I have been lurking here for some time, and would like some help in both fact checking my work and selecting the correct components to make this happen. If at the end of my research this is too expensive, I will just go and purchase one of the commercially available products, but I can’t help shake the feeling that if I build it myself I will end up with better components and maybe a better price than the commercial units.
I have been noodling building my own battery in a box that will allow my family to go camping with some power. My original goal was to be able to recharge all the phones, run 3 - 3watt led lights for 4 hours a night, and run a 12 volt fan for a few hours. After using a kill-a-watt to measure the amp-hours I need each day, I am rethinking the fan, since it is a power hog compared to the electronics and lights.
Power estimate – I believe I will need 5 AH per day to power the electronics and the lights. The fan will take 8.5 AH per day. I would like your help in picking the right battery, charge controller, input/output readout (not required but nice to have if it doesn’t cost too much), and connections.
To recharge the battery I want to plug it in to the wall outlet at home, and when camping we have a Brunton 26 watt solar panel that can be used to replace some of the power we are using. My estimate is that we can replace 3.2 AH per day from the solar panel. That means that we have a deficit of at least 1.8 AH when not using a fan, and 9.4AH when using the fan.
The longest we are camping is 7 days, but I would like to target 10 days to have a safety margin. After reading about batteries I would think that I need to get a battery sized to double my 10 day power requirement to avoid over discharging the battery. (can I go smaller or is this a reasonable assumption?) I am also considering using an AGM battery since it will be transported over some rough terrain.
Using the 50% idea, I would need a 36 AH battery if I don’t use the fan, or a 180 AH battery if I do.
Not sure what type of charge controller I should be looking at since I want to leave this plugged in when at home and solar when camping.
Not sure what brand/type of 12v battery I should be looking for, don’t want to break the bank but this isn’t life saving or anything, and with so few cycles per year I think it will die of old age before the battery goes due to number of cycles.
Would like to monitor the input and output loads, but don’t know how to accomplish this or if it is even feasible for a reasonable cost.
For connections I am thinking of having 3 - 12volt auto receptacles for providing power to the goodies, not sure what type of transformer I need to provide power to recharge the batteries or if the charge controller handles this, and I was thinking of using an Anderson powerpole connector for the solar panel connection to the battery.
Anything else I am missing?
Thank you for your help in investigating this project.
I have been noodling building my own battery in a box that will allow my family to go camping with some power. My original goal was to be able to recharge all the phones, run 3 - 3watt led lights for 4 hours a night, and run a 12 volt fan for a few hours. After using a kill-a-watt to measure the amp-hours I need each day, I am rethinking the fan, since it is a power hog compared to the electronics and lights.
Power estimate – I believe I will need 5 AH per day to power the electronics and the lights. The fan will take 8.5 AH per day. I would like your help in picking the right battery, charge controller, input/output readout (not required but nice to have if it doesn’t cost too much), and connections.
To recharge the battery I want to plug it in to the wall outlet at home, and when camping we have a Brunton 26 watt solar panel that can be used to replace some of the power we are using. My estimate is that we can replace 3.2 AH per day from the solar panel. That means that we have a deficit of at least 1.8 AH when not using a fan, and 9.4AH when using the fan.
The longest we are camping is 7 days, but I would like to target 10 days to have a safety margin. After reading about batteries I would think that I need to get a battery sized to double my 10 day power requirement to avoid over discharging the battery. (can I go smaller or is this a reasonable assumption?) I am also considering using an AGM battery since it will be transported over some rough terrain.
Using the 50% idea, I would need a 36 AH battery if I don’t use the fan, or a 180 AH battery if I do.
Not sure what type of charge controller I should be looking at since I want to leave this plugged in when at home and solar when camping.
Not sure what brand/type of 12v battery I should be looking for, don’t want to break the bank but this isn’t life saving or anything, and with so few cycles per year I think it will die of old age before the battery goes due to number of cycles.
Would like to monitor the input and output loads, but don’t know how to accomplish this or if it is even feasible for a reasonable cost.
For connections I am thinking of having 3 - 12volt auto receptacles for providing power to the goodies, not sure what type of transformer I need to provide power to recharge the batteries or if the charge controller handles this, and I was thinking of using an Anderson powerpole connector for the solar panel connection to the battery.
Anything else I am missing?
Thank you for your help in investigating this project.
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