Hello! Today, I did practical stuff. So I came to work at 8 and by 1 is when we left to this place called Lugbe. I went with one co-worker and the boss and the boss drove us there. The drive was 50 minutes LONG so I was in the back of the car just dilly dallying for 50 minutes. When we got there, and it was someone’s house, we took a look at their solar panels first. I HAVE PICTURES. I think they were having trouble with the lighting so we had to figure out the problem. Their system composed of 6 solar panels, all in series, one inverter, 2 12V batteries, and the charge controller. At first we unplugged everything from the solar panel and the main thing we did was to check the voltage of the wires coming from the charge controller, the inverter and the batteries. I HAVE PICTURES. Everything seemed okay but there was a lot of battery acid on the conductors and the boss said they were acting as an insulator preventing the current from flowing. So, we used sandpaper to clean every single end of a cable until the voltage was correct. I HAVE THE SPECS OF THE PANELS WHICH SHOULD DETERMINE THE VOLTAGE AND CURRENT EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE. From there, we plugged everything back in the light turned off for some time and then turned off. The inverter continuously showed low battery so at first we thought the battery discharged quickly but that wasn’t the case, so we thought the inverter was the problem. Keep in mind, we are 1 hour in. From there, the boss had an extra inverter in his car because he suspected that was the problem. So, AGAIN we had to dismantle everything and unplug the inverter to replace it. Unfortunately, there is a socket on the inverter and the plug to go into that socket was this one. ADD A PICTURE. The one in the new inverter was this one. ADD A PICTURE. We ended up scavenging around the client’s house for the rounded type until we found one. HOOORAAYYY. So we had to disconnect the wires for the rectangular plug and add it to the rounded plug so we could connect the cable to the new inverter. It ended up working so we reinstalled everything and guess what? THE LIGHT CAME ON. Now, we were 2 hours in. Unfortunately, the low battery sign came up again and the light would turn off after a while so now we think that the battery was the problem all along. ANNOYYYING. I think they will come another day to fix it though. Anyway, I came back to the office in another 1 hour then called my uncle to go home.
Realization: I think that having this experience was cool and necessary for me to do to fully comprehend the ins and outs of solar design and a solar system. It also told me the tools and what problem solving may be like while doing it. That being said, this experience made me realize that I don’t want to be the person in the field installing or maintaining the solar panels. I would rather be the person designing it and doing all of then necessary calculations. So, this helped me figure out what I want to do or rather, what I would rather do in this field. Also, I HAVEN’T decided I want to be working with solar panels; it could be something else in the renewable energy field. Either way I am grateful that I had this experience in the first place because it isn’t available to everyone. Again, I wouldn’t do this hands on stuff again if I had the choice…
Also, I FINISHED THE PAPER. It looks good. When I get back I will post it on the blog. IT LOOKS PROPER PROFFESIONAL. Anyway that is all for today. 4 DAYS LEFT!