keep the updates coming
keep the updates coming
I got back home late last night. I spent 8 days camped out in open fields, and had to move the entire campsite after 2 days to move to the handicap accessible campsite for the remainder of the time. The entire setup worked just fine, and I will make minor changes to the design in the future. The main problem was in trying to keep the main power box small enough to be portable, I didn't leave enough room to allow for a hand to fit in the bottom section to hook up the battery cables. I will take more pictures in the coming days as I deconstruct it to explain how I built it and why I did what I did. Many people saw it and liked the idea, and I even got one person to ask me to build them one.
sounds like a 'win' a few tweaks, and it will be a 'win-win'
looking forward to the details.
Welcome back!
Give a man fire, and he'll be warm for a day!
Light a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life!
Cat's are food... not friends!
If you're going to fight, then fight like you're the third monkey on the ramp into Noah's arc... and brother, it's starting to rain.
To make it simple, I will take pictures and show the wiring, and why I wired it the way I did, with each individual item I put in it. I have already shown pictures of the box. It was just a simple box made from 3/4 plywood, approximately 18" X 18" X 18". I chose that size so it would be easy to handle, while still giving me room for all of the components with some wiggle around room for the wiring. The main components were the batteries, 2 X 12V 100Ah, the charge controller, the power inverter, a fan, a DC power outage point, a AC power outage point, a power usage, power provided meter, solar power input point, and the solar panel with its conecting cables. Solar cables are unlike regular wiring due to its outer covering to keep it weather, chemical, ect. resistant, and due to its conductivity properties in the wiring used. I'm not sure what they use, but you don't really need to worry about its size (within reason, a basic solar home setup will use standard size solar wiring the same size as what comes out of the panel for the entire run.) The components used to go in the box are a 12/24V MPPT charge controller. This means it can be used with 12V or 24V solar panels, and used some pretty smart electronics to moniter how much power is coming in from the panels, and how much power is being drawn from the batteries, and sends just the right amount to the batteries to keep them at their best optimal charge. A 2000W pure sine wave power inverter. This just has electronic components that uses unicorn horn dust and strong black magic to turn DC current into AC current. It will power anything that uses up to 2000 cumulative watts, i.e. It would power 20 100W light bulbs, but would shud down if you then tried to add the 21st light bulb. I could have used a modified sine wave inverter, which would have cost less. But some power sensitive electronic equipment like some computers need pure sine wave power, whereas some regular things like an electric drill, could get by with modified sine wave power. Some battery chargers like the kinds that charge cell phones, SOME will only work with pure sine wave, so that is why I chose a pure wave inverter. If anyone has questions, I can go into that later. I used a 12v fan I got from eBay, the external AC plug is just a regular Standard home AC plug. I just ran a plug from the inverter, and straight wired the other end of the wire into the plug just for looks. I could have just as easily ran an extension cord, or what ever I chose to power, in through a hole in the box, or mounted the inverter so the inverter plugs would be accessible through the box. I used the DC power outage unit just due to everything already being in the plastic casing I already had. I bought this at a garage sale, but I could have also ordered and wired in several DC cigarette lighter plugs, and the same with the DC poles as well. I chose to mount a standard AC light switch on the outside to be able to make sure I was able to shut everything off,(even though the DC outage box has its own shut off switch, the main switch also shuts off the DC power, no matter what position the DC switch is in.) I chose to use the power lugs (I can't think of their proper name at this moment) for all of the Positive and Negative connections just to keep it neater, and to keep all of the wire connections away from the battery terminals due to the chance of a a loose connection. The solar panel is a full sized panel, feeding up to 235W in full sunlight with optimal conditions. I bought along with the panel a 50' solar cable with a male connection on one end and a female connection on the other. I cut the cable about 15' from each end, leaving me with about 20' to use for assorted wiring needs, and used red and black wires, 10 and 12 gauge, where needed, and standard 12 gauge 3 wire for any AC wiring, (really just needed for the short plug from the inverter to the AC plug.) So from here, if you have any questions, write in and I'll try to answer them. So on with the pictures.
THE BOX. It's built with 2 sections, the batteries on the bottom, and the electrical components in the top. I put a door on for the batteries due to them being too heavy to be kept in in while moving, and easy access in case on a problem. I put them on the bottom because they were heavy. I kept the floor for the components loose with lip edge pieces holding it for support so I could remove it if I needed to for wiring issues. I drilled holes in the corners for the main wires to come up from the batteries to connect to the passitive and the negative buss bars (that's what they are called.) I wired the 2 batteries in parallel to give me 1 large 12V battery with 200Ah. That's positive to positive, and negative to negative, with an additional wire connected at each post running to the respective buss bar. But I'm getting ahead of my self. I also but a door on the box so I could also put on a latch and lock. This serves two purposes. It keeps it safer, as no one can tamper with it, and also keeps it safer from behind stolen, as with the batteries locked inside, it weighs about 150lbs. I also put a henges door on the top to be able to get to the components inside, the fan switch, ect. I also put on a latch for locking safety. I put 3 vent holes, one where the fan went, and 2 for the inverter, and most larger inverters have at least one, usually two fans at their rear pulling in air to keep them cooled. I put on some screening mostly to keep out young fingers. That covers the outside of the box.
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Next will be the inside.
