Posted January 7, 20232 yr Im a bit new to Solar and batteries, need some advice on how to put this together; I have to keep replacing my gate motor every couple of months due to the loadshedding, so I am now going to do a small solar setup to keep the gate motor online permanently. The motor is a Centurion D5 Evo Motor. The gate gets used maximum 5 times a day, on average 1-2 times a day. I did some research on how to spec a basic solar System and first went looking at batteries and was looking at a 20AH Gel Battery which I think should be efficient, I will use a 60w Solar panel for charging this battery. Together with this I want to get a AC Battery Charger as-well to be able to charge the battery when there is AC power. Problem is I cant connect both at the same time to the battery? Is there some kind of DC Automatic transfer switch that can switch between AC and Solar? Correct me if I need some other devices in between: Solar panel connects to a Solar charge controller, Charge controller connects to the battery and the gate motor Battery input. In the house I have gotten a 30w solar panel and a 7ah battery for the alarm system and that seems to be holding well.
January 7, 20232 yr Wouldn't it be easier / cheaper to get a lithium battery for the gatr as a drop in replacement? They go lower in discharge than the gels
January 8, 20232 yr Author I was first planning to do that but they keep steeling our power cables then we off for 6h to a week at a time. Thus I want to get a solar backup to keep the gate online permanently. We in Florida North, Roodepoort. Always something up with the power here. I need to do a similar setup next door at a business, but just a bigger battery and inverter. The UPS keeps draining on every loadshedding and its costing them 6 new batteries every 6 months. They share their internet to an flat tenant behind the building and to the house next door, so the internet needs to be on 24/7. I saw these Hybrid inverters, but they a little expensive. I want to get a Automatic transfer switch to switch between the Grid and Solar power rather.
January 8, 20232 yr Author 1 hour ago, dax021 said: D5 Evo solar wiring.pdf 251.18 kB · 2 downloads I have seen that one, but with that method the battery will only charge via solar and not AC Power. Im looking for a way to accomplish what a hybrid inverter does on a small scale. Thus I need a way to have the battery charge via an AC Charger when theres AC and solar when the AC is down.
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