard to make work properly. And the charge status LEDs that don't come anywhere near the window in the front plate so you can't see them properly from anywhere other than straight-on in front of the thing... Might have to fettle that when the thing's been "run-in".
Stay tuned for more catch-up news (this was just February!).
Shortly after I got those 80W panels, I discovered that the new Morningstar MPPT controllers had hit the UK (finally) and so it was time for a major upgrade...
I went the whole 9 yards and ordered the Tristar MPPT-60 and its optional meter. This meant I could dispense with the multimeters blu-tacked to the wall and talk to the thing over Ethernet rather than just a serial port.
Mmmmm Shiny.
Got it all installed on the wall and only demolished one bit of plasterboard corner than will need some plaster patching (ahem...).
I was pootling around in the local HW store looking for rubber grommets to go in the HUGE knockouts (wot don't knock out without a 50lb lump hammer >:() and saw some neat two slot consumer unit-type-things and next to 'em... 100A dual pole two slot MCBs! I'd been wondering how to upgrade the existing disconnect switches that I had (puny 20A automotive ones) and had toyed with the idea of 45A cooker switches. But 45A still isn't enough for a 60A charge controller. These 100A MCBs are ideal though (assuming they'll actually work at 24V-46V DC).
I'd never got round to putting disconnects on the PV inputs to the charge controllers before but as there were two sets of these things in the shop, I went for it. So I used one double pole MCB to break the two PV inputs to the two controllers and the other one to break the outputs of the controllers to their fused battery connections. Of course, normally both breakers will be closed and I'd try not to go opening them when under heavy load (that's how one old 16A switch burned out). I'd looked at "proper" solar DC disconnects but they are very expensive and I don't actually need switches rated for switching 400V DC.
I uprated all the battery wiring to the controllers (10mmsq all round for the old 15A SunSaver and 20/25mmsq for the new TriStar)... Pity that the feeder from the junction box outside was only 6mmsq... More on that later.
And with a bit of the magic yellow thing in the sky...
THAR SHE BLOWS!!!!
Shame about the cheap yellow rubber buttons wot you have to stab quite hard to make work properly. And the charge status LEDs that don't come anywhere near the window in the front plate so you can't see them properly from anywhere other than straight-on in front of the thing... Might have to fettle that when the thing's been "run-in".
Stay tuned for more catch-up news (this was just February!).