[RE-wrenches] wrenches] Golf Cart Array

[john]

Bob-O
   I have a golf cart going on 5 years with 3 Sunwize 80 watt panels.  The only time we have plugged it in to a charger was a few days when the cart was working all day long each day for 3 days in a row at SolarFest picking up the trash and recycling.  We use it on our sheep farm the rest of the year and never plug it in.  We go up and down a 1 mile driveway with 500' vertical.  Just did our first run this morning after having it sit in
a snow drift all winter. We just quit using our snowmobile to traverse the driveway and now we are in mud season.  Cart made it down and partway back up before getting stuck in the mud.  We have a Midnite Solar BCM to keep tabs on the battery and it has weathered 3 years outside mounted on the dash. I still need a charge controller... now I just keep turning the array on and off with a DC breaker in the battery compartment.  With something like the KID, most any panels would work.  We have kind of cooked the batteries from time to time... definitely got equalized.  The MNBCM is reading low voltage right now as it thinks we are a 48v system.! 
You can see a picture of it on my personal Facebook timeline.


John Blittersdorf
Central Vermont Solar & Wind




-----Original Message-----
From: Carl Hansen <solarwks at cybermesa.com>
To: RE-wrenches <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>
Sent: Fri, Apr 11, 2014 11:05 pm
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Golf Cart Array


   Bob-O
    I did that once for a client, I used 3 Yingli 75s , they fit well 
but the array turned out to be to heavy for the Golf Carts roof frame, 
stress cracks started showing up.  I think I still have the 36 volt 
charge controller, built by Solar Converters, it never got installed, if 
you happen to need one its available.

   Carl Hansen
   Hansen&Sun Elect.
   505 470-0770


On 4/11/2014 6:36 PM, Bob-O Schultze wrote:
> Esteemed and just steamed Fellows,
> I've rebuilt an old dead 36V golf cart and I'd like to put an array on it. The 
problem is that the roof area is only 40" x 65ish" and it's 36V. I'm OK with a 
bit of overhang the 65" dimension, but not side to side as it will be a head 
bumper getting in and out. Don't want to put anything less than 150W up there 
and more, of course, is mo betta. Got an MPPT controller embedded in so higher 
voltage is not an issue. My first thought is to find three old M55s which are 
only 13" wide, but I'm open to whatever. The beauty of the M55s would be they 
are UPS-able. So... anybody got some? Other suggestions? Got lots of trading 
stock.
> Thanks, Bob-O
>
> _______________________________________________
> List sponsored by Home Power magazine
>
> List Address: RE-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org
>
> Change email address & settings:
> http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
>
> List-Archive: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
>
> List rules & etiquette:
> www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm
>
> Check out participant bios:
> www.members.re-wrenches.org
>
>
>

_______________________________________________
List sponsored by Home Power magazine

List Address: RE-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org

Change email address & settings:
http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org

List-Archive: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org

List rules & etiquette:
www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm

Check out participant bios:
www.members.re-wrenches.org


 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org/attachments/20140412/504e1628/attachment-0002.html>