Well, Im officially solar on my electric needs for Sandy. I was somewhat surprised to be pulling 500 watts with clouds in the sky with a 720 watt bank. In the smaller system, the MPPT controller really shines. For some reason, it is common place to install 12 volt panels and a PWM controller for mobile applications. This doesnt make a lot of sense to me for two reasons. At the lower voltage, much bigger cables are needed from panels to controller. With 90-100 volts from the panels, landscape zip wire is adequately big, just watch polarity. PWM controllers just chop off extra voltage, wasting watts, when watts are already limited by roof space on which to put panels. 12 volt panels are more like 16-18 volts under normal operation, so many watts are wasted. Ill know if I accomplished my two primary goals this week. Goal 1: run A/C during day while at office to keep inside from getting bake bread hot. Goal 2: have batteries charged completely by night fall so I can run the A/C from batteries through the night since Im a wuss when it comes to sleeping in the heat. I still need to add some hardware to the mounting before I consider it completed, but it should hold up to the road speeds Im doing around here locally. $440 in batteries...four biggest marine deep cycle Walmart batteries. $631 for Midnite Classic 150 controller. $720 for three Talesun 240 watt 30 volt panels (already had these). $200 wire, bolts, angle aluminum, pipe insulation, etc... $100 pure sine 300 watt inverter for wall warts and other sensitive stuff $400 modified sine 5000 watt inverter for electric impact, big stuff ======= $2491 Already had 750 watt MSW inverter, so Im not counting that one. This is almost $500 more than I paid for Sandy, but makes boondocking a complete solution to workcamping. Ive said before that my controller is way overkill for future integration purposes. An acceptable one should be a couple hundred less for the size of system that can be put on an RV. High end solution would have been to get a single MagnaSine 2812 inverter/charger instead of the one cheap big MSW and one small PSW, but it would be another 1900, less the other two is still $1400 more. I plan on more batteries still, or Ill put in my double golf cart bank from home when I upgrade home to a fork lift bank. Going solar is NOT about saving money now. It is about flexibility, reliability and independence. Since Im stealth/work camping or boondocking the lack of a need for a generator or hookup is pretty sweet. Many in town RV parks dont allow RVs older than 20 years anyway, so RV Parks are limited by my choice of an antique. I call it age discrimination.
Posted on: Sun, 29 Jun 2014 04:35:15 +0000
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