DIY solar combined kits, Harbor Freight, Sunforce, Barry's Solar Power Center

[thegbpackers284]

Would have been a good video but you zoom in and shake the crap out of your camera so much I threw up at 2 minutes.

[pgm98387]

@thegbpackers284 This was done in a hurry. Channel playlist has better videos explaining solar power. Camera skills were lacking at this point. Ran the video thru the stabilize, should be better. Thanks for stopping by.

[crsbt]

all these vids are good for learning

ive picked up loads of good tips (and how NOT to fry myself).

thanks for the vid !!

[911hiker]

id lose the baG EVEN SOLID STATE NEED TO COOL ID FIND A N OTHER WAY TO MOUNT THAT THEN THE FLOOR THE REST LOOKS GOOD THANKS FOR THE VID

[pgm98387]

@911hiker I've since then changed this setup. Watch my more recent videos.

[arnoldcustom]

2 proper large 6 vold solor batterys that weigh 120 Lbs each would give you far more power storage then all those AGM batteries, each 6 volt battery cost 289$ each, fare less then you wasted on all those short life AGM's, don't get me wrong AGM batterys are great when used for the right use, for more info contact me, we have many renewable energy batteries

[purplemutantas]

@arnoldcustom I would rather go with a greater number of lower capacity batteries than fewer higher capacity batteries. If a battery dies, it's cheaper to replace a lower capacity battery. you also get less reduction in your capacity while you are without the battery. If you go with two 6 volt batteries and one dies, your screwed until you can replace it. Also, marine or scooter batteries are easier to find locally than big heavy solar batteries.

[eliden]

do u have skype or vent or aim? i would really love to talk to you about this! right now i am in need of assistance!

[pgm98387]

@eliden This is an old video showing pre packaged solar kits. Contact a reputable professional solar installer.

This system demonstrated in this video has had many modifications made to it since the time of posting.

[auex]

Like stated previously, electrons flow on the surface of the wire. You would benefit by swapping to stranded wire over the bar. Also it is amorphous.

[BrooklynNYC777]

very nice working set of parts....but i really dont like the way these batteries and electronics her stored. Very shabby

[lotosteck]

Lotostechnology sells a great Solar Charge Controller

Lotostechnology

1180 mioraloma Way

Sunnyvale Ca 94085

408-865-1544

Jasonperter@yahoo.com

[MegaDeathwarrant]

what can this 45 watt setup run? will it run an energy star fridge and a few lights for off grid?

[pgm98387]

@MegaDeathwarrant 1. This system is composed of combining (1) 45watt harbor freight kit, (2) Sunforce 60watt kits, (2) siemens 55watt. On a sunny day at noon mid summer it brings in about 200-230 watts. That Powerbright inverter is 90% efficient. As it is in this video, with the batteries in the condition they were in at the time of the video, it would deplete the batteries at night running a small fridge. Think about 1 very big high capacity battery, capable of storing enough power,

[pgm98387]

2. I would guess 1 harbor freight kit less than 3amps would not recharge the battery(s) fast enough for even the smallest fridge available. See edgestar fridgefreeze model fp430

Energy requirements:

5.4 Amps @ 12V DC (motor load at start up)

2.7 Amps @ 24V DC

AC 115 Volts/60Hz, .75 Amp

65 Watts

You would need about 4 harbor freight kits parallel, 3 big marine deep cycle batteries 300-400 amp hrs capacity. With a small sine wave Aims 180 Watt Pure Sine Inverter. This is all rough guess

[pgm98387]

@MegaDeathwarrant That small portable freezer fridge uses 12v so you don't need the inverter. You can plug the unit directly to the batteries. 1 45watt harbor freight kit is too small to handle the load.

[neiallswheel]

like it. SCRAP trucks have long battery cables which may save yall a few quid.

i have a camper with 4 batteries and a 1500w (2200 peak) skytronic inverter which draws 2 amps and will occassionally alert me that im about to kill all my batteries. for my laptop i have now got from maplin a 12v to 15. 18. 20. 24volt step up transformer WHich doesnt even get warm. way more efficient the copper rod looks like an earth rod which aint too hard on the pocket.

