Starting with a small DIY solar packge for RV before I go residential...

[StarPathOne]

Greetings from Greensboro, NC. I'm currently designing a small dual battery maintaining system for my teardrop camper to get used to the basics of solar. Once I feel confident with it I will then move on to the DIY home solar project. I'm just FED UP with Duke Energy charging such exorbitant rates and polluting our water and soil, then charging the customer to clean it up. It's a nasty, vicious cycle they have going and I plan on breaking free from it. I wager most people here can relate to that!

For starters...

My thoughts on the RV project is small, lightweight, modular/movable, and inexpensive. I have a 7pin cable that charges the small RV battery while driving, but I will only get a couple days of power from it if I'm using it on average. So, I am adding another battery, a battery selector switch, and then adding the small 27W foldable panel, a very small charge controller to keep the batts maintained, and leads to a portable power pack for using outside the RV for my tablet/iphones/radios/etc.

Has anyone built a small system like this? If so, I would be more than appreciative of any advice from experience.

Cheers!

[Sunking]

Be careful what you ask for. Anything you take off-grid and operate on a Stand Alone Battery system will cost you roughly 10 time more than that mean ole electric company the rest of your life. So if you think you are going to save money forget about it as it will be just throwing money away unnecessarily.

Second point if you think going off-grid a Green think again as it is anything but green other than the green leaving your pocket Off grid Stand Alone Battery systems are heavy polluters and will never be able to compete enviromentally with that dirty ole electric company.

So to sum it up Off Grid Stand Alone Battery systems cannot compete economically, or be cleaner than the electric company.

[StarPathOne]

Be careful what you ask for. Anything you take off-grid and operate on a Stand Alone Battery system will cost you roughly 10 time more than that mean ole electric company the rest of your life. So if you think you are going to save money forget about it as it will be just throwing money away unnecessarily.

Second point if you think going off-grid a Green think again as it is anything but green other than the green leaving your pocket Off grid Stand Alone Battery systems are heavy polluters and will never be able to compete enviromentally with that dirty ole electric company.

So to sum it up Off Grid Stand Alone Battery systems cannot compete economically, or be cleaner than the electric company.

Well, I beg to differ, as I've seen it done in the past, and now with the more efficient panels. However, I'm all ears to hear how you think it's more expensive, and especially less green than our electric company dumping millions of gallons of toxic ash into our rivers and soil, among other travesties. The health benefits alone justify it for me, stress, and otherwise. However, with what I spend in two years on electricity from our local provider, I could easily invest in a system that would be a successful grid-tied system, at the very least. While I'm a newbie here, I do understand grid parity calculations, and I understand getting rid of the battery part, environmentally speaking. I think starting now will give me the working knowledge of how to operate and maintain a system completely by the time our state hits grid parity.

Additionally, our local company scams people with gimmicks like 'balanced payment plans' which are supposed to return some money at the end of the year, but never do, even if you use less energy. I'm simply tired of fully supporting that type of oligarchic thievery, as we know...in fact...that it does harm people.

But, mostly, the very fact that our local company reps people that are specifically against people wanting to go solar, or other forms of alternate energy, and have always been complete jerkoffs to us is reason #1 for breaking as free as possible from it. The more they put up opposition to it, the more it makes me want to get rid of my electric bills from the local company.

So, thanks for the warning, but I'm moving forward.

[russ]

Star - Welcome to Solar Panel Talk even if you are talking crazy blather.

Duke doesn't care one little bit if you go "of grid" - probably happy to be rid of a pita customer.

[StarPathOne]

Star - Welcome to Solar Panel Talk even if you are talking crazy blather.

Duke doesn't care one little bit if you go "of grid" - probably happy to be rid of a pita customer.

Pita customer?

Perhaps you missed my point. I don't care what Duke thinks. I'm moving forward.

It appears this site is nothing more than a bunch of pita shills.

Additionally, Duke DOES care about customers leaving, as they are (obviously) fighting solar customers, and could care less about their environmental damage. They would rather pay measly fines than the costs of proper disposal. Our governor is letting them slide since he was once part of their fray. But, as for 'crazy blather', I find it comical you would think a company that relies on profits from customers would not care about losing said customers lol. But, hey, you expose yourself. No big deal.

[russ]

Pita customer?

Perhaps you missed my point. I don't care what Duke thinks. I'm moving forward.

It appears this site is nothing more than a bunch of pita shills.

Additionally, Duke DOES care about customers leaving, as they are (obviously) fighting solar customers, and could care less about their environmental damage. They would rather pay measly fines than the costs of proper disposal. Our governor is letting them slide since he was once part of their fray. But, as for 'crazy blather', I find it comical you would think a company that relies on profits from customers would not care about losing said customers lol. But, hey, you expose yourself. No big deal.

Your 25 cents in profit means nothing to Duke - I used to live in the Duke area.

Green chatter is useless.

Bye

[Shockah]

However, with what I spend in two years on electricity from our local provider, I could easily invest in a system that would be a successful grid-tied system, at the very least.

How much is that? $4800? $7200?

You're not going to build much of a grid-tied system with only $7200 cash.
But why are you building grid tie? I thought I read you wanna cut the strings from the environment destroying jerkoffs?

Oh, BTW, $7200 is also not gonna be enough to build an off-grid system that will sustain the lifestyle you are used to with the convenience of POCO-ties.

