Solar Stuff...

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Originally Posted by tbetty

was looking at this for sometime in the future in order to possibly power an off grid cabin, thoughts?
http://www.earthtechproducts.com/xan...-3-panels.html
doesn't look too bad, but then again I know little about this stuff!

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That wouldn't be a bad little system to run a few small things with, my only complaint with that source of it is that I can buy the same parts (different but similar panels) for $1600 on Amazon right now, no shopping around to bring the price down.

That price can be brought down by sourcing some of the parts differently.

1. Instead of 2 12VDC 100AH batteries, get 2 6VDC 215AH batteries for just over the cost of 1 12V/100AH battery at Batteries Plus. They are golf cart batteries. Better life cycle expectancy, more storage (marginally), and cheaper.
2. The Xantrex name isn't bad, but there are equally good and better items out there for the same money.
2a. The Powerhub thing? Fancy replacement for an inverter. I can get a Bestek (reasonable quality, use one in my work truck everyday) 2000 Watt inverter for $180 on Amazon.
2b. Charger. Their chargers are fine, they work. I see them used frequently in the O/G world for AC charging of LARGE battery backups. The price point for this one ($100) is pretty hard to beat.
3. Shopping around for 300 watts of panels may very well yield a significantly better price. $.50/watt isn't unheard of right now.

So, built quickly as I would do it?
$330 - Panels: https://www.amazon.com/ECO-WORTHY-Po...r%2Bpanel&th=1
$100 - Charger: https://www.amazon.com/Xantrex-C35-C...rge+controller
$180 - Inverter: https://www.amazon.com/BESTEK-2000W-...Binverter&th=1
$200 - Batteries: https://www.batteriesplus.com/productdetails/sligc110

Total: $810+tax/shipping depending on where/when you buy. So around 35% of their price!
Just my thoughts!

Reviving the old solar thread. I have a tiny cabin (ok, a tuffshed) on a mining claim in the mountains. I just finished putting in an equally tiny solar power system to run multiple 12V LED lights, a fan, and a charging station for portable devices. Two marine batteries in parallel, a 30W solar panel, cheap charge controller, automotive fuse block, and a homemade switch panel. Seems to be working just fine so far for my needs, time will tell if it holds up. I really know nothing about this stuff, just winging it, so I'm sure I did some things wrong. Fun project, either way.

http://i841.photobucket.com/albums/z...4A5EF8245D.jpg

Doesn't look like you did anything wrong to me.

If you find yourself looking at a slightly bigger panel, look at an MPPT controller first. For a little additional cost, I saw a 25% improvement in solar production when using small 10W rated panels (went from 8 watts with a non-MPPT to 10.5 watts with the MPPT).

Some people forget that small solar installs can be just as good/beneficial as big ones. I have LED lights in my backyard shed that I did with just a small solar setup, and it's great. I didn't have to trench and pull power, and being low voltage no permit was required!

Googling "MPPT controller"...

Lol.

Sorry, Maximum Power Point Tracking Solar controllers.

Basically they hold the solar panel to a lower voltage (a 12v panel is around 18v open circuit) and convert that extra power to current instead of peak voltage. Essentially just more efficient.

Thanks - that's makes more sense than what I was finding online. So, could I use a 24V, 30A panel with my 12V setup, if I had an MPPT controller? I have a 24V panel just sitting there, could swap if it would be more efficient and not fry my batteries.

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Originally Posted by Fentonite

Thanks - that's makes more sense than what I was finding online. So, could I use a 24V, 30A panel with my 12V setup, if I had an MPPT controller? I have a 24V panel just sitting there, could swap if it would be more efficient and not fry my batteries.

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I'm guessing you mean 24V 30W, not 30A. Otherwise that's a big damn panel...

Yes, a 24V panel can be fed into a 12V battery bank with an MPPT controller.

As far as running both into the same battery bank, yes you can, run the panels and controllers in parallel.

Yes, 30W, sorry. Cool, thanks for your advice! Much appreciated.

No need to apologize.

Happy to help. Like I said when I started this thread, I've done a lot of solar, for work and for fun, and I'm happy to share information and suggestions.

So, I got bored today. Couldn't be climbing towers or pouring concrete, so I started on a few little solar projects that I've been planning and collecting for.

1. Portable solar electronics charging box.
A couple weeks ago, we had a power outage, and my wife called me while sitting in her car to charge the phone. So, I built this as a first round of a portable solar solution. I still need to add the 12VDC to 5VDC USB charging port, but that's on the way via Amazon.

I also have some supercaps coming from china, and I will play with using them and a buck/boost converter to replace the batteries. Supercaps can be drained to zero and brought back many thousands/millions of times, so they will will always work. They can't be killed by draining them too far. They also allow me to eliminate the solar controller, which makes it all the better. Once they all show up, I'll update this project to show what I'm planning.

This is a 10W 12VDC panel, and 2x 7.5AH 12VDC batteries with a Morningstar Sunsaver PWM controller.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4166/3...9842fbed_c.jpg0517171909 by ARNEWB, on Flickr