Finally finished the solar expansion work before sunrise this morning, getting the new charge controller installed and configured in parallel with the existing one and all its tweaks applied.
After a little rain yesterday evening, skies remained lightly overcast this morning at sunrise, but the solar power system expansion is performing well. By 9:00 AM the absorb stage had completed with the new PV panels pushing out more than enough current at only ~45% of maximum rated wattage to maintain float stage with all of my appliances and electronic gear turned on (~200 watts). Nice bubbling sounds are emanating from the happy battery bank.
So adding a mere 380 additional watts and 20 amps (max) to the existing PV array has already helped considerably while only utilizing less than half of max output capacity. With new charge controller capacity to add another 760 watts/40 amps, I may go ahead and do that additional expansion this year too. Need to check the budget for four more PV panels.
It feels good to live green amongst all of the surrounding greenery here. And the less I have to run a generator, the better. More PV panels will help cut down on that noisy necessity, as will installation of a solar water pump in Well #1 as soon as that can be arranged. Then I may finally achieve the dream of 100% silent green living. The wildlife will be happier with me too.
Comments