Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Considering Putting Together Off-Grid Security Camera System

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • #31
    Heck you got off cheap. I spent $2500 for my solar battery system. It has about 400 watts of panels, 30 amp PWM CC, a 12volt 200 Ah battery system and a 600 watt pure sine wave inverter. It will safely produce 600 watt hours a day which is not nearly enough for your security system. I could have gotten better hardware for about a $1000 less and generate about 100 watt hours more but it still would be way too small. That $5000 starts to look real cheap to me.

    Comment


    • #32
      You can sure get that cheaper now though. Mine is about a year old with 1,000w of panels, 315 Ah Trojans, at 24v, Morningstar 60amp mppt controller, and a 1500w pure sine inverter, all for about $2500. Got the batteries used but purportedly from a school district that replaced floor scrubber batteries annually, and so far they work great for my weekend cabin. Last weekend the system produced about 2kw per day, and left the batteries full with a crock pot cooker running all day. It runs a 5,000 btu window air conditioner in summer. Make popcorn in the microwave, etc. Can run a tv fine (but I don't keep one there).

      With used panels I found (referenced them above), and perhaps a cheaper mppt CC, one could do almost as robust a system for a lot less this year.

      Comment


      • #33
        Originally posted by KMac View Post
        You can sure get that cheaper now though. Mine is about a year old with 1,000w of panels, 315 Ah Trojans, at 24v, Morningstar 60amp mppt controller, and a 1500w pure sine inverter, all for about $2500. Got the batteries used but purportedly from a school district that replaced floor scrubber batteries annually, and so far they work great for my weekend cabin. Last weekend the system produced about 2kw per day, and left the batteries full with a crock pot cooker running all day. It runs a 5,000 btu window air conditioner in summer. Make popcorn in the microwave, etc. Can run a tv fine (but I don't keep one there).

        With used panels I found (referenced them above), and perhaps a cheaper mppt CC, one could do almost as robust a system for a lot less this year.
        Too true. Panel costs are still coming down and you can still find good deals on new batteries. Still the idea of needing to replace them every few years and the low cost of POCO electricity makes a permanent grid power installation an easy choice even if the initial cost seems like it will choke a horse.

        Comment


        • #34
          Originally posted by SunEagle View Post

          Too true. Panel costs are still coming down and you can still find good deals on new batteries. Still the idea of needing to replace them every few years and the low cost of POCO electricity makes a permanent grid power installation an easy choice even if the initial cost seems like it will choke a horse.
          Mine would be $20K to get poco power back to where we are. The lost opportunity cost on $20K outlay now dwarfs the $2500 and battery replacement.

          Comment


          • #35
            Originally posted by KMac View Post

            Mine would be $20K to get poco power back to where we are. The lost opportunity cost on $20K outlay now dwarfs the $2500 and battery replacement.
            Each project has it's own cost comparison and decision to make. If you can live with the limitations of a solar/battery system then spending less up front could be the better choice.

            Comment


            • #36
              Greg, yes to your question/comment this morning on the batteries. Four of those Trojans in series for 24v. With sufficient panels, proper charging, and right sized inverter the watts should easily run the cameras and also weekend LED lights, charge your phone and computer, run a TV, etc. You have to learn their limits (might need microwave on lower wattage, and I don't know how much AC they could run. My 315Ah 24v batteries run a 5000 BTU window air in a 200 square foot cabin quite well, but that was a careful calculation and I have not tried it more than a couple of days in a row). I very rarely run a generator (summer with AC on if I want to really cool it down a bunch before bed and run it with CPAP and music all night).

              Comment


              • Greg Hamilton
                Greg Hamilton commented
                Editing a comment
                That is pretty incredible. It's amazing how much stuff you run on your system. Would it be ill advised to put the batteries in my cabin, rather than under my cabin? I read somewhere that the flood batteries have to be well ventilated. I have a couple of soffit vents on my cabin, is about 15x15 with 8' ceiling with sheetrock with no tape and bedding, so not totally air tight is what I'm trying to say. You may have said, but how many solar panels and what size? Also, my bathroom is another building about 25-50 feet away. That is why I initially wanted to do two separate systems for both solar and security so I would not have to bury any cables. What kind of issues would I run into running cables from one building to the other? Thanks.

            • #37
              I'm in a similar project and have my eye on the Arlo camera by Netgear. They're wireless and cloud based, so all you need to power is the Netgear router and modem. Plus, they're outdoor rated.

              Comment


              • #38
                Yes, I like aspects of those, but you do have to deal with replacing batteries in the cameras. Still, that might be a good option for you. I think running a wire would produce a more robust connection, and when you can run the power on the same Ethernet cable using (POE) and it is only 5w, it might be worth it on balance. But again, we get down to weighing the particulars. You want four cameras, so it's really 20w (24 hours per day), and also, wires and POE might not be convenient, particularly if you want to move them around. Additional consideratuons: Do they store locally on SD card as well as upload? Is there a cost to the cloud storage? Can you adjust sensitivity on motion detection so as to find the sweet spot between false alarms, data usage, and recording real action? I kept searching cameras and looked at those, but moved on partly because I only need one or two and running wires will be easy at my small cabin (even though cameras I like are Wi-Fi capable). Also, don't forget with cell you need to figure out the ddns deal, and you want a camera that can do that since you will have no static IP address. You can have that feature on router, I understand, but I want it on camera.

                But hey, I'm still shopping, so these are just thoughts, not experience.

                Comment


                • #39
                  Battery location has to satisfy some considerations. First you want to minimize distances to CC and inverter. Using 24v helps in terms of wire size and acceptable distance, but even then it is pretty short. Yes, you want ventilation. I wouldn't put them in the cabin without a nice box with external ventilation. Under cabin is not an option for me so I haven't considered it, but in my mind ibis less than ideal as well because I worry about meltdown/fire. I got a deck box from Menard's and put it next to my cabin. It doesn't seal great but keeps them dry and out of the sun.

                  I have four 250w grid-tie type panels and wired them 2 in parallel and then those in series, so they run about 70 volts. Charge controller is a Morningstar MPPT, 60amp, which has a nice Ethernet connection. Batteries are 315 amp Trojans 4 in series for 24 volt. 1500 watt inverter. This weekend we will have lights on, computer and phones plugged in charging, a crock pot slow cooker, and some music playing off the laptop. Ibis cloudy today and I have no concerns. Laptop connects to charge controller which displays a couple of web pages with pertinent data so I can keep an eye on batteries throughout the day at a glance without having to go open the battery box or charge controller out back.

                  If you want power to out building from your inverter you just have to run it. At 120v you could go quite a distance (look at requirements and voltage drop calculator). Or you could run low voltage DC if you just want an LED light and camera out there. That would be easier if you already will have stated down converter from 24v to 12v.

                  By the way, advantage goes to 24v in my estimation, over 12v, even though you have to step-down for a few things. Otherwise, at 12v you run higher current and need huge wire to go very far. It fits with the amount of watts you want in batteries as well. 48v might be even better, but then it seems the number of 6v batteries doubles.
                  Last edited by KMac; 11-18-2016, 09:36 AM.

                  Comment


                  • #40
                    Alright, good information, thanks.

                    Comment

                    Working...
                    X