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Solar panels

3 solar panels make up my current system for electricity, they are 3 polycrystalline panels a bit cheaper than monocrystalline but also less efficient, given the lower purity of the cells. Below you can find the link for the product.


For 2019 I'm thinking of installing two 300W panels (600W tot) with monocrystalline modules, in fact a panel like this, costs less than 3 panels like the current ones, plus they have a higher yield!



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Charge regulator

The charge regulator is an essential accessory for the management of batteries and their charge, in fact, as you can see in the picture, it is he who regulates the charging of batteries with the current coming from solar panels up to 30A!


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Battery balancer
From Victron Energy, an accessory that I didn't know about until today (05 December 2018) but that actually can be really interesting, it is probably also due to the lack of this device that my batteries died.
This device, when charging a 24V system composed of two 12V batteries, allows you to balance the charge of the two batteries, in fact it is not necessarily the case that the batteries being in series charge in the same way, which creates a chain imbalance in the system.
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For further information, I refer you to the website of the Swiss representative of Victron energy.


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IBS system for dual batteries
This is a clever system that allows the accessory batteries (in my case of the small house) to be charged while travelling, not necessarily using solar panels but rather the vehicle's alternator.
Having picked up the battery balancer today at the Victron branch in Murten, I asked if the different capacity between the vehicle's batteries and the accessory batteries was a problem, and it is not. That said, the system can handle two different battery systems with different capacities!


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Batteries
At the moment the batteries are in the garage for a warranty claim, in fact they are both dead (05 December 2018).
Should the warranty claim be accepted, I will reinstall two batteries identical to the previous ones, otherwise, I will switch to two Gel batteries always for a 24V system.

The current batteries, are Bosch batteries, so called for lighting, in fact they have a rather limited starting point but have the ability to be charged and discharged more often. They are sealed batteries, always with distilled water and acid, but they have a condensate recovery system which allows them to be installed indoors.
The warranty claim was rejected because it was outside the two-year period.

Gel batteries last slightly longer than those with acid, can be installed in any position (even upside down) and are also maintenance-free.
Taking advantage of the bad luck, I will also change the capacity of the batteries if necessary, in fact as mentioned above with the IBS system, I can go to 260Ah compared to the previous 180Ah.

For Gel batteries, an interesting offer can be found at Agrimess:


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Battery charger
A 3-stage, automatic battery charger with a charging current of no less than 25A at 24V! It also acts as a power supply unit in case of need, in fact it can easily deliver stabilised 24V and 25A! so I have 600W at my disposal a real bomb!
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It has a temperature probe to control the temperature of the batteries, so that an ideal charging profile can be achieved without stressing them.