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SOLAR ENERGY |
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striper 
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Joined: February 25 2006 Status: Offline Points: 38 |
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 Posted: March 08 2006 at 5:38pm |
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Ordered the Xantrex XPower 1500 today. Searching for the solar panel now. My house faces south and there is plenty of sun in my backyard through out the day. I am not sure of I am going to put the solar panel on the roof though. Costco doesn't have any of the high watt solar panels. Any others I should check? Thanks. |
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Spoon
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Joined: January 29 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 602 |
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Posted: March 10 2006 at 10:50am |
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striper, Here's another place I was checking out, before I made the Costco purchase. |
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It's not so much the apocalypse... but the credit card bills ;-)
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DragonRider
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Joined: March 06 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 20 |
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Posted: March 21 2006 at 1:56pm |
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Spoon, I am ordering a Xantrex today to help supplement my generator. Who makes your charge controller? I am going to have to get 2 smaller panels, 1 now and 1 later. Any other sites you used for reference would be great.
Thanks John |
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Spoon
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Joined: January 29 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 602 |
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Posted: March 21 2006 at 5:13pm |
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John,
Morningstar makes a good line of controllers.
Please feel free to ask me any questions. You can also PM as well.
Good luck,
Jay
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It's not so much the apocalypse... but the credit card bills ;-)
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Guests
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Posted: April 03 2006 at 12:21am |
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Based on my research, it appears I can do the following to ensure a renewable (albeit limited) supply of power from solar energy:
Get a couple of high capacity AGM 12v batteries;
inverters to convert the power from those batteries to AC;
one or two solar panels to connect to those batteries. I am thinking about installing these INSIDE our skylight (to avoid theft issues).
Am I missing anything here?
Thanks, Bumpman
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prepmeister
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Posted: April 03 2006 at 6:32am |
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Spoon,
Any thoughts if a sharp 80 watt solar panel would work with the xantrex 1500? It has nominal volatage at 12V and 4.67 peak Amps. The reason I'm asking is these panels can be found for around $390.
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40acrediesel
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Joined: March 11 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 43 |
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Posted: April 03 2006 at 10:44am |
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Spoon, the orange extension cord you are using is typically a 14 or 16 gauge model- For good electrical safety, the splice at the shed should be inside some kind of junction box. Also, I do not see any overcurrent protection located at the panel end. Therefore you are running 75 to 100' without any overcurrent protection on the wire. Your ground wire is 14 gauge, which is very small for running the distance from the shed to the electrode, going inside & then back outside. One thing to remember, is that you must protect the system from potential lightning strikes since this is a roof mounted device. Article 690 or the 2005 Electrical Code goes into detail of Photovoltaic Systems wiring
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TomMI
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Joined: February 28 2006 Status: Offline Points: 194 |
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Posted: April 04 2006 at 5:34am |
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Lightning "loves" aluminum especially if its on you're roof and ungrounded!! Better put in a ground fault interrupter as well. Also, My advice is to put a class T fuse (sized appropriately) between the battery bank and the inverter. Also, you need at least one breaker on the positive side coming in from the panel to offer overcurrent protection AND as a means to "disconnect" the panels from the regulator.
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A sensible man watches for problems ahead and prepares to meet them. The simpleton never looks and suffers the consequences.
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prepmeister
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Posted: April 05 2006 at 4:28am |
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Would I be better of with a solar battery recharge system (xantrex 1500 with sharp panel) or should I just buy a generator/xantrex combo (with lots of gas stored)?
Anyone with a thought?
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TomMI
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Posted: April 05 2006 at 6:22am |
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Generator good but should run at minimimum 80% balanced load meaning equal usage on both legs of 220 circuit. Generators dont like unbalanced loads and are inefficient at less than 80% load. If you do this, also buy spare parts, and have oil for changes. Only one solar panel wont get you very far, believe me, and a 1500 (is that peak or running wattage?) watt inverter will consume 125 amps at 12 volts. If your panel is 80 watt or about 4.7 amps, it will take about 30 or more hours to recharge your battery. (providing consistently sunny days of 5 hours each)
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A sensible man watches for problems ahead and prepares to meet them. The simpleton never looks and suffers the consequences.
