Post by Wooferhound on Sept 7, 2018 13:00:33 GMT -5
Three years ago I was planning to move to a different house, so I had disassembled my Solar Power System and stored it in the shed that the gear had been setup around. So it's been 3 years and I am realizing that I am staying here in this house, and now I am putting everything back up.
The old system was arranged around a shed that was at the opposite end of the house from the location that I was actually using the power at my computer desk in the living room. The wire to carry the power from the batteries was over 110 feet long. I have re-purposed this wire to carry AC power for the computer and entertainment system. The decision was made to move the Solar Power to the other side of the house so I don't need to run another long expensive wire along the house. The main power wire will be less than 20 feet long in this rebuild. I'm already pretty far along with this project and I may be using some power from it in a few days.
The Solar Panels were originally mounted on the shed on the lefthand side of this picture. Charge control and the batteries were inside the shed and there were four 12 gauge wires going all the way across the back of the house to my computer desk on the lower righthand side of the place. I'm not sure why I did it that way instead of what I am doing now as everything is much simpler this time.
Everything is now on the side of the house. I'm in the middle of a large neighborhood so the system is between two houses facing directly South. The main power cable to the Point Of Use will be less than 20 feet long this time compared to 110 feet from the shed.
I had to spend half a day clearing this area, not used at all, only go there to cut the grass. Placed brick on the ground to help keep the wood dry then built the cabinet on top. This is everything so far, and at this point it's a stand-alone 12 volt battery charger. There will be some doors added to the front openings. In this location it does not get full Sun till 10:30am because of a nearby Crepe Myrtle tree that really needs a good trimming. The tilt of the panels is easy to adjust, but think I'll set it on the Fall Equinox September 22 and leave it there year round as these Amorphous panels don't seem to be sensitive to angle very much. There will be 4 more solar panels added on each side of the fence to help get more Sun in the morning and evening.
Might be mildly concerned about theft since it's on the ground now.
The electrics are inside the cabinet. Two Trojan T-105 batteries are inside the picnic cooler providing 12 volts at 225 amphours. The cooler is propped open for Summer ventilation. The cabinet itself has plenty of airflow. I made all of the electronics from scratch.
The box on the left provides fused inputs and outputs to the battery.
Center box is a power combiner with ten 4 amp solar inputs, Two 10 amp 50 volt bridge rectifier inputs and a 10 amp 1000 volt bridge rectifier input.
Righthand box is Charge control using a 2 stage Dumpload controller which is capable of about 300 watts of dumping into some 10 ohm resisters.
Still need to put a hole through the cement block on the house to get a wire through to a power distribution box so I can actually use some of that power.
At this time I have 150 watts of panels and this system is designed to provide 12 DC power and I use the power that way. Everything runs on 12 volts.
Radio, TV, Lights, Fan, Modem, Router,Phone Charger, Laptop, Etc.
I have a 400 watt inverter available for the refrigerator in case of a power outage. I expect that I save about $3.oo a month on my electric bill, but when the power goes out it is priceless.
If you want more detailed information about the components you can visit this link to the previous installation of this system in the shed. Or you can ask anything you would like about this system.
timmythy.home.mindspring.com/re-power.htm
The old system was arranged around a shed that was at the opposite end of the house from the location that I was actually using the power at my computer desk in the living room. The wire to carry the power from the batteries was over 110 feet long. I have re-purposed this wire to carry AC power for the computer and entertainment system. The decision was made to move the Solar Power to the other side of the house so I don't need to run another long expensive wire along the house. The main power wire will be less than 20 feet long in this rebuild. I'm already pretty far along with this project and I may be using some power from it in a few days.
The Solar Panels were originally mounted on the shed on the lefthand side of this picture. Charge control and the batteries were inside the shed and there were four 12 gauge wires going all the way across the back of the house to my computer desk on the lower righthand side of the place. I'm not sure why I did it that way instead of what I am doing now as everything is much simpler this time.
Everything is now on the side of the house. I'm in the middle of a large neighborhood so the system is between two houses facing directly South. The main power cable to the Point Of Use will be less than 20 feet long this time compared to 110 feet from the shed.
I had to spend half a day clearing this area, not used at all, only go there to cut the grass. Placed brick on the ground to help keep the wood dry then built the cabinet on top. This is everything so far, and at this point it's a stand-alone 12 volt battery charger. There will be some doors added to the front openings. In this location it does not get full Sun till 10:30am because of a nearby Crepe Myrtle tree that really needs a good trimming. The tilt of the panels is easy to adjust, but think I'll set it on the Fall Equinox September 22 and leave it there year round as these Amorphous panels don't seem to be sensitive to angle very much. There will be 4 more solar panels added on each side of the fence to help get more Sun in the morning and evening.
Might be mildly concerned about theft since it's on the ground now.
The electrics are inside the cabinet. Two Trojan T-105 batteries are inside the picnic cooler providing 12 volts at 225 amphours. The cooler is propped open for Summer ventilation. The cabinet itself has plenty of airflow. I made all of the electronics from scratch.
The box on the left provides fused inputs and outputs to the battery.
Center box is a power combiner with ten 4 amp solar inputs, Two 10 amp 50 volt bridge rectifier inputs and a 10 amp 1000 volt bridge rectifier input.
Righthand box is Charge control using a 2 stage Dumpload controller which is capable of about 300 watts of dumping into some 10 ohm resisters.
Still need to put a hole through the cement block on the house to get a wire through to a power distribution box so I can actually use some of that power.
At this time I have 150 watts of panels and this system is designed to provide 12 DC power and I use the power that way. Everything runs on 12 volts.
Radio, TV, Lights, Fan, Modem, Router,Phone Charger, Laptop, Etc.
I have a 400 watt inverter available for the refrigerator in case of a power outage. I expect that I save about $3.oo a month on my electric bill, but when the power goes out it is priceless.
If you want more detailed information about the components you can visit this link to the previous installation of this system in the shed. Or you can ask anything you would like about this system.
timmythy.home.mindspring.com/re-power.htm