PV powered gate openers [RE-wrenches]

[Randy Brooks]

Graham,

We've installed two Star II solar automatic gate openers manufactured by US
Automatic (www.usautomatic.com - regional distributors are listed).  I've
been told they are more robust than others, although I haven't had
experience with others.  They have worked flawlessly for two years on dual
swing stock gates.  However, lessons learned include:
- The kit does not include fusing between the solar panel and battery, so an
inline blade type fuse was added.
- There is no charge controller in the kit, so a Morningstar SunGuard (or
similar small charge controller) should be added.  Even though the kit
includes only two 5 watt Uni-Solar modules, there is no guidance in the
manual on selecting an appropriately sized battery.   We saw "maintenance
free" deep cycle batteries boiled to the point where plates were exposed and
one exploded when the gate opener was not used for an extended period.
- The range on the remote is quite good - we had two gates 1/2 mile apart on
flat terrain that both opened whenever the remote was pressed, so one gate
was changed to open with the keypad only.
Hope this is helpful,

Randy Brooks
Brooks Solar, Inc.
Solar Power for People
140 Columbia View
Chelan, WA  98816
509-682-9646
Randy at BrooksSolar.com
www.BrooksSolar.com 

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