Solar Power for Cherokee's shop.

[WisJim]

I'm getting ten 260 watt panels for $75 each through a group buy with a friend who found a bunch of new never unwrapped panels in a warehouse, after a large project was cancelled. Not sure where I will put them, maybe on my west-facing garage roof, just about the only spot except the house roof that isn't shaded most of the day. And the house needs a new roof soon, so no panels on it until after a new roof happens.

 

[Metal-Marc]

Nice.

What batteries are you using?

 

[cherokee]

In an effort to take more pics or video of things I think you guys might find interesting I took a real short video for you.

In the video it starts out showing the meter and on the out line you will see the little arrow pointing to the left. The way I have it setup is that is "going into" the battery, so in this video it has roughly 2 amps going into the battery. I currently have some outlets and lights on the battery inverter. When I flip the switch you will hear the beep that the inverter makes when turning on, then it will calm down and show the arrow to the right with 19-ish draw coming out of the batteries.

To figure out how long something will run you need Ohm's law. You learned that for something right? I can go into it but there are a bunch of sites on the internet that will do it much better.

Anyhoo here is the little 10sec video.

 

[slik560]

Thanks much. When I had our house electrical service upgraded to 200 amps, along with the new panel I had the electricians install a transfer panel for a generator plug-in on the outside of the house. My old generator is long gone and I've not replaced it. It's tempting to explore tieing in a battery system, but I'll likely have the same electrical contractor do any such upgrades. Thanks for all of this information.

 

[TractorJeff]

After spending a week two times in a Solar powered Cabin. I am following this Thread with more interest! I still have a few things that confuse me in regards to "stored" power! Marine Batteries verses actual Amp/Hour draw Max values.

 

[slik560]

Go here. Great info. https://diysolarforum.com/

Mobile Solar Power: Made Easy! DIY Off-grid Solar Power!

Building a vehicle mounted solar power system? Let me help.

www.mobile-solarpower.com

Answers to your questions & then some

 

[Sumboodie]

Just curious if there's a reason you don't have grid power?

Some places here, it's too expensive for the homeowner to connect... sometimes not even in the "sticks" but just far enough.

I had a 4.5kw setup at my old place, 18 panels with micro inverters. Was grid tied though, no batteries.