Collecting Sun-rays.

Yesterday, late afternoon, I plugged in half of the solar array to the combiner box. (1000 watts out of 2000) Before it rained and went dark, I was able to harvest 200watts. Today has been mostly cloudy. It started to rain in the late afternoon. Occasionally the sun broke out between the clouds and beat down onto the panels. (Still only half connected) Saw a lovely sight of 15.2 amps being put into my drained and bottom balanced Lithium Iron Phosphate battery pack. Or 819Watts.

The whole bottom balancing these cells are different than Lead Acid batteries. You pull each individual cell down to 2.750 volts. Get all of them within a few milli-volts of each other. Then charge them all up (connected in series for a nominal 48v pack (actually 56v) ) together.

Happily, as they are charging up, they are remaining well balanced. The last reading after today's cloudy day, putting in 2.4 KwH, showed them all within 2mV.

Fantastic.

I am relieved to no longer need to balance the cells. All in all, it took me a week and a half for the 16 cells. Between the rain, building the other structures, sleeping, and sun-stroke.

Tomorrow I'll connect both strings to the combiner box. Today showed me that even in some not so perfect conditions, half of the array was producing enough to power (per hour) my 42in TV for an hour. With the full array pulling in power.... I should be golden!

A view into our Life.

2000 Watts basking in the sun.

Putting 15.2 amps into the batteries. 819 Watts (1000watts connected)