Need Help setting up a Small Solar system.

[k0ua]

Travelover do i have to worry about over charging the batteries and ruining them? If I was to run full time power out there I would run enough to power what ever I may need now or in the future, I would not under size.

Joe the job of the charge controller is to regulate the voltage coming from the solar panel so as to not overcharge your batteries. As long as you get a charge controller that is matched to the type of battery you intend to use. Say you intend to use Sealed Lead Acid batteries (SLA), then make sure your charge controller is set up for SLA batteries. It is really all pretty simple, Solar panel, charge controller, batteries. That and some wire. That is pretty much it. The integrated panel and charger controller I showed you from battery tender junior is just one way, you can purchase your own panels, charge controller and batteries, and put together your own system. Just think in terms of "how much current will I need to run some 12 volt LED lights and how often and for how long do I need to run them? Do I want to try and run some other kind of tool off of my 12 volt battery pack? Just think of the questions, figure out how much current you will need to supply and for how long, to figure out the capacity of the batteries, the size of the charge controller and the size of the solar panels.

Of course it all seems pretty easy to me, I have been doing engineering work most of my adult life. And easy to do is easy to say.

 

[k0ua]

you can get something like this
Amazon.com : Renogy 1 Watts 12 Volts Monocrystalline Solar Starter Kit : Automotive

but understand you need a inverter and another battery to run the inverter off,

solar is not a cheaper option period over a cord,

Note that the charge controller featured in his link above can apparently be configured for various types of battery chemistry including Lithium as well as various Lead Acid types.

 

[Travelover]

Travelover do i have to worry about over charging the batteries and ruining them? If I was to run full time power out there I would run enough to power what ever I may need now or in the future, I would not under size.

As others have said, the modern controller is designed to multistage charge the battery and then hold it's charge without damaging the battery. I have a remote area with a sprinkler box and I have a 20 watt solar panel on a post that keeps a lawn tractor battery charged, which powers the sprinkler timer. It just works away with no maintenance. The controller "knows" what the battery needs and delivers no more.

 

[JOE G]

Gotcha, Yuasa YUAM329BS YTX9-BS Battery , Yuasa YUAM6RH4H YTX14H-BS these batteries are the style I have. I am slowly getting this, I do appreciate the help, If I had a few min of hands on with this stuff I would get it a lot easier.

 

[Travelover]

Gotcha, Yuasa YUAM329BS YTX9-BS Battery , Yuasa YUAM6RH4H YTX14H-BS these batteries are the style I have. I am slowly getting this, I do appreciate the help, If I had a few min of hands on with this stuff I would get it a lot easier.

These are tiny batteries. Yuasa recommends a maximum charge rate of 1/10 of its 10 hour capacity. These are about 8 amp-hour batteries so you want to keep the charge rate down to about an amp or less maximum. That means it might make sense to use a smaller solar panel - like a 20 -25 watt panel.

 

[LittleBill21]

Joe,

with the kit i recommended,

you would get a group 24/27 deep cycle battery, then a inverter like this

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07H32N3Z...fb6ef062f79bece096a0354deb558b&language=en_US

then all your individual chargers would plug into the inverter the solar would charge the deep cycle and would be hooked to the inverter, you don't want to tie all the different batteries to one charger..

yes its inefficient cus your going dc/ac/dc, but there really isn't a much better solution or cheaper

 

[buickanddeere]

I don't disagree, but if you're going to go through tha effort, why not go with 10/3 underground?

All true and I agree . However I suggested 12awg as most people want the absolute cheapest instead of what is the most cost effective .

 

[Diggin It]

Not sure if we ever got the gravitational pull and orbital alignments sorted out, but ....

In the very, very early stages of trying to work something out. In my case, it won't be grid tie in any form or fashion. I want something to provide power during utility outages which have been as long as 10 days in the past. I can use a generator to keep the refrigerator and freezer cooled down on cycles of 2 on, 4 -8 off or so. I don't want to try to keep a generator running 24 hours for several days though. Two of our outages were many, many counties wide and there was NO gasoline available for hours of driving in any direction.

