125w solar panel.I now have 3 more.4 in total 500w plus

[honkydudeman]

why not use battery charger as dumpload to charge another battery ,to keep it topped up ?are you still doing stuff?it all looks really good +you present well,with no nonsense like many do ,thanx jim

[kricotas]

i have 18 batterys of 12 v 300 watts my bank..:)

but i have only one solar panel 85 watts

takes long to full but looks nice to see it works

for 7 days i used just tv, box hd tv, 60 watts light

10 mins of hair dryer :)

from 13.20 batteris full 7 days down to 12.40

i use 7000.00 watts!!!

wow!!

[cowboywithspurs36]

just wondering but why dump the extra load on small stuff? why not get more batteries ? i'm just learning so bare with me on this q's

[windysolar1]

@cowboywithspur

as the banks get fuller the excess voltage has to go somewhere

a heating element is most efficient

[HISandman]

500 watt? is that per hour during daylight hours? I'm not sure how that works... It would off set my computer tower! 

[windysolar1]

@HISandman

still has to come from somewhere

[HISandman]

@windysolar1 What I'm asking.. is.. Is that 500 watt per hour, daylight hours? if so I think thats awesome! my comment, "it would offset my computer tower" just saying that it's impressive! it would be a great outcome for what I have going on here.

[kricotas]

how many bateries do you have?

why dont show us the way you did it? how do u installed?

anybody can just videotape and say anything

[windysolar1]

@kricotas

28 in total 4x6v cells to a bank = 24vdc 7 banks in total Yuasa backup battery's

thought I covered the batteries but if I haven I will add a video very soon

[7501234]

I have about 400 watts in solar panels but still thinking what to do with them, if to grid tie or charge batteries for black outs....

[aseglkj]

@7501234 it would make sense to do both ...

[windysolar1]

@7501234

feed it into the grid a reduce your bills

[mrbuki77]

@7501234 Do both, I do! I have seperate "green" lines for solar 110v outlets in my home, and also use a GTI to feed the grid when my battery bank is full. Or, as I mostly do, perform both at the same time. Sam

[mrbuki77]

I don't know if your using a bulb still for the dump load. But perhaps get a micro inverter that plugs into an electrical outlet inside your home to feed some juice into your home an slow down your electrical meter a little. Just an idea to think about. Hi from sunny FL

[windysolar1]

@mrbuki77

if you feed it in directly it will blow up the equipment because the amp age in the utility is a lot stronger

I tested that with a 300w inverter bang and a puff of smoke

[mrbuki77]

@windysolar1, the are special Grid Tied Inverters, such as the one that I use. You can see the one I have on my videos. These units can be found to take voltage inputs from as low as 10.5v. Just make sure to match the watts coming in from the panels to the size inverter you need. The unit you used may not have been the correct type or set correctly. Most GTI's have a small switch to input into the home's power 110v or 220v. Sam

[Blondets1]

if you extend the mast another 10 ' up. You could also put a small wind turbine as well.

[davidrrrd]

a water heater would be a great dump load

[windysolar1]

My system is full after one hour at BULK CHARGE 28.6v then it drops to FLOAT 26.6v and keeps trickle charging until I use some of the power up ,then it all starts all over again.

[windysolar1]

As your battery's charge up the voltage increases but the Amp-age decreases.

so when your battery bank is nealy ( 90% )full the charge controller starts to dump the extra power to the dump load .then the charge controller waits until the battery's are 100% full which takes a long time up to 24 hours on some systems depending on how much power you have coming in.

[minicoppergpiscool]

So is the light or I guess water heater only on when the voltage passes 13 volts will it shut of when the voltage gets to 12 volts

[windysolar1]

A dump load is used to absorb the excess power when the voltage rises above the safe level that the battery's need to charge.

Too much and the battery's cook which will destroy the plates inside. creating heat in water or air.

A safety valve for battery's

[minicoppergpiscool]

What is a dump load. Will it light up if the batteries are not fully charged.