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prepmeister
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Joined: March 28 2006 Status: Offline Points: 32 |
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Posted: April 12 2006 at 10:56am |
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Does anyone have a recommendation on a solar powered battery charger for batteries such as AA's , AAA's, C's and D's? Please tell me where you bought it as well.
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2ifbyC
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Joined: March 30 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 533 |
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Posted: April 12 2006 at 3:57pm |
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Survival does have an 'I'!
Dodging 'canes on Florida's central Gulf Coast |
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Mississipp Mama
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Joined: January 20 2006 Status: Offline Points: 524 |
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Posted: April 12 2006 at 9:05pm |
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Hi 2ifbyc,I bought my solar powered battery charger from Nitro-Pak 1-800-866-4876. I think it was $23.95. It should be arriving in 3-5 days.
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Posted: April 13 2006 at 5:12am |
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http://solarcooking.org/
http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles/radabaugh30.html http://journeytoforever.org/sc_link.html These site should get you up to speed. |
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prepmeister
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Posted: April 13 2006 at 7:36am |
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2ifbyC,
Does your battery charger work with nickel metal hydride (nimh) batteries? I read the description and it looks like it was designed for nickel cadmium batteries, which are starting to be hard to find. My local walmart only has nimh batteries now (they hold a longer charge and do not develop a memory) Can you tell me if it does work with nimh batteries and how long would it take to charge them?
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2ifbyC
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Joined: March 30 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 533 |
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Posted: April 13 2006 at 8:12am |
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prepmeister,
That unit is for NiCads. It is not a rapid charger. So you can charge NiMH batts but they MAY not reach full charge. I have yet to receive the unit to test the NiMHs for charge/run times.
Being in sunny Florida I can live with partially charged NiMH batts since many of my DC devices are very low powered. It would have been nice to standardize with one type of batt, but I had a good supply of both.
I also have an AC NiMH charger that will be plugged into one of my inverters if need be. I have three gel type 12 VDC batts that will last me a very long time for recharging NiCAD and NiMH AA/AAAs.
Edited by 2ifbyC - April 15 2006 at 6:58am |
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Survival does have an 'I'!
Dodging 'canes on Florida's central Gulf Coast |
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2ifbyC
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Joined: March 30 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 533 |
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Posted: April 15 2006 at 6:55am |
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Alriiighteee, great news! I just received the above solar charger ( http://www.realgoods.com/shop/shop2.cfm?dv=2&dp=210&ts=4170298&kw=charger) and it's good for Ni-Cd AND Ni-MH batteries, AAA/AA/C/D. I purchased it for my Ni-Cds but now I'm 'good to go' for my 2300 Ni-MH also!
Edited by 2ifbyC - April 15 2006 at 6:56am |
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Survival does have an 'I'!
Dodging 'canes on Florida's central Gulf Coast |
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prepmeister
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Joined: March 28 2006 Status: Offline Points: 32 |
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Posted: April 15 2006 at 12:11pm |
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Thanks for confiming this that it works for Ni-MH as well. I'll now order mine!
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tazman
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Joined: March 13 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 79 |
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Posted: April 15 2006 at 3:03pm |
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which type of battery has the memory? is it the Ni-cd or the Ni-MH?
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2ifbyC
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Joined: March 30 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 533 |
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Posted: April 15 2006 at 5:01pm |
Older NiCds were known for memory. Todays NiCds do not suffer the same malady. A deep discharge and a proper recharge should take care of older batts.
NiMHs do not have memory.
ETA The deeper the discharge the better for both types. Edited by 2ifbyC - April 15 2006 at 5:02pm |
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Survival does have an 'I'!
Dodging 'canes on Florida's central Gulf Coast |
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prepmeister wrote: