Harbor Freight Panels

 How long would it take the HF kit (3x15 watt panels) to charge 2x 6volt
Trojan T-105s (rated 225Ahrs) wired in series.  I believe that's 225Ahrs at
12volt.  Est. amout of sunlight at 6 hours.

thanks

PS I had the printout from the website in my hand when I went to the local
HF store and they matched the price without me even asking.  $300 vs $200.

Vernon

  Well that gets complicated.... Depends on what state of charge the batteries
are in when you start chargeing them for one.
 When I tested my HF panels, each 15 watt panel produced .9 amps while
running a 12 volt fan. That is as close as you can get to a shorted amp load
as you can get and still run something.
 It also depends on your charge controller. What happens most of the time
when  you are chargeing batteries is, from 60% charge to 70% charge goes
fast, from 70% to 80% goes slower and so on ....
 So it is more of a chargeing curve than a straight math problem with a lot
of varables....
  I know that does not help much.
 If you give me a starting voltage of the battery bank I could give you a
good guess. I started out with one set of HF panels and 210 ah of battery
storage..
 Joe KI4ILB

 
Well, when you are in bulk mode you'll be getting 3.75 amps (plus or
minus), though I doubt you'll be getting 6 peak (equivalent) hours per
day.  SWAG says 3 peak hours, 10 amp-hours per day, something on the
order of three weeks.

[Also depends on your drain during that time, if there is any it'll
reduce your charge time significantly.]

Lesse, where did I leave that spreadsheet?  Aha:  My first set (Exide,
with 1 20W panel, with very little load) took about a month to fully
charge.  The second set, with two 20W panels, but a more significant
load, took about 8-9 weeks.

Your Milage Will Vary, but "a month or two" isn't a bad SWAG...

 Just got back and have my first report on the panels (2 sets @ 45 watts
each).

First, they work just fine.

Second, I wired the "charge controllers" only as 12 volt distribution
panels. I have them wired to use the 12 volt lights that came with them
(used one set to make a table lamp) and to power my 12 volt heating
blowers.

Okay, the bank is 300 ah, 12 volts wired in series. I did my charges
from 4-5-06 to 4-9-06 directly on the 45th parallel. 2 perfect sunny
days, 1 day way cloudy and one partly cloudy. Charge cycles were from
about 8:30 am to about 3:30 pm. I moved the panels to follow the sun.

The panels took the bank from an average level of 12.45 to 12.71 within
3 hours. However, once hitting the absorption rate the whole thing
slowed down. To a crawl. During the charge cycle test, I had virtually
no drain on the bank-even had the inverter unhooked. At night I used
the generator and a 6 amp battery charger (which actually worked better
than the "9 amps DC) the generator puts out. Dunno why yet.

At any rate, I've got photos of the panels in their "natural" setting
that I'm working on. I measured the output as best as I could, both
voltage and amps but I'm not sure I measured the output correctly. I'll
get the data at my site pretty quick.

Max
http://www.northernmichigansolar.com

 I need to refine my last post. Here's some figures that I took. This is
THROUGH the charge controller, not raw from the panels. I must say the
next trip up there, I'm going to try the deal without the controller.
And get readings from the panels direct. This is directly from my
notes:


Full sun, 15.97 volts
Partial block (tree trunks), 15.53 volts

Bank voltage on 300 ah batteries, 12.94 full sun. Partial block (tree
trunks) to 12.87. Never got to "full charge" or over 13 volts. Like I
said, going to try the deal without the controller. It should have been
higher - this is the same amps as my battery charger and  it doesn't
take that damn long, ever.

Charge times from 9 am to 3:45 pm, charge voltage available (according
to controller) until 7:00 pm (will get readings; seems to mean above 12
volts).

Bank start voltage, 12.17, end 12.79