Solar Powered Knife Sharpening

My Solar Panels for Knife Sharpeners

About a week or so of knife sharpening using just solar panels is now under my belt. 'All systems go' as they say — or all systems 'slow green flash' as my charge controller reports. 

The charge controller has a green LED for the battery to indicate charge state. A steady on means the charge controller is sending juice from the panels to the battery, a slow blink means the charge controller thinks the battery is full and charging is suspended so as not to overcharge the battery. 

After a week of use the battery LED has pretty much been stuck on steady flash, meaning the battery is fully charged. It has been a rather busy week — so I have drawn about as much power as I estimated, and it has been a very sunny week, so I am getting 'maximum power' as they say in the movies!

When sharpening knives running the powered knife grinder is just part of the process. I need to examine the knife and determine what to actually do to it, next clamp the knife in a jig or fixture to hold it, adjust the grinder, do grinding and honing, then remove the knife, clean, examine, wrap. During all these steps except the grinding and honing the knife sharpening machine is off so no power draw. My seat-of-the-pants calculations took all this in and decided on the size of the panels. I am a mobile operation — I want everything 'right-sized' —the plan is to haul around and set-up as little as possible. 

The AGM battery stores plenty of juice — enough for an average day — so if this sun/use conditions stay about the same I will be just fine. At least from now to fall.