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MONDAY MORNING |
Today I brought to class some of the equipment to be installed: inverter, charge controller, combiner box, sensors and manuals (unfortunately in english only). |
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MONDAY MORNING |
The classes provided a core understanding of the work we all were performing. Some days the class used all the time available on the schedule. |
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MONDAY AFTERNOON |
Ricardo, Eusebio and Christian are figuring out the best installation of the breakers and power bars in the combiner box. |
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MONDAY AFTERNOON |
Closer view of the combiner box and the items to be installed. |
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MONDAY AFTERNOON |
Two identical combiner boxes were installed for Array A and B:
1700 W: 72 Voc - 23.6 A |
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MONDAY AFTERNOON |
Alexandra and Federico -as well as many others- are busy cleaning the electrical terminals of the wires that interconnect the PV panels for grounding. |
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MONDAY AFTERNOON |
The new combiner box is fiber glass made, NEMA IV complaint. |
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TUESDAY AFTERNOON |
Ricardo showing the "Centralita" installed in the Control Room. |
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TUESDAY AFTERNOON |
The "Centralita" integrates charge controller modules and inverter modules in one single unit. The devices on the left wall are sensors and switches I installed in March. |
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TUESDAY AFTERNOON |
The best alternative we found for the failure detected was total replacement of the system. The batteries can be seen in the next room through the open door. |
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TUESDAY AFTERNOON |
Batteries for the PV system: 24 units @ 2V
900 Ah/100 h - BPSolar manufactured in France |
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TUESDAY AFTERNOON |
Lead sulphate was deposited in all positive terminals. |
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TUESDAY AFTERNOON |
Closer view of a positive terminal still attached to the negative terminal of its neighbor battery. |
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TUESDAY AFTERNOON |
Luis Rosero working on the new combiner box |
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TUESDAY AFTERNOON |
Luis showing the old combiner box and the new one. The marine environment of the Galapagos seriously degraded the metallic box originally installed. |
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TUESDAY AFTERNOON |
Closer view of both boxes. The picture clearly shows the poor state of the old box. We expect that the newer one -and the components inside- will last much longer than the previous. |
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WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON |
Sulphated nut attached to the battery post. Both posts (negative and positive) have removable circular nuts. All batteries were disconnected and the nuts removed from the posts. |
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WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON |
Only the nuts on the positive terminals were severely corroded. The posts themselves were in good condition. All nuts were cleaned in a baking soda solution. |
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WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON |
The combiner box for Array A is installed. It contains five 6-Amper breakers; one power bar to combine negative leads; one power bar to combine positive leads, and one lighting arrestor. |
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WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON |
Comparative picture of the state of two battery post nuts. The one at the left was attached to a negative terminal while the one at the right was attached to a positive terminal. The corrosion on the left nut has practically destroy it. |
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