Solar Post Mortem

This weekend, I replaced the "power plant" of one of my solar power systems, in a home. It failed after fair service -- but that wasn't good enough. The problems, in this case, were easy to identify. Most importantly, my system was over-taxed. I had estimated usage on the basis of people switching lights on and off as needed. Instead, they switched them on and off all together, and there was over-usage which led to sulfation. So I upped the battery capacity and upped the charge voltage and current. OBSERVATION: This is typical of solar power. It's not an exact science. In this case, the human habit of lighting candles in several rooms at once led to the relatively early demise of the system. (This serves as a caution, too, against "cheapie" solar systems which skimp on battery capacity or panel power, or tempt one to over-use the system).