@bradlyons7046 A) For the 12v fan, the PWM controller should be as large as possible. I'd suggest 20 amps minimum. The 24v fan isn't going to draw as much power at 12v, but I'd stick with a 20A if possible. Quality of PWM controllers can vary, I'd test each one in operation. If it gets hot, upgrade to the next higher model to prevent fire hazards. I've seen speed controllers that claimed to handle "# amps", but in fact, they couldn't - and would overheat. The battery should have a fuse as close as possible to the positive terminal, with nothing else connected before it (except a wire). Another way of looking at it, the fuse is the first thing connected to the battery, before the wattmeter or anything else. Can use standard 12v automotive fuses and fuse holder. How about a 20A fuse to start. Hopefully the surge won't blow the fuse. If it does, just replace with a 25/30A fuse.

@larryjanson4011 I'd sure like to have 8 :) if I had to put them in freezing temps, probably would build an insulated battery box and install a small heater, could be an interesting project

@qudsiariaz964 :D 👍

@bradlyons7046 For 1) 12v car radiator fan powered by 12v LiFePo4 battery, it's going to use about 85 watts. That is about 600 watt-hours in 8 hours. I'd recommend a 100ah battery (about 1200wh) to ensure continued operation with power to spare and no need to run the battery flat each time. A 50ah battery could just barely meet your requirement but would be run completely flat in 8 hours which is not good for it. Adding a simple PWM speed controller will slow down the 12v fan, save power and make it run even longer. 2) Just a single 100ah battery would do fine, or parallel enough smaller batteries to reach about 800 watt-hours. *Note the 24v fan will probably use less power when connected to a 12v battery and probably won't need a speed controller at all.

Pertaining to your prompt response to my most recently posted question (Mon., Nov. 25th, 2024), I will in fact, be using a motor speed controller regardless whether or not I use a 12v or 24v radiator fan on my window ledges; during summer-time public utility power-outages, I will probably be powering the 12v or 24v, 120 watt fans at no more than 3/4 ( 75% ) maximum speed, or perhaps only 1/2 ( 50% ) of maximum speed. I will probably decide to use 24 volt, 120 watt fans instead of 12 volt. For a 24v, 120w fan motor, what minimum amp rating ( minimum amp limit ) can the PWM motor speed controller be when powering the fan with a 12v, 100 amp hour lithium iron phosphate battery? Purportedly, the minimum amp rating ( minimum amp limit ) of the motor speed controller must be higher than the maximum number of amps ( higher than the current load ) of the fan motor to prevent the motor speed controller from over-heating / damage, but I do not know how much higher is necessary to prevent over-heating / damage of the motor speed controller. For example, if the fan is rated at 5 amps max., the minimum amp limit / rating of the motor speed controller purportedly should be higher than 5 amps, but how much higher? .5 amps higher (5.5 amps)? 1 amp higher (6 amps)? 1.5 amps higher (6.5 amps)? 2 amps higher (7 amps)? I have a number of PWM motor speed controllers; one has a 10 amp maximum limit rating ( 10 amp max. current load limit ) with a voltage range of 9V - 60V. One has a 20 amp maximum limit rating ( 20 amp max. current load limit ) / 9V - 60V. One has a 30 amp maximum limit rating ( 30 amp max. current load limit ) / 9V - 60V. One has a 40 amp max. limit rating ( 40 amp max. current load limit ) / 9V - 60V. Which would be best to use for a 24V, 120W fan with a 100 amp hour 12V lithium iron phosphate battery? Which would be best to use for a 12V, 120W fan with a 100 amp hour battery? Next question: Should I implement a fuse to protect the 12V or 24V fan motor and / or the motor speed controller from amp surges when powering-on the fan with the PWM motor speed controller? For a 12V, 120W fan motor powered by a 100 amp hour lithium iron phosphate battery, what size fuse should I use if needed? Purportedly, 12 volt radiator fans can experience a significant amp surge when powering-on the fan, but perhaps this is only when using a solar-panel instead of a battery to power the fan. Should I implement a fuse anyway? If so, should the fuse be connected between the watt / amp meter and the motor speed controller or, between the motor speed controller and the fan?

