Keeping my VLF receiver online is now getting more difficult now we are entering autumn.
The system doesn’t use a lot of power, around 5W continuous but this adds up!
Currently I have a single 100W solar panel and ageing 180Ah gel battery (suspect ~70Ah capacity now)
Based on this I have generated a chart showing how it all stacks up for a dull day like we had a lot of recently, about 7 days, it shows I am way short on solar input!!
The Solar W/m2 value came from my weather station, as you can see I only got ~50Wh of energy that day but was using around 120Wh (24h*5w).
7 days of this deficit adds up to ~500Wh hence the battery getting drained to cut off.
I am going to increase the solar panel to 230W which should get to ~100Wh input per day minimum, this may *just* keep it going over a long dull period in the months to come.
I also have a faulty EV car battery to salvage cells from which should give my way more capacity to overcome the dull week or two…ha