[TheTincanracer]

Equal battery cable lengths. Try to limit to one controller or multiple controllers that can communicate with each other or you will be running uneven charge rates, ie. one on bulk one on float and so on. Best life on the batteries if the charge algorithm is stable. You got the 48V is best tune right but 12V is fine right up to 2kw as long as your battery wiring and fusing are correct. Power tolerance of modules is the important factor and then any silicone based module is fine.

[tengher187]

IT PAYS ITSELF OFF ON THE LONG RUN SO YOU SAVE MORE THAN U LOSE ON THE LONG RUN!!

[pgm98387]

@tengher187 Today my power is delivered to me at .06 cents per kilowatt hour. Primarily via hydro electric dams. Tomorrow, prices could rise. Inflation could send my bill skyrocketing. Extra power may be needed during emergency situation. Expensive insurance policy. If you do a power production system, educate yourself as much as possible before making any purchases. Portable setup can be relocated to a remote location, broken down and sold.

[paulbunions]

@pgm98387

.06 CENTS per KWH delivered??

Where???



[TalksWithDirt]

Hey, you have Dick Feynmann looking over your batteries!

[wackystackr]

Now that your 2 years into this experiment may I ask a question? Is the money you've spent worth it? I have not tried this because I cannot figure a way where it actually is cost effective? I mean if you're rich to begin with then it doesn't really matter anyway, if your poor to middle-class is it worth it in your opinion? I've seen nothing that is worth the cost beyond emergency lighting & small things. Most of the investment on this stuff just doesn't ut extra dough in the wallet OR HAS IT 4U?

[pgm98387]

@wackystackr Do you want to buy really inexpensive property without electrical service? Than it is worth it. If I were to start over it would be with a 48 volt system, all mono crystalline panels. Something to show on a resume, brag about to coworkers, and just to try to learn, it was worth it. The amorphous panel kits were more $ than they are worth. Harbor Freight Kit OK, for educational & lights. Start with highest wattage mono panel, name brand with 25yr warrenty on 80% power output.

[pgm98387]

@pgm98387 I jumped into this after reading a few dated books. Learn as much as you can about doing an off grid solar before making any purchases. If you have a big shop or garage, you can buy the frames, cells, tabbing wire and make your own for 1/2 the price. If you hate how coal power ruins the environment, or worry about being without power for weeks, solar is way better than a noisy smelly gas generator.

[brotherburt]

@wackystackr

I am going to try and follow what I am hearing on the video to build one of these units, but is there a place you can get a list of what to buy instead of having to listen 20 times while you write down the different item needed for this project?

[snowbird29803]

Suggestion for anyone starting out with no batteries: Buy fewer, bigger batteries for the same total AH requirement. Especially suited would be 6 volt golf cart batteries in series or a combination of series/parallel. Series connected batteries of the same or close vintage will not suffer the discharge situation of parallel connected 12 volt batteries. fewer, batteries are safer and cheaper to fuse too.

[MandalayWind]

You will want that controller to be able to breathe for cooling. thanks

[CMLovejoy]

awesome work, your a pioneer

[pgm98387]

Whenever time permits, the panels will be combined together in parallel into the C40. I'll show that amp meter on a cloudy day, this will demonstrate how much power still gets thru. My biggest mistake was to combine batteries of different ages.

[Alexplus20]

This is all very complicate looking. Thinking of going green myself but here in this bog end of Ireland we get little sun lol.

[pgm98387]

James Clerk Maxwell

[eddiequest4]

Hey I can see Tesla and Feynman there. But who is that other guy at about 3:00?

[pgm98387]

@eddiequest4 Michael Faraday

[Engineer245]

Hey man! Great start! As youy already know alternative Energy is a constant learning process. It does not have to be "JUST RIGHT" the first time. And you can do it yourself. There are alot of negative idiots out there think otherwise. Also I practice keep it simple. I have no 120 volt at my home/cabin. The wireing is there but I made them take the meter away. We have been living well with our paid for (no debts) life style since 2005 and it is great.

