Wreckclues
New Member
Modified one of Wills designs to accommodate the HQST 100 Watt panel kit, which I've mounted using spacers so that the wires can go behind the base board and insure better ventilation. Installed in a scrap built power shack attached to an old swing set, framed up and insulated into a greenhouse and toolshed.
The property I purchased a couple years ago came with an old swing set, I have no kids or grandkids so I really didn't need a swing set, but I did need a Green
House/Walkin Hot Frame
Moving this thing was a little like playing Giant Jenga, but I eventually got it into a position that receives about 7 hours of direct sunshine/day, 5 months out of the year, 0 hours for two months and about 6 hours of indirect (filtered through leafless trees) the rest of the season.
It sits atop the foundation of an old outhouse, which is somehow strangely appropriate...
It's prime function is to supply backup power for heating the greenhouse and also houses an old Honda Generator I'm converting to CNG.
Built out of 100 year old barn board and windows, pressure treated boards, plywood sheets, storm windows, thermal plexiglass and anything else I had from 48 years of hoarding spare parts and re-modeling leftovers from my last home.
Plenty of headroom, about 7 feet to the peak, lit with LED's. Conduit runs from the house for grid power, data and audio.
The PWM charge controller came with the kit, I left room on the board for an MPPT controller come Spring. My Inverter sits on a shelf just below the board, a 1 amp float charger keeps everything topped off at night and provides heat for the board components when temps dip down into the teens. I'm using two 950 amp 7 year old flooded batteries, I originally desulfated a 30 year old deep cycle Marine battery which had been in storage for 25 years. Used a solution of 70 ounces of Baking Soda/gallon of warm water. Whatever I did worked and was really entertaining with fluid shooting out of the cells, but the battery went from 0 volts and would not take a charge to 13.5 volts charging and discharging. All I had was the meter on the charge controller which indicated 100% charge.
At present I have the system powering 2, 75 Watt heat lamps. Not shown is a 400 Watt panel heater and a 1300 Watt henhouse heater on appropriately sized thermostats.
With the addition of more panels, a better charge controller and better batteries my goal is to power the heat lamps and Panel through the short winter days and a few hours each night. So far so good, I've halved my electric usage this year over last, with temps averaging in the 60's
