You’ve already seen this…
But now it’s actually connected to something.
And here’s what it’s connected to!
Very simple and elegant compared to stuff installed twelve years ago. The tech has improved a lot.
Overnight these batteries went from my most dreaded monthly maintenance job to the simplest. And they’re bubbling away now, boy. There’s finally some horsepower on the other side of the charge controller.
The batteries are at the end of their projected service life, but they’re top of the line and have rarely been run very low. The only way they’ve been abused is that they’ve frequently not been topped off. So I’m hoping Landlady can get another year or two out of them.
If I seem excessively excited about somebody else’s system, it’s just that this poor thing has never worked right. Claire poured a lot of money into it when she lived here and that got it on its knees, but … well, you can’t make a sow’s ear into a silk purse. Let it be said that everything she purchased has been incorporated into this new incarnation. All the original original equipment is now gone.
I was hoping that you would post pix of the finished product. Very nice!
The new system looks great, Joel. Can’t wait to hear reports of how it functions.
Don’t give me too much credit for rescuing the original, charlatan-built system. Anything I did was fortuitous. I was able to put money in because I’d just sold Cabin Sweet Cabin. I was advised by people who knew what they were doing. And when I left, Landlady took over the infrastructure cost. So my contribution was small.
It is nice to know that those batteries are still going after seven or so years, though.
Every time I think about that poor, cobbled-together system — a money pit that never worked properly from day one and required constant tinkering and anxiety just to get barely enough power out of it — I think about all the starry-eyed souls who imagine they’re going to move to the country, toss up a few solar panels, and live happily ever after. Poor fools. What a learning experience they have ahead of them.
Looks good, but I’d keep an eye on those what appear to be breeze blocks holding up the batteries. If they get any acid on them, they likely would turn into non-structural poot in pretty short order, and even just the fumes could weaken them in less time than you might suspect.