OpSec - It might be more efficient to run straight DC but not practical for the design.  So I'm stuck with a high quality DC/AC Pure sine wave inverter to go from 12v DC to 120v AC.  My gen-set produces 120v pure sine wave.

Would you post a schematic to get an idea of the setup.

Bump to prevent archiving.

This thread will not go to the archive, per feral's post on page 2.

Ok sorry



 

how long does it take to charge your battery w/ the 15w panel?

Thanks anyway though

It's hard to say since it depends so heavily on usage and how much sunlight there is. If I'm just using the 12v battery to charge some AAs overnight, it doesn't make a noticeable impact in the charge level. On the other hand, I ran a 100 watt rig (mostly CW) for field day from it which knocked it down a bit, but not lower than 12.3V. Powering LEDs at night doesn't really put a noticeable dent in it either.

As for charging, 15w isn't a lot but in the desert sun it's going to charge a lot faster than indirect sunlight in the backyard. I've only used the battery for short term lighting and charging batteries and powering my ham rig, but I've never discharged it past the point where another day in the sun didn't bring it back up to full.

i'm trying to pirate your idea, but i'm electrically challenged. so a 5w panel would be pretty much useless to recharge it in a SHTF scenario? we're prime hurricane location, so i'm trying to rig something to power a light, cellphone charger, radio, & fan for a few hours per night.

Doing it on a 5w panel will be tough, especially if you're not going to have full sun for most of the day. However it might work for running lights and a radio. Fans are inductive loads and tend to draw more than lights and radios and such.

Keep in mind that in a hurricane, by definition you're not going to have a whole lot of sun so using a small panel might not work.

Glad this got bumped, didn't see it the first go around.

Cool thread phurba, I've been meaning to do something like this.


GM

back to the store.......

i saw this in the store.....it comes with the controller. better??

That one is only set up to be a trickle charger. You won't overcharge your battery with it, but you face the problem of not being able to charge very quickly. The charge controller I use will let it charge the battery at a decent rate and then limit it to trickle charging once the set point is reached. So a panel like that would be good for keeping a rarely used car or RV charged up, but not the best for doing household power stuff in an emergency.

thanks for all the help; apparently you and CJan_NH are the gurus on such things. i appreciate the patience from the both of you. that said, between the small 5w and the bigger 15w trickle, i'm in pretty much the same boat either way unless i get another controller like yours?

Without a charge controller you won't be trickle charging; you'll be charging at whatever rate the panel can output power. The problem is if you're really cranking in the bright sun, you can overcharge the battery or charge it too fast. That's what the charge controller regulates. Controllers are only about $40 new and can be had cheaper in the used market .

where did you purchase your controller from pre-wired?

Some guy on craigslist

I rewired a few things on it though - the schematic should be in the OP.

45 watt Solar Kit

These were recently on sale for $139 which includes 3 - 15 watt amorphous panels a dubious but mostly functional charge controler a couple of CFL's and bracketry to hold the panels. They regularly run these on sale for $139 to $159 and is an excellent way to get into some solar. I bought two sets and am going to use them to power the "dog house" which is well removed from utility service. The amorphous panels also will produce consistently even under cloudy conditions. These kits are a good buy with the charge controller being the weak link but better controllers are readily available on ebay etc., very economically. Add a couple 6v golf car batteries in series and you have some good reserve.

$139 is a great price for that kit. Even if you pitch the controller that came with it, it seems the panels are a good deal.

if this was ever going to be used/placed indoors i'm assuming you'd want a sealed battery??

Yes. I use a wet cell in my garage and I've never exploded but I haven't run it for more than a few hours and my garage isn't exactly hermetically sealed. But if you're going to have it in your living space then a sealed battery is the only way to go.

I'm having issues finding a sealed deep cycle battery, partly b/c I don't know what I'm looking for. Any suggestions that I might be able to find at a napa or advance auto?

Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile

Has anyone found a small charge controller like the one above that also has a connection for a generator..?

