I like what you are doing and have learned some important things. Thanks for sharing this. I have some thoughts you may want to consider. 1. load matching is important to the best efficiency and is key to an hands off system - manual load matching is not practical for me or others. Have you considered trying this? 1. Connect, for example, three loads in series and then shorting one load out at a time using two relays (i know relays are expensive) then operate the relays using a diode string to operate the relays to adjust the load automatically? The load matching could then be automatic. There also could be 4 or 5 loads in series with more relays but hopefully you get the idea. 2. Instead of using a fixed solar panel pointing south, use solar panels point east and west only. This removes peak loads in the middle of the day but is compensated by higher outputs outside the mid day. This reduces the amount of resistance load matching required with idea #1. More panels are required but the panels will remain cooler and that compensates for the lost mid day direct sun light. If they are mounted vertically they will not collect as much snow. There are videos on this positioning concept on TH-cam. Use of used panels will compensate the extra panels required.
Hello, glad this video was useful. I use parallel diode chains (diode strings) to dynamically match nichrome heaters to the volts-max-power region of the solar panel array. They yield about 10-20% more watt-hours (heat). Here's an example of 2 earlier prototypes I built. Working on a larger one that can dissipate 1000w or more. th-cam.com/video/Cle05mmYOUs/w-d-xo.html
I like your idea about using something to automate the load-matching. Arranging solar panels in an arc makes sense too, it's kind of like a solar tracker. One thing I've found about solar electric heating, it makes sense to add more panels. More heat is a good thing :)
What are your thoughts on using a buck converter to raise the voltage from the panel to drive a load that is a bit too high in resistance ? The buck converter would also try to keep the output voltage more constant.
@memylastname9972 Thinking in terms of grid-down "high tech survival" scenarios, I try to simplify and eliminate stuff that can break. Or cannot be repaired and serviced by a DIY'er. Running straight off the solar panel (if possible) is dirt simple and there is less stuff to break. In the future we may not be able to hop on the internet and order a new converter if one burns out. That said, using a boost converter is entirely valid way to drive loads. A good example is the Ryobi solar super charger project. From my experience it can be extremely tricky to match the input power to the other end. What often happened in my tests with boost converters is the PV voltage collapses and passes the "ohmic" load right through, minus extra losses from the converter. Back to square one. Perhaps if the voltage is only boosting by a few volts to get a little more power, it would function better. Another thing to keep in mind is if the DC output is higher than about 48v, it's an electrocution hazard. I don't want to touch anything that has high voltage DC flowing through it, just takes all the fun out. What we really need are intelligent DC boost (and buck) converters with solar friendly operation and MPPT. These are rare. I may have found one such converter, it's collecting dust, I haven't been able to test it yet. A subject of a future part 2 perhaps, if I can make it there! Hope this essay is helpful in some way :D
Great video, thanks heaps for sharing. I'm looking around my workshop thinking of all the things that could be powered directly from a solar panel array, there's heaps! So many possibilities. I have an old breadmaker which has a heating element, an old electric frying pan, also a couple of old split system air conditioners (could use copper and fins as a heat exchanger), and I'd love to figure out a cheap, sustainable way to run a PV2L powered distillery for purifying water for the whole house eventually. Just have to nut it all out, how it could work and get the safety stuff well thought out. Would love to hear your thoughts on whether you think it's achievable with those things. I did in the past build a 240v near infrared sauna heater with 4 bulbs, but a PV2L one would be even better. Keep those videos coming, love the content
You are welcome! Glad to hear it. Very encouraging. Those are all intriguing projects. We should have been neighbors. I intend to respond to all those points and safety issues on video someday. The main challenge is the heating elements aren't low voltage, mains voltage is too high. No way I want ~100V DC in my house. 40V with 15-25A behind it is exciting enough. So making heating elements by hand has been a common task. I need to make a video about that too. It can be tedious they burn out easily. I have 100 projects I want to run PV2L. Not much time or health to finish them. Good news is there are a minimum of 3 projects in the queue and one simple project ready to present. PS this winter 60% of the house and workshop were assist heated with converted AC and DC PTC PV2L space heaters, have over 8 of those now. Simple and clean. Why aren't these things on store shelves? One of the main issues I encountered is avoiding high DC voltage... limiting myself to LVDC because I don't want to use or show people anything dangerous... also need to make a video about switching DC, avoid arcs, and ensure 100% safety for the household. Hope to do that asap. Oh and finish the cooking appliance series. So many projects so little time... More stuff on the way asap!
@@solarpoweredge Agreed, we could have built some cool projects as neighbours. Hopefully a manufacturer picks up on your PV2L PTC idea and you get some income from it! I'm keen to see the videos you've got coming up, especially on how to make sure DC switching is done while avoiding/controlling arcing. PS I checked the resistances and the bread maker is 105 Ohm, and the electric frying pan is 41 Ohms. Next, I'll power them up and see what the resistance is at higher temps...
Yeah that would be awesome! Or maybe they will just start manufacturing so we can all buy these heaters safely. UL listed would be nice. The converted AC space heaters hit a conundrum. They work so well. If I made them 12V/24V, they'd still weld those little switches. Which are a must have for fire safety. Mine run around ~40V to avoid big thick wires. But in ALL the non-electronic switch tests I conducted, DC open/closed circuit with any AC switch sounds like water spraying SSSSSSS. So even lower voltage DC has huge arc potential. Not good! Can't tell people to put that in their home. Kind of disappointing, electronics are needed to preserve the safety (tip over, thermal cutout switch). There are probably 100 ways to tackle this. I'm not sure how hungry people are to get into the electronics. Also presenting it in a way that one-size-fits-all is a problem I have not solved. Furthermore I have been absolutely hammered with severe migraines and such. Making electronics videos and migraines... yeah no thanks. Hopefully things will open up in the future! Bread maker and frying pan are very interesting projects. The resistance might be higher when hot. If only PV2L cooking appliances were on every store shelf, it's DIY only for now. PS, upcoming, simpler DIY projects. Last week 3 projects successful and got some footage of one. PV2L cooking. No electronics needed or optional I think. Very exciting. You won't believe your eyes. I couldn't. Wish I could tell you without ruining the fun and surprise :)
@@solarpoweredge Sounds great, looking forward to it. Hopefully the migranes take a holiday. Maybe there's a switch to turn them off permanently somewhere...
Yes indeed. I have strong hope. Waiting for sun to come out so I can record. Hope the next PV cooking (burning?) video will be successful, we shall see.
Can you switch multiple low wattage loads in and out of the circuit to match the panel's fluctuating impedance? How would you automate this? Would I need to sense amperage or a different variable to switch the relays? It would be awesome if there was an off the shelf control board I could use...
Hi, yes that works. In fact I've already have a system to do something similar. The most obvious method is to use an arduino and switching. Not sure if there is any off the shelf board, but I would be interested if there was. Hope to be able to do more video about this stuff in the future.
@@solarpoweredge Thanks for the reply 😁. So to be clear- I'd want to measure the amperage produced by the panel to determine the correct load? Not the voltage?
No problem - best to monitor both voltage and current (power). Then some kind of control is needed to act on the information. Can also do it manually of course. The non electronic way is to simply build the heater to match the solar panels. If it's cloudy or hazy, just attach a smaller heater. If a panel can drive a 1000w heater in full sun, perhaps it can only handle a 300w heater in bad conditions. You might notice I barely talk about electronics in my videos - trying to keep it simple for now. The most pure kind of PV-to-load is straight from solar to a load with no electronics. If things go well in the future, I intend to talk about using basic electronics with solar power. With electronics, it's easier to match the impedance of the load to a given solar panel in a variety of conditions, plus it could be automated. If I am able to get any of this on video I will be sure to upload :)
So if you can run directly off solar then you should be able to also run it directly from a battery built to the correct voltage? Solar panels, SCC and battery should be the basics you need to do this when the sun disappears? I live in Chiang Mai Thailand and we always have several fans going with the except of mid december to mid january.....April is the hottest month and this year April has averaged 39.4C which is 102.92F!!!! I could save a fair bit just taking a few fans off grid :) DC fans are cheap here....the battery aspect also cheaper here (for DIY at least), but would be maybe down the track. Another excellent video providing food for thought....thx :) :)
@Ulbre Thanks and I'm glad you're enjoying the videos :) Thailand is really hot... wow! Right, a battery can run the same resistance loads too. Fans can run directly from solar panels if they are a good match, and if the voltage is similar, can run off batteries all night. Otherwise, a DC converter might be needed. I use a lot of direct solar powered fans to cool my sheds.
