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Yes. Unfortunately at the time I did that video my previous protection board had failed. So prior to getting a new set I made a DIY set up using zener diodes. It did not do a good job at balancing the cells so I had to get new protection boards. This zener diode set-up is not reccomended.
Bro ,i have smu 1230 model purchased 2450rs 😑 it can't push more than 12amps in sunny day of 325watts it mean 160watts pushing to load or battery, what can i do to increase amps 😢 now i cannot afford mppt , shall i add another pwm controller in parallel connection 😑 please bro help with your reply
I think you are talking about smu 1230 solar charge controller by Microtek is a pwm solar charge controller. What is the voltage of your solar panel? If the difference is significantly more than 12V you can try the buck converter and see. But remember, buck converters arent as efficient as MPPT scc. Just see how much it will cost to buy a new panel which can provide the additional amps you require and go for the most cost effective option.
Hi sir, Thank you for this video, I would like to know If I have solar panels 400w 24v ,500f 16v capacitor and I want set the buck converter at 14volts how much the value of amps should I set on the back converter to charge the capacitor without damaging on the capacitor ?
You only have to do it once where you first get the super capacitor voltage up to 12V. For that you can use a charging amperage of 1-2A to charge it up within a minute. After that make sureyou open the buck converter to the maximum output to get the best out of your panel. You dont have to rechage the supercapacitors every day as you can keep it connected and when the sun comes up it will slowly charge it by itself.
@@diysustainableliving2774can we charge our electric vehicle by this. My ev charger takes 220 volt ac and 3 to 4 amp during charging my battery. I want to connect super capacitor with battery in parallel. And as the sun sets I will turn of supercapcitor by mcb during night so that it will not drain from battery.
Yes you can. As long as you make your setup powerful enough to handle that load you can do it. I personally think you dont have to connect and disconnect your supercapacitors everyday as the self discharge rats are negligible.
I think connecting directly to the battery while the solar controller is charging it in parallel means some power are being drawn from solar. Why did he not use the output terminals of the solar controller?
I dont think I understood your question correctly. In the first part I am running a standard solar setup to show how a battery starts a fridge. Next I show what happens when you connect an induction load directly to solar output. And thirdly I show how a supercapacitor can bridge that gap. Please let me know exactly what you would like to clarify.
2:39 You connected the inverter to the battery but the battery is still connected to the charge terminals of the solar controller. Therefore, the inverter is drawing power both from battery and solar at the same time. Why is it that there is nothing connected to the power output terminals of the solar controller? Is it not the proper path to get electricity coming from the battery while it charges?
Good question. Those output terminals on the solar charge controller are for small loads such as a light in your shed. They max out at 5 to 10A. You should not connect heavy loads on those terminals. For large loads you have to connect the inverter to the battery (Or Supercapacitor) terminals directly.
Great Video! what about a setup where the existing battery bank is two lifepo4 packs in parallel, each 12v, but with different AH capacity? sometimes each individual pack's BMS will disconnect itself. for example, if it is full. If I added a supercap, such that I had 2 lifepo4 packs and 1 supercap, what would happen to the setup if one of the pack's BMS disconnects itself?
It dosent!... This is just a proof of concept video that you can start and run induction loads directly using solar power without a battery using supercapacitors. If you want to run the fridge at night then you will need a battery.
No it dose not give a significant boost. But it helps to keep the voltage in check when we are using lithium batteries or like in this video when we are not using a battery at all!
No... Without a battery it wont run when the sun goes down. Even if a cloud passes over the system will shut down. This is a proof of concept that supercapacitors can handle the temporary surge of power needed for induction loads. After it has started the fridge can run on the power directly generated by the solar panels as long as the panel output is above the power needed for the fridge to run.
So for example. My fridge which is around 70 uses 0.35Kwh of power per day. So if it is only the fridge you are going to power you will be safe if you have at least that amount of battery power. So for a 12v deep cycle lead acid battery with a 50% DoD you would need a 60Ah battery to be safe. For lithium batteries this can go up to 80% DoD.
@@diysustainableliving2774 what of if I have 100ah chloride lithium battery 12v,and inverter that has maximum power of 1200w and continuous power supply of 600w...and 200w solar panel
That should be enough to make a 70w fridge run for 24hrs. It now depends on the efficiency of the fridg. The fridge on and offs when the temperature rises. So as long as the fridge doors are not kept open all the time you should be fine 😊
hello, I intend to parallel a 16v/50F super capacitor module that I have bought to a 12v sealed lead battery, my question is do I need to charged the super capacitor before I parallel with the sealed lead battery? Thanks
Yes it would be a good idea to slowly charge it up first to get the voltage closer to 12V befire connecting it. If you connect it directly, you can expect a large amount of power to flow in and cause the capacitors and wires to heat up. That is not a plesent experience.
