my solar power setup :)

[tac0meat]

well, this has been in the works for awhile now and finally gettin it all together (actually we installed it a couple of months ago) but im just now gettin around to gettin pictures and stuff up. heres the short story: my dad and i (and my brothers helped too) have been building this place up in oklahoma for about a year and a half now and it was gonna cost 1500 bux just to run electrical line out to the building, plus 18 bux a month (before we even flip a switch) plus power used, plus 50 bux per year for co-op membership. so we decided to go solar, which has high startup cost, but low annual/monthly cost (mainly replacing batterries about every 8-10 yrs) so far weve invested about 1300 into the solar setup and here are some pics of it:

the panels are 85watts bp 12volt:

here is the battery, its a universal brand battery totalled sealed AGM (same technology as optima batteries, no spill, no vent, ect) 225Ah 12volts oh ya, the window that you see is 2 feet wide and the battery is 163 lbs. the charger to the right is to "top off" the battery while the generator is running(only if we are using lots of power tools):

and here is the controller and inverter. the controller (which controls charging the battery and displays system voltage, Ah produced, current amp produced) is a trace(xantrex) c40 and the inverter is a coleman 2000/4000watt (it has been replaced with a 1000watt xantrex which runs much better):

eventually im going to build a cabinet to house everything in because its kinda a mess right now. next week im picking up 2 more panels (total 4) and another battery (total 2). right now im only producing 40-45 amp hours per day but i hope to improve that with some angling of the panels to about 65-70 Ah (which will then be doubled with the 2 extra panels to 130-140 Ah per day with a total capacity in the batteries of 450Ah (which is the equivelant of 5.4kwh)

 

[tac0meat]

oh ya, heres a couple more pics of the panels so you can get an idea of how big they are:

that handsome devil is me, im the one in charge of wiring up all of this stuff, its been a real learning experience and a lot of fun!

 

[jimbo74]

so the whole house is going to run off of dc? i saw an inverter around there somewhere...... does that system have enough reserve capacity to power a house? houses use a lot of power....

 

[tac0meat]

yes and no, there are many houses powered in a simalar way, only they have more panels, more battery capacity, and larger inverters. our setup prolly couldnt run your average house, or even apartment, but its a remote location, and all that needs to be run is lights, fans, small radio, and a few other small devices. dc is the source of the power, but the inverter turns it into ac so we didnt have to buy specialized (expensive) dc devices like lights and fans. we've used it to run a table saw and radial arm saw with no problems.

 

[jimbo74]

those are high drain devices, i am surprised you were able to push out enough wattage to power those..... what about a refirdegerator? what is this house being used for? a spot to camp away with the family for a week? in that case, you could through all the food in a cooler.... i took a cooler to thaven 2002, my steaks stayed frozen for several days.... even in the desert heat, although it was colder than a refridgerator at night....

 

[wired_af]

nice gun cabinet

 

[Black Magic]

Looks good, Nice install. But what is the building for?

 

[tac0meat]

fans dont take too much, and were using flourescent lights which dont pull much either the saws we used only in short bursts, so they averaged out as not pulling too much power. worst comes to worst, we use a generator to quickly charge up the batteries (hence the reason for the second battery and 2 more panels) a small fridge will pull around 1kw a day so thats out of the question. an lp fridge however from what ive read only requires about 5 gallons of propane a month, so thats an option. i am looking into the arb cooler, it is 12 volts and the only review ive read on it said it didnt drain a car battery after a couple of days, so that might be another way to go and i wont lose 10% of the power going through an inverter. this place is kinda like a camping spot/hunting shack and we arent ever there for more than 2 weeks at a time.

thanks wired af, my dad and i built it several years ago. its about 7 1/2 ft tall and 10 feet wide (including the bookshelves on either end)

 

[Crankcase]

NICE setup. You said the Coleman 2000 watt inverter wasn't as good as the 1000 watt one. What was wrong?

Heh, if you ever leave your Explorers lights on, that would be one helluva jump starting battery!

 

[tac0meat]

well, it was wierd on the coleman. the power just didnt seem very "clean", caused some interference and couldnt really handle heavy loads (go figure). besides the xantrex seemed better built, its quiter, more effiecient, and hasnt had any problem runnin any of the saws. the coleman is still under warranty, so im gonna send it back and get it fixed

 

[dogfriend]

Originally posted by tac0meat
an lp fridge however from what ive read only requires about 5 gallons of propane a month, so thats an option.

That seems like a pretty good option, our LPG refridgerator in our trailer doesn't use much fuel and its an old one. I think the newer ones are more efficient.

http://www.norcold.com/gasabsorption_main.cfm

http://www.dometicusa.com/products/refrigerators/default.htm

 

[Maniak]

Lehmans (the non electric people) have all kinds of stuff that will work for that remote cabin.. including gas refrigerators, lights, non electric stuff.. Origianlly they made stuff for the amish, now they make stuff for everyone.

http://www.lehmans.com/


Here is a gas refridge.. Not only is it gas, its is very well insulated.
http://www.lehmans.com/shopping/pro...ODUCT&iMainCat=816&iSubCat=896&iProductID=556

~Mark