My goal is to provide a few hundred watts of power to run computer equipment, cell phone chargers, and so on. That will mean panels, charge controller, batteries, pure sine wave inverter, etc.

Part of this came about as I was planning a sort of porch attached to the house that will have a shed style roof that will just happen to face south. I can beef it up a bit to handle panel weight if necessary.

I'm seeing a variety of panels to begin with, 100W, 160W, 200W, 250W and a few others. Sizes look to be 6' long or less which will fit fine on the shed roof which will be about 10-12'. But I'm not sure how many and cost is also a major issue.

Typically I only use 12-18 KwHrs a day and that's whole house, so just the computer stuff would be much, much less. So what should I be considering, 400W, more, less?

Also considering three options for those electronic devices:

>> Full time AC with manual switchover when needed.

>> Some sort of automated switchover for a few selected outlets, not the panel feed. Could be done with a simple AC relay/contactor that de-engergizes on AC fail closing contact to the solar.

>> Full time solar.

 

[TnAndy]

Not sure if we ever got the gravitational pull and orbital alignments sorted out, but ....

In the very, very early stages of trying to work something out. In my case, it won't be grid tie in any form or fashion. I want something to provide power during utility outages which have been as long as 10 days in the past. I can use a generator to keep the refrigerator and freezer cooled down on cycles of 2 on, 4 -8 off or so. I don't want to try to keep a generator running 24 hours for several days though. Two of our outages were many, many counties wide and there was NO gasoline available for hours of driving in any direction.

My goal is to provide a few hundred watts of power to run computer equipment, cell phone chargers, and so on. That will mean panels, charge controller, batteries, pure sine wave inverter, etc.

Part of this came about as I was planning a sort of porch attached to the house that will have a shed style roof that will just happen to face south. I can beef it up a bit to handle panel weight if necessary.

I'm seeing a variety of panels to begin with, 100W, 160W, 200W, 250W and a few others. Sizes look to be 6' long or less which will fit fine on the shed roof which will be about 10-12'. But I'm not sure how many and cost is also a major issue.

Typically I only use 12-18 KwHrs a day and that's whole house, so just the computer stuff would be much, much less. So what should I be considering, 400W, more, less?

Also considering three options for those electronic devices:

>> Full time AC with manual switchover when needed.

>> Some sort of automated switchover for a few selected outlets, not the panel feed. Could be done with a simple AC relay/contactor that de-engergizes on AC fail closing contact to the solar.

>> Full time solar.

How much are you willing to spend ? And the federal tax credit is still 25% for this year (down from 30% last year, and going lower next yr)

The cheapest route to go is not do solar at all. Use something like a Tripp Lite inverter/charger with automatic transfer switch and some batteries. You could use the generator to charge the batteries once a day or so depending on your use of power.

IF you want an automatic transfer setup for about the least outlay of cash:

A Tripp Lite 1250 Watt 12V Inverter Charger APS1250 runs $479 here: TrippLite APS125 125 Watt 12V Inverter Charger | Inverters R Us and then however much battery you want to connect to it. This unit has a duplex receptacle on it.....they make it with hard wire connections so you could wire to several receptacles as long as you don't exceed the output limits.....and they make them right on up in size as well.

And you could connect solar and a charge controller to the batteries instead of using line power to keep them topped off, and that could potentially eliminate the use of the generator at all.

I'm using Outback equipment, charge controllers, batteries and a manual transfer switch.....we have to manually flip over the circuits we want to run off grid on days when the sun is shining, or the grid is down. An automatic transfer switch will only do half that....switch when it senses no grid power, AND they are quite a bit more pricey for a 100amp version compared to the manual.

 

[otlski]

When I first saw your post, I thought you needed help arranging planets and asteroids around a star. That would be an impressive project.