Getting started on solar.....

[Caster]

Bought this kit today at Harbor Freight.

http://www.harborfreight.com/solar-panel-kit-45-watt-68751.html


Going to set it up in in my van/camper. I grabbed an outdoor solar light kit meant for yard illumination I plan to use as well. I plan to set this unit up to keep a 12v tractor battery charged as well as the battery in the van itself.

I also picked up one of these for my survival iPhone I posted elsewhere.
http://www.harborfreight.com/1-watt-solar-power-pack-68691.html

AND, I picked up this one for all my little batteries.


http://www.harborfreight.com/portable-household-battery-solar-charger-68690.html



I know precisely SQUAT about solar but I'm looking forward to it. Pretty simple I think. Everything pulls power from the 12v storage battery and the solar set up charges the battery. Sticking with 12v makes things work easy in the camper. I do have a couple of inverters to integrate.

Please discuss and share ideas. I can see this one getting me very involved. As much as I love casting and reloading I need a break. I'll be moving soon, I hope to learn enough to have a very elaborate set up at my new home.


A few questions I have for 12 volt DC, What kind of voltage/amperage/wattage drop can I expect over a given distance? OR, is at even a real concern? A small house, say, 30x40'; If I set a battery bank up in one corner will there be any significant loss going to the extreme other side? I realize that may depend on the quality and size of the wire used. Also, would it be a worthwhile endeavor to build a capacitor on the far side of the house or would spreading out the batteries be a better idea.

[Dolomite_supafly]

I bought about 20 of these with 48 LEDs:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/White-24-48-LED-SMD-Interior-Dome-Panel-Reading-Light-T10-BA9S-Festoon-Adapter-/171002127347?pt=US_Chandeliers_and_Ceiling_Fixtures&var=&hash=item27d08563f3

 

You can also buy the automotive LED light strips. On Ebay they are about 1/5th the cost of in stores.

 

The48 LED panels are extremely bright and are 12v. I will isolate the house from the main line and then flip every breaker in the house off. I will wire these into some sockets and screw them into the lamps. Then I will flip the breaker to connect them to a 12v battery bank that I have plugged into a socket in the garage. I just need to make sure all the 110v items are unplugged for a given area.

 

My panels are smaller panels but they should recharge the batteries enough to prevent them from draining as long as I have sun once or twice a week.

 

When i say bright I mean brighter than the flashlight you sent me.

 

I have no illusions about what I want from my setup. All I want is light at night to keep the boogey man away.

 

Dolomite

[RED333]

Solar is not very good in the winter, sun to low, you have to "track' it somehow.

I been thinking of wind and manual, ya know, a old bike cycle frame and a generator

to keep things charged. So you want lights, peddle.

[Dolomite_supafly]

Last year I made a solor heater from about 200 soda cans. I put them in a box then covered it with plexiglass. I used a small solar panel to run a computer fan. In bright sunlight it raised the temperature 60+ degrees above what was going in. It recirculated the air from the inside.

 

I seen plans the other day for cutting a 5 gallon bucket in half and using it to generate power with wind. It was pretty straight forward.

 

Dolomite

[frankmako]

i got a 5 watt setup at the pole barn that keeps the truck battery charged.  i need to find a way to set more up for the tractors.  the big problem that i have found is how far the panel is way from the battery.  also for night time you got to run on batteries.  good batteries cost and you need many to run things.  now the led light are a good idea when you run them off a battery.  

[bigbabysweets]

Last year I made a solor heater from about 200 soda cans. I put them in a box then covered it with plexiglass. I used a small solar panel to run a computer fan. In bright sunlight it raised the temperature 60+ degrees above what was going in. It recirculated the air from the inside.
 
I seen plans the other day for cutting a 5 gallon bucket in half and using it to generate power with wind. It was pretty straight forward.
 
Dolomite

I just read an article on this last night. So it actually made a difference? I wasn't sure if it would be worth the effort, but it looked like something worth a try. I was fixing to ask friends for empty cans since I've quit drink soda and never drank beer!

[Caster]

I just got my storage batteries.  I have a new battery for the camper, but the old battery is still good.  I also was gifted a NICE battery out of a Blue Bird bus thats only 2 years old.  I'm going to put the new battery in the van.  Using the old battery in parallel circuit to the big bus battery, I'm going to power the whole camper with lights and other goodies. 

 

Any ideas where to mount the batteries?  NOT inside the cabin for sure.  Space is at a premium. I have a cargo rack on the back I could build a weather proof box and go there.  By far the easiest.  I am contemplating using some bed frame rails I have to build a rack UNDER the camper where the spare tire used to be.  It would be a little work but do you guys think it'd be safe under there behind the gas tank?  I can keep it a good foot away from the gas tank.  I could bolt in [not weld] two lengths of angle iron bed rail and the batteries could sit in the trough.  Then I could use some banding material to cinch the batteries down tight.  I might build or buy some battery boxes to keep them dry when driving in wet weather, yeah?

 

Any thoughts appreciated.

[bigbabysweets]

I can't exactly picture the van, but I can't think of any place better on any van in my head. Sounds like either behind or under would be the best/simplest areas. Maybe more behind, that way if anything needed to be accessed it would be easier.

[Adamant]

Caster,

How does that charger work for your iPhone? I am very interested in a solar charger for my phone but reviews for all of them on amazon seem hit or miss.

I would really like to try this for obvious portability reasons.
http://www.browndoggadgets.com/ Edited March 31, 2013 by Adamant

[Caster]

Just plug it up and set it in the sun. I haven't played with this one enough to know if it'll work good enough, yet. Of course it's been raining the last few days.

[bigwakes]

I just found this Power Pot http://www.tntacticalsupply.com/powerpot-p-33828.html that charges USB devices over a fire. It uses Thermal Electricity to provide 5 watts of power to USb devices. It's so efficient that it will charge your cell phone in the same amount of time as plugging it into the wall.

[Adamant]

Yea. That's what I really meant was how well does it work. I'm wondering if the case chargers work any better than an external one.

[pegasusrider]

I've got a "surplus" 55 watt 18 volt solar panel from a retired highway arrow sign trailer on top of my hunting shack.  It is 13 years old and the power output has degraded on it to about 25 watts.  I use a 10 amp regulator like this http://www.ebay.com/itm/10A-Solar-Charge-Controller-Regulator-12V-24V-Autoswitch-100W-Solar-Panel-10A-/110871881175?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19d07aa5d7 to charge a 100 amp deep cycle sealed battery that was surplus from an industrial user.  I use about 10 feet of 12 gauge wire to get power to the battery. It works well enough to power a cb or ham radio for a few hours. 

 

The regulator is pulse width modulated and in addition to being about 5% more efficent in charging, it helps prevent sulphation of the battery making it last longer.  I'm a firm believer in those pulse width modulated chargers and have used them for over 20 years to maintain backup batteries in a remote site.  The disadvantge of them is they will not charge a dead or totally discharged battery, it must have some charge. 

[Guest Lester Weevils]

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200575671_200575671

 

 

Been "window shopping" that xantrex PowerHub 1800 for a couple of years. The linked NorthernTools "package" at $1900 is neither bargain-basement or break-the-bank-expensive. Will likely not buy one any time soon, but seems a fairly cost-effective turn-key way to get one's feet wet.

 

It wouldn't be something easily integrated into a bigger system later on but offers convenience advantages for certain applications. I think the most ideal applications would either be a small remote cabin (which is lived-in so the gadgets won't get ripped off by a pill-billy), or setting up one room of one's house as the primary living area during a power outage. Maybe a kitchen or a room adjacent to a kitchen, or a finished basement room, or a home office, or whatever. The nice thing is that one would write the single check and have most of what is necessary to get up and running, though one might decide to pay an  electrician for an hour or two of his time, and one would have to plan the install well because once installed it will be too heavy to move it around without completely disassembling the gadget.

 

The Xantrex box-- Xantrex was previously StatPower. Canadian and some USA engineering with mostly-china manufacturing nowadays. I've had a few statpower gadgets and got good service from them, and xantrex still sells some boxes near-identical to my old statpower boxes. If I had the money and time then I wouldn't be particularly a-skeered of the quality of that box. You can go to the xantrex site and it takes longer than it ought to, to find the document, but you can eventually find and download the pdf manual for install/use of the gadget.

 

It will charge the batteries off household AC or alternate energy inputs and if it is only connected to house current it will auto-switch to batteries if the power goes down. Like an offline UPS. It switches over pretty quick but not quick enough to keep a computer from crashing, so you can't use it as a direct substitute for a computer UPS.

 

As best I recall reading the manual, it has AC input and at least three alternate energy inputs. So for instance it could be "maxed out" on input by adding another 300 watt solar array + charge controller, and if you have wind you could also hook up a small wind turbine. My southeast tn location doesn't have wind worth squat, unfortunately.

 

You can also buy an additional battery box which looks identical to the box on the right of the inverter/charger. The add-on box bolts to the other side of the inverter/charger, and there are cables in there to connect up to four approx 100 AH AGM batteries (after you add the extra box-- two batteries per battery box). And then the batteries would be maxxed-out for all practical purposes, for that system. That's why you would want to know fer sure you are gonna be happy with its installed location because it will be one heavy SOB after it is installed.

 

It just looks nice for a turn-key small system because it appears well-engineered from an electrical codes standpoint (assuming you install it properly) and you don't have to do any heavy thinking to get everything hooked up correctly.

[vontar]

I use this for maintaining a car battery that is rarely driven.  Worked great over this past winter in the back window.

