Comments on Solar Generator Ordered Online

[thastinger]

Having the only power generating source in the neighborhood can make you a potential target.

Having power if the grid is down for a long time is trying to cling to a luxury when other things should be higher on the priority list.

I'd generally agree but if you have it, you're more productive. If you have a dehydrator you don't need to build a smokehouse. If you have a freezer you can preserve the part of your kill that you can't eat in 1 day. Maybe you can barter a bit with charging other folks 12V batteries so they can run a CPAP for their ailing in-law or maybe you can just be a good neighbor and keep the little girl down the street insulin from going bad because you can chill it.
Can it cost you your life and endanger your family? Sure. Could you build a community around it? Sure.
All the fresh water I could ever use would be my first priority though.

[RatedPG]

So back to what you need. If you can calculate how many watt hours you really need to use in a day then a battery solar battery generator can be designed and although expensive should meet your needs.

Here is my list (highest priority first). I can cut it short from the bottom of the list.

Chest Freezer (24/7 if possible, On and off every 2 hours, if needed)

CPAP Machine

Chargers - Macbook Pro, iOS gadgets (not for entertainment but to access the know-how needed for self-reliance and survival). I will not even need these when I finish making hard copies of the articles I need.

Fan - Heat exhaustion triggers my asthma so a fan at least, if not an AC, would be of great help.

Projected daily power needed:

Chest Freezer - 1080 Wh (per day)
CPAP: 60W x 8 hours = 480 Wh
Chargers: ~100W x 2 hours = 200 Wh
Fan: 100W x 8 hours = 800 Wh

Total needed: 2560 Wh

[RatedPG]

Can it cost you your life and endanger your family? Sure. Could you build a community around it? Sure.
All the fresh water I could ever use would be my first priority though.

I am part of a church community which will need to pool resources and skills among its members in such a scenario. We may even have to live together in the church campus.

We already have a water pump in our grounds. It is being fitted with a manual pump soon.

[lkruper]

Here is my list (highest priority first). I can cut it short from the bottom of the list.

Chest Freezer (24/7 if possible, On and off every 2 hours, if needed)

CPAP Machine

Chargers - Macbook Pro, iOS gadgets (not for entertainment but to access the know-how needed for self-reliance and survival). I will not even need these when I finish making hard copies of the articles I need.

Fan - Heat exhaustion triggers my asthma so a fan at least, if not an AC, would be of great help.

Projected daily power needed:

Chest Freezer - 1080 Wh (per day)
CPAP: 60W x 8 hours = 480 Wh
Chargers: ~100W x 2 hours = 200 Wh
Fan: 100W x 8 hours = 800 Wh

Total needed: 2560 Wh

How many days of power do you need if you account for cloudy days in a row?

[thastinger]

Here is my list (highest priority first). I can cut it short from the bottom of the list.

Chest Freezer (24/7 if possible, On and off every 2 hours, if needed)

CPAP Machine

Chargers - Macbook Pro, iOS gadgets (not for entertainment but to access the know-how needed for self-reliance and survival). I will not even need these when I finish making hard copies of the articles I need.

Fan - Heat exhaustion triggers my asthma so a fan at least, if not an AC, would be of great help.

Projected daily power needed:

Chest Freezer - 1080 Wh (per day)
CPAP: 60W x 8 hours = 480 Wh
Chargers: ~100W x 2 hours = 200 Wh
Fan: 100W x 8 hours = 800 Wh

Total needed: 2560 Wh

Your chest freezer is high unless it is a full size unit, the modern 11CuFt ones are about 250KWH/year, most fans are a bit less as well but those figures would leave you a little wiggle room. You just need to figure your sun hours in the worse month and go from there but that is roughly the same capacity as my system. You'll still need a generator and charger to EQ the battery bank, you won't get enough from the panels to do it in the winter months. Some inverters are also chargers but I have separate units.
My system is 5 230W panels wired in series to a Midnite 200 charge controller to 8 6V 210AH Trojan T-605 batteries (first set in case I murdered them) to a 1500W 48VDC Cotek inverter. The inverter feeds a panel like in your home but I don't have 220, only 110. I have T-8 light fixtures, watts per lumen they are a good value.

[SunEagle]

Here is my list (highest priority first). I can cut it short from the bottom of the list.

Chest Freezer (24/7 if possible, On and off every 2 hours, if needed)

CPAP Machine

Chargers - Macbook Pro, iOS gadgets (not for entertainment but to access the know-how needed for self-reliance and survival). I will not even need these when I finish making hard copies of the articles I need.

Fan - Heat exhaustion triggers my asthma so a fan at least, if not an AC, would be of great help.

Projected daily power needed:

Chest Freezer - 1080 Wh (per day)
CPAP: 60W x 8 hours = 480 Wh
Chargers: ~100W x 2 hours = 200 Wh
Fan: 100W x 8 hours = 800 Wh

Total needed: 2560 Wh

So for conservative numbers you are looking to be able to generate about 3kWh daily.

That will require a 48volt 350Ah or 24volt 700Ah battery system.
About 1800 watts of grid tie PV panels, a good 45Amp MPPT charge controller for a 48volt battery system and a 48volt 600 watt inverter.
About 1800 watts of grid tie PV panels, a good 80Amp MPPT charge controller for a 24volt battery system and a 24volt 600 watt inverter.
Plus pv panel racking, wiring, fusing, circuit breakers, etc.
I haven't priced a system that size in a while but my guess it will be ~ $9k

Now you might be able to reduce your load down a little by finding a lower wattage fan and not using the humidifier for the CPAP. My CPAP only uses about 20watts and I can run it off my 65Ah solar generator if needed.

