damn the damp + new EU2000 tip

 I've been slowly loosing efficiency (seemingling) in my hydro system over
the past few months which is annoying.  

I"m not an engineer like you guys but do my best.  I have two xantrex
(trace) charge controllers in my system.  The first takes the
hydroelectric generation and a couple of solar panels to the battery
bank.  This is set in equalization mode (so no matter what it sends a
charge to the batteries no matter what the charge level of the
batteries).  The second is set to dump the load to a giant resister for
when *it* thinks the batteries are fully charged.  So the first charge
controller just gets the voltage right.. the second manages the batteries
and does the dump.

This lets me keep a load on the hydro part of things regardless of the
battery charge and has worked pretty well for the past few years.

Anyway, I have the first charge controller set up with a remote panel in
my house, so I can monitor power produced and the voltage of the battery
bank.  It gives amps, watts and voltage of the bank and some other stuff
like amp hours (which i've produced 52914 since my last reset if that
means anything)

This lets me know when I need to switch to a generator or basically how
things are doing without going outside in the freaking rain and sleet to
find out.

However, the amp/watts reading from this has been slowly dropping .. like
tonight i'm showing 5 amps which sucks compared to previous times when I
hit 12 amps during high water times.

Been debugging the turbine for a day or so (off and on) and it's still
producing what it should just looking at voltage and knowing the sound it
makes when spinning at full RPM.  Then I started wiggling wires and
noticed a change in the turbine -- when it's drawing more it'll change
RPM.

I reckon over the past year or so all my electrical connections have
slowly started to degrade given the damp environment in there -- or the
alternator is somehow losing it.

I got a toob of dielectric grease that i'm going to use on every
connection and hope it brings things back to normal, but even though I
soldered every connection I think the damp might be getting me.  Must be
something somewhere causing my amp drop grr.

Anyway, just a rant against damp.  

Also : if you get a new Honda EU2000i from northern Tool (great price at
$999 w/free delivery) they have the gas cap turned to 'off' by default..
DOH!

So just remember to switch it on the cap if you are wondering why a
perfectly good generator runs for a bit and then stops & you open the cap
and it'll run again for a bit and then stop again :)

-zachary in Oregon

Grr..

  Z,

Just a little math that someone can correct if I'm wrong 52,914(amps)
x 12(volts) = 634,968(watts) / 1000 = 635kWh.

Are you really using that little electricity or do I have my math
goofed up?

Curbie

 Where did the time factor come into the formula?

Volts x anperes never equals a time factored result.


LOL...I didn't read the original post again. Probably just a common typo.


Z,

Just a little math that someone can correct if I'm wrong 52,914(amps)
x 12(volts) = 634,968(watts) / 1000 = 635kWh.

Are you really using that little electricity or do I have my math
goofed up?

Curbie

 

I don't use much that's for sure.  About 200 watts to run my house so ...
but remember I cheat by using propane for hot water, refrig and cooking.  
Back when I was a kid we used kerosine for lights and didn't have computers
or tv so that 200 watts of 'city folk' power makes a huge difference for
every day stuff.. like the coffee grinder & dish network har har

-zachary in oregon

 

Ohm's law is your friend.  When current is flowing through your system, you can
use your voltmeter to identify bad connections.  Use sharp probes to measure the
voltage across each connection.  A perfect connection will have zero resistance,
so will show (nearly) zero voltage across it.  Anything over 1/10 volt needs to
be investigated, because that is power being lost.  I do the same thing all the
time to check battery terminals and ground connections in my car.


Yep, that's a good reminder.  I drain my tank and carb after every use, and
never think about the vent in that cap.

Vaughn