Sell or Shim Solar panels?

[eccerr0r]

Well, due to my grid tie inverter not accepting high voltages, and the fact that the lions in my solar panels are 36V (72-cell) I think I need to stick with 72-cell.

However I have a few smaller panels that are 36, 32, and two 30-cell. The 36 and 32 together run at 75% efficiency (and subtract more with additional inefficiencies) when running in parallel with the 72-cell panels. The kicker is that the two 30s... generate 0% power when connected in parallel(!)

So now what to do with these small panels?

I could sell them...

Or I could shim them. Meaning, add more cells to the chain. Unfortunately I don't know if this is worth it. The 36-cell panel seems okay as it's half of the 72-cell panels, so the 32-cell needs to be shimmed with 4 extra cells and seriesed with the 36 to make 72, but the 30-cell panels would need a whopping 12 additional cells to be shimmed up to the 72.

Is it worth to DIY build a 4- and a 12-cell panel? Seems individual cells are $2 a piece or so, not sure where to get them cheaper, so a 12-cell panel is up to $24 and I'll need to solder and seal them some way such that they won't crack.

So, sell or shim?

[sam_sam_sam]

Or I could shim them. Meaning, add more cells to the chain. Unfortunately I don't know if this is worth it. The 36-cell panel seems okay as it's half of the 72-cell panels, so the 32-cell needs to be shimmed with 4 extra cells and seriesed with the 36 to make 72, but the 30-cell panels would need a whopping 12 additional cells to be shimmed up to the 72.

Is it worth to DIY build a 4- and a 12-cell panel? Seems individual cells are $2 a piece or so, not sure where to get them cheaper, so a 12-cell panel is up to $24 and I'll need to solder and seal them some way such that they won't crack.

So, sell or shim?

I have tried this before on a solar panel before to increase the amount of current in a type of solar panel that had two identical rows yes I got more current and could reseal with silicone however it is not the same and making it water thigh is very big issue

What I would suggest is that you do not go down this route and just try to sell the panels that do not have the voltage that you need you will save yourself a lot of headaches and aggravation in the long run

Now unless you can find and solar panels that will give you the voltage and current need you will be running around in circles because I have also tried this before and the results were not very good either

I am going to be making a solar panel array for a battery pack for a tablet and cell phone in case of a hurricane knock out the power grid so I have a way to recharge them plus for my solar generator system that I have I have two panels for this as well and when I did so testing I was pleased with the results I just have to have time to work on it

[eccerr0r]

Course I won't install it inside the existing panels, but they'd be in their own frame. The nice thing about the small panels is that they're small... my 72 cell panels are really tough to move around...

[sam_sam_sam]

You might want to read this article because this is real crap I personally do not like certain types of devices to have access to the live internet here is another reason and example why I do not have my battery testing machine hooked to the internet based computer system to maybe be hacked and remotely controlled hell no ( it is bad enough when the computer does not excused the right commands and the battery testing machine does something really stupid and I put a stop to it before it damages something which does not happen very often but it does happen so do I want a hacker to gain control over the computer software to the battery testing machine hardware and change its configuration because it is a Chinese made machine and the software is also Chinese made as well )

The reason I saw this article is because I have a Europe based magazine that I have a subscription to and I read there articles and I stumbled upon this article and sense we been talking about solar power devices I thought you might be interested in this article
not this magazine that I have a subscription to it was linked to this magazine article that I have the subscription with

https://www.eenewseurope.com/en/a-da...wer-inverters/
“A dark side to solar power inverters” —> unless you can have a very private server connection to monitor the system or just monitor at your location only Using your cell phone is NOT going to make this security issue go away ( to many devices in the past have been compromised by being hacked and have caused destruction of equipment in other countries and even in this country and I do not care how good you think your security measures are are they really that good and have they been tried to be compromised and see if your security is good enough to rely on maybe not )


Now I do have a garage door opener that is hooked to the internet but the worst thing could happen is that if was hacked they could cause damage to the door opener and make it useless oh well if it happens it happens and shit happens and that why they make toilet paper

I think about buying a new laptop computer and was thinking about making use of my battery testing machine when I doing battery testing at a different location other than my house so I have to figure out how to disable the WiFi module when I do not want internet access at all


I have a multi meter that has a data logging feature that I going to use it on the new laptop computer if I decide to buy one for both of these uses and I hope they do not conflict with each other which sometimes happens but I will just have to try it

Yes I have older laptop computers but unfortunately the one that I was planning on using for some reason it can not connect to the usb controller to the battery testing machine the usb controller that it uses is flaky sometimes when it comes to connecting to the battery testing machine in the first place I find that some laptop computers have issues with certain types of usb connections with certain types of devices yes you can sometimes force a connection but if have another device that uses a different set of configuration and they conflict with each other which is the problem with this laptop is because I have manual for one of machine at work that I used to troubleshoot the safety relay so I had to change the configuration of usb ports to be able to communicate with it

One thing to note I several laptop computers that I might see how well it works on it but I have to reformat the computers hard drive and reinstall Windows 7 and disable the automatic upgrade to Windows 10 this has screwed up several of them and made them extremely slow and hard to work with

