by admin | Feb 8, 2014 | Tech Updates
It might just be coincidence, but I think Mother Nature has a sense of humor. Last week, I said that I will start saving money at Auza.Net by putting our perimeter lights on the solar system. The days following that “historic” day for Auza.Net were cloudy and of course, my solar panel system soon ran out of stored energy after just two and a half nights. Just the same, I saved a few kilowatt-hours and maybe about Php30.00. That also got me into thinking that my assumptions on how much energy is actually produced and stored could be wrong. I should really need to understand the dynamics of the energy production in relation to the weather for a successful solar energy system. Fortunately, my battery monitor which was purchased in the US arrived late last week and after I installed it on the system, I am able to conveniently measure voltage, current and the battery state of charge. The key item in the installation of the battery monitor is the shunt resistor (with 500A/50mV rating) which is a precision resistor designed for accurate measurement of current going through it. This replaced my home made shunt resistor described in an article a few weeks back. Also, I placed this shunt resistor at the negative terminal instead of in-between the two batteries since the battery monitor also measures the total voltage of the battery which it cannot do if the shunt resistor is placed elsewhere. One might ask why I am going through the trouble of accurately measuring current and voltage. Why not just buy a large solar energy system and...
