Solar Stuff...

[Great-Kazoo]

This one in particular is C1D2 rated for hazardous locations in the oilfield which makes it more expensive (rated parts are pricey).

One that isn't C1D2 could be built for:
1x - 275 Watt Panel - $200 + shipping
12x - 215AH 6VDC Batteries - $1400 + freight, unless you buy local.
1x - Charge Controller - Anywhere from $50 (chitty) to $1500 (fantastic) - Don't buy the cheapest, Morningstar gear (PS-30, $125 on amazon, depending on your panel voltage and how many) works pretty well. Outback gear is my choice for home systems.
1x Battery box - The one pictured is $400, rubbermaid trunks work pretty dang well actually, and aren't that expensive.
1x Rack of some sort - could be built by ones-self for less than $100.

Total: $2000 assuming a rubbermaid trunk runs $150 (probably high), $100 for a rack solution, and expensive shipping for the panel and charge controller.

Given only 275W of solar, the 1290AH battery bank is a bit ridiculous. As I said that situation required that the batteries could last, and recover easily, through 10 days of no sun. If I were building it as a temporary power solution for preparedness, I would half the battery bank. That would save you $700 odd dollars.

Before you buy more, at $1.4/watt, look at these guys. Mono/Polycrystaline panels can be had for much less than that.

So i see numbers like yours only higher, much higher thrown around. Exactly what would my $2K get me storage wise IF and when power goes down . The generators are out of gas and propane back up runs out?

We've had an interest in solar as secondary supply. Unfortunately, when the monthly cost is more than our mortgage and something we'd never recoup savings wise. It's hard to justify spending anything.

Would it be nice for our next home, sure. Again cost are still higher than the results.

Please enlighten me, and others here.

[HoneyBadger]

Grant, thanks for sharing the good info and links.

[gnihcraes]

my homemade junk;




Installed into a Rigid portable toolbox setup. A work still in progress.

88ah battery.





controller is cheapo, but will upgrade sometime. Still looking for a reasonable cost pure sine wave inverter.

[killianak9]

Following

[Grant H.]

So i see numbers like yours only higher, much higher thrown around. Exactly what would my $2K get me storage wise IF and when power goes down . The generators are out of gas and propane back up runs out?

We've had an interest in solar as secondary supply. Unfortunately, when the monthly cost is more than our mortgage and something we'd never recoup savings wise. It's hard to justify spending anything.

Would it be nice for our next home, sure. Again cost are still higher than the results.

Please enlighten me, and others here.

If you are talking about what I will call "retail solar", then I completely understand how you were getting numbers much higher than what I am talking about.

It depends on the type of system you are looking at:
1. Grid Tie
2. Off Grid
3. Emergency

1. Grid Tie:
Generally, these are the most expensive, even though they may not have a battery back up. The cost comes from permits, dealing with the Electric Power provider, carrying grid tie insurance, etc... As mentioned before, lots of current grid tie solutions (Solar City and the like) don't include battery backups, so they do you absolutely no good when the power is out. Some will actually power your house during the day, but if it's cloudy/snowy/dark/etc... You get no power.
Depending on the provider you can add a battery backup, but the batteries are the most expensive part of a solar solution any more.

2. Off Grid:
These are done one of two ways... With Permits, and without. Permits for off grid systems aren't hard to get, but they add to the cost.
Off grid can be done pretty inexpensively, and if planned out right, can be done in phases when money is available. For my brothers house, we did 6KW of panels to start, but we only had a 1000AH battery bank to start. He has since grown that, and is looking at some other options, but only as money is available. What we did was hang a second breaker box next to his existing breaker box and move certain circuits (based off of load requirements) to the new box and then tied that box to the inverters from the battery bank. As the batteries have been added, we have moved more circuits to his solar. At this point, a few of the larger 220V items stay on grid power (welders, mill, lathe, CNC router, etc...), but the rest of the house is on solar.

3. Emergency:
This would be more like the skid I posted a picture of, when thought of from a prepping standpoint. It's mobile, depending on size/batteries it can power critical items like comms, food storage, and others for several days without sun, and given the appropriate panel sizing, can then recharge quickly when set into the sun.

For that skid, a standard deep freeze will pull 5-6A (@120VAC) when running. Since you will have to have an inverter to get 120, lets assume it pulls another 2-3A for inefficiencies (high, but I always tend to make my assumptions high for a margin of error). So that means it will pull 9A while it is running, which means that if it runs for 24 hours, we will have a total draw of 216AH. So, a 1290AH battery bank, without breaking the 50% discharge point, could run your deep freeze for 3 days, without any sun. A more reasonable battery bank, at 645AH, would only run it for 1.5 days without harming the batteries.

Now, you figure in the panels, which 270-275W of panels (@12VDC) will provide 22.5A for every hour they are in the sun. I usually build my solar calculations off of 4 hours of sun for this area, which is low, but it leaves another margin of error built in. Obviously, 4 hours at 22.5A won't replenish 216A, so we would need a larger panel array. An additional 275W would add $225 (assuming shipped) to the cost. That means you would get 45A for every hour of sun, which means 4 hours would replenish the current used.

So, for $2225 (or roughly that), you can have an entire deep freeze of food that will stay frozen, even if the power is out for weeks.

[jerrymrc]

My second garage is now solar but on a smaller scale. I used to build my own panels 10-12 years ago and did nothing but dry camp. Just a game of adding it all up and learning to use it wisely. My Camper was set up with just a little over 100W of panels but carried 570AH or so of batteries. Built my own LED lighting as well. Never ran out of power. Nice update on the current situation Grant. I am also a fan of having at least a 20A charge controller put away along with some other items just in case.

[offgrid]

Given only 275W of solar, the 1290AH battery bank is a bit ridiculous. As I said that situation required that the batteries could last, and recover easily, through 10 days of no sun. If I were building it as a temporary power solution for preparedness, I would half the battery bank. That would save you $700 odd dollars.

Ya, a single 275W panel with a 1290AH battery bank is silly ridiculous for preparedness. For a small solar solution for preparedness , I too would half the battery bank, also add another panel and a inverter. If someone was to put together a system like this, no reason not to use that available power every day.

[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!

[Irving]

Like most retail products, you can build your own, specialized for your specific needs, for probably a quarter of that price. Think of it like building a junkyard turbokit for Civic compared to buying a full kit from a speed shop, only without the junkyard parts.

[Wulf202]

You could piece together twice the system for half the price by sourcing each component separately.

Or some kind of car analogy.