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These
days, many types of Batteries are available. In my opinion, Lithium Ion and AGM
are particularly useful and they don't need upkeep, although I have been told
that if connected in parallel, then every 6 months or so, they need to be
'balanced.' If interested, it would pay You to google that. Apparently, Lithium
Ion batteries can be discharged way down and still maintain their voltage but
they can be very expensive. I don't know much about solar systems, but hopefully
this short article may be of help.
This article only gives an overview
of using Solar Power to run Your Amateur Radio Station.. -
There's an
interest nowadays in alternative forms
of power but the most popular
for Amateur Radio Operators would have
to be Solar Power...
Although I don't
know much about solar systems, I can
share with you what I do know...
There are basically
3 components to a Solar Installation... The
Battery, the Solar Panel and the Controller
to regulate the current and voltage sent
to the battery from the solar panel...
The sizes of
these depend on the amount of current
you need to draw from the battery and
the duration... Once you work out these
2 requirements, you're able to figure out
the capacities of the 3 components... In
my case for example, I operate CW on
HF so the current draw on the battery
would be about 20 Amps... By the way,
for a 100 watt radio, using Ohm's Law,
you would expect the current drawn using
a 12 volt supply to be about 8
amps or so ( 100W = 12V x 8.3A )
but because most modern solid state radios
are only about 50 or 60% efficient on
CW and a little more efficient on SSB,
the current drawn is nearly double that...
That's why most 100 watt radios which
have 13.8 volt dc power supplies are
rated at around about 20 amps or
more...
To illustrate, let's
say the transmitter was run key down
drawing 20 amps for 1 hour. This means
that the battery has used 20 Amp Hours
in that period (20A x 1H)... Batteries are
rated in terms of their voltage and
the number of Amp Hours they can
supply... However, batteries used with solar
panels need to be of the ' Deep Cycle
' type. I think that it pays not to discharge them by too much.
2007 -
CW using a Yaesu FT-1000MP Field.
The battery shown
in these images has a rating of 670
Amp Hours... 20% of that is approximately
130 Amp Hours which would enable operating for a long time. A battery
this size can power a small house but
you would need a number of panels to
recharge the battery quickly due to the
regular current drain by house hold
appliances etc... The expected life span is
10 years or more if looked after
properly... ie. not run down too far
and also topped up with distilled water...
(This battery is still in use after 12
years).
BPSK31 using an Icom
IC-7600.
The voltage at
the battery fluctuates depending on its
charging cycle... It may swing from 12
volts or so of a night to about
14.5 volts or so in the daytime... I
have 3 different radios that I've used
with this battery and the voltage swing
doesn't seem to affect them... The amount
of current coming from the solar panel
is dependent on the size of the panel,
it's direction towards the Sun and the
availability of sunshine... Since we're not
at the Radio QTH all the time and
drawing current, the battery doesn't need to
be charged quickly on a regular basis...
One 80 watt panel is sufficient for my
needs ie. to keep the battery charged...
The direction that the panel faces is
important to maximise the exposure to the
Sun... Also, the angle to the horizon
should be optimized to ensure that the
Sun hits the panel as near as
perpendicular as possible throughout the year,
especially in the winter... High tech panel
installations track the Sun... When mounting
solar panels (usually framed in Aluminium)
on sections of dissimilar metal, insulators
should be used to prevent corrosion at
the point of contact. I used sections
of black plastic irrigation pipe with a
hole drilled through the sides of it...
The plastic pipe is compressed when the
nuts are tightened...Stainless steel nuts, bolts
and spring washers are also recommended...
The ' Charge
Controller ' or ' Regulator ' sends the right
amount of current and voltage from the
panel to the battery... It's job is to
ensure that the battery is not overcharged,
thereby extending the life of the battery...
The panel shown, can deliver in the
order of 20 volts or so depending on
the availability of sunshine. The controller
regulates the voltage down to a charging
voltage of around 13.8 to 14.4 volts
for 'boost' charging and about 13.5 volts
for 'float' charging... These are
approximate values... When there is a large
current drain from the battery, the
regulator will allow maximum regulated current
to flow into the battery from the
solar panel... When it is fully charged,
little current is sent to the battery...
With the polycrystalline panel shown, a
maximum current of nearly 5 Amps can
be produced with a cloudless sky... The
maximum Amp Hours this panel can manage
at this QTH seems to be about 35
AH or so a day... When buying the
battery and panel, the sales people will
sell you the appropriate controller as
well... A solar controller like this one,
with an LCD screen, is able to tell
you a lot of information... eg. the
voltage at the battery terminals at present,
the amount of current going into the
battery at the moment, the number of
Amp Hours already gone into the battery
so far today, the total Amp Hours sent
to the battery each day etc... To
reduce the risk of sparking when connecting
the panel to the controller, I have
either done it of a night time or
thrown a thick blanket over the panel
during daylight. Also, some controllers cause interference to Radios, so if
purchasing, ask relevant people about Your particular controller.
The other
consideration is the wires connecting
components... To reduce voltage drop, ensure
that you use heavy gauge wires and
also use fuses in the main lines...
Ask the sales people questions, they want
your business... By the way, it pays
to clean your solar panels regularly.
Rainwater does not do the job very
well as a film of grime builds up
on solar panels over time...
Many deep cycle
batteries can last a long time depending
on usage. If you do not demand too
much current from them, the life expectancy
of some can be ten years or more. Although deep cycle
batteries are not cheap, once you have
a solar system up and running, there
are no ongoing power bills...
I hope this
article is helpful in building your own Solar
Powered Amateur Radio Station.
 
May 2021.
The large 670AH Lead Acid Battery has
been in use for 12 years but never the less I decided to replace it
with 800AH of Lithium Ion Batteries.
The Lead Acid Battery has performed
faultlessly for the entire time. It needed to be topped up with
distilled water every month or so but the Lithium Ion
Batteries, 4 x 200AH need no attention
paid to them but expensive though. The supplier told me that they can
be depleted by 100% and bounce back easily.
Also, they retain their voltage til way
down low. Now using a new Controller with no RFI.
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