horncreekchicks
Hatching
- Jul 11, 2015
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We recently installed a Poultry Butler door on our off-grid chicken coop, powering it with a 5W mono crystalline solar panel connected to a charge controller and 5Ah battery. We are using the included light sensor to open/close the door.
When things are working, they work well but we found that the Poultry Butler slowly draws down the battery faster than it gets recharged by the panel. This seemed odd so I checked the panel, charge controller, and battery. All is fine there. The panel gets about 3 hours of direct sun and many more hours of dappled sun. That should be adequate to open/close a small chicken door several times a day and fully recharge the battery and have extra power still...but it isn't.
Here's why: the Poultry Butler draws approximately 0.5 Watts of power when the door is closed (it draws no power when the door is open). Other than inefficiency, this wouldn't be a problem when plugged into an AC outlet but when plugged into a battery and solar panel with finite power, it becomes a considerable draw. In fact, each hour the Poultry Butler door is closed consumes more power than it takes to open and close the door. What a poor design! This is depleting our battery faster than the solar panel recharges it.
Obviously a 5W panel with 3 hours of full sun/day is insufficient given the Poultry Butler's idle draw. It needs closer to 4-5 hours of full sun a day to remain charged. This is a but ridiculous for a task as lightweight as opening a chicken door but that's what it takes just to keep the battery topped off and not in a state of slow decline each day.
I'd recommend using a 10W or 15W panel, making sure it is placed in a location that gets 4 or more hours/day of full, direct sun. If you use a 5W panel, make sure you have at least 6 hours of full sun/day all year long just to be safe.
Also note that there is no fused protection for the electronic circuit board in the Poultry Butler. This means if you cross a wire or even accidentally touch wires across battery terminals, you will burn out the circuit board instantly. It is amazing that the Poultry Butler doesn't come with fuse protected electronics. You should buy an inline fuse holder and install a 1.5A fast fuse on the positive lead going to the circuit board before rewiring the Poultry Butler to run off a DC battery (about $3 total). This is much cheaper than buying a $40 replacement circuit board. I know from experience!
In short, the Poultry Butler isn't sensibly designed to be powered off a battery and solar panel. It can be done but requires the purchaser to cut the AC plug adapter off and rewire the power cord and then utilize an oversized solar panel to counter the idle draw. A better circuit board design would require no idle draw to function properly and a simple fuse would prevent blown out circuit boards. I'd recommend looking at other doors for off-grid applications unless you want to take on the added work and expense of properly adapting the Poultry Butler to off-grid use.
For those who want to take the Poultry Butler off-grid project on, here are some numbers to help you size you solar panel and battery:
Power consumed with door closed: approx. 0.52 Watts (0.043 A @ 12V)
Power to open/close door: approx. 12 Watts (1.0 A @ 12 V) --this is a rough figure but a 1.5 A fuse won't blow with door opening
Time to open or close door: approx. 30 seconds (0.016 Ah per open or close)
Once you get past these issues, all should work well!
When things are working, they work well but we found that the Poultry Butler slowly draws down the battery faster than it gets recharged by the panel. This seemed odd so I checked the panel, charge controller, and battery. All is fine there. The panel gets about 3 hours of direct sun and many more hours of dappled sun. That should be adequate to open/close a small chicken door several times a day and fully recharge the battery and have extra power still...but it isn't.
Here's why: the Poultry Butler draws approximately 0.5 Watts of power when the door is closed (it draws no power when the door is open). Other than inefficiency, this wouldn't be a problem when plugged into an AC outlet but when plugged into a battery and solar panel with finite power, it becomes a considerable draw. In fact, each hour the Poultry Butler door is closed consumes more power than it takes to open and close the door. What a poor design! This is depleting our battery faster than the solar panel recharges it.
Obviously a 5W panel with 3 hours of full sun/day is insufficient given the Poultry Butler's idle draw. It needs closer to 4-5 hours of full sun a day to remain charged. This is a but ridiculous for a task as lightweight as opening a chicken door but that's what it takes just to keep the battery topped off and not in a state of slow decline each day.
I'd recommend using a 10W or 15W panel, making sure it is placed in a location that gets 4 or more hours/day of full, direct sun. If you use a 5W panel, make sure you have at least 6 hours of full sun/day all year long just to be safe.
Also note that there is no fused protection for the electronic circuit board in the Poultry Butler. This means if you cross a wire or even accidentally touch wires across battery terminals, you will burn out the circuit board instantly. It is amazing that the Poultry Butler doesn't come with fuse protected electronics. You should buy an inline fuse holder and install a 1.5A fast fuse on the positive lead going to the circuit board before rewiring the Poultry Butler to run off a DC battery (about $3 total). This is much cheaper than buying a $40 replacement circuit board. I know from experience!
In short, the Poultry Butler isn't sensibly designed to be powered off a battery and solar panel. It can be done but requires the purchaser to cut the AC plug adapter off and rewire the power cord and then utilize an oversized solar panel to counter the idle draw. A better circuit board design would require no idle draw to function properly and a simple fuse would prevent blown out circuit boards. I'd recommend looking at other doors for off-grid applications unless you want to take on the added work and expense of properly adapting the Poultry Butler to off-grid use.
For those who want to take the Poultry Butler off-grid project on, here are some numbers to help you size you solar panel and battery:
Power consumed with door closed: approx. 0.52 Watts (0.043 A @ 12V)
Power to open/close door: approx. 12 Watts (1.0 A @ 12 V) --this is a rough figure but a 1.5 A fuse won't blow with door opening
Time to open or close door: approx. 30 seconds (0.016 Ah per open or close)
Once you get past these issues, all should work well!