[pgm98387]

I've since then changed this setup. Watch my more recent videos.

[toobroke2fight]

your charging the end batteries of your battery bank and allowing your other batteries to "leach" off of them to charge! your not charging all the bats properly! If you want to split the power at both ends then put a pos and a neg on each end of the bank! ON OPPOSITE ENDS! one controller has a pos on one end and a neg on the other! look up cross connecting a bat bank! your overloading the end bats! Save the bats pse! they are a good choice! Joe

[toobroke2fight]

get the bag off the charge controller! it cant disipate heat without air flow! Mount it on the wall so its not being dripped on! That will drop the power of the CC if it overheats! PS how does that copper rod hold tight to the terminal of each battery? does the one battery have a hole in the top? looks like its bulging and has a hole in it???cross connect the bat bank! dont put one panel on one side or the other! pos on one side, neg on the other! puts load evenly! NO BAT CLIPS! wire is too smal

[FUBARPROTOCOL]

Those battery rods are a bad idea! Very Dangerous with those exsposed rods. If something falls across them, you can butn your house down. You need a covered battery box with a vent to remove battery gases.

[Jthetinman]

Great job! Maybe be a lil more neat though. Messy wires everywhere.

[lifearoundhome]

wonderful DIY tutorial

[OpineTime]

Drama Of The Gifted Child by Alice Miller on the side there, great book :)

[PiercingKnight]

Anyone can give me an advice on what battery to choose? If I have a 144 Watt panel what capacity battery should I choose? Let's say that I want to store all day's energy. What if I wanted to store energy from two days? I don't know much about batteries, and how to understand those units (amps, or amp hours), can someone explain the math to me. Help would be greatly appreciated.

P.S. Panel 36 Multi-Cryatalline Silicon 6x6 cells, 18v, 8amps.

[collintheapplegeek]

Have the harbor freight or sunforce panels lost output power (watts/amps) since you've had them? I'm looking at getting either the harbor freight or sunforce system.

[rlmarin1968]

I think you have a very good setup. My goal is to get to a point where I can keep a mini-fridge (no compressor) running 24x7 (my wife is diabetic and keeping insulin cold is VITAL to its life potency). I also want to be able to run an electric burner/skillet...for cooking/boiling water. beyond that...I can make due without some other stuf. Alternating essentials (tv, radio, lights, etc) will be doable with the right setup.

[SmallWindTurbines]

Our Small Wind Turbine kits have both wind and solar as a hybrid energy kit. Solar never charges at night or on cloudy days. Wind power kits are a great way to reduce or eliminate your home energy bill. Most people are going grid-tied and making the utility buy back the unused energy made from their windmills. Home wind power kits can be installed on a roof or in the yard of your home very easily. Small wind turbines are rapidly spreading across America combined with solar.

[yellowdotz]

it'd be nice to see the actual panels

[catfishlee1952]

Nice...... thanks for showing us your setup!

[8digitPDX]

Is that charge controller the one that came with the harbor freight kit? The 24 volt option can help with some of the higher powered inverters I can scavenge from old computer server power backup systems.

[SwindleFlu]

Nice video, question about batteries do they all need to be the same size for a battery bank? I have 4 lawnmower batterys and 2 car batterys that still work, can they be wired together? Also if anyone knows about 12v Trickle chargers, can multiple one be clamped to the same battery or do they have to be put on seperate batteries?

[pgm98387]

@SwindleFlu

Sure, if you watch that episode of the Discovery channel show "The Colony"

they scavenged 20-30 car batteries and hooked them together. The weaker ofthe batteries will bring down the others. Just don't drain the batteries too much under 12V. Batteries I've learned like to be kept healthy if always charge. Run everything you can when the sun is shining. Use those batteries as a buffer. Always keep a volt meter on them.

