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Thursday, July 21, 2016

Basic Solar Electric


Here's a very basic 100 watt solar electric system.

The solar panel is a 100 watt Renology purchased through Amazon last year. This particular panel is one of the few things salvaged from the sailboat. Since it's set up to be portable I built a frame out of 2 x 4s and painted it white.


The battery is a fairly inexpensive 12 volt deep discharge from Walmart. Sitting on top of it is a cheap 10 amp charge controller, also from Amazon.

The charge controller is just clipped onto the battery. That way it's easy to switch it over to a second battery if necessary.


The plan is to mount the charge controller in a waterproof box, maybe an ammo can. Then the battery and charge controller will get secured all together in the wooden box. Not shown is a 400 watt inverter that will go with the system.

For now the whole arrangement will be providing power to my shed down the beach. If needed the whole system fits into my sailboat.

Simple and easy, yet enough power for basic needs.

-Sixbears

8 comments:

  1. A functional K.I.S.S. setup. It amazes me how many people complicate stuff like this.

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    1. That's why I thought I'd show it. Bigger off grid systems have more bells and whistles, but work the same way.

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  2. There was a BACKWOODSMAN magazine article some issues back about an inexpensive MOBILE solar set up that appears similar to the above. Cen-Tech 3in1 charger, solar panel, inverter. You might want to check out the article and see if it stimulates some ideas. I'll try and look up which particular issue it was, I think it was within the past year or so.

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    1. I use something similar sometimes. However, my system here out on the lawn has more power.

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  3. Hey, I think even *I* could set that up. I've avoided doing so because it looked so complicated. Hmmm.

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    1. These small systems are pretty easy. Don't let people over complicate it for you.

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  4. My son has solar panels hooked up to a bank of batteries that is connected to an inverter to get AC power for his home if the commercial power goes of. It came in handy during the last hurricane.

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    1. Now I've got 3 solar electric systems. The big one for the house. This one that I'm testing in my yard, plus the 105 watt system on my veggie van.

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