Re: (ET) Solar charging, part 2

[Jeremy Gagliardi com]

On Tue, 22 Apr 2003 15:10:43 -0400, "Pieter Litchfield" wrote:
> Thanks for the link!  A neat piece of engineering, but you must really 
> have
> to be dedicated to solar power to buy 3 panels and this pricey 
> controller.
> The economcs just aren't there.  I am guessing that the controller and 3
> panels might run $1500.  At 5% interest, the return on a $1500 investment
> would be $75.00 - this means that unless I "burn" more than $75 worth of
> electricity charging your ET every year, it isn't worth spending $1500 
> on a
> changing system.  I'm pretty sure I don't spend that much!

This makes me wonder if it would be simpler to build a simple DC 
controller,
similar to the Landis model.  The Landis Controller is a solid state AC 
relay
with a simple DC monitor (when batteries go below 38V it turns on the AC 
relay
to the charger).  Can't a similar controller be built that monitors the
batteries in the same exact way, but opens up a DC relay from the solar 
panels? 
The Landis Controller is only about $40.

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