[sam_sam_sam]

Now do not think that I am paranoid about security issues because I am not however if I do not want a device to be hacked and taken over by someone then to me the best security is to not have the device have access to the internet in NO shape or form to even remotely give anyone access to the device in the first place

Here is a story that might make you think twice about IT personnel in general

I used to work for a company that there IT person made the comment that the only thing this computer can be used for is to punch in and out and no other use can be done oh really this was the wrong thing to tell me let's see if this is true or not I selected a file that was not really that important if it was deleted so I tried to delete it and get to the screen that says are you sure you want to delete it of course I did not delete it but when I saw the IT person I said are you really sure that no one has access to the the time clock computer he asked me what are you talking about I had to try to delete a file and I got to the screen that are you sure you want to delete it of course I did not do that but I am bringing it to your attention and if I were you I would make sure that you can not do this function or anything else other than punching in and out ( one note this IT person thank me for bringing it to his attention ) and of course I tried it again a few days later and got access denied

This is the reason I made the comment above about are sure about your security measures that you have taken are they as good as you think they are have they been tested to know for sure if this is the case or not

Now the place I work at now there computers are very secure because one of employees that use this computer for inventory control was having issues with the label machine that we used so I tried to clear the print clue access denied very good the IT department need to correct there issues ( of course this was caused by an program update that was just done recently that was causing this issue )

Jack of all trades and master of none these type of things are not in my job description but if you have experience with things you try to help out

[eccerr0r]

Don't worry about me, my grid tie is completely off the net, other than reading data (and part of it is manually read/airgapped because I still don't have a proper sensor). My server can't control the GTI either so if it gets hacked it can't do anything with it...

I really still would like to design some way to work with the GTI from a computer however, airgapped or not.

[sam_sam_sam]

The hole idea behind me brings it to your attention and anyone else who is following this post that seems to be another security risk that people need to be aware

To me technology has its good side and very dark side as well and to me it is irresponsible if you do not realize both sides of it when using for any type application that you want to have complete control of

[sam_sam_sam]

I really still would like to design some way to work with the GTI from a computer however, airgapped or not.

I am not sure if you did something with an optic type of output would be secure enough from being hack able or not if can be done easily or not or just have output data available only

Or just have a micro controller or embed computer do these functions that can be displayed on a screen for viewing

[sam_sam_sam]

I am going to go off topic a little bit but is this brand any good for a simple GTI inverter system is worth the money for what it can do

https://us.ampinvt.com/products/ampi...4aAu6iEALw_wcB

[eccerr0r]

It has no computer interface whatsoever... about as barebones as they come. Price was right however.

[sam_sam_sam]

It has no computer interface whatsoever... about as barebones as they come. Price was right however.

Is your comment above about the website link or is this a comment about the system that you have

[eccerr0r]

oh. MY GTI has no computer interface whatsoever. Well looking at it, it might have an async serial port on it but it's not ported out. Not sure what it can do...

[sam_sam_sam]

oh. MY GTI has no computer interface whatsoever. Well looking at it, it might have an async serial port on it but it's not ported out. Not sure what it can do...

What do think about this one

https://us.ampinvt.com/products/ampi...4aAu6iEALw_wcB

[eccerr0r]

No idea. I don't have a charge controller as I dump all energy to grid. Yes I waste some of the power (my power company sometimes gets a couple hundred watts for free) but not much different than when your batteries are full and the sun's still shining... Granted my panels probably stay around 10°C cooler giving the power company free electricity versus if all batteries are full and energy has nowhere to go.

[sam_sam_sam]

If you do not use a charge controller how do control the voltage and current to your battery bank if you are using battery cells

[eccerr0r]

That is to be determined.

I probably can even waste some energy and charge from grid side. Which may even make sense because this way I can also do arbitrage. But ideally yes, would like to charge from panel side at some point, but not too important now.

[sam_sam_sam]

That is to be determined.

I probably can even waste some energy and charge from grid side. Which may even make sense because this way I can also do arbitrage. But ideally yes, would like to charge from panel side at some point, but not too important now.

Here is something that might make your solar data monitoring system easier to build with something like this

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/32568...Cquery_from%3A

[eccerr0r]

Yeah someday I'd like to get some sort of current sensing... better yet on my grid input side.
right now it just needs to be close enough.

[eccerr0r]

BTW I'm currently (pun intended?) using analog meters to measure my DC input current and voltage. I do need an upgrade at some point, right now I'm closing in on the limits of my measurement... I have a 20A analog meter to measure DCA but on exceptionally sunny days my panel farm pegs the meter... Either I upgrade this or get a better GTI that will take higher input voltages (so I can decrease input current.)

[sam_sam_sam]

Yeah someday I'd like to get some sort of current sensing... better yet on my grid input side.
right now it just needs to be close enough.

Completely understand I saw them when I was looking for something else like always
I really need to invest in a 24 volt or 12 GTI myself because I have a couple of solar panels that I need to put on top of my new shed before they get broken this is one big reason I have been following your progress on your solar panel / farm GTI setup I just do not know enough right to begin putting something together that makes sense spending the money on