Cabin has Solar Power...
Heading down to the cabin at noon on Friday and arrived about 2:30pm. There was no damage from the Snowmageddons that hit the area in the past few months except a fallen branch in the driveway that I could move by hand. The cabin was dry!
Set up the Harbor Freight 45 Watt Solar Kit and wired the panels in series behind the cabin. I used 25 ft of 14-3 Romex to run the output through the back wall. Situated the panels on a small outdoor table so I could rotate them with the sun to get maximum power. Currently using a 12 Volt AGM automotive battery for now, but plan on purchasing some good deep cycle batteries in the future. Hooked up the charger box and ran the leads to the battery. The battery was close to full charge, so it didn't take long to top it off with about 14.5 volts coming from the panels.
I played around with the 12 watt compact fluorescent lights that came with the kit and was surprised at how much light they gave off. A friend Hal (who lives on a sailboat) gave me a very cool light fixture with a bank of White LEDs and another bank of Red LEDs (for reading charts at night without ruining your night vision) and they worked great! He also gave me a smaller 12 LED bank with a switch that I will eventually mount inside the front door.
Fired up the Direct Vent heater and it worked fine.
Got up the next morning and made a run to the dump to get rid of the trash that was piling up and contemplated how I am going to finish the roofing by myself.
Went to Lowes in Farmville and got some R19 insulation for the roof. I wanted to get a higher R value, but the roof joists are 2x6s so anything with a higher R value would be squished into the space and not have the rated insulation factor.
Kept rotating the panels all day to face the sun and starting working on a cheap design using a Lazy Susan mechanism to make it easy to rotate them when I add another 45 watt kit for a total of 90 Watts. Played around with the Solar kit and actually had the battery up to full charge and was also able to charge my cellphone and a 18V Dewalt Tool battery. (OK.. I didn't really use the battery that much)
Contemplated how I was going to finish the front side galvanized roofing by myself and also attach the Roof vent without denting the metal. Think I have it worked out in my mind now...
Mowed the grass and tried cutting back some of the saplings that are springing up all over the place.
The future plan is to get two Kyocera 210 Watt panels as well as all the enclosures (to meet code) and create a 24V (4 x 6 Volt) battery bank with a MPPT charge controller. The panels, controller, batteries, pole mount, combiner box, etc sould be less than $3K and will give me enough power to pretty much what I need to do in a weekend. I will also add a A/C ->24V charger that I can run off a generator if I need more power. I am trying to do everything off 12v, but will probably get a 1200 Watt Pure Sine Wave Inverter to run other equipment. Once I set the larger system up, I will use the Harbor Freight system for pumping water for a shower or up from the creek using a 12V pump or just add them to the 420 watt system for a grand total of 510 Watts.
In the meantime, it is nice just to flip a switch and have light!
Set up the Harbor Freight 45 Watt Solar Kit and wired the panels in series behind the cabin. I used 25 ft of 14-3 Romex to run the output through the back wall. Situated the panels on a small outdoor table so I could rotate them with the sun to get maximum power. Currently using a 12 Volt AGM automotive battery for now, but plan on purchasing some good deep cycle batteries in the future. Hooked up the charger box and ran the leads to the battery. The battery was close to full charge, so it didn't take long to top it off with about 14.5 volts coming from the panels.
I played around with the 12 watt compact fluorescent lights that came with the kit and was surprised at how much light they gave off. A friend Hal (who lives on a sailboat) gave me a very cool light fixture with a bank of White LEDs and another bank of Red LEDs (for reading charts at night without ruining your night vision) and they worked great! He also gave me a smaller 12 LED bank with a switch that I will eventually mount inside the front door.
Fired up the Direct Vent heater and it worked fine.
Got up the next morning and made a run to the dump to get rid of the trash that was piling up and contemplated how I am going to finish the roofing by myself.
Went to Lowes in Farmville and got some R19 insulation for the roof. I wanted to get a higher R value, but the roof joists are 2x6s so anything with a higher R value would be squished into the space and not have the rated insulation factor.
Kept rotating the panels all day to face the sun and starting working on a cheap design using a Lazy Susan mechanism to make it easy to rotate them when I add another 45 watt kit for a total of 90 Watts. Played around with the Solar kit and actually had the battery up to full charge and was also able to charge my cellphone and a 18V Dewalt Tool battery. (OK.. I didn't really use the battery that much)
Contemplated how I was going to finish the front side galvanized roofing by myself and also attach the Roof vent without denting the metal. Think I have it worked out in my mind now...
Mowed the grass and tried cutting back some of the saplings that are springing up all over the place.
The future plan is to get two Kyocera 210 Watt panels as well as all the enclosures (to meet code) and create a 24V (4 x 6 Volt) battery bank with a MPPT charge controller. The panels, controller, batteries, pole mount, combiner box, etc sould be less than $3K and will give me enough power to pretty much what I need to do in a weekend. I will also add a A/C ->24V charger that I can run off a generator if I need more power. I am trying to do everything off 12v, but will probably get a 1200 Watt Pure Sine Wave Inverter to run other equipment. Once I set the larger system up, I will use the Harbor Freight system for pumping water for a shower or up from the creek using a 12V pump or just add them to the 420 watt system for a grand total of 510 Watts.
In the meantime, it is nice just to flip a switch and have light!
posted by Kyanite Acres Farm at
3:40 PM
0 Comments
