Home Solar Electricity on the Cheap

[Turtle]

thats odd, generally these things are wither 12 or 24 volts... 18 seems a bit odd for battery charging too...

 

they are basically fixed voltage, its the current that goes up and down ;)

 

You could use a heavy duty switch, you dont have to use a large marine switch unless you are positioning this whole system outdoors, batteries and all...

 

The voltage varies with the sunshine; the current with the load. Recall you can only use an Amp meter in series.

 

The marine switch is special because it does not spark; critical when flammable gases are present. Boats may have not only battery gases, but fuel vapors as well.

 

This bring us to having a battery in a closed metal can. :ebomb: Particularly my type of deap-cell, which is not closed. I had it in my room initially to power those ducted-fan experiments, but after shooting some pics for you Alex, I have moved the battery to the garage. With an impending storm day before, I put the battery on the regular charger at 2 amp setting to fill it up in case we lost power. In the course of 8 hours of charging it burped some liquid through the fill caps. :phones:

 

Without further ado, here's photos of the labels on my 3 main components. ;) :D

 

 

 

 

[Roadam]

I think this "cheap" thing is only becouse the system is small. Take a look at how much it produces. 25W max for about 300$ aint that much. Thats 12k$ for one installed kilowatt respectively. As far as I looked into those things, large solar panels with grid tie inverter and all comes to about 7k$ for a 1kw installed power. Which gets you about 6-8 kWh a day.

 

Here in my country solar electricity is somewhat highly subsidized. Normally prices for electricity are about 0.1 €/kWh but for solar systems that gets to about 0.3 to 0.6. So its better just selling to the grid. So at the lest the payback time is about 10 years. That is if you do most of the installation yourself.

 

PS/ Thats a big inverter you have there, at least compared to what solar cells you have.

[DFINITLYDISTRUBD]

You gots a baby battery there...the one I put in my truck has more punch:nahnahbooboo: (needs all the help it can get in the winter- so's I gots a 1265CCR deep cycle with 120 min. reserve at 100Amps)

 

And I think you overpaid by alot on your panel....I've passed up on purchasing similar output for $30-$50 at the local TSC and Harbor Freight.

[Turtle]

I think this "cheap" thing is only because the system is small.

...

PS/ Thats a big inverter you have there, at least compared to what solar cells you have.

 

Yep; that's the idea. Keep it small. For one, it is large enough to provide power for some lights & small appliances during a power outage, and two it makes the user aware of just how much they are wasting.

 

The inverter size has no bearing on the panels as the inverter is powered by the battery. :lol:

 

You gots a baby battery there...the one I put in my truck has more punch (needs all the help it can get in the winter- so's I gots a 1265CCR deep cycle with 120 min. reserve at 100Amps)

 

And I think you overpaid by alot on your panel....I've passed up on purchasing similar output for $30-$50 at the local TSC and Harbor Freight.

 

Story of my life. Too little, too late, for too much. :)

 

And my time is a piece of wax falling on a termite

And it's choking on the splinters

 

Soy un perdedor

I'm a loser baby

So why don't you kill me? :(

[DFINITLYDISTRUBD]

Harbor Freight Tools - Quality Tools at the Lowest Prices

Guess the price has gone up since I was there last:shrug: Course it's been a couple years....but still at $79 thats still about half.

 

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/photos/90500-90599/90599.gif

For a bit more at $200 45 watts

 

http://www.wholesalesolar.com/products.folder/module-folder/kaneka/kaneka60.html

or for $227 (all prices likely need shipping costs added) 60watts

 

https://www.solarpowerup.com/component/page,shop.product_details/flypage,shop.flypage_solar/product_id,67/option,com_virtuemart/itemid,40/ what is the cost cuttoff Mr.Turtle?

[Roadam]

You can always attach a car alternator to a bicycle rear spool or the shaft of a fitness bike. That way you would probably make more electricity than those panels. :( And cheaper too.

[Turtle]

what is the cost cuttoff Mr.Turtle?

 

If I don't have any bills like auto insurance, it takes me 2 to 3 months to save $200. No beer either. :)

 

 

You can always attach a car alternator to a bicycle rear spool or the shaft of a fitness bike. That way you would probably make more electricity than those panels. :) And cheaper too.