[gaspowerrules]

@pgm98387 cool who cares if ur power goes out on a sunny day lol

[toobroke2fight]

@SwindleFlu your battery bank is only as good as your weakest battery! they should be all the same age and capacity! In a survival situation then get as many as you can, and just test often to find the weakest or shorted ones! Dont use new and old together! Yea it can work, but its not a good Idea! a 1 year old bat and a 5 yr old bat together will be taken down when the 5Y bat shits on you! Joe

[pgm98387]

@toobroke2fight  THANKS:)

[aihumlay]

i have a question about wires all batteries together with cause a spark or blow it up???

[pgm98387]

@aihumlay

It has been clear and sunny all day, after Iread your post i ran my 500w leaf blower on the powerbright. The cable to the positive side on the terminal was getting really hot to the touch. So.....mabe if too much current was flowing it could melt the casing...? The batteries are sealed Absorbed glass mat (AGM) They are notsupposed to vent hydrogen gas with normal use.

[timcat19]

Thanks for documenting and sharing your setup!

[pgm98387]

Why does an electrical charge permeate thru bundled stranded wire better than a solid copper bar? See the chart on resistance in the link.

Its my understanding that the electrons bump from one atom to the next thru the material. Why would increased surface area on many strands make a charge flow more effectively? I understand that stranded copper shielded is better for positioning, durability and safety to interconnect 2 devices.

The copper bar was also less expensive than buying the cables.

[Karlillingworth]

Yes electron bump with increase resistance, so you'd be better to use a copper tube not solid.. Due to the way electrons flow, a tube will hold more current with less resistance.

[pgm98387]

@Karlillingworth

So the  electron flows around the copper sruface thru the air?

[tech132]

@pgm98387

Electron flow towards the surface of a wire is only true for very high frequencies. That is why radar and microwave systems use wave guides. For normal house current solid wire is used.

[shartne]

copper rod ? I sure you would be better off with a stranded wire like the ones you bought from Walmart. Most people think electricity flows through the wire but actually it flows along the out side of the wire thats why they use many stranded wires so your better off using the largest diameter finely stranded wire you can afford this carries more current.

[pgm98387]

I have a question, does any one not use

charge controller? Have only blocking diodes from the panels?

The CR40 can also be used as a dump load.

Could I just put fuses & blocking diodes, switch the C40 into a load dump off the batteries @13.5V?

[hooptejoe]

@pgm98387 I use mine as charge control. My dad uses his as a dump load. He hooked everything up to the batteries and the dump load to the controller. he seams to loke it a lot

[hooptejoe]

you should take that bag off the charge controller if you havent allready. Also you should remove that copper rod and only use stranded copper wire for all your DC stuff. DC has a hard time going through solid copper. Nice little set up though

[pgm98387]

The copper bar is a buss bar.

Sees ohms resistance values for AWG sizes.

[hooptejoe]

@pgm98387 Ok. Also if you ever have a problem with a center battery and had to remove it quickly that bar could get in the way.

[slickjimmy76]

Yes get the charge controller out of the bag!

It needs air for cooling!

[pgm98387]

Increased wire length the controller

is out of the rain now. This was an earlier video made before the system was finished setting up. My problem is organizing the wires, build a combiner box, way too many wires from the 15w panels.

[shartne]

your saw that is 14 amps is using 1540 watts becuse you multiply volts x amps to get watts so 14amps x 110 volts is 1540 watts. I think thats more than your pure sine inverter. I like to get a 5000 watt inverter to run a fridge. I like all those batterys you have, and your pure sine inverter would be great for a big screen tv. I am still in the infant stages of building my solar panels. I would love to get a marathon M1290FT battery they are the best but they cost $490.

[OBXSOLWIND]

Take that charge contoller out of the bag. It apears to be a xantrex lighting controler. get some 12V led lights off Ebay and hook them up to your charge controller. Great video. CHEERS WINDY NC

[pgm98387]

I should connect these up to the dump load terminals?

[outbackproductions]

thank you so much

[Viking9280]

im new to this and from the UK can you help

i have wired 10 panels together in parallel they are 3.2 Watts 18.8Volts and 170ma per panel

not sure what this means in amps

i have 2 X 110amp batteries and a 1500 watt inverter

do i need diodes and fuses or will a carger controler do the job to stop back surge

Any advice will be great

im trying to run the lighting on an extrension first

i have 5 X 5 watt bulbs and 3 X 12 watt bulbs in there

[pgm98387]

Most charge controllers have a blocking diode. Check specs on the charge controller.