Thanks,
Andy.

you need an inverter/charger. which is BIG money. your better off with a battery tender JR for charging when you have power and switch to the charge controller when using solar.

all you should have to do it tell them you need a deep cell. your better option is to buy 2 6v golf cart batteries because of the capacity. but if you want to keep it simple, a 12v trolling motor battery.

link please? google-fu is weak, & battery illiterate

So if you already have a generator, all you need is a 12 volt power supply. At that point you will need a charge controller that can handle higher currents. Most of the small ones top out at 10 amps. If you're running a generator for the sole purpose of charging the battery, you're going to have to charge it as quickly as possible. You can get a 75 amp power supply like this 'un and a beefy 80 amp charge controller like this.

Here toy go

thanks. are the optimas worth the hype?

I don't have a scientific comparison of batteries, but one thing I can say for sure is that in my experience, you absolutely get what you pay for. Whether you're dealing with AA batteries or car starter batteries, the cheap ones just plain suck and you have to replace them more often, costing you more in the long run. Buy once <every 5 years or so>, cry once <every 5 years or so>.

NO, they are NOT. if you want a good battery get the Sears diehard or the diehard platinum. optimas quality has gone to shit since they were bought out a few years back. the sears batteries are a much better option.

thanks for the input

Updates?

Well, it's still in the garage and still charging a battery Nothing has changed although I did take the system out to the desert in July where it worked great.

During a wootoff a few weeks ago they had the exact same panel I have for about half price but before I could get my password in they sold out.

I bought one of those Morningstar charge controllers like you have.

+1

Big mistake, I had a Sears Platinium in my Jeep, never seemed to have the right power. After a year and a half...it would not even start it.....I stopped using diehards years ago, tried this one.....now I have a walmart battery. If you want a battery bank and can't afford solar designed ones...get golf cart batteries..

bump

others are asking about the subject

Has Phurba made any improvements to his system since 2010?

Wow, I'd forgotten about this thread. Looks like the arf media server hiccuped at some point - all of the pics are still hosted but the filenames are missing. I'll try to get that fixed up shortly.

Anyway, it's pretty much the same as it was. I ditched the marine battery and now use a smaller sealed lead acid battery. I used it back in June/July when the storm rolled through here and took out power for a week.

tag

And once again I get reminded that this thread was set to no-archive whenever somebody bumps it

I fixed the pictures in the OP.

I still use this system. I went on a 5 day camping trip / festival thingy over the summer and took the setup with me. People used it to charge their cell phones, I ran my coffee grinder from it, and at night we used it for DC Christmas lights hanging under our common area canopy.

Nice setup!!!!

What is the total cost you have into this?

OP - that is a great setup. As an electrician however, I have one small suggestion. Using jumper cable ends to connect the battery seems like an accident waiting to happen, as well as being an inefficient flow of electrons. Shorting out a battery and having it explode in a survival situation would be no joke. There are a number of better solutions IMO but I'll have to think about specifics suggestions.

The one that comes to mind is a simple power drop splice which are available from electrical supply houses. They are insulated, and have pop-out plugs with allen head set screws that tighten down on the wires. You can then replace the plugs, giving you a completely insulated, safe connection. If you left these on a short whip attached to the battery side, well, you see where I'm going with this. You are probably using #4 wire - a couple of these shouldn't be more than $20 or $30 for a pair. They are well designed and easy to use. Just a thought. Nice setup! I plan to add some solar to my cabin next year. Spent a year installing solar with a local company and learned a lot. Really enjoyed it.

Something I need to learn more about. My expertise ends at putting the little 3 pronged thingy into the wall thingy.

None of the suggested product links in this thread work and i'm pretty illiterate when it comes to this technology.

I'd like to build a set-up for my truck, a solar controller that can also charge off a Honda EU2000I, enough battery power for 24 hours between charges running simple things like a sound system. That uses two panels mounted to a thule rack somehow. I know the bigger the better but bonus points if I can make a system that fits in a Pelican case and can simply be used out of the truck instead of mounted.