 

I've thought about that a bit, but I gave my bike away as it killed my back to ride it. But what do you think about using an auto voltage regulator for a charge controller on a single battery setup? Freezy and I researched them a bit and a good one is about $135. Joe's sold me a charge controller for $30 that was supposed to handle up to 7 amps of panels, but it quit working after a few months. We found out that the type it was can ruin the battery too. :) What's a reptile to do? :naughty:

[Roadam]

Well as far as I researched it, 5 amp solar charge controller comes at about 40-70 $, thats converted from €.

 

But I dont see why the controller would damage the battery, well anything else than being set to a too high voltage. The only thing it has to do is disconnect the battery when the voltage comes to a certain level so it may be worth checking it.

 

Joe's sold me a charge controller for $30 that was supposed to handle up to 7 amps of panels, but it quit working after a few months. We found out that the type it was can ruin the battery too.

 

What kind of a charge controller was that and do you possibly know why it stopped working?

[Turtle]

Well as far as I researched it, 5 amp solar charge controller comes at about 40-70 $, thats converted from €.

 

But I dont see why the controller would damage the battery, well anything else than being set to a too high voltage. The only thing it has to do is disconnect the battery when the voltage comes to a certain level so it may be worth checking it.

 

What kind of a charge controller was that and do you possibly know why it stopped working?

 

The info is in the other thread on Solar Power; I'll find it for you & get it posted here.

 

OK. Got it: post #182 over here is the primary reference: >> http://hypography.com/forums/technology-and-gadgets/4423-solar-energy-19.html

[Janus]

You can always attach a car alternator to a bicycle rear spool or the shaft of a fitness bike. That way you would probably make more electricity than those panels. :eek_big: And cheaper too.

 

I worked it out once. It turns out that you wouldn't even produce enough electricity to heat the water for the shower you'd need afterward.:naughty:

 

Of course, if you were already going to ride the bike for the exercise, it could defray the cost of heating the water, or you could just start taking cold showers.

[Roadam]

I worked it out once. It turns out that you wouldn't even produce enough electricity to heat the water for the shower you'd need afterward.

Well you wouldn't produce enough with those solar panels either.

[Turtle]

I worked it out once. It turns out that you wouldn't even produce enough electricity to heat the water for the shower you'd need afterward.:doh:

 

Of course, if you were already going to ride the bike for the exercise, it could defray the cost of heating the water, or you could just start taking cold showers. :doh:

 

Well you wouldn't produce enough with those solar panels either.

 

Why do I bother. :doh: You all have convinced me to screw the future generations; I'm just going to stop trying to find efficiency & start wasting as much of whatever I can before I croak. Good grief.

[Roadam]

Oh, sorry, I didnt want to ruin any hopes with that.

 

Its just that using solar electricity for heating is a waste. It may be better to use a solar concentrator to heat water and then use it to heat the house. Or use the temperature difference to generate electricity with a stirling for example. Of course if you have the stirling in the house, all escaped heat will heat the house, so the efficiency would be greater.

 

Thing is that from my perspective 60watts is really small amount of electricity. With a solar panel like that you get say 0.5 kilowat hours a day at best. And while the house I live in (and seven others) use 22kilowats per day. So its small amount for me.

 

But for small houses which maybe aren't even occupied whole time its great. As long as you dont need to run washing machine, electrical cooker or any of bigger appliances.

 

Using solar for heating water is surely quite efficient, I guess more than 50%. I have been calculating how much energy our house uses for heating and the figure came about 4kw heater turned on all the time. Of course we use logs and we recently added more insulation, so the usage should drop from 30 cubic meters to about 20 a year.

 

Thing is that every day I go to my uni and back I use about 50 kilowat hours worth of diesel. So that about squashes anything I might do to reduce the use of electricity.

 

So I use 50kwh, my dad about 150kwh, house heating about 70kwh, and electricity about 22kwh.

 

Making the biggest consumers more efficient saves alot more than small ones.