Generally speaking, the bigger the better. But for a 5.6kw inverter what is your battery voltage?… Ideally the system should be 24v or 48v to handle that load as a 12v system will be using a lot of amps and will overheat. So for this sort of high power applications adding capacitors might not add a great deal of improvement.
@@diysustainableliving2774 48 v battery but i am using without battery n grid so due to tark load of 2 fridges inverter get trip. Some told that 450v and 2200uf dc capacitor can resolve this issue!
Im not familar with AC capacitors or soft starters for induction loads. It would be a good idea to look for that information some where else. What Im showing on my videos is DC side capacitors to boost the input power of the inverter.
The supercapacitors I am using are in the Farad range. 83F in total at 16v. 1F = 1000000uf. I dont think adding a 2200uf capacitor will do anything. To prevent inverter tripping first make sure the inverter can handle the load you are trying to run. Next make sure you use thick wires from the battery to the inverter. Third, if you want to add these capacitors you will need 4 of these 16v supercapacitor banks in series to accompdate the 48V battery. This should help your battery in the initial start up load. Lastly you can explore soft starter options for your load. I dont have any experience with those so I cant say whether they will work or not.
@@diysustainableliving2774 almost 3000watts needed ... Im not well knowledgeable on solar perse thats why ive been researching for a set up that i could copy but sadly just doing so would ba a disaster in the making.. need to know calculation and what type of wire and etc to be use.. 😔
3000w for how long?... First it depends where you live. If you live near the euator, on a good day you can expect to get a good 6hrs of full solar panel output. But if you live in places such as England you will have clouds even in summer. As a simple example if you have a 500W solar panel and live near the equater where the day is predictable, on a good day you can generate 0.5 x 6hrs = 3Kwh. That is the same as using a 3000w kettle to function for 1 hour. If you provide more details we can give more detailed calculations here.
It depends on how much power your fridge uses in a day. The most amount of power you can produce using solar power is only 6hrs around noon. So your solar panels size should be able to generate the power used by your fridge in a single day within those 6hrs.
I'm wondering if you don't have enough voltage on the input side. Would it be functional if you use a step up converter to meet the needed voltage. Thanks
That is a good question. I never got to try it. The issue is in theory every additionl step you add you loose around 10% of the energy as these gadgets are only 90% efficient. But the MPPT is rated for around 100%. It will be a good idea to experiment.
It depends on the cost in your local area and the battery chemistry you want to use. Calculate how much power your fridge uses in a single day. You will have to build a system which could accomodate that energy in a single day and have a little bit extra reserve to compensate for possible rainy days as well.
This is important when you initially charge the super capacitor bank to the system voltage. For that you can yse any form of resistor. I used a 20w car head light bulb to reduce the amperage. Once it is equal you can just leave it connected to the battery as there wont be a lot of energy flowing between them once the voltages are equalized.
Yes.... These buck converters can adjust the voltage and amperage. There are two trimpots for that. I have adujuted the voltage side but have always kept the current side at the maximum setting.
@@diysustainableliving2774 ❤️ thank you for the reply brother , I have two inverter which is out of use , I want them to use for my pc with small batteries attached like 7ah or 14ah . With a 12 volt or 24 volt inverter I have .
On the roof of my van I have a single 320w 40v solar panel. I want to install a dual input DC-DC Alternator and PV charge controller, but none of them take more than 32v max. Is this it a safe solution to install a 48v to 24 step down? Efficiency losses? Will i have losses when I'm not getting much solar in partial shade or cloud cover?
You can install a buck converter in this situation but if you want to maximize efficiency then you will be better off with getting an MPPT scc insted. The buck converter itself has an efficiency of around 90% and it wont function as effectively as an MPPT. So you will be looking at getting only around 70% from your panel. With an MPPT it will be more close to 100%.
That is just a short extension cord from the inverter to the fridge wire as it was a bit short. I had to use that so that I could positition everthing for the camera in a nice way.