INSIDE, BEHIND THE CURTAIN WHERE ALL THE BLACK MAGIC HAPPENS
So, why did I put things where I did. I planned on when I wired up my batteries, the main leads would come up through the floor on opposite corners. When I put my batteries side by side, this looked like the best way to do it. When I talk about directions, it will always be with the battery door to the front, with the DC power station outside on the right. So I had my main positive wire coming up through the floor on the left front, and main negative wire coming up through the right rear. That is were the posts were under the floor. But looking back, this made the battery hookup to first wire it up after moving it very hard to do. I could wire them up outside the box and then slide them in, but this made it very hard to push the negative wire up through in the back. This could be fixed in two ways. Either make more hasn't room between the tops of the batteries, or turn one of the batteries around, so one battery has the positive post in the left front, and one battery has the negative post in the near right front. Then wire them outside the box, slide them in, and both cables go through the floor in the front where there is plenty of room...but I did it the hard way and learned, so this is why the positive and negative buss bars are where they are...because it's where the main cables came to. Then I just wired items to them, not the batteries. I placed the rest of the components where the are due to making sure when the inverter was in the box, it could have plenty of good air flow around it. So I put in the inverter and started placing items and moving them around to find the best or sometimes the shortest wiring route to the buss bars. I placed the charge controller on the wall on the right, as it mounted flush in an upright position, and since it had 6 wires to hook up, it gave me access to do so. I cut the hill in the bottom, as I had first planned to use a smaller charge controller, and with the new controller, the wires connected on the bottom. I didn't want to put to much of a stress to the wires rift at the connection, so with the hole, it lets them make a more gentle curve on the way out to their connections. With the inverter in the middle at an angle, I cut a vent hole on each side near the corner to give good airflow, and I them decided to mount the fan on the front wall blowing out, using the vent holes on the opposite side for the inverter as inflow ducts for the fan also. So I decided to put the DC power pack on the right outside, the main switch on the right outside, the AC plug on the front outside, an with the solar panel incoming wires to the left side of the charge controller, I placed the cable connections coming in on the front left of the box. Since the fan had such small screw holes, I just decided to use hot glue, and glue it to the wooden siding, along with its power switch, and glued some of its wires out of the way at the same time. The fan was wired using smaller wire I already had, due to it having small gauge wire already attached to its motor. I just connected the pos. wire to the positive buss, and the neg. to the neg. buss, and wired in a switch into one of the wires, as it would run continuously if I did not install a switch, since it was direct wired through the batteries. It was the only thing that would not be shut off by the main switch. The charge controller is the brains of the outfit. It has 3 connections, each with a pos. and a neg. The solar infeed, the battery outfeed, and the load outfeed. So, the pos. and the neg. solar incoming wires come in on its bottom left, the battery outfeed in the middle, pos. and neg run to the pos. and neg. bus bars, and the load on the bottom right neg. and pos. run to the DC power station neg. and pos. incoming wires. The solar infeed wires were cut from a 3 to 1 plug I already had, having 3 male ends and 1 female end. I cut off the female and one of the male wires to use to wire to the charge controller, so I could disconnect the cables on the outside, and not have to unwire then from the charge controller each time I needed to transport it and unhook everything. So, now the pictures.
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***********CORECTION***********. On the earlier post, I wrote the main power switch would shut of the DC power station. That was incorrect. The way I had it wired, the main switch would only shut of the inverter, or the AC power, which I will go into later. It would still leave on the DC power, which is just the power from the batteries, which could be shut off at the DC power station by it's power switch.
wow!!
So I will talk about the inverter and how I chose to wire it into the system. As I said earlier, the inverter just changes DC current into AC current. It is a self contained unit that can easily be bought almost anywhere now. You can even plug one into your cars cigarette lighter, or hard wire it ito the cars system, so you can brew your cup of Starbucks coffee in your own Mr. Coffee brewing machine that can be picked up at the thrift store, saving you thousands of dollars every year. I have even seen newer cars that have a 110v AC plug already wired into them, but again I am getting off track. So with a store bought inverter and a large enough battery, you can have AC power anywhere. The inverter clearly stated in its instruction manual "the inverter must be wired straight to the battery." I did some reading and couldn't find out why. 99/100 times I would agree wiring it that way would be best, but I wanted to do things differently, and here is why. I wanted to use my buss bars, and I wanted to use a cut off switch in the inverter cable to be able to shut off all AC power from the outside of the box. Yes, the inverter does have its own shut off switch, but it would be inside the box. So with power running to the neg. and pos. buss bars, any connection through them completes the circuit and energizes the unit. So I screwed the inverter to the floor using the mounting holes. This inverter could be mounted in any direction with its surface. It could be flat, on the wall, upside down, ect. and would still work. I ran a 10 gauge wire from the rear neg. post to the neg. buss, and installed the switch on the outside. The power cable goes from the pos. Post on the rear of the inverter, through the switch, than from the switch to the pos. buss bar. This way, I can turn on the inverter with its own power switch, close and lock the lid, and be able to turn the inverter on and off from the outside. And I just mounted a regular nome wall outlet on the outside, and wired a plug to it. Then I just plugged it into the inverter, thereby just moving the power to the outside of the box, so I could lock the box. I won't wire the inverter for the picture because you can't see the wires, so I will show the inverter clearly so you can clearly see how and where the wires would go. ***NOTICE*** I just took the pictures, and noticed just as I am getting ready to post them they are off my 1000w inverter. I have 4 different inverters, a 300w, 1000w, 2000w, and a 3000w. While are are different in how much power they can invert, the all would wire up the same way, positive to positive, negative to negative. Sorry for any inconvenience that may cause, but I promise it's the same.[IMG][/IMG]
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The last picture shows the 1000w inverter direct wired to 1 on the 12v batteries with the inverter turned on and powering a standard box fan. I think inverter is showing it has 11.9V coming in, and is currently putting out 122w powering the fan.
Last edited by Domeguy; 06-21-2016 at 06:07 PM. Reason: Added post
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