There's not enough power in one battery to run a heater such that you would get enough heat to heat a room, or even a van comfortably all night. And it would ruin the battery rather quickly. 2 kW/h battery will be drained in an hour on a 1 kW heater. However, Several batteries can be better used to power heat pumps. A 12,000 BTU Heat pump uses about 500w and gives off 3x the heat.
Hello, good question. We know a 230v element has high resistance as it's made for high voltage AC. So it is very hard to say it will work from here without the testing I'm used to doing in the shop. It could work if the panel voltage is right. Btw careful exceeding 55v or so. Higher DC can give you a real shock. Anyway first try plugging the numbers on the back of the panel(s) into I=V/R formula along with your chosen element. Use that as a baseline first. Do the same with the full AC rating. Compare the to equations to get a baseline. The math is a good starting point and will give you an estimated performance. Heating elements vary their resistance over time and under operation, keep that in mind. If this element is not a good match, you might try changing one variable in the equation at a time. In short I am used to testing this stuff myself and can't really guarantee a particular result. So this is all just my opinion - I hope it helps. DD
i just want to know if the math is ok. I think i will have 8-9A 80% of the tine and i’m at 16 ohm with lower light. Many thanks. I use dc 5000vdc 20A protections automatic and gloves in operation
You are welcome... I think the math is enough to give a good idea. I wish I could give you a more clear answer from here. With 9A and 16 ohm you might be hitting around 144vdc; good you have gloves as DC that high would definitely electrocute. For safer operation, I tend to parallel the panels and use lower voltage, lower resistance elements. More current, bigger/more wires, less vulnerable to panel shading issues as well. Multiple breakers if required. It sounds like you know how to protect yourself though, and that's good, stay safe.
Just in case my experience is any future use to you; for years one of my farthest heaters is fed 10-20 Amps at 60vdc through 10awg (5.26mm2) copper over >40 meters in cold weather. There was not enough voltage drop in the wire to concern me. I plan to add 5 pairs of 8awg to bring in more PV, and keep all circuits around 60v - that's technically the upper end of the 48v region.
Great video, hard to find stuff like this on TH-cam! I was thinking if a 12V ACDC power supply was connected in parallel to a 12.1+Vmpp solar panel, and both to a load with less resistance than the panel's Characteristic Resistance (=Vmpp/Impp), then the panel's voltage would be pulled down until it matches the ACDC's voltage, the panel would still output near MPP, and the AC would make up the current difference. Thoughts? PS Love your cat!
Thank you very much for the good feedback :) please stay tuned, more projects being documented. Yes you are correct, in theory that should work. I use the same type of concept in my server project (not uploaded yet). Getting it to balance can be a bit tedious though, and have to be careful backfeeding DC or linking power supplies like this. Some of them can't handle backfeeding. Glad you like the cat, I think he takes well to the camera. He loves anything that puts out heat, obviously :)
Thanks again good stuff and Cat in the Hat is a hoot! PS: I feel it is easier to cool a room than heat one up, comparing a 5000BTU AC and how much energy it uses then let's say a heater the heater will take allot more amps to warm a cooled room than a window AC cooling a room in a 90F day. Thoughts?
Sorry - in my rush to get 9000 things done, I missed the rest of your comment. Just happened to see it this evening. Hope you get notified of my reply. You are right. A straight resistive heating element is not a heat pump so does not have the same effect as a window AC. It's easier to move existing heat (heat pump) but NOT cheaper and NOT simpler. Naturally you get less Heat from resistance than you do Cool. However the heat pump is loaded with moving parts and things that can break. A heating element is simply a cheap piece of wire that gets hot. So both have their "efficiencies" or advantages. Hope that answers the question, sorry for the delay in responding. DD
Furthermore, a mini split heat pump cost thousands to install and continually requires maintenance as I have well experienced. But I've been using EIGHT solar PV DC heaters to heat my home and as the winter hasn't been too bad. Those heaters are dirt cheap, very little to break, althought the electronic switching circuits (arc prevention and safety) are a bit tedious. Even if using my heat pump in the winter, it still makes a lot of sense to have cheap simple PV supplemental heat to help reduce power consumption!