[Shockah]

Greetings from Greensboro, NC. I'm currently designing a small dual battery maintaining system for my teardrop camper to get used to the basics of solar. Once I feel confident with it I will then move on to the DIY home solar project. I'm just FED UP with Duke Energy charging such exorbitant rates and polluting our water and soil, then charging the customer to clean it up. It's a nasty, vicious cycle they have going and I plan on breaking free from it. I wager most people here can relate to that!

For starters...

My thoughts on the RV project is small, lightweight, modular/movable, and inexpensive. I have a 7pin cable that charges the small RV battery while driving, but I will only get a couple days of power from it if I'm using it on average. So, I am adding another battery, a battery selector switch, and then adding the small 27W foldable panel, a very small charge controller to keep the batts maintained, and leads to a portable power pack for using outside the RV for my tablet/iphones/radios/etc.

Has anyone built a small system like this? If so, I would be more than appreciative of any advice from experience.

Cheers!

27W panel? ... that'll buy you 50wh from the sun during a warm Hawaiian winter... enough to power up a 5w bulb for 10 hours.
You better connect that 7-pin to your portable power pack too... as a 27w panel will not power all those gadgets you listed.

[Wy_White_Wolf]

Greetings from Greensboro, NC. I'm currently designing a small dual battery maintaining system for my teardrop camper to get used to the basics of solar. Once I feel confident with it I will then move on to the DIY home solar project. I'm just FED UP with Duke Energy charging such exorbitant rates and polluting our water and soil, then charging the customer to clean it up. It's a nasty, vicious cycle they have going and I plan on breaking free from it. I wager most people here can relate to that!

For starters...

My thoughts on the RV project is small, lightweight, modular/movable, and inexpensive. I have a 7pin cable that charges the small RV battery while driving, but I will only get a couple days of power from it if I'm using it on average. So, I am adding another battery, a battery selector switch, and then adding the small 27W foldable panel, a very small charge controller to keep the batts maintained, and leads to a portable power pack for using outside the RV for my tablet/iphones/radios/etc.

Has anyone built a small system like this? If so, I would be more than appreciative of any advice from experience.

Cheers!

3 problems in your plan to start with.

1. Solar panel way to small for the batterys. Assuming you have something like a wallmart cheaping deep cycle 2 of them would be around 150AH in size. To properly charge them will take at least a 200W panel. If your batteries are bigger than my guess you will need an even bigger array.

2. Where's the battery isolator located? Some little camp outfits have a battery isolator located in them. They prevent the vehicle battery from being discharged when parked. That would prevent you from using the 7 pin to charge the batteries as the charge controller would not be able to sence battery voltage to tell state of charge.

3. How are you going to limit the charge voltage to the "portable power pack"? Hooking it up to the camper batteries when discharged without limiting current will melt the wires.

[Sunking]

Well, I beg to differ, as I've seen it done in the past, and now with the more efficient panels.

Then you are very missed informed. I am not even counting panel cost, just batteries alone will cost you more than 4 times what the mean ole POC) (power company) Duke Energy will charge you. Efficient panels have nothing to do with it as that are not even considered in the calculations. That is a ADD-ON expense on top of batteries silly.


For each Killo Watt Hour (Kwh) you take off-grid will cost you $1000 up front in cash for a battery that last you maybe 5 years with TLC (Tender Loving Cash). In 5 years will give you up to 1825 Kwh if you could possible utilize the power which you cannot possible do. Simple pencil and paper and 5th grade math will tell you if you pay $1000 for 1825 Kwh cost you $1000 / 1825 Kwh = $0.58/Kwh. What do you want to bet that mean ole Duke POCO charges you around $0.11/Kwh? Say $100 bet?

I did not think you would bet.

Then about in 5 or less years you get to replace those batteries at even higher cost when you replace them silly. Did any of that ever occur to you and you Green Friends? I bet not?

Care to bet? I have nothing to loose.

[pleppik]

Star - Welcome to Solar Panel Talk even if you are talking crazy blather.

I suspect he was referring to this spill of coal ash by Duke energy a couple months ago.

IMHO, this is a perfectly valid reason to be suspicious of coal in general, and pissed at Duke in particular. I'd be mad, too, if our power company spilled toxic sludge into one of our lakes here, even if we do have 9,999 backups.

[Sunking]

I suspect he was referring to this spill of coal ash by Duke energy a couple months ago.

IMHO, this is a perfectly valid reason to be suspicious of coal in general, and pissed at Duke in particular. I'd be mad, too, if our power company spilled toxic sludge into one of our lakes here, even if we do have 9,999 backups.

With any technology comes accidents and death. By the same analogy would you quit driving your car because you had a friend killed in a wreck, or quit using electricity because someone you knew house burnt down from a electrical fire.

[russ]

Being mad at Duke and running off to shoot yourself in the foot while on a rant is another.

[SunEagle]

Heck. I am ticked off at Duke as well. They are not doing anything to support solar in Florida, yet they have built or purchased Megawatts of solar power farms to support Renewable energy for North Carolina. Seems like a double standard to me.

That still won't push me to going off grid to stiff the POCO.

[thastinger]

starpath, I have both. I have an off-grid 40x44 garage that I built off grid for reasons other than to be green or save money. My system is designed to deliver 3Kwh per day (about 33 cents worth of electricity here) and it cost me about 6500 when complete, with me doing everything except mounting the panels/racking on the roof.
My main house, some distance away, does not have a single PV panel on it but I do have a 9x30ft solar pool heater. IMHO, some areas of solar give a much larger bang for the buck than others, both in terms of ROI and environmental impact. I believe solar used to heat water is the best of both worlds right now. Maybe start there.