[pranabm1]

Hi,

Could you please send me some details of how you did this as we want to also put some solar panels in our house ? Thanx

[dapdannic]

hey windy,

i use those panels as well. on a good day i can get 11 amp from each panel. check out my videos. nice set up. i especially like the mount pole you got the panel on

[london1817]

Cool Man, You have done a great thing for yourself & the earth!! Thanks for your dedication!

[MariusSoma]

They are quite expensive, do they actually make that much of a contribution to be of any significant value? How consistent are they? Sorry, I know these are noob questions, these are very new to me.

[ZELPHOR]

Nice job

[princes69]

Great video dude....

Houston, Texas

[Lanny615]

Greetings from Jamaica. I have a small 18w panel and inverter/battery for standby use only but will upgrade shortly to abt. 50 Watts. Its my new hobby and i hope to keep upgrading till my home is fully powered by solar and wind. I enjoyed your video.

[evadb51]

I have a small wind turbine and a small solar panel your right about solar panels they give out a steady volts and amps most of the time my only concern is the way you have it mounted in a good wind it could turn into a kite personaly i would have mounted it on the roof of your out building it would be a lot securer and easier to maintain[lot of money to go skyward]?

[windysolar1]

my pole is concreated into the ground and guyed up as well.

I will be mounting 4 of these soon

it survived all the last gales with no trouble

check out some of the arrays online like this

[BirdValiant]

Just wondering - what happens in the winter when snow covers the panel? Is it slick and steep enough such that no snow can stick, or will efficiency be lowered when the the dust starts to cover it? I guess that it doesn't matter too much in the winter when there's so little light anyway...

[windysolar1]

last year my small panels got covered with snow but they soon melted plus that's why I have a wind turbine for winter to take up the slack in power generation

[craigjkb]

great set up

[MobileDJ1961]

Great Video mate, thanks.

[pauloz386]

A quick question for you electronic whiz people, I want to charge 3 12v batteries in parallel then throw a switch to connect them in series to make 36v, I have tried but I've obviously down something wrong as that blue magical smoke was released last time I tried. My question is what type and how to wire the switch. any advice gratefully received.

[windysolar1]

to charge the battery's they must be connected in parallel for 12v charging,

but you want to get 36v out of the battery's.

you would have to rewire the battery's in series.

+ to - between all 3 battery's, this will give you 36v but it is complicated to get round this problem ( but not imposible)I think if all the batterys had blocking diodes on the 12v curcuit might work but I have not tryed this so at your own risk.

[pauloz386]

cheers! from Australia

[TiredOldFart]

The simplest way it to make a DC to DC upconverter.  Then you don't need to change any connections.

[tubeyoufloyd]

very good set-up.I do wish that you would post a build list of your components,my wife is really impressed with this design

[hitechguy18]

sunshinesolar - co - uk

Useful site

[BYF2007]

its great to see people into inexhaustable resources like wind and solar.

[metalmaji]

solar panels use easy and inexpensive to make. though countries are fighting for oil. oil companies are controlling the world, they bought all the official solar panel technologies. and they don't allow to sell simple solar panels at cheap price. so people cannot afford it and they have to buy oil from them.

[flir67]

you got a great set-up, you should run it into the house.and power the lighting circuit or such. nice gear

[greenmountainsolar]

cool. good luck on your diversion load. i suggest an attic fan. the need for an attic fan matches sunny days great. look at my site sometime. chris. greenmountainsolar dot com.

[windysolar1]

if you know something I don't please educate us all by posting a reply, I believe this is the future weather our government likes it or not. It amuses me how house builders in the UK call some of there houses low carbon buildings.

[windysolar1]

I am hoping to get this system finished one day soon but its in the design stages at present but if anyone has any questions please post a question and I will try my best to help them.also

We all need an incentive to convert and think about what we waist in the UK.

I think lots of talks would help this along.

[ljpacey]

£300 wow

[Jibbie49]

Do you give talks to local people to help educate them about doing this for themselves? Most people just don't know how to get started.

[steamsoldier]

Very impressive Windy!