@@solarpoweredge Hey thanks I hope you are down to 8000 things to do now lol I am losing my home, divorcing so might need something to keep me alive at 65 years old. Maybe I can dig a hole and use panels as a roof lol.
It's real hard to keep track lol. Wow that does not sound fun. I am sorry to hear. Hang in there man! Hope you find a good roof and space for solar or whatever you want hehe. As I have slightly alluded to in old videos, I'm a shut-in with much pain for 20 years. That's 98% of it. Spare you the details. Making video is hard, But I believe they help a few folks, so it's the right thing. Again best wishes and hope you make it out just fine. Take care
Give me a thumbs up if what I say is correct for my SP... Max power output = Voltage at Pmax(Vmp) ? Current at Pmax(Imp)? If this is correct, my panels say the following Vmp= 37.68v ; Imp= 17.26A Therefore, 37.68/17.26=2.18 (the basic target Resistance of my heating element.. How much does slightly mean ? If make the element "slightly" more resistant meaning 3.18 R? I have 4 of this type of panels so any suggestions would be great. I am a Science teacher not an English teacher so excuse my errors lol
@markpennella The math looks correct! paper calculations don't necessarily reflect the real world but they are a helpful tool to get started... I use this simple formula nearly every day! Do you have any nichrome? How about making your own heating element with these numbers and see what happens :D
I like what you are doing and have learned some important things. Thanks for sharing this. I have some thoughts you may want to consider. 1. load matching is important to the best efficiency and is key to an hands off system - manual load matching is not practical for me or others. Have you considered trying this? 1. Connect, for example, three loads in series and then shorting one load out at a time using two relays (i know relays are expensive) then operate the relays using a diode string to operate the relays to adjust the load automatically? The load matching could then be automatic. There also could be 4 or 5 loads in series with more relays but hopefully you get the idea. 2. Instead of using a fixed solar panel pointing south, use solar panels point east and west only. This removes peak loads in the middle of the day but is compensated by higher outputs outside the mid day. This reduces the amount of resistance load matching required with idea #1. More panels are required but the panels will remain cooler and that compensates for the lost mid day direct sun light. If they are mounted vertically they will not collect as much snow. There are videos on this positioning concept on TH-cam. Use of used panels will compensate the extra panels required.
Hello, glad this video was useful. I use parallel diode chains (diode strings) to dynamically match nichrome heaters to the volts-max-power region of the solar panel array. They yield about 10-20% more watt-hours (heat).
Here's an example of 2 earlier prototypes I built. Working on a larger one that can dissipate 1000w or more. th-cam.com/video/Cle05mmYOUs/w-d-xo.html
I like your idea about using something to automate the load-matching. Arranging solar panels in an arc makes sense too, it's kind of like a solar tracker. One thing I've found about solar electric heating, it makes sense to add more panels. More heat is a good thing :)
What are your thoughts on using a buck converter to raise the voltage from the panel to drive a load that is a bit too high in resistance ? The buck converter would also try to keep the output voltage more constant.
@memylastname9972 Thinking in terms of grid-down "high tech survival" scenarios, I try to simplify and eliminate stuff that can break. Or cannot be repaired and serviced by a DIY'er. Running straight off the solar panel (if possible) is dirt simple and there is less stuff to break. In the future we may not be able to hop on the internet and order a new converter if one burns out.
That said, using a boost converter is entirely valid way to drive loads. A good example is the Ryobi solar super charger project. From my experience it can be extremely tricky to match the input power to the other end. What often happened in my tests with boost converters is the PV voltage collapses and passes the "ohmic" load right through, minus extra losses from the converter. Back to square one. Perhaps if the voltage is only boosting by a few volts to get a little more power, it would function better.