@rbo350 Hello, I built a test sand battery a few weeks ago, will upload results as soon as humanly possible :)

@simonmeyerjorgensen Not all DC breakers are polarized kzbin.info/www/bejne/amXQe5eda8uMgMk I plan to do more detailed videos on PV breakers in the future as soon as humanly possible

@MariaKavalsky Welcome :D

@n.chappy5879 :D 👍

@HybrydaDrzymaly Just read it, great paper. The fact that it can increase an EVs driving range during cold conditions is impressive.

@soniashapiro4827 Working on it :) :D 👍

@HybrydaDrzymaly Hello, it would be possible to add heat to the system using PTC, using a variety of methods. Very interesting idea!

@GerryKirkpatrick 10awg is usually no problem, have you tried ordering some MC4 crimps and testing the fit? Might be able to improvise and get the wire in there somehow

@@solarpoweredge Yes, I ordered from Solar super Sonic Store. The sealing components would not slide up the cable.

@bradlyons7046 Hello, you should connect the wattmeter to the solar panel first before anything else. The speed at which the battery is drained is determined by the watts consumed and the size of the battery - so just use the wattmeter to measure it for reference. The 24v fan should draw less power from the battery overall. It's a good idea to use the wattmeter to measure each setup and write down the results

@george.carlin Welcome! yes it's very common to use solar panels for a residential hot water heater. I have a few of those DC HWH elements to experiment with. I also made multiple portable emergency hot water heaters for showers. Current project is a thermal storage system using hot water - water works very well for storing/distributing heat, and like you said it's "Quiet". Hope to make a video about water heaters as soon as possible.

@HybrydaDrzymaly Hello, with properly configured diodes one can easily extract at least 10-20% more watt-hours than unregulated resistance alone. If interested check out this presentation on the research paper and the related playlist kzbin.info/www/bejne/rZmyiXiCoNGrh5Y kzbin.info/aero/PL8a6nRTNyF9PK7SExvQKNhN0t3RUP9pT7

@argellaguardia9390 Hi, thank you for subscribing!!! yes, that is how all fans shown are being powered. It's like a voltage divider / regulator. These are 50 amp bridge rectifiers. We can use any silicon rectifier diodes though. I plan to try the TO-220 type diode as soon as possible, they could be cheaper.

@@solarpoweredge thanks for the idea. I am considering this kind of set up because I do have big heat sinks and i ant to utilize my solar panels power to get rid of grid power during the day.

@argellaguardia9390 NP, I like the idea of using up excess power for heat... I think a lot of solar panels are under-utilized after the batteries are charged

@niallparker3655 Hi, diodes range from a few pennies to 80 cents for certain bridge rectifiers. The kW (heating power, array size) is mostly limited by how the DIY'er builds the system, not so much the diodes themselves. This idea is mostly not understood. But in my experience it scales up very well - therefore MPPT is never going to be cheaper than nichrome heaters and power diodes. The simplicity and low cost are clear benefits of nichrome/diodes. The diodes are just there to provide regulation mostly, extracting the last 10-20% of watt-hours. Currently starting a new solar rack and electric heating build, it will be over 10kw for the first test. No problem at all. I may try some larger diodes and a larger heatsink, but that will still be cheaper and simpler than MPPT for sure. FYI there are actually peltiers experimentally integrated underneath the "square" diode heater, to scavenge voltage from the heat. I didn't mention it to avoid making things more confusing. -Dave

@colinhamer6506 Thanks for subscribing! I understand exactly what you're referring to, and have experienced the same environment on YT. You know what they say, can lead a horse to water but can't make him drink... DC is certainly the way to go. For example I am building out a low voltage DC home datacenter among other projects. It makes perfect sense to have LVDC available in the home for running small appliances. I want to skip the inverter whenever possible. Also am building out a low voltage solar-powerwall and many small appliances that can run straight off the solar with battery optional. Here's one of many examples of efforts to move in that direction: kzbin.info/www/bejne/sHa9YZ6baZ2Ura8 Again thanks for subscribing, and hope you enjoy the videos! -Dave

