Wasted Energy

hako · Guru

Wasted Energy

Aus-Kiwi · Guru

We do that with our old motorhome.. Run our house fridge, freezer ..

Peter_n_Margaret · Guru

Fine to run something from the power produced, but avoid running it when the panels are not producing power, otherwise the batteries will need to cycle and that will eventually cost more than the power produced.

Cheers,
Peter

hako · Guru

Peter_n_Margaret wrote:
Fine to run something from the power produced, but avoid running it when the panels are not producing power, otherwise the batteries will need to cycle and that will eventually cost more than the power produced.

Cheers,
Peter

Thanks Peter - I'm not worried about the batteries cycling or whatever as they are just old car batteries that I've rejuvenated so they cost nothing, but apart from that if the batteries do cycle then it is no different to what happens when camping I'd imagine.

Kiwi - that's a good idea and one I can easily do.

Regards

Peter_n_Margaret · Guru

Correct that it is no different from camping, but it is cycling batteries that 'wears them out'.
If wearing the batteries out does not bother you, then go for it.

Just to put it into perspective though, your 80W of solar will collect about 400Wh of energy each sunny day. In Adelaide where we have expensive power, that would save about 13 cents per day.

Cheers,
Peter

Delta18 · Guru

hako wrote:
No, I'm not talking about sitting on your butt and watching the world go by, I'm talking about those solar panels that in my case are semi-permanently attached to the roof racks on my Territory.
They run 2 X 60 AH batteries in the back which are always fully charged because there is nothing to run off them in the car. So there is an untapped source of FREE energy just sitting there going to waste when not on the road. I have 80 watts of panels on the roof rack and commonly see 6 amps flowing if I purposely drain some battery power.
Maybe I could attach the inverter and run a 240Vac lead into the house and run the TV or whatever off the lead.
As it stands it is going to waste.
Any ideas?

Good Luck.

Can you direct the power from the 'unused' 60ah batteries to the crank battery? If you do 'stop start' driving this will help keep that battery full. Also, it has been said that by easing pressure on the car alternator there can be some minute fuel consumption improvement.

Surely for some people anyway that do several short daily trips, the panel replacing battery charge while sitting in the sun in a shopping centre car park is a good thing.

PeterD · Guru

hako wrote:
So there is an untapped source of FREE energy just sitting there going to waste when not on the road. I have 80 watts of panels on the roof rack and commonly see 6 amps flowing if I purposely drain some battery power.

Look at things in another light. It's not going to waste. Your panels are simply not converting the suns energy to electrical power. They will not do that unless you put a significant load on them. The sun is simply going about its job of running the Earth's weather. Your solar panels are not thieving any of that energy for you to use.

Aus-Kiwi · Guru

May do it different Next time . Connect up to the solar panels On House .

hako · Guru

I've figured I will use the "free" power to light my workshop and run the radio in there - probably save maybe 6c a day.....only a token gesture but it will satisfy me I hope.
Our house has solar panels plus a solar HWS so we get free electricity and hot water plus a refund cheque from Ergon for over $1000 per year. Most of the water is from our tank so maybe I could use the 12Vdc to pump tank water to a header tank.
Bottom line is maybe 1 step forward and 2 steps back is the result, but like camping it is good fun and you've got to spend your dollar on something.
Regards