[lkruper]

Your chest freezer is high unless it is a full size unit, the modern 11CuFt ones are about 250KWH/year, most fans are a bit less as well but those figures would leave you a little wiggle room. You just need to figure your sun hours in the worse month and go from there but that is roughly the same capacity as my system. You'll still need a generator and charger to EQ the battery bank, you won't get enough from the panels to do it in the winter months. Some inverters are also chargers but I have separate units.
My system is 5 230W panels wired in series to a Midnite 200 charge controller to 8 6V 210AH Trojan T-605 batteries (first set in case I murdered them) to a 1500W 48VDC Cotek inverter. The inverter feeds a panel like in your home but I don't have 220, only 110. I have T-8 light fixtures, watts per lumen they are a good value.

If he says he wants 5 days autonomy, your system is sized about what I calculated he would need. What do you think of a starter set of batteries from Costco or Sam's Club of 8 X 6v 225AH golf cart batteries? Without core that would be about $800.

[thastinger]

If he says he wants 5 days autonomy, your system is sized about what I calculated he would need. What do you think of a starter set of batteries from Costco or Sam's Club of 8 X 6v 225AH golf cart batteries? Without core that would be about $800.

I didn't design my system for 5 days, only 2 to get down to 50%. My battery bank has a total of 10Kw of stored energy (48vx210A), you can get a little more on a slow discharge but you have to factor in the inverter losses (.93 for mine). I actually only use a little less than half of what I designed the system to do right now (original design was for conventional fridge but I then converted a chest freezer to be a fridge so it consumed less than half what I had originally calculated) so I'm good for many cloudy days. I've found that I get a little on all but the absolute worse weather days. In the 3 years it has been running, I can count the under .5Kwh generated on 2 hands, there have been zero output days though. I've also found that on a clear winter day I can get over the rated panel output but on a clear summer day I can't get over about 80%, it kinda evens out though because I get more output for less hours in winter and less output for more hours in summer.
I think the costo batteries would be fine as a starter set. I found my Trojans for 89 each at a cart store but then there was a 22 core charge for each because I didn't have turn ins. I hope I don't ever have to pay the core charge again.

[thastinger]

If he wants a bunch of autonomy and wants to pull a true 2.5 per day he would need the L16 style batteries and about 300W more panel than me but he can do the same with less if he concentrates on energy efficiency from the beginning design phase. A 1Kwh/day fridge is an energy hog in an off-grid system, you can have a freezer and a fridge for about the same power if you do it right.

Wanted to add that to the above but the forum would not allow me to edit the post.

[RatedPG]

I didn't design my system for 5 days, only 2 to get down to 50%.

I'm also looking at 2 days of autonomy. The 1080 Wh's I gave for the freezer might go down to 600-700, based on the specs I'm seeing for 5-7 cu.ft. chest freezers.

[SunEagle]

If he wants a bunch of autonomy and wants to pull a true 2.5 per day he would need the L16 style batteries and about 300W more panel than me but he can do the same with less if he concentrates on energy efficiency from the beginning design phase. A 1Kwh/day fridge is an energy hog in an off-grid system, you can have a freezer and a fridge for about the same power if you do it right.

Wanted to add that to the above but the forum would not allow me to edit the post.

We just allow certain people to perform editing.

Just kidding. Try this next time you want to edit.

After making your edits, don't click on the "save" button. Fill in the "reason box" and then while your "mouse cursor" is still in the box hit the "enter" key. That allows some type of edit function until the Admin can get the server software fixed.

[thastinger]

I'm also looking at 2 days of autonomy. The 1080 Wh's I gave for the freezer might go down to 600-700, based on the specs I'm seeing for 5-7 cu.ft. chest freezers.

My converted fridge is a 7.2 and uses .562Kwh/day according to my kill-a-watt, that is opening it 30+ times a day. Use this to convert http://www.amazon.com/Refrigerator-F...ure+controller

Then I have an 11CuFt freezer that is not normally hooked up but would use .7 once cooled down. The beauty of the controller I posted is that the freezer is unaltered, if you ever needed it to be a freezer, just unplug it from the external controller and plug it directly into an outlet. The do condensate when acting as a fridge but the beauty is that they make a great humidor for the cigars.

[thastinger]

We just allow certain people to perform editing.

Just kidding. Try this next time you want to edit.

After making your edits, don't click on the "save" button. Fill in the "reason box" and then while your "mouse cursor" is still in the box hit the "enter" key. That allows some type of edit function until the Admin can get the server software fixed.

Ha ha, stand on your head while looking at the North Star, say candyman 3 times, hit save

[RatedPG]

About 1800 watts of grid tie PV panels, a good 45Amp MPPT charge controller for a 48volt battery system and a 48volt 600 watt inverter.
About 1800 watts of grid tie PV panels, a good 80Amp MPPT charge controller for a 24volt battery system and a 24volt 600 watt inverter.

Why do I only need a 600 watt inverter? Will that be able to power the chest freezer, including the amperage surge when it cycles?

[SunEagle]

Why do I only need a 600 watt inverter? Will that be able to power the chest freezer, including the amperage surge when it cycles?

A 600 watt inverter usually has a peak surge rating of double that or 1200watt for a brief time. I figured it should handle most small refrigerators or freezers. --------------- Although I did forget to mention the inverter should be a pure sine wave type.