@steveadal4735 Thank you, glad you enjoyed this :D infrared bulb helps keep the workshop warmer :)

@Tsegaygebreslassie-b7j Welcome :) :D 👍

@bobetization Yeah they are awesome, maybe I will get one for videos

@d512295 4, but I have only heard back from 2 so far

@mppforall I'm upset with myself for not including it... thanks for letting me know.. updated. Too much going on and I forgot.

No worries, you got a lot going on. I love what you're doing. Can't get enough! 😊​@@solarpoweredge

@mppforall Thankful to hear that :D and thanks for watching :)

@dannydivine7699 Hello, good question... and being open minded, especially asking questions for heartfelt investigation is never dumb :) Efficiency is about cost, ease of use, reliability, level of complexity, and much more. I've been heating my home with simple, cheap solar electric resistance heaters for years. This saves wear and tear on my complicated and expensive inverters and heat pumps. Adding Diode strings solves the problem of extracting that last 20% of solar electric heat, while also avoiding complicated MPPT circuits. More heat, but still cheap and DIY friendly. Times will change! Always good to know the alternatives. And if simple coils of wire and diodes can extract most of the solar electric heat, then it is truly an efficient and affordable alternative to charge controllers, batteries, inverters, heat pumps etc. I don't know when heaters like this would be on the store shelf, but diodes are very much in use in some countries for solar electric cooking. I think few people, if any, are using them for space heating.

@@solarpoweredge Thanks, I will have to do more research to learn more about diode sizes / availability. And honestly more about diodes in general, I as the true redneck, always thought a diodes only purpose was to control direction of current flow. Thanks

@dannydivine7699 Welcome - I always thought of them that way too, but it's amazing what diodes can do!

@pramodgehlot8512 Hi, a subscriber told me about this... you can file your patent idea as a "micro entity" on the USPTO website. It costs much less, but you will have to make drawings and documents to file. Also it helps to hire a good patent attorney, although they might charge a lot.

@CheMathiewNgayihiAbbe Hello, I believe your setup is just fine! if you want to add simple over-current protection on the battery side, I recommend "12v automotive fuses". Those are a quick way to add over-current protection without using a circuit breaker. These are just my opinions and ideas, hope it helps :)

@TheSuperChannel :D 👍

@jima3252 Good ideas, need to open one of these up and see what kind of heater it has inside the bottom half. I later tried a different cup with a 100w panel and boiled an egg kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y4LXmYOFial_ibs

@markpennella right, absolutely possible! The 50A diodes can take even more power. But still need cooling. Oddly enough, we don't want the diodes "hot" but to heat the air. Otherwise, they just burn up. The cooling in this video was adequate for a bench test and demonstration at least.

@asificam1 The cheapest diodes are just pennies. Bridge rectifiers are more of premium solution but worth it for their simplicity. For years solar electric heat worked well for us during winter, but without MPPT there is always some waste. It turns out diodes are a simple and cheap way to extract most of that wasted heat, but avoid MPPT altogether. I am certainly not against MPPT but this channel has a grid-down and keep-it-dirt-simple theme in the background (my personal preference for just about everything)

@user-tn1hk6zm2freedom Good point, and that is one of the suggestions in the video. I like the cheap LM2596 boards. I am fond of keeping it super simple, hence for years I have run BLDC fans off of voltage dividers, even diode chains can do the same thing. Key is to under-volt the fan to allow for voltage swings. Works extremely well when used correctly and cautiously.