I have a different problem. Using 640wp solar panel. VOC is 25 and, 30amp in total. Also using hybrid PWM inverter with 12v battery. Currently I am getting 18-24amp from solar. Can I use 3 x20amp buck converter parallelly to improve the solar current as input of the hybrid inverter?
What is the VMP?... This is exactly the place where the buck converter will be useful due to the voltage difference, however Im not sure about placing multiple buck converters in parallel. In theory it should work. Please make sure the output voltage of all are equal so that they balance each other.
@@diysustainableliving2774 The VMP is 21v (all 3) and VOC is 25v. If I reduce the voltage I have to make it 15v approx (by buck converter), so my inverter can charge the battery upto 14.6v (the inverter app displaying that). So 21v will be reduced to 15v. Do you think buck converter may increase the current?
I dont think you will get much of a gain here. Please note... buck converters are not as efficient as a true MPPT. Going down from 25 to 12v you should see an increase in amperage but from 21 to 15v the gain most likely will be negligible.
@@diysustainableliving2774 thanks for the reply. I will not invest my time there. But still I will buy a buck converter to run my computer UPS directly from solar. The battery supports 12v 7amp. What voltage and ampere should I set for this?
Sir, if I arrange the system as you explained in the video, relying on capacitors only, without adding a battery, at the beginning of the next day, do I have to recharge the capacitor as I did the first time, or does the system work automatically? ?
Please note... Supercapacitors store only a tiny ammount of power. That is just enought to start an induction load but not eonought to run it. If you plan to leave it un attended the whole system will collapse. This was just a proof of concept video. Even if there is a cloud over head bloking sun light it can shut down the system.
@@diysustainableliving2774 I now that, My question is about if the system shot down when there are clouds or at night Do I need to recharge the capacitor?
I dont think you will need to do that. The inverters low voltage cut off is around 9.5v. So to bring the voltage to 12v you can just keep it connected. It all depends on how your inverter functions.
@@diysustainableliving2774 I want us only capacitors in the system without battery , If there is no power from the solar panel and the system shut down ,and the power come back again Do I have to recharge the capacitor in the same way as the first method, or will it automatically charge from the voltage regulator and the system will return to work?
Im currently in england. Thats why I havent made any new videos lately. The whether is shocking. It is either cloudy or rainy year round. That is probably the reason why there are so many wind turbines everywhere insted of solar. Solar power may be ok for an on grid system to reduce your electricity bills, but for a stand alone off grid home system it is probably not the best option. But I think in all other parts of the world you get proper sunshine.
Yes you can use the buck converter in such a situation but keep in mind, the power output will vary through the day and if a cloud passes over it can lower the panel output as well. Thats why a battery or supercapacitor will help bridge these gaps.
Nice video. My question to this is that, does the dc buck converter don't suffer from converter collapse, in which when the batterys caoacity is large and the converter will draw more power than the solar panel produces? Does the PWM prevent converter collapse by regulating the charging voltage and current? That's the only question I had by the way this set up seems to be more efficient than using only PWM alone, cause pwm in their nature only steps down the voltage to the battery s charging voltage without converting that excess voltage to usable current, If the panels are producing 18v at 5amps, it will only step down the voltage to lets say 13v for charging a battery, and the current remains the same which is 5 amps, this set up enhances efficiency by the bucks converter converting the excess voltage (14vto 18v) to usable current, adding some usable current to charge the battery, in this demonstration your meter shows a current increse of .2amps, about 3watts of incresed power, not bad at all, and it will increase voltage increases. Good work, my only question to this, is that does the buck converter didn't suffer from converter collapse?
Hi!… Im not sure what you mean by buck converter collapse. But what happens when I connect a large load directly to the buck converter is that it draws the input side voltage ( the panel voltage) down drastically below the maximum power point. This reduces the efficiency. Thats why buck converters are not a replacement for MPPT charge controllers. However lets say you have a panel which produces 30V and you want to use it in a 12v system then you may see a benefit but as seen in the video when I am using a 18v panel the improvement is almost negligible.
@@diysustainableliving2774 yup, that moment when you directly connect the load to the buck converter and it drops the input voltage down is what I am referring to as converter collapse, and when the load connected to the buck demands more power than the solar panel is producing the whole system collapse and shuts down. You have my point, my question is when you connect that same load through the PWM NOT Directly to the bucks ouput, does the input voltage still go down or it still remains the same and only draw the available current that the buck can present to the PWM? Coz if that's true, the pwm solves the issue converters drawing more power than the panels can produce by directly charging the battery with buck converters from solar panels. Please verify my point thanks
Nope... The PWM will not help you in this situation. The PWM works like a high frequency switch. When the battery/load side voltage is low it just keeps the circuit open. However when it exceeds the fully charged voltage eg 14.4v then the frequency of how long it keeps the circuit open goes down untill it fully closes the circuit. There is no way that this will prevent converter collapse.
