Performing a Charging Test On A Home Solar Power System




When you have all the solar components such as the solar panel, meter gauges, charge controller, battery bank and power inverter all connected, the next step is to do a charging test to make sure everything is working fine.

First, get your multi-meter and set it on DC amperage. Clamp it on the live wire coming out from the charge controller going right to the battery. See what kind of juice you are getting. You should see a DC amperage figure on the multi-meter.

Since the battery is running on 12 volts, you can calculate how much power is going into the battery by multiplying the amperage (I) with the voltage (V). That will determine how much power in watts you can withdraw from the batteries.

When you want to find out how long the battery will last, it actually depends on what kind of load is consuming the power. If you are trying to run a 150 watt flood lights on the outside of your house at night, the deep cycle batteries of your solar system will only last for a couple of hours.

Therefore, when using renewable energy such as solar, it is best to go for economical lighting fixtures such as using compact florescent bulbs that draws only 800 milliamps. Such energy efficient light bulbs will run for weeks by using power from the battery.

If you don’t want to use the power inverter, you can even use a 12 volt marine activated light and it will work directly with the 12 volt battery. You don’t need to use the inverter at all thus extending the battery output.

Depending on what you actually want to run, you choose your lightings and your loads and that will determine how much run time you will get out of your home solar system battery bank.

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Greenhouse Maintenance Tips – Taking Care Of Snow Build Up



If you live in a cold weather location, snow load on a greenhouse is a definite something to be watched closely. If you are using a rounded roof greenhouse with a flat top, you will see a heavy snow load build up there. The extra weight on the roof of the greenhouse may cause it to collapse.

When there is a heavy blizzard followed by a late winter rain followed by a freezing night, there could easily have several tons of snow and ice on the greenhouse. This is the time you have to do some maintenance.

How do you take care of the snow load on the greenhouse? There are several ways you can go about.

1) Use a support post and wedge it under the center purlin.

You can use a sturdy wooden post and wedge it under the spine of the roof. This will provide a lot of support from below. This option will handle light snow load but doesn’t work so well with heavier ones.

2) Watching the weather forecast.

The best approach is to be prepared. Watch the weather forecast on the news and don’t go away when a blizzard is predicted.

You can use a specialized roof rake to clear the snow built up. Make sure the tool is long enough so you can reach way up and be able to bring the snow down.

The snow will tend to slide off like an avalanche in large sheets. All you have to do is catch it at the right angle. Sometime you’ll be able to clear the whole section of the greenhouse roof with one clean sweep. It’s kind of dramatic and also nice to know your greenhouse won’t be collapsing.

If you’ve put all your energy and time in constructing a greenhouse, you don’t want it to collapse because of snow load. Build it stout and be prepared to sweep the snow off the greenhouse in the middle of the night. I know it is a hassle, but this simple effort will make sure your greenhouse last for a long time.

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Installing Solar Panel On The Roof – Sealing The Roof Holes




After you’ve done making the Do It Yourself (DIY) solar panel, the next step is to mount it on the roof. There are a couple of ways to do this. The simplest way is to mount the solar panel on metal rails attached to the roof.

But what happens when you mount the metal rail to the roof?

In the process, a screw will be used to penetrate the shingles. The screw from the rail will go inside a stud in the roof cavity to hold the entire thing sturdy. A hole in the shingle is a potential for leakage when it rains.

To seal the hole on the roof shingle, it is best to use an asphalt based caulking that goes into a standard caulking gun.

If you have never done this before, don’t worry, the caulking gun is quite easy to use. You’ll get a hang of it after a few trail runs.

Use the caulking gun to fill the hole made by the screw of the metal rail. That will prevent rain water from getting into your house once the solar panel is mounted.

This method of securing the holes on the roof is one of the simplest approach. Another better method to prevent water leakage when installing the solar panel is roof flashing. This is done by using a metal sheet barrier at the base of the mount.

Roof flashing is normally done by professional contractor because it involves more work. Flashing provides better protection from water leakages. It is aesthetically more pleasing but costs more.

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