@kefirheals7383 Wow! I hope this idea helps you... mice are unbelievably effective at sneaking in... the stainless steel wool can tear up your fingers so watch out. I was thinking about doing exactly the same thing, building a door in place of the rollup. But the building company wanted $7000! You may want to look at a insulated (sectional) folding door to replace the rollup, and then use a anti-mouse bottom door seal which has metal inside the rubber in case they chew. Plus any other steps possible. But no matter what, it's extremely challenging to prevent mice!

​@@solarpoweredge Challenging?! And how! Not much deters them. I think the Stainless steel wool might. I went on-line to look for some, and I guess it comes in different grades - from extra fine, fine, medium,. coarse, and extra coarse. What grade did you purchase? (Yeah, $7 grand ain't in the equation. LOL.) Thanks.

@kefirheals7383 Yeah that was not gonna happen, not only that the price was for 2 ordinary plain white doors and a frame. Seriously couldn't believe it. I used a mixture of 434 stainless coarse and fine, be advised it's very sharp and will cut skin easily. It's a good idea to watch those metal ribs, getting the steel wool up inside those openings would be paramount. And just anywhere mice can get in or might try to.

@@solarpoweredge Thank you so much! Warning duly noted. I'll make sure to wear gloves.

@kefirheals7383 No problem!!!

@EgonSorensen Indeed there are lots of potential ideas! Like heating water... working on that for past several months :)

@steveadal4735 Greetings sir, your 10 year old is very smart! George the cat sends his regards... he spends most of his time sleeping on a very plush cushion, annoying us, or sleeping in front of a heater - after which he annoys us further :D :)

Actually I think I figured it out. Thank you again!

@CalvinDeSantis NP just got your email :D

Thank you to everyone for the good wishes! Thank you watt cycle! I already own a 100ah mini and it works great. Already planning to make a small dc/usb power station with this 12ah!

@CalvinDeSantis Nice idea... I hot glued a DC converter and plug to a 5ah to make a mini solar power brick - it's very handy for everything :)

@1kzrider :D 🎉

@Adrian_Galilea Efficiency can include but is not limited to: cost, ease of use, durability, complexity, electrical power consumption, DIY accessibility, long term outlook, etc. For example Microwave ovens waste a ton of power, but they get the job done so quickly they are in wide use. Peltiers are a very unique in that they can make "cold" for so little effort and complexity, even connected straight to a solar panel. No refined gas, no compressors, no high pressure or brazing copper pipes. Research is still ongoing... by ignoring conventional thinking about Peltiers, I boosted the efficiency of one of my test rigs by 50%. Got down to 14F for half the power. At first I thought I made a mistake, but it was a verified result. I believe there is more to Peltiers than commonly accepted. The research has been expensive and takes a lot of time. Hope to present the results and findings as soon as humanly possible.

@stevegill866 🎉

🎉 :D

@subhobroto Hi shuvo! good to hear from you, hope all is well :D 🎉

🎉 🎁 :D

@oskosh50 NP :D

🎉

🥳 🎉 🎁 🎁

@vrrevolution9183 :D

@solarpoweredge if anyone doesn't respond i will take theirs :P

@vrrevolution9183 lol. I'm still waiting for 3...

@colin8532 Next time I will do 10 "digital" prizes :D

Hey @jmr and @JonD-ee3im still have not heard from you, if you want to claim your prize please email me - thanks!

@lezbriddon I hear you, it's an extremely obscure topic... definitely not claiming free energy just more efficient extraction of PV watt-hours and thus heat. Some of the worst comments I ever got were on these diode videos, they seem to attract a lot of flak. I am fond of saying "a person with an open mind isn't dumb" :D I don't understand 0.5% of anything but I am ready to learn more and hope to find something new... Diodes getting hot is supposed to be a terrible thing in electronics... MPPT has it's place and I'm sure heaters will someday use it, but I have always had a "make it better, but keep it dirt simple and cheap" perspective. A string of diodes fits perfectly. They cost more than heating wire, but diodes can get more heat by operating in a better way from current limited solar panels. So they must have applications somewhere. That's a pretty funny joke, incidentally every time I get a perforated document, I just tear it by hand or get the scissors... how many times it just tears outside the perforations and has to be taped together, so better just cut them to save on tape lol

I did the same thing a few videos ago, thinking it was another re-tread of a "free energy" idea by someone with an overly simplistic understanding of some basic aspect of physics... but nope! This is true creativity: recombining existing things in new ways to achieve goals. Most excellent!

