Looking good DG. Thanks for the price list. What brand inverter and CC did you go with?
Looking good DG. Thanks for the price list. What brand inverter and CC did you go with?
No, because it's a stand alone power system at the monent. I will be using it to power the portable ice machine for a week. At the end of the week, I will try to power more things on it to see how much it can handle. I could find out the old fashioned scientific, mathematical way, but what fun would that be. I'd rather try to over load the system and see what fuses fail.Originally Posted by jamesneuen
I got them both off of eBay. They are both a basic, no name Chinese made copies of who knows what. I chose this inverter because it seemed to be constructed better than most, and they included a digital display readout on it.[IMG][/IMG]
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There are some items I purchased that anyone else building something like this might not need. I built the box from a 4 X 8 sheet of 3/4 plywood because I wanted it to be able to take a lot of abuse. I put angle brackets (both large and small) all around the box for extra support and glued every corner. I put on 4 henges and 2 lockable latches, as I wanted easy access into the batteries and the other components. I also wanted to make sure no one could get into it but me, as well as trying to keep it from being stolen. All locked up it should weigh about 150 lbs. the DC power box on the outside I bought for $20 at a garage sale. Since I already had it, I didn't need to buy the cigarette lighter power outlets or the DC power poles, plus it already had a shut off switch and fuses installed. The 2 outlets were made and wired in that way just for looks. I could have just cut a hole in the box and put the inverter sticking out of the end, but I didn't like that look. I will install 2 heavy duty handles on the sides. So you would not need any of the materials I used listed in this posting. I have seen others built in a cooler, metal boxes, briefcases, ect. And this is the only one I've seen to use 2 batteries, all others have only had 1, or other smaller batteries wired together. So they were able to use smaller containers.
I started wiring up the box today. I decided to install the inverter at an angle, to give it more room for air flow around it. I wired the inverter to the batteries on the bottom, and ran wires to the positive and negative buss bars[IMG][/IMG]
And then I wired the charge controller to the DC power station, the batteries, and the yet to be installed solar panels.[IMG][/IMG]
I also mounted the DC power station on the outside.[IMG][/IMG]
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I took of the front cover of the inverter to see if I could unplug it from the inside components and mount it on the outside to make it look better, but all of the connections were soldered. So I installed 2 seperate AC plugs on the outside, and I will wire each one to each plug on the inverter.
Well hello boys and girls. It would seem I will have to make a slight adjustment to my parts list. After reading my posting saying I was using a generic Chineese made charge controller, which basically protects everything in the system from a full nuclear meltdown, I thought do I really want to trust a $14 part from China made by a person making .32 an hour. Plus trying to find a solar panel putting out 12V is fairly pricy, the panels putting out 24V are much cheaper. So I meet with my financial adviser, and I told myself to make the change. So I ordered from SolarWorld.com the following. 1- Solarland SLc-MPPT-2024-20A charge controller for $112.02. This controller is far superior to the generic one, offering better protection, and will step the voltage down from 24V to 12V, which will work for my 12V battery bank. And I purchased 1- SolarWorld SW-235 24v MONO panel, which is a discontinued model. But because of that fact, I paid $210 for a mono crystalline solar panel. That's a pretty good deal. They are throwing in a 25' connection cable. So, now I believe I have everything ordered, and I am still waiting for a few things to arrive in the mail.[IMG][/IMG][IMG]
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Last edited by Domeguy; 05-23-2016 at 09:59 PM. Reason: Tech error
I hooked up and tested the inverter, ...and nothing happened. I called the company I had bought it from, and they had me test it over the phone, and guess what...nothing happened. I sent the old one back and they are sending a new one, and I upgraded to a 2000 watt while I was on the phone, so I'm waiting for it to arrive before I can finish.
Well, I'm still waiting on parts to get here, and it's coming down to the wire. I am wanting this system to be ready by June 5, and some of the parts won't get here until June 3. But here is a price list as of yet...
1- 235 mono crystalline solar panel ....................$210
2- 12V 100Ah batteries......................................$33 4
1- 2000W inverter.......................................... ...$250
1- 20A MPPT charge controller.............................$112
1- 25' solar panel connecting cable........................$42
1- in line battery voltage meter.............................$12
Various fuses, wires, switches, plywood, ect...........$50
.................................................. ...........................
TOTAL............................................. ...............$1010
While this is a chunk of change, remember this system will be able to power almost anything in the home, except for your main
HVAC UNIT. If the power goes out, I could power the freezer, refrigerator, several lights, and maybe some more. After it is all built and tested, once I bring it home, I will do extensive testing. An it all fits inside a box 18"x18"X18" and one solar panel. But right now, it's main use is to just make me some ice cubes.
This is the new 2000W inverter I have coming in.
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While I was in Tullahoma today at the laundromat dealing with my rabbit infused blankets, I got a call that my solar panel was in
Lynchburg, about 20 minutes away. So I left the blankets, and drove to get my panel. And to make a short story longer, but just as boring, I brought everything home tonight. Tomorrow I will test the panel output and wire up the new and improved charge controller, and wire a few more things in so when the new inverter comes in, everything will be ready. I am going to make my own panel frame out of wood to protect the panel, and to be able to give it a tilt to better get the suns rays. I will take pictures, and give a detailed boring report.
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