Another thing to keep in mind is if the DC output is higher than about 48v, it's an electrocution hazard. I don't want to touch anything that has high voltage DC flowing through it, just takes all the fun out.
What we really need are intelligent DC boost (and buck) converters with solar friendly operation and MPPT. These are rare. I may have found one such converter, it's collecting dust, I haven't been able to test it yet. A subject of a future part 2 perhaps, if I can make it there! Hope this essay is helpful in some way :D
Great video, thanks heaps for sharing. I'm looking around my workshop thinking of all the things that could be powered directly from a solar panel array, there's heaps! So many possibilities.
I have an old breadmaker which has a heating element, an old electric frying pan, also a couple of old split system air conditioners (could use copper and fins as a heat exchanger), and I'd love to figure out a cheap, sustainable way to run a PV2L powered distillery for purifying water for the whole house eventually. Just have to nut it all out, how it could work and get the safety stuff well thought out. Would love to hear your thoughts on whether you think it's achievable with those things.
I did in the past build a 240v near infrared sauna heater with 4 bulbs, but a PV2L one would be even better.
Keep those videos coming, love the content
You are welcome! Glad to hear it. Very encouraging. Those are all intriguing projects. We should have been neighbors. I intend to respond to all those points and safety issues on video someday. The main challenge is the heating elements aren't low voltage, mains voltage is too high. No way I want ~100V DC in my house. 40V with 15-25A behind it is exciting enough. So making heating elements by hand has been a common task. I need to make a video about that too. It can be tedious they burn out easily.
I have 100 projects I want to run PV2L. Not much time or health to finish them. Good news is there are a minimum of 3 projects in the queue and one simple project ready to present.
PS this winter 60% of the house and workshop were assist heated with converted AC and DC PTC PV2L space heaters, have over 8 of those now. Simple and clean. Why aren't these things on store shelves? One of the main issues I encountered is avoiding high DC voltage... limiting myself to LVDC because I don't want to use or show people anything dangerous... also need to make a video about switching DC, avoid arcs, and ensure 100% safety for the household. Hope to do that asap. Oh and finish the cooking appliance series. So many projects so little time...
More stuff on the way asap!
@@solarpoweredge Agreed, we could have built some cool projects as neighbours.
Hopefully a manufacturer picks up on your PV2L PTC idea and you get some income from it!
I'm keen to see the videos you've got coming up, especially on how to make sure DC switching is done while avoiding/controlling arcing.
PS I checked the resistances and the bread maker is 105 Ohm, and the electric frying pan is 41 Ohms. Next, I'll power them up and see what the resistance is at higher temps...
Yeah that would be awesome! Or maybe they will just start manufacturing so we can all buy these heaters safely. UL listed would be nice.
The converted AC space heaters hit a conundrum. They work so well. If I made them 12V/24V, they'd still weld those little switches. Which are a must have for fire safety. Mine run around ~40V to avoid big thick wires. But in ALL the non-electronic switch tests I conducted, DC open/closed circuit with any AC switch sounds like water spraying SSSSSSS. So even lower voltage DC has huge arc potential. Not good! Can't tell people to put that in their home. Kind of disappointing, electronics are needed to preserve the safety (tip over, thermal cutout switch).
There are probably 100 ways to tackle this. I'm not sure how hungry people are to get into the electronics. Also presenting it in a way that one-size-fits-all is a problem I have not solved. Furthermore I have been absolutely hammered with severe migraines and such. Making electronics videos and migraines... yeah no thanks. Hopefully things will open up in the future!
Bread maker and frying pan are very interesting projects. The resistance might be higher when hot. If only PV2L cooking appliances were on every store shelf, it's DIY only for now.
PS, upcoming, simpler DIY projects. Last week 3 projects successful and got some footage of one. PV2L cooking. No electronics needed or optional I think. Very exciting. You won't believe your eyes. I couldn't. Wish I could tell you without ruining the fun and surprise :)
@@solarpoweredge Sounds great, looking forward to it. Hopefully the migranes take a holiday. Maybe there's a switch to turn them off permanently somewhere...