@@diysustainableliving2774 but how will you able to charge your battery without that converter collapsing? Does the charging current of your battery do not exceed the solar panel is providing so it doesn't collapse, have you tried charging a much greater capacity battery to see if the converter collapse will still occur? Thanks for your response.
Its like this. The battery voltage in the discharged state is 12.0v. In the fully charged state it is 12.8v and the voltage used to charge the battery is 14.4v. So all I have to do is adjust the buck converter output voltage to 14.4v to act like a charger.
Please educate me on what I may have done wrong. The charge voltage is regulated to 14.2V which is acceptable for both type cells, and the LiFePO4 cells are behind a BMS which will disconnect when the batteries get too low. Please let me what I have missed here.
@@diysustainableliving2774 lead acid and lifep04 has different chemistry of charging.its n0t g00d t0 be in parallel.used 2 lead acid t0 be in parallel,s0 with the lifep04.0n the 0ther hand,u mush have ung low voltage disc0nnect.s0 that y0ur battery will autmatically disc0nnect to 12v.you will ruined your battery early as i see the voltage in y0ur set up.the charge v0ltage must n0t reached the limit v0ltage which is 12v.the DOD of lead acid is 0nly 50%.😅😅😅😅
I think you are confusing the lithium cells I have for lithium ion cells. I am using lithium iron phosphate cells. Not lithium ion cells!. 100% charge state for these cells are around 14.4v, which is also the charging voltage of lead acid cells. And 12.5v is the 15% DOD for LiFePO4 level which also the 50%DOD for lead acid cells. Thats where I want to limit the usage of the batteries within thers limits. Please look at the voltage curves for the chemistries I am using and understand the rationale here.
Please look at part 2... What happens is when the amps goes up the voltage drops. This was not the expected result so thats why I made a separate video showing it in a running system.
It depends on the size of the battery. Big battery with thick wires can easily give the needed power. But if your battery is small then adding a supercapacitor bank will take the startup load off the battery.
I have 2 caps at 35 uf +5% 425v 60hz, would this work with this? They are meant for industrial motors originally but I want to use them for a 12v solar setup. Capacitors have always confused me on how to use them properly. It looks like the cycles increase based on voltage input from what I have gathered. My only concern is would these units store voltage up to that high voltage rating? If so would it destroy my system.
I think the caps you have can store a small ammount of electricity at a very high voltage. Supercapacitors are rated in the farad range (F) not micro farad (uf). The caps I have are each rated at 2.7V and 500F. There are 6 of them in series to get 16.2v which can be used for a 12V system. You can buy these online quite cheap.
@@diysustainableliving2774 thanks for the advice and I will definitely try looking into it. Thought I would save some money with what I already own but I will keep it on the safe side and use what is proven
Please ask the questions in english. By using google translate I think the answer to this question is... the buck converter connects in series before the pwm scc. This is ideal if you have a lithium ion battery setup as it needs a particular voltage. As for the fridge either you need to use a fridge which runs on DC power or you have to have an inverter to run an AC fridge.
This setup is so wrong what you really need is a DC induction Coker it will eliminate the need of an inverter. Infact during the day it will not even need batteries
True!... At the moment I am showing things as a proof of concept with existing things available on the market. I know that there are DC induction cookers out there but they are not freely available like AC cookers.
For that I used the AC mains wire as they can handle a good amount of amps and are cost effective. From both panels I would get a maximum of around 14A but the wire can handle around 30A.
Interesting . Due to audio reasons I couldn't understand what comes at the end of the Panel Cables. There are two devices Both wall mounted. Attached to them is the Amp Meter. Could you speak about them again and a little louder. Thanks. 🙂
Sorry about that. Those things on the wall before the ammeter are a buck converter and a pwm charge controller. Im using the buck converter in this set up as I am connecting my supercapacitor bank directly instead of the battery. This is why I have to limit the input voltage. Im not sure about the pwm scc as it is good when you have a battery but it is also rated for 24v batteries so with the supercaps if it overcharges the voltage it may end in a catastrophic failure. Thats the main reason for the buck converter in this video. I hope that makes sense.
