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Post by Robbo on Feb 8, 2017 18:13:50 GMT
Check out mastervolt controllers, they may link up to your current equipment better to have finer control of charging. It's all rather old kit, I suspect the current stuff wouldn't communicate. If it did I doubt I'd want to pay for it! If your looking to spend around £500 on the controller then I would investigate the MasterVolt stuff and see if it's compatible with your kit. Unless your stuff is really old I'm guessing it will be compatable to some degree. In addition if any of your current MasterVolt stuff suddenly goes bang, would you replace it with MasterVolt kit? If that's a yes then to me that's a stronger pull to use the same make.
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Post by Andyberg on Feb 8, 2017 18:25:48 GMT
If your looking to spend around £500 on the controller. Do people who live on boats actually do that??? Why?
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Post by Robbo on Feb 8, 2017 18:55:27 GMT
If your looking to spend around £500 on the controller. Do people who live on boats actually do that??? Why???? I know, I mean why have a decent narrowboat when a cheap GRP would do. Still floats doesn't it.
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Post by lollygagger on Feb 8, 2017 19:31:33 GMT
If your looking to spend around £500 on the controller. Do people who live on boats actually do that??? Why? Not me guv, £250-300 should do 200w and a controller I hope!
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Post by Deleted on Feb 8, 2017 19:32:22 GMT
If there is a lack of room its worth considering buying an old motorised satellite dish mount if you can find one. I got on eBay for £10. Binned the dish and mounted a solar panel in its place. I put a tiny (4"x2") solar panel at right angles stuck to the right hand side of the big panel. This mini panel was able to switch a small relay when the sun shone on it. By arranging this relay to energise the satellite jack (linear actuator) it would successfully track the sun because as soon as the main panel was aligned the mini panel would be in shade and turn off the relay.
It worked. Then I got a mooring with electric. I still have the parts and am going to try to get it going again.
satellite dishe mounts are polar aligned so the track is very similar to what the sun does. Not identical but similar and if you can align a solar panel fairly well it does make a big difference.
Pain in the arse for bridges but nice to see it working !
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Post by lollygagger on Feb 8, 2017 19:43:27 GMT
My attitude, having come to terms with my all THEN nothing attitude to stuff, is to overspec,, install and forget I ever did it. Maintenance and attention is boring, I'd rather do something new.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 8, 2017 19:48:08 GMT
To be fair solar is so ridiculously cheap now if you can spare the roof space just get big panels and an mppt controller and mount flat. When I bought my panels in the late nineties it was £350 for a 75w 12v panel !!
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Post by lollygagger on Feb 8, 2017 19:58:11 GMT
To be fair solar is so ridiculously cheap now if you can spare the roof space just get big panels and an mppt controller and mount flat. When I bought my panels in the late nineties it was £350 for a 75w 12v panel !! /I agree, my worry isn't cost, it's that I'd like to expend my energy into knowing that when I've fitted it, it will work without attention, without confusing any other charging equipment or screwing up batteries while I sit back and get mindlessly pissed. I've spent plenty of life in attentive mode while those around me benefited from my activity. It's my turn to not care, but I need to plan for it as it's still me paying!
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