How long can the solar power systems remain sitched off?
by admin on Wednesday, April 6th, 2011 | 2 Comments
I have recently installed solar power systems in my home. I need to go away for two months during which the house will remain closed. What do I do with the systems,leave it on or switch everything off for that period? Will this affect the charger,batteries or the inverter?
Idealy if you could have somone come in once a week to check battery levels, you could leave the system on. 2 Months is a little long to leave batteries inactive but if you have no one in the area to check them, they can be idled. The inverter is not needed to be on and it will not be affected wither way if shut off for that period. Panels themselves should be okay if left open circuit, If you happen to have to a dump load system, that would not be a bad idea to switch that in. Otherwise a couple low voltage incandescent bulbs as load for each panel/array circuit so the panels at least have a nominal load on them when charging would be the best approach. It does not have to be a lot. A pair of 40 watt bulbs, or a pair of 60 watt bulbs fed directly and solely by the panels through the voltage regulator would suffice. Essentially for these you can leave the charge controller circuit online, just disconnect the batteries.
If you have no choice and do a total shutdown, top the batteries up for water level and charge, and then wash the batteries down or at least wipe off the top of the case very well, and spray the tops with WD40 to displace any remaining water, which will cause the battery to self discharge by providing a path across the top of the battery. The batteries will lose some charge, but these steps saved some batteries I had to let sit for 7 months untended. They retained about 80% charge, which was more than one can hope for. Just remember to equallize/desulphate them when put back in service.
The “solar power system” is irrelavent until you ask a few IMPORTANT questions.
Like what kind of a system do you have and what is it powering.
If you powering up the entire house, I doubt you want to turn the power to your freezer off for 2 months.
And it also depends on if you have a system that only powers your home during daylight hours or if its a system that provides total ‘off the grid’ power to your home.
If you want to “conserve” on your system, your solar panels will continue to make electricity unless you throw a tent over your home, so you might as well allow the system to work just to keep the batteries in service and in use.
I’d recommend that you keep the breaker to the kitchen on to keep the frig going along with the solar system working. That way only the essentials are in use while your gone and the load is minimal on the solar system.