Preparing solar panels

As I mentioned here already, I plan to power all my camping electric needs with solar power. That's why I bought two 40 W solar panels with solar charge controller in february. Since we plan to spend three days living in camper during this weekend (starting on friday), I need to put everything together. Even if it all will be only temporary.

On monday I bought two gel batteries, 38 Ah capacity each. They look just like ordinary car batteries, only the connectors are different. Even the weight is similar -- those weigh 13 kg (29 lbs) each.

From Volkswagen Transporter T3

Today I spent about an hour soldering the cables together. The most important task was to solder the cable to the second solar battery (the first is already in the camper). I am not good at soldering, you can easily tell after a look at the photo below.



A bit about the cables I used here. The solar charge controller's manual recommends using a cable that has area of cross section of 4 mm² (AWG 12), but I only had 2x0,75 mm² cable for loudspeakers. So I used two pairs of this cable, removed the isolation from the ends and twisted the wires together. When I buy the proper cable, I'll connect it to the small parts of the cables I soldered now.

To the end of the cable from the solar panel I soldered a male connector used in RC toys and airsoft replicas. The connector is supposed to withstand the current of even 30 A, a lot more than I plan to put through it. 30 A with 12 V voltage is over 3 kW, and my solar panels give only 90 W (2x40 W and a small 10 W panel).



The female connector I soldered to the cable from the solar charge controller. I bought this cable yesterday, not the one I would like to have, but I had simply no choice. When I buy the proper cable, I'll simply replace it.



The same cable will be used to connect the charge controller to the batteries. I connected two pairs of wires to the controller as the batteries will be connected paralelly.



I left two things to do tomorrow in the camper:

• solder the connectors to the cables attached to the solar panel I have in camper,
  
• find a place for the batteries,
  
• connect the controller with the batteries.

I wonder if the soldering iron will work with the 12/230 V AC/DC converter I have in the camper and the battery that's used there now.

I am buying a third vanagon

If everything goes right, soon I will have three Vanagons. This one will make my dreams come true. :)

From the very first time I started to like vans, I always preferred the ones that had two rows of seats and open cargo space. In Volkswgagen Transporter language -- the Dokas. About a year ago I wrote here, that if I was to buy VW T3 then, it'd be a doka. And we are buying one now. :)

It was found, as usual, by Tomek. Together we'll have four Volkswagens. The frequency of new purchases increases in time, the last one was bought about a month ago while the second -- about two years ago.

From Volkswagen Transporter T3

As you can see, it has aircooled ("fan") gasoline engine. And it's supposed to have the longest four-speed gearbox there is. It will be used by my wife's company, and I plan to use it to install wood gas generator on it. The camper is not suitable, 'cause it has diesel engine and no space to install the generator.

Some things need to be fixed, but I didn't expect anything less.

The second biodiesel purchase

So I bought biodiesel again, in the same place, for the same price as last time. But today petrodiesel was 0.70 PLN more expensive per liter ($0.22 per liter, $0.83 per gallon).

The fuel efficiency was 7.6 liter per 100 km (31 MPG), slightly better than the long-term average. Biodiesel, keep up the good work!