After a month of continuous use of my electric farm vehicles its time to charge them. My UTV was down to 19% charge and had "LOW" displaying on the screen. The electric bike still had quite a bit of charge left at around 70%. So I figured this would be the perfect time to test out array-c and see how well it slowly charges my machines. I have already tested fast charging, and it works as long as I have clear skies. But as soon as a cloud blocks that light I drop below the power needed for fast charging. Though if I slow charge I should be able to fully charge them regardless of how cloudy it is. The battery bank is able to provide around 3kw of power just by itself.
There is no grid on this inverter.. Just solar and batteries. At the time of this picture it is fully charging from the solar panels, but sometimes like early and late in the day it does dip into the batteries. But never more than it can provide when slow charging.
Its nice being able to see what is going on the display. I can see the solar power production, the battery draw/charge, the AC load and if I had grid power I would see how much I am importing. But array-C is fully off grid.
Been putting a lot of use into the UTV, I have to use it when the weather is bad, or carrying stuff. So I tend to use it alot more than the electric dirt bike.
It take take up to two days to charge the UTV on its 120v setting. Using 240v is much quicker, but as stated if its cloudy at all it uses too much power. So I am just charging the UTV during the day, unplugging the charger at night when the solar power drops off and then plugging back in the morning when the solar panels are producing again.
With this kind of cloud cover it can lower my solar input by up to half. So this is why I am charging slow. Probably better for the batteries anyways to have the power flow into them slow.
The bike charged up really fast, its battery is much smaller than the UTVs. Should be good for a few months on the electric dirt bike now its fully charged, and should get at least another month out of the UTV before I need to bring it back to the storage building to charge it up again.
It is a little annoying having to come out and unplug it at night and plug back in the morning, but its really nothing compared to other daily tasks on the farm so its just another thing to keep up on. I do not plan on letting the UTV get down to 19% again. That was more of an endurance test to see how long I can get by on a single charge. Probably going to top off the batteries when it gets down to about half in the future.
Wait, so you used them for a whole month before you needed to charge them? That's actually not bad at all!
Yep that is correct, maybe in the winter I will use it more. But seems to last quite a while.
That's pretty impressive.
What about using a "cad cell" (cadmium sulfide photoresistor) to do an "on at dawn, off at dusk" scenario — like how an outdoor security light works, but in reverse? When there's daylight outside, the charging system engages, and turns off when darkness falls. 😃
Oh cool yeah that would be really helpful. I need to find one that can handle the wattage of my charger but indeed that could work.
thanks for the suggestion.
can't you do the unplug and replug with domotica on a timer ?
Yeah good point I could.
That daytime only routine for the UTV makes alot of sense with the clouds chopping your solar by half.
Letting it sip at 120v for two days is slower, but it keeps array C and teh 3kw bank in the comfort zone.
The 19% endurance run shows your right to top off around half next time, and that dusk unplug and morning plug back suits the setup.
Clouds playing peekaboo with fast charge is peak farm life comedy, but slow and steady wins here.
Hehe it is all pretty amazing how well this system works now.
I love my ebike! Being able to charge it from the sun for free would make me so happy!
Do you know of any cool new battery tech coming out?
Thanks, it is pretty cool.
Hmm not really.
You always have a bunch of cool gadgets :) It is like an adult playground! Someday I might do something like this as well, actually thinking of adding solar panels to my house again...
Hah yeah I surely do.
Nice well hope you find some you like.
That is a pretty cool system! So many ideas 🤣
Hah thanks.. yeah I look forward to others building their own and posting it too.
Solar panels offer many benefits: they are environmentally friendly, economical, and provide energy independence. However, their power generation is indeed affected by sunlight intensity and duration.