So if ever cheap, long lasting, light and efficient batteries come around. I am gonna buy 2 of them, build a water turbine behind the house and use the electricity to charge the battery I am gonna put into en electric car. That way I may use only 10kwh on my daily trip to uni.

[alexander]

You can always attach a car alternator to a bicycle rear spool or the shaft of a fitness bike. That way you would probably make more electricity than those panels. And cheaper too.

 

not really. Your typical car alternator is what, 100 amp

 

great, you say, well there is a snag. standard operating speed of the alternator is twice the speed of your engine, so, at idle, your car runs about 700rpm, alternator thus spins at 1400rpm the alternator is producing a little juice, problem is, you would need to spin it at 1400 rpm, at those speeds the efficiency of your alternator is around 50-55% at best. At that you still need a recrifier bridge, to convert the ac into dc, which takes some of that efficiency down. But lets face it, you can not produce those kinds of rotations, there's no way you can spin that shaft 23 times a second, at any consistent rate anyways, so lets say, you spin it at 10rps, lets say you can even get it to output 10amps.... thats a hell of a lot, but lets say its 10 amps, at 12 volts dc when you are set and done.

 

how long do you need to be on the bike to charge a battery that is 100 amp hour, one battery? 5 hours or so... say you have an array of 3 batteries, now you would need to spend 15 hours on your bike to charge them.

 

Now lets say we use 2 panels that are 25W, say at average 1/2 load, we can only produce 25w, at 12s, thats only 2 amps, and it would take the solar array 5 times the amount of time, it would take you to charge a battery, so as we approximated above, you can charge it in 5 hours, it takes the 2 panels 25 hours. On average we have 5-6 hours of sun light a day, i say 5-6, counting cloudy days, in which panels still make some power, and normal what 8 hours of sun light on a sunny day, right. so it will take us 5 days to charge that battery, say even a whole week 7 days. So in a week i produce the same amount of electricity as you in a 5 hour period, without breaking a sweat... every week...

 

now you take 3 of those panels, put them into a 3x8 frame or something, throw it on your roof, get another set of 3, do the same, now i am rated for 150w, i can probably make 1/2 on average, so 75W, and without breaking a sweat, i can charge one battery in one day... and thats with a normal dumb system :doh:

 

and i save enough on my bill at the end of the month to pay for my gym subscription :doh:

[alexander]

Oh on getting the larger consumers to save... i've been trying to talk some people to put money in to putting a green roof on the building i work in... But yes, while getting the large consumers will make a bigger impact, every bit we can do to save, helps in the end, i've ranted on that before though, if you really care to hear it again, i can reiterate...

[cedricwilsom1990]

On 4/22/2024 at 4:44 PM, steffenebersbacher28 said:

Certainly! While it's crucial to engage larger consumers in sustainability efforts, we shouldn't overlook the significance of individual actions. Your proposal for a green roof exemplifies this. Keep pushing for change – every small step contributes to a greener future!

Absolutely, individual efforts like green roofs can make a big impact over time. Are there other sustainability initiatives you're considering for your community?

 

 

 

[cedricwilsom1990]

On 4/29/2024 at 12:41 AM, steffenebersbacher28 said:

That's fantastic to hear about your involvement with green roofs! These initiatives not only improve urban air quality but also help in managing rainwater and reducing heat in cities.

Considering other sustainability initiatives, you might look into community solar projects. These allow multiple people to benefit from a single, larger-scale solar installation, which can be especially beneficial for those who don't have suitable roof space for their own panels. Community gardens are another great option, promoting local food production and reducing food miles.

Are there any specific areas in your community that might be ideal for setting up a community solar project?

Absolutely, community solar is a fantastic idea for LA! Areas like the rooftops of large public buildings or unused land in places like the San Fernando Valley, which has plenty of open space, could be ideal. These spots are not only spacious but also receive a lot of sunlight, perfect for solar panels. You can find out more about sunlight and solar panels here https://solarpowersystems.org/blog/how-many-solar-panels-does-it-take-to-charge-an-electric-car/

What about you? Is there any specific support from the city for such projects in terms of permits or financial incentives in your region?

Edited May 8 by cedricwilsom1990