Nice I wish I had one. You should put 3 x 300 watt panels on it and make plenty of hot water woo hoo! I bought four 190 watt panels and they are freaking awesome. I added them to my ten 230watt panels. I can run my double door fridge with ice in the door and my satellite and 52 inch plasma high def TV and my wifes computer and a 7,000 btu AC window unit man my electric bill is less than half what it use to be. I wish I could make another tracker with four more panels. and buy a few more leaf batteries. Next time Im buying some 300 watt panels the are so nice and powerful the only way to go. Im never getting less than 300 watt panels from now on the bigger 300 watt panels make so much more power its really made a huge difference in charging my lithium ions. My name is Scott too. =)
Yes I need to expand my array to at least three panels instead of two for this set up. Just too many projects not enough hours in a day! Thanks for the comment!
Direct DC to the element is problematic. Techluck explains the reasons on their website. However Waterheater.org also discusses a direct DC setup - but it is a bit complicated. The Techluck MPPT has after a year been working great.
@@ScottT109 Great glad it is running and working good. I just figured with the price of panels a fellow could put 2 more panels on the tank as direct current and produce more than the techluck board for economy sake . Cheers everyone has their ideas and as long as we try we are ahead of the game.
Many DC heating elements are dual element. You will see two shorting bars putting the elements in parallel. Full MPPT matches the panel to the element by storing energy in a capacitor bank and matching the panel to the load. Even simple pseudo MPPT helps. It is remarkable that at just 70% of the panels current, using just one element instead of two produces more heat. At about 50% panel current using one element produces twice the heating power of two elements in parallel. This is why it is that important. A MPPT controller will give you 30% more power charging a battery. With a heating element 5 times the power can be produced at low light levels. If you live in AZ it doesn't matter much. In areas with some clouds it is quite important. It is expensive if you buy commercially because there isn't much market for it. I build these MPPT units for about $30. Come and watch if you want to learn about efficient PV heating.
So, I assume you are running two 30V panels in series. You would be batter off running both heaters at the same time in parallel with their own temperature controller. By my calculations you now can only put a maximum of 280W into a single heater element. That is about half the maximum wattage that could be available. If your location is challenged with numerous overcast skies your current configuration might work better. I'm not sure the techluck could handle the higher currents of less than premium sun. I get all my off grid hot water from PV and use a dual tank system of a 9 & 20 gallon tanks in series with 60V as the raw PV panel voltage. The 9 gallon has a fast recovery time and all excess energy can be sent to that in the morning. For others attempting this, common 2,000W 120V heater elements are a good match for 60V. I can divert about 2,500WH a day to heat water. I have a similar design which allows me to run with the same panels used for refrigeration etc without going through an inverter. Check out my latest video on water heating, I have many. I like Gene, I hope he is doing well.
I had considered a parallel configuration except that I wanted to have full grid power for one tank on those occasions when demand for hot water is high. My goal is simply to reduce overall grid power need for heating water and this setup was easiest and least expensive way to do it. Having now had it in place for over a year I can report that 470W of panels in series is not quite enough for the winter months when the sun angle is lower/days shorter and I should install another 235 watts on the array (bring it up to the spec allowed limit on the Techluck MPPT).
Nice I wish I had one. You should put 3 x 300 watt panels on it and make plenty of hot water woo hoo! I bought four 190 watt panels and they are freaking awesome. I added them to my ten 230watt panels. I can run my double door fridge with ice in the door and my satellite and 52 inch plasma high def TV and my wifes computer and a 7,000 btu AC window unit man my electric bill is less than half what it use to be. I wish I could make another tracker with four more panels. and buy a few more leaf batteries. Next time Im buying some 300 watt panels the are so nice and powerful the only way to go. Im never getting less than 300 watt panels from now on the bigger 300 watt panels make so much more power its really made a huge difference in charging my lithium ions. My name is Scott too. =)
Yes I need to expand my array to at least three panels instead of two for this set up. Just too many projects not enough hours in a day! Thanks for the comment!
So, how is it going after another year? Any new observations and did you install any more panels?
What is the advantage of using the Techluc if you have an electrically isolated tank might as well just run direct dc to the element.
Mppt in the device makes it way more effective than just raw dc.
Direct DC to the element is problematic. Techluck explains the reasons on their website. However Waterheater.org also discusses a direct DC setup - but it is a bit complicated. The Techluck MPPT has after a year been working great.
@@ScottT109 Great glad it is running and working good. I just figured with the price of panels a fellow could put 2 more panels on the tank as direct current and produce more than the techluck board for economy sake . Cheers everyone has their ideas and as long as we try we are ahead of the game.
Many DC heating elements are dual element. You will see two shorting bars putting the elements in parallel. Full MPPT matches the panel to the element by storing energy in a capacitor bank and matching the panel to the load. Even simple pseudo MPPT helps. It is remarkable that at just 70% of the panels current, using just one element instead of two produces more heat. At about 50% panel current using one element produces twice the heating power of two elements in parallel. This is why it is that important. A MPPT controller will give you 30% more power charging a battery. With a heating element 5 times the power can be produced at low light levels. If you live in AZ it doesn't matter much. In areas with some clouds it is quite important. It is expensive if you buy commercially because there isn't much market for it. I build these MPPT units for about $30. Come and watch if you want to learn about efficient PV heating.
So, I assume you are running two 30V panels in series. You would be batter off running both heaters at the same time in parallel with their own temperature controller. By my calculations you now can only put a maximum of 280W into a single heater element. That is about half the maximum wattage that could be available. If your location is challenged with numerous overcast skies your current configuration might work better. I'm not sure the techluck could handle the higher currents of less than premium sun. I get all my off grid hot water from PV and use a dual tank system of a 9 & 20 gallon tanks in series with 60V as the raw PV panel voltage. The 9 gallon has a fast recovery time and all excess energy can be sent to that in the morning. For others attempting this, common 2,000W 120V heater elements are a good match for 60V. I can divert about 2,500WH a day to heat water. I have a similar design which allows me to run with the same panels used for refrigeration etc without going through an inverter. Check out my latest video on water heating, I have many. I like Gene, I hope he is doing well.
I had considered a parallel configuration except that I wanted to have full grid power for one tank on those occasions when demand for hot water is high. My goal is simply to reduce overall grid power need for heating water and this setup was easiest and least expensive way to do it. Having now had it in place for over a year I can report that 470W of panels in series is not quite enough for the winter months when the sun angle is lower/days shorter and I should install another 235 watts on the array (bring it up to the spec allowed limit on the Techluck MPPT).