 

*********

 

However, I am going to have to probably put a new roof on in a couple years or so.

 

I am considering a Solar to Grid Only system to start out.

 

Upfront cost is lower, I have seen some around 7-10k, so should start reducing the power bill right away. 

 

Should be able to add on batteries or a small amount of batteries from their going forward.

Edited April 5, 2013 by vontar

[Caster]

Well, took a different route. Instead on integrating it into my camper,I made it stand alone and made a jumper to connect the two.
Also, instead of mounting the battery and control box somewhere, I used a heavy plastic toolbox that holds the battery, control box, accessory wires and two inverters. Now it's nice and portable, although I'd hate to hump that battery for a distance. I can use it all over now though. In the house, in my shop ect.

Thank God this sucker has protected circuits and a voltage regulator. The three panels put out 23 volts at the wire connectors. That's pretty awesome for a 12 volt system on a partially cloudy day. Full August sun oughta make over 24.


This is well worth the $200 bucks!

[Guest Lester Weevils]

When I built a "largish UPS" about 10 years ago, with four 100 AH batteries, charger and inverter-- I used a plastic trunk as well. Some of the plastics such as vinyl and polyethylene are real good for housing batteries because it is more resistant to sulfuric acid and fumes than most metal or wood.

 

Bought a wally-world $16 "mechanic's creeper" and one of those $16 black plastic car trunks. Bolted a piece of painted plywood on the flip-top of the trunk to stiffen the top of the box and provide attachment points for the fuse box, charger, inverter, and power switch. Then bolted the trunk to the mechanic's creeper so the heavy SOB could be rolled around.

 

It worked pretty good rolling it around on concrete or wood floors as long as it didn't have to go up and down steps or even bumpy door thresholds. It was kinda heavy and the box had to be "man-handled" to get it over high door thresholds. It did not roll very well on the asphalt driveway or concrete walkway, because the creeper wheels were strong enough to hold the load without breaking, but the wheel diameter was too small for rough surfaces.

 

Couple of years ago when that line of tornados was coming thru, I wanted it in the house for backup power and moved the thang by myself from the shop, over the asphalt and concrete, and up three steps to the house porch and into the house. Just about hurt myself trying to get it up those three porch steps without help. An old man ought not to do such things.

 

So anyway, was thinking if I ever try to make another "portable" power pack containing 300 pounds of batteries, maybe it would be a good idea to build-in the chassis based on a heavy-duty appliance hand truck. A heavy duty hand truck with as big diameter as possible pneumatic or "no-flat" tires. The heavy duty trucks with smaller tires are OK for some surfaces, but no-way if you need to go over a spot of grass, gravel, or rutted concrete. A couple of battery compartments built low then an equipment compartment higher up. If the chassis was strong and firmly bolted to a hand truck, an old guy wouldn't have much trouble moving it around by his self. The biggest problem moving stuff like refrigerators with a good-quality hand truck is worrying about the appliance falling off the hand truck especially if you happen to be going up or down steps. But if the power pack was bolted up to the hand truck and the center of gravity pretty low, then it wouldn't be much problem.

[Caster]

Okay, this system has been working well, but I went out this morning to set it up to charge for a while and the darn display won't come on the control box. There's been numerous reports of the box failing but everything seems to work. The battery is charging because I get a voltage drop at the battery when I unplug the system and when I flip the switch. Hopefully it's just the display that's bad. I'm going to try to get harbor freight to swap out just the box so I don't have to pack up my panels and all the lights I hung up that came with the system.
At least everything still works. I suppose I should just leave my volt meter next to the system to do my random tests with. I sure like to be able to flip the switch though and see what the battery charge was.

Grrrr! Is always something. Edited July 19, 2013 by Caster

[Caster]

Seriously I need to invest in better stuff but I refuse until me and the wife decide where to live the rest of our lives.

[Caster]

Replaced the control box under warranty. Plugged it up this morning and the display worked for a few seconds and went off again.
This sucks. I'm just going to live with it and get a better set up later. It all works but the digital display went out again
Can't be anything I'm doing. There's only four wires to connect. Black on black, red on red.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Am guessing just bad design and/or sucky quality control on cheap gear, though it isn't impossible for expensive gear to have poor quality control.

 

Some chinese stuff is built like a tank. They have developed sufficient skill to build any level of quality according to the budget, but even chinese can't make high quality out of peanuts. One time I bought a set of chinese electronic muffs for $8, and they worked, but the tone was terrible and the innards looked like they had been assembled by drunken monkeys. I wouldn't be surprised if all electronic muffs might be made in china nowadays, but the more spensive ones are better built.

[timcar86]

This guy : http://solar1234.com/ knows a ton of stuff when it comes to renewable energy. He's not that big on solar because there are cheaper/easier ways to store energy but he does detail how to use it. I highly suggest listening to his stuff.