Make sure your system is grounded. Ground - bat side. ground - side on panels.

[TheConradmov]

Question: So you can have separate charge controller on a multiple solar panel?

[pgm98387]

The 4 Siemens 55w use the Trace C40.

3 Harbor freight+ 4 15w Sunforce on the Sunforce 7 amp.

The other set of 4 Sunforce panels are using the 7 amp charge controller.

The C40 wires into the center of the battery bank.

The two 7 amp charge controllers are at the corners of the battery bank.

[hrvojevz]

You are fan of nikola Tesla :)

[hooterman2828]

nice set up, that's what i'm doing little by little except i'm building my panels myself. i wish i could afford premade ones but if i was to do that i would only have like one panel compared to 4

[andruha11234]

don't mix batteries....

[jayguy173]

nice meth lab

[pgm98387]

It came with the 2 Siemens panels, C40 Trace charge controller.

Bought it on Ebay. It was originally sold from Barry's Solar as a kit.

[living4fire]

Where did you buy your solar panel mount, it looks nice and I am looking for a way to get a better angle to mount the panels I have.

Thanks.

[pgm98387]

The 10 AGM's are rated as 35 Amp hr

expcept the first one is a 32 Amp hr gel.

[yobrevef]

no need for battery isolaters?

[TimKGrimes]

Nice job

[aggalf1978]

good stuffthanks for the video.

[linkspider]

I like the copper rod idea

[mrbuki77]

This is a good start. I have a small home set up as well. And it gets addictive. Good job

[websuspect]

Thats very ghetto. You should take a course in Electronics but basically you need ALOT more solar panels.

[pi3573]

im just about to upgrade mine, ive bought 8 L16 batteries and 3 Sun 205 watt panels, and an outback charge controler and an Aims 3000 pure sine or a 8000 watt modified sine.

when it all gets here ill make some more vids :]

[pgm98387]

Since this video added 2 Siemens 55W panels. Moved panel rack on top of small shed roof. Leaving inverter on 24/7.

Running DT computer, monitor.

Microwave oven, Rice cooker, fans, TV, VCR. Planning to use electric chainsaw when full sun is out. Batteries topping off at 13v+

[pgm98387]

Using the kill-o-watt meter, used approximately 10 killowatt hours in may.

Electricity is billed at $.031 per kw.

Saved about $.50.

Its just a start....

[pgm98387]

Today we ran the microwave oven. 1000 watts. Under voltage alarm went off continuously. Voltage dropped from 12.6 down to 11v, than shot back up to 12v.

[pgm98387]

I'm going to make one of those, only mine will be closer to the panels, so I'll only have 1 shielded wire runing to my charge controller. Maybe us a strain relief (caulking for in and out holes)

[skippy3840]

Cool system, check out mine. I also have a video about how to make a cheap combiner box. I am using them and they work great. I built my system in response to the hurricane power outages also.

[michael970]

air X is no longer up 18 mph winds did not move took it down and put up treadmill turbine works good but needs high rpm. pgm98387 hope the next time power goes out you can sit on your porch and look out at total darkness with all of your lights on behind you

[michael970]

good video I just started also I have 90watts of harbor freight and 1 sharp 80 watt panel I get 12 amps for 6 hours on a good day I also have a wind blue alt.with wind blue twin blade and two of my own blades total 4 blades works good I also installed a AIR X wind turbine it has not moved yet wind blue turns most of the day 4 12v marine BAT.I use 1-1.5 kw a day good luck keep us posted

[pgm98387]

I live in an island of mfg. homes surrounded by 250-300k valued homes.

After my power went out in 11-2006 3 weeks. The power was restored first to the more affluent neighborhoods. I got so mad...all electric house, I started building this system out of spite and for more personal security knowing I'll have power for lights, tools computer for as long as I need it. Total costs of all components $2,500.00