@geniferteal4178 Hello, an unmodified grid tie inverter can't work safely without the presence of grid power. So that leaves us with batteries/inverters in most cases. In my opinion, a potential solution is to build a PV DC powerwall. And make appliances run off of solar direct. I have been working on that for years at a small scale. It's a parallel effort, having multiple power sources (redundancy) is always a good thing. Here's my work-in-progress demonstration: kzbin.info/www/bejne/sHa9YZ6baZ2Ura8

@solarpoweredge i've gone two weeks without electricity, so i'm looking for a serious replacement. If i've got enough on the roof I'd like to be able to use it. I don't have any solar at the moment.This is something that's been bugging me and preventing me from getting. The fact that I wouldn't be able to use it if the grid goes down. Seems counterproductive to have the perfect generator on your roof but you're not allowed to use it. I get the need to disconnect, but why isn't that enough?What do I not understand? If there's too much energy being generated, I thought maybe if you had three rows of three panels, they could be wired in three segments and maybe only use as much as you need and switch the other one off? There might still be excess energy to do something with, but is there a safe way to get rid of it? Do I not need to get rid of it? I don't know. I just wish there was a way to make it work.

@geniferteal4178 2 weeks, that doesn't sound fun... do you know anybody in your area that is familiar with solar? It might help to team up with someone. Sounds like you need a small off-electrical-grid solar power system as soon as possible, just to get some basic power for lights, small appliances, etc. Solar panels make DC power. Pretty much the entire world runs on AC. That's why we store the DC in batteries, then have converters (inverters) to make AC on demand for appliances. Grid tie inverter makes AC right away and pushes it backwards into the home wiring and sometimes the power grid itself. But without the grid, that grid tie inverter won't work at all. What's missing is DC / solar powered appliances, which is what I have been working on as much as humanly possible. I feel it's necessary to have small to midsized DC and solar powered appliances, but their availability is often not very good.

@solarpoweredge i'm not looking to change all my appliances. I want to run what I have and keep it running. I could prioritize certain things like fridge, freezer and heating, but I don't really want to think about what I can or can't run if the power's out.I want to just run the same stuff unless of course, i'm not generating enough gy that's a different question. I talk to everyone who bothers me about switching to solar energy or adding solar energy, but they're just the salespeople, and they don't understand they say battery, I say, two weeks, then they say, yeah, I could have someone and i'm like, nope, i'm not giving you my information. When you say without the grid, That inverter wont-work. Is that for safety reasons, or is there a separate necessary reason like where does the extra energy go? I understand the safety concern. But I also feel there's a bit of you can only have energy supplied by us. You can't supply your own kind of mentality. The government kind of doesn't want us living off grid. So which is it does it actually not work?Or do they just not allow it to work for safety?

@geniferteal4178 A grid tie inverter is designed to require grid power for safety reasons. When the power is out, it switches off. Otherwise, people would backfeed high voltage while linemen are working on repairing the power lines, causing them to be injured. It's the same problem with gas generators, that's why the breaker panel is required to have an interlock to prevent accidentally backfeeding onto the grid during a power outage. Off electrical grid power does not connect to the power grid, but instead creates a separate "mini grid" which is independent and supplies power to the house. Basically we don't have good options for no-battery / PVDC-inverters right now. So that means getting batteries, inverter, solar charge controller and solar panels and operating that as a system to power the house. In some years, I kept my grid connection and ran a large solar power system in parallel. So I had more options. In your case, with the power out, any kind of power source would be great. If you know somebody that's into solar (not a salesman) they could probably help you get started in the right direction.

@trevortrevortsr2 :D