Really depends on your load, would need to know Amp-hours per day and needed voltage (12V or 120V).

Without knowing that any advice would be shooting in the dark. But you might consider this 100W Renogy kit. The charge controller they include is big enough for 5 of these 100W panels.

Alternatively there's this 100W foldable panel kit, costs quite a bit more and has a built-in charge controller that's only large enough for one panel. But a lot more portable.

You'd also need batteries, an inverter, circuit breakers/fuses, and probably some additional wire, but the Renogy kits will get you half way there.

I was strongly considering Renology panels, but wasn't sure about the charge controller. I saw a post above that said an 80amp charge controller was recommended for some mobile application.

How do I do the amp hour math? I really just want to have one or two charged batteries so I can run a inverter off the batteries and a 12v plug. Would probably be used to power a cd player and sound system nothing huge but something better than running the vehicle or generator all the time. Would want it to last 12-24 hours or at least overnight before needing a recharge. I don't think I would be trying to run AC or a fridge off this set-up.

But if I could make a system that could for not much more cost I might, I assume the difference would be more batteries and a better inverter. Which would just charge slower off the same two 100w panels?

You size the charge controller based on the output (Imp) of the panels. Having an oversized controller won't do you any good unless you want to add more panels down the road. The controller the Renogy kit includes is a cheap Chinese model, I have a similar smaller one, it worked fine during the brief period I used it. But there are much better controllers out there, and their price reflects this. I use a Morningstar 45 Amp PWM controller, which is mid-price but pretty good. Top of the line stuff starts getting expensive (Midnite Solar MPPT, etc.).


You need to know how many amps at what voltage your sound system draws. I think the sound system you want to run is the one in your truck? I can't help you there, no idea how much power this would draw, really depends on the speakers. A clamp meter would give you a general idea of the amperage, and the voltage is probably 12V---if it is 12V, you don't need an inverter.

So say a clamp meter says you're drawing 5 amps, and you run whatever it is you're running for 10 hours, that equals 50 Amp-hours @ 12V (5 Amps * 10 hours = 50 Ah). If you have a 12V 225 Amp-hour battery bank (two Trojan T-105s, for example), you could run that load for 22.5 hours before your batteries reach 50%. You don't want to regularly run deep cycle batteries below 50%, as a general rule.



To run a fridge you'd want a pure sine wave inverter, motors don't play nice with most modified sine wave inverters. The start up draw of fridges can be high, which means you'd need a fairly large pure sine wave inverter. How large really depends on what kind of fridge but 1000W is bare minimum (maybe too small), 2000W is better. They ain't cheap. Running fridges and AC off batteries starts getting expensive real fast because of the inverter.

Solar is worse than black rifle disease, it's a fucking black hole that sucks all the money out of your wallet :) Be very careful about sizing your system first, taking measurements of all your loads with a clamp meter and/or inline meters, and read read read before you buy.

And I've said it before, I'll say it again and probably be ignored as usual, but ALL newbies, every single one of them, want to buy too much battery, too much inverter, and not enough solar panel. Sizing is the hardest thing to wrap your head around when you start building a solar electric system for the first time, but it's critical. To use a gun analogy, most guys want to buy a .22 rifle, some 7.62x39 mags, and a few cases of .308 and expect to be good to go when the shooting starts.

Here's my solar power system.

Attached File


I've not really used it. I put it together back in the summer of 2015 after I accidentally ordered the solar panel off the internet one night; I guess I butt dialed the "BUY NOW" button.

Basic specs:

Renogy 100W 12VDC panel.
Renogy Charge Controller
Generic Battery.

Will see if I have some photos of the inside as I built it.

EDIT, I do:

Attached File


Basically, I used boat parts I got from a local boating place; plus some stuff ordered off Amazon.

There are fuses for everything, solar panel, battery, etc.

Each mounting rail runs something; I have a rail set for solar panels -- currently I only have one solar panel lead wired into it, but I could add more if I needed.