The Home Solar Farm
The last couple of months have seen a major overhaul of our solar system. Due to increasing power requirements we found ourselves having to resort to our diesel generator to make up the for a shortfall in electricity more often than we liked. To remedy this we finally bit the bullet and added 2 more solar panels to the system. These are 170 watt, 24 volt panels , and the addition of these boosts our small solar farm to a total of 1.47 kilowatts. We should now be producing, on average, 6 kilowatts a day from our photovoltaic´s. Added to this we also have the output from our wind generator with an average daily production of 2 kilowatts.
Before adding the 2 new panels we also had to install a bigger solar charge controller to handle the extra amperage. We managed to source a second-hand Steca Tarom 2070 on eBay. This has boosted our total possible output from the PV system from its original 45 amps to 70 amps, giving us scope for future expansion. Along with upgrading the charge controller, we also upgraded the infrastucture connecting the solar panels back to the shed containing the regulators, inverter and batteries. The original cables were 10 sq mm and ran along our fence. This was originally a temporary situation which turned permanent. This has now been replaced with a run of 50 mm conduit buried in the ground. The 
feed lines have been upgraded to 20 square millimetre cable and are now terminated in an IP55 steel cabinet using copper DIN rail mounted terminal blocks. Ideally we would have liked to use 35 square millimetre cabling but as we had the 20 millimetre sitting around it was difficult justifying the expense of purchasing new cable.
To top it all off I finally got around to installing fencing, which we bought 2 years ago, around the bank of solar panels and the wind generator. The area inside the fencing was then covered in crushed marble which was well packed down to inhibit any plant growth.
We are now looking forward to a year with little, or no need for our diesel generator. If we can keep our power consumption at its current level of between 6 to 7 kilowatts a day we should produce more than enough electricy to avoid the need for the generator. Ther are , however, bound to be periods without sun or wind when we will be grateful for this backup supply.