Yes indeed. I have strong hope.
Waiting for sun to come out so I can record. Hope the next PV cooking (burning?) video will be successful, we shall see.
great vid so much great info
Thank you sir!
@@solarpoweredge yw
Can you switch multiple low wattage loads in and out of the circuit to match the panel's fluctuating impedance? How would you automate this? Would I need to sense amperage or a different variable to switch the relays? It would be awesome if there was an off the shelf control board I could use...
Hi, yes that works. In fact I've already have a system to do something similar. The most obvious method is to use an arduino and switching. Not sure if there is any off the shelf board, but I would be interested if there was. Hope to be able to do more video about this stuff in the future.
@@solarpoweredge Thanks for the reply 😁. So to be clear- I'd want to measure the amperage produced by the panel to determine the correct load? Not the voltage?
No problem - best to monitor both voltage and current (power). Then some kind of control is needed to act on the information. Can also do it manually of course. The non electronic way is to simply build the heater to match the solar panels. If it's cloudy or hazy, just attach a smaller heater. If a panel can drive a 1000w heater in full sun, perhaps it can only handle a 300w heater in bad conditions. You might notice I barely talk about electronics in my videos - trying to keep it simple for now. The most pure kind of PV-to-load is straight from solar to a load with no electronics. If things go well in the future, I intend to talk about using basic electronics with solar power. With electronics, it's easier to match the impedance of the load to a given solar panel in a variety of conditions, plus it could be automated. If I am able to get any of this on video I will be sure to upload :)
So if you can run directly off solar then you should be able to also run it directly from a battery built to the correct voltage? Solar panels, SCC and battery should be the basics you need to do this when the sun disappears?
I live in Chiang Mai Thailand and we always have several fans going with the except of mid december to mid january.....April is the hottest month and this year April has averaged 39.4C which is 102.92F!!!!
I could save a fair bit just taking a few fans off grid :) DC fans are cheap here....the battery aspect also cheaper here (for DIY at least), but would be maybe down the track.
Another excellent video providing food for thought....thx :) :)
@Ulbre Thanks and I'm glad you're enjoying the videos :) Thailand is really hot... wow! Right, a battery can run the same resistance loads too. Fans can run directly from solar panels if they are a good match, and if the voltage is similar, can run off batteries all night. Otherwise, a DC converter might be needed. I use a lot of direct solar powered fans to cool my sheds.
There's not enough power in one battery to run a heater such that you would get enough heat to heat a room, or even a van comfortably all night. And it would ruin the battery rather quickly. 2 kW/h battery will be drained in an hour on a 1 kW heater. However, Several batteries can be better used to power heat pumps. A 12,000 BTU Heat pump uses about 500w and gives off 3x the heat.
Cute cat 🌞
Thanks :) he loves the camera
Hi! If i will have a load 17.8 ohm and pv at 9.9 ohm will be ok ? 3000w 230v heating element and 3p 550w pv panel
Hello, good question. We know a 230v element has high resistance as it's made for high voltage AC. So it is very hard to say it will work from here without the testing I'm used to doing in the shop. It could work if the panel voltage is right. Btw careful exceeding 55v or so. Higher DC can give you a real shock. Anyway first try plugging the numbers on the back of the panel(s) into I=V/R formula along with your chosen element. Use that as a baseline first. Do the same with the full AC rating. Compare the to equations to get a baseline. The math is a good starting point and will give you an estimated performance. Heating elements vary their resistance over time and under operation, keep that in mind. If this element is not a good match, you might try changing one variable in the equation at a time. In short I am used to testing this stuff myself and can't really guarantee a particular result. So this is all just my opinion - I hope it helps. DD
i just want to know if the math is ok. I think i will have 8-9A 80% of the tine and i’m at 16 ohm with lower light. Many thanks. I use dc 5000vdc 20A protections automatic and gloves in operation
You are welcome... I think the math is enough to give a good idea. I wish I could give you a more clear answer from here. With 9A and 16 ohm you might be hitting around 144vdc; good you have gloves as DC that high would definitely electrocute. For safer operation, I tend to parallel the panels and use lower voltage, lower resistance elements. More current, bigger/more wires, less vulnerable to panel shading issues as well. Multiple breakers if required. It sounds like you know how to protect yourself though, and that's good, stay safe.
