KCCS Solar power controller

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This pic shows the almost completely installed control panel for the solar array system. All of the solar panels and the wind generator are connected to this panel.
At the upper left is a Heliotrope CC-120 120 Amp regulator. All of the solar panels (PVs) and wind generator can produce a peak of about 90 amps current and this regulator controls how much charging current reaches the batteries.
The LCD display shows the charging current. The regulator is mounted on a thick solid aluminium plate which acts as a heat sink.
(excess current is burned away as heat and the heat sink can get quite warm - a new project is underway to switch current to a 24Volt water heating element in a small mains pressure tank to preheat water before it reaches the main gas-heated hot water tank).
The grey box to the left below the regulator is a junction/fuse box where the various cables from the PVs terminate at safety fuses and lightening arrestors which connect to the regulator.
The grey box to the right is another junction box containing an analogue voltage meter which monitors the battery voltage. The output of the regulator is directly connected to the batteries via this junction box.
Below these is a Trace Engineering D2424 charger/inverter. This is a 2.4 Kilowatt inverter producing 230V AC at 2.4 Kwatts from a nominal 24V DC input. (22.5V to 30V DC)
On top of the Trace is a relay box that will be used to switch the Trace to mains-powered battery charging mode when a switched sensor indicates low voltage.
To the upper right is a small distribution box containing current switches which provide 24V DC directly to a DC to DC converter (not in picture) that power modems and other equipment in the rack frames and several low voltage high brightness lights.
ALthough not quite completed when this photograph was taken the various cables and electrical conduits are now properly attached to the white wallboard.

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This is the battery bank that is charged by the solar panel arrays and connects to the inverter to produce mains currents for computers and routers in the KCCS rack frames.
The batteries are 220 Amp Hour 6 Volt deep cycle lead-acid types. There are sixteen in total wired into groups of four to provide 220 AH @ 24 Volts per group and 880 AH at 24 volts in total.
On each cell of each battery there is a device known as a Hydrocap.
This recombines the oxygen and hydrogen gas given off by each cell back into water which returns to the cell. Hydrocaps prevent explosive hydrogen gas escaping from the batteries and minimise maintenance.
The black steel frame supports the batteries on two 1inch shelves and not shown here is a plywood cover that drops over the top of the batteries and creates a closed box with external venting. These batteries vary from four years old to two years old and with regular maintenance, checking acid levels, cleaning and tightening battery cables and generally keeping everything clean, they are showing no signs of wearing out.

This battery bank is now being replaced with a new set of 1650Ah 2v batteries, twelve in total to give 24 volts. The 220Ah batteries are being resited to another location at Puhoi (along with four 60Watt Solarex PVs and the 300Watt wind turbine)

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Last modified: 17 February 1997.