More solar panels

Future addition of solar panels from kits and individual panels I purchased from Harbor Freight. I bought the 45watt kits with coupons for $160 - that's about $2.50 a watt whic is not too bad. I bought five kits and seven individual 15watt panels, that gives me a total of an additional 330 watts. I had already installed 1.6Kw of solar panels so this gives nme about 2Kw of total solar panel. When both of my wind turbines are running it will probably add another Kilowatt or less (because the wind is not blowing 20mph all the time). So overall I plan on adding six more 210 watt panel with individual Emphase drid tie inverters and that will add another 1.2Kw to the 2Kw I already have. Once those are added it will be time to quit with the solar and wind as I have many other projects in the queue.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• wind turbine
• wind generator
• 1Kw
• green power
• solar power
• windmill
• charge controller
• windmax
• alternative power
• grid tie
• inverter

[jwades77]

hi, just got a energy-star fridge, it uses .95 kw/hr. im trying to figure how many hf tools panels I need just for that. so far ive got 3 - 45w panels from them. and a 1kw inverter. thx.

[econewpower]

@jwades77 The best to figure it out is to connect a Kill-A-Watt meter to it for 24 hours and see how much power it consumes in that 24hrs. You can pick one up at Lowe's, Home Depot or Harbor Freight. The other way is to assume it will run for 30 minutes every 4 hours so it will run for 3 hours in a 24 period and use about 3kw. Therefore if you have 5 hours of good sun you need to produce slightly more than 3Kw in those 5 hours which means you need 600 watt of solar panels.

[econewpower]

@econewpower Continues....That is more that you want to do with HF panels my friend. You can get a much cheaper setup by going to sunelec (dot) com. They have small kits already put together for you in 200, 400, 600 and 800 watts. That's the most economical and best quality way to go about it. Good luck

[WORRO01]

Awesome awesome!!

I have my first set from HB, waiting to find some good deals on deep cycle batteries. HB has this kit on sale again for 149, I'd love to pick up another set or 2 :) God bless and take care, good luck on your project!!

[econewpower]

@WORRO01 Sweet, I hope you got them and they're working well for you

[jwades77]

@jwades77 good clip and thanks for the help. Though I was mistaken on the .95, its actually a lot less. I will try to get a kill-a-watt meter.

[econewpower]

@YoungAndPrepping When the charge controller shows "floating" they are done charging. You'll also see the amps go to zero or very close to it when they are fully charged.

[econewpower]

@WORRO01 God bless you too brother. I hope you do pick them up for a good price!

[econewpower]

@collintheapplegeek I got them from wholesalesolar. Ask for solarwill, he's a good guy and will help configure it right, he knows his stuff. God bless you!

[econewpower]

@1kings1918 Yes, that's how I started and it just evolved. I have eight 205 watt Sharp panels taking up the same amount of space yet put out 1.6Kw. The Harbor Freight panels were just easy and cheap to start, now thin film panels with significant output are even cheaper. Things evolve. I still like those tiny HF panels and may yet put some more up - just because I like them. God bless you and thanks for the comment and observation!