@@solarpoweredge the distance between pv and boiler is around 20 meters so will be to much for my 6mm2 copper conductor
Just in case my experience is any future use to you; for years one of my farthest heaters is fed 10-20 Amps at 60vdc through 10awg (5.26mm2) copper over >40 meters in cold weather. There was not enough voltage drop in the wire to concern me. I plan to add 5 pairs of 8awg to bring in more PV, and keep all circuits around 60v - that's technically the upper end of the 48v region.
Great video, hard to find stuff like this on TH-cam! I was thinking if a 12V ACDC power supply was connected in parallel to a 12.1+Vmpp solar panel, and both to a load with less resistance than the panel's Characteristic Resistance (=Vmpp/Impp), then the panel's voltage would be pulled down until it matches the ACDC's voltage, the panel would still output near MPP, and the AC would make up the current difference. Thoughts?
PS Love your cat!
Thank you very much for the good feedback :) please stay tuned, more projects being documented. Yes you are correct, in theory that should work. I use the same type of concept in my server project (not uploaded yet). Getting it to balance can be a bit tedious though, and have to be careful backfeeding DC or linking power supplies like this. Some of them can't handle backfeeding. Glad you like the cat, I think he takes well to the camera. He loves anything that puts out heat, obviously :)
Thanks again good stuff and Cat in the Hat is a hoot!
PS: I feel it is easier to cool a room than heat one up, comparing a 5000BTU AC and how much energy it uses then let's say a heater the heater will take allot more amps to warm a cooled room than a window AC cooling a room in a 90F day. Thoughts?
You are welcome sir! Yes that cat cracks me up, has a lot of personality, hehe.
Sorry - in my rush to get 9000 things done, I missed the rest of your comment. Just happened to see it this evening. Hope you get notified of my reply.
You are right. A straight resistive heating element is not a heat pump so does not have the same effect as a window AC. It's easier to move existing heat (heat pump) but NOT cheaper and NOT simpler. Naturally you get less Heat from resistance than you do Cool. However the heat pump is loaded with moving parts and things that can break. A heating element is simply a cheap piece of wire that gets hot. So both have their "efficiencies" or advantages. Hope that answers the question, sorry for the delay in responding. DD
Furthermore, a mini split heat pump cost thousands to install and continually requires maintenance as I have well experienced. But I've been using EIGHT solar PV DC heaters to heat my home and as the winter hasn't been too bad. Those heaters are dirt cheap, very little to break, althought the electronic switching circuits (arc prevention and safety) are a bit tedious. Even if using my heat pump in the winter, it still makes a lot of sense to have cheap simple PV supplemental heat to help reduce power consumption!
@@solarpoweredge Hey thanks I hope you are down to 8000 things to do now lol
I am losing my home, divorcing so might need something to keep me alive at 65 years old.
Maybe I can dig a hole and use panels as a roof lol.
It's real hard to keep track lol.
Wow that does not sound fun. I am sorry to hear. Hang in there man! Hope you find a good roof and space for solar or whatever you want hehe. As I have slightly alluded to in old videos, I'm a shut-in with much pain for 20 years. That's 98% of it. Spare you the details. Making video is hard, But I believe they help a few folks, so it's the right thing. Again best wishes and hope you make it out just fine. Take care
Give me a thumbs up if what I say is correct for my SP... Max power output = Voltage at Pmax(Vmp) ? Current at Pmax(Imp)? If this is correct, my panels say the following Vmp= 37.68v ; Imp= 17.26A Therefore, 37.68/17.26=2.18 (the basic target Resistance of my heating element.. How much does slightly mean ? If make the element "slightly" more resistant meaning 3.18 R? I have 4 of this type of panels so any suggestions would be great. I am a Science teacher not an English teacher so excuse my errors lol
@markpennella The math looks correct! paper calculations don't necessarily reflect the real world but they are a helpful tool to get started... I use this simple formula nearly every day! Do you have any nichrome? How about making your own heating element with these numbers and see what happens :D