I need some help and am overwhelmed by so many choices,brands,types,quality,etc for a solar system. I need to add a couple accessories to the chicken coop For starters a A 12 V water pump 12watt, 12 V water heater 150 Watt, temp control 12v 3watt and some lighting. The hard part is judging run time mainly in the winter so the drinking water for the chickens doesn’t freeze. Would love to hear some ideas. Thank you in advance.
Chicken coop
- Thread starter Passero
- Start date
Insulate the water container heavily and find the lowest wattage freeze protection you can (that works). This is likely your heaviest load over time.
You may have to just refresh water manually if there is not enough sun and stuffs freezing. Backup!
Pretty simple to uave good chicken house power. If you are in the north and want it to work reliably in winter its more of an engineering feat.
The people on here havs a good idea of what the components in the blueprint sections will do and not do.
Thermostatic water freeze protection devices for livestock could have all kinds of different cycle times and weather varies. Its best measured with as much of the freeze we have left.
There would be large benefit to having heavy insulation. The best livestock watering devices for cold weather use it. Basically a blow or rotomolded raised water dish with gravity freeze protection on the well line and insulated dish with electric assist.
Great stuff foam ina can and creative use of bucketry could serve.
However different from your personal rendition, insulating the water you heat with available solar electric collection and storage will bring system requirements down, likewise any total system budget dollar will be more effective.
Ritchie waterers are a good look at how industry has solved some issues.
You may have to just refresh water manually if there is not enough sun and stuffs freezing. Backup!
Pretty simple to uave good chicken house power. If you are in the north and want it to work reliably in winter its more of an engineering feat.
The people on here havs a good idea of what the components in the blueprint sections will do and not do.
Thermostatic water freeze protection devices for livestock could have all kinds of different cycle times and weather varies. Its best measured with as much of the freeze we have left.
There would be large benefit to having heavy insulation. The best livestock watering devices for cold weather use it. Basically a blow or rotomolded raised water dish with gravity freeze protection on the well line and insulated dish with electric assist.
Great stuff foam ina can and creative use of bucketry could serve.
However different from your personal rendition, insulating the water you heat with available solar electric collection and storage will bring system requirements down, likewise any total system budget dollar will be more effective.
Ritchie waterers are a good look at how industry has solved some issues.
Thank you for all of the useful information. I have the watering setup for our chicken coop. However, I am looking for advise on how to power the accessories with solar. The blueprints are helpful but for the accessories I have Can I downsize? I am located in Massachusetts. Thank you in advance.
Yes, you can downsize. Rough size for anything like this will have a starting point of 100Ah battery and 150W solar. 150- 200Ah and 200-300Wpv would likely perform better.
I would go back to some of the system sizing tutorials here and elsewhere. The answer is somewhere between that information and your design requirements.
If you have a way to run all the loads you would like to run, and can keep the heater at 25W or so for 6 hours (15 minutes on the hour rough), water pumping less than 24hr, you may get 3.5 days along with some lighting (seasonal affective light or area lighting or both, not sure) from a 100Ah battery....... no sun, 80% d.o.d.
I would use a control that will allow over sizing the array or module for low light performance and reliable recharge early in the day.
I would go back to some of the system sizing tutorials here and elsewhere. The answer is somewhere between that information and your design requirements.
If you have a way to run all the loads you would like to run, and can keep the heater at 25W or so for 6 hours (15 minutes on the hour rough), water pumping less than 24hr, you may get 3.5 days along with some lighting (seasonal affective light or area lighting or both, not sure) from a 100Ah battery....... no sun, 80% d.o.d.
I would use a control that will allow over sizing the array or module for low light performance and reliable recharge early in the day.
To give you an idea of the system. A five gal. Bucket acting as a water tower,hose leaving the bucket going into a watering bar (by gravity) with several watering nipples.on the other side of the bar will be the pump. The pump I found (bayite byt-7ao14 12v 0.7a) will turn on with heating element (dernord 12v 150w #dnjf150161) circulating heated water to the top of bucket,this will be controlled by temp. Control ( bayite tcf-3a035,I need to check on that). Some simple lighting, maybe a little camera.
Run time ?? I need to go with a budget. Good call on low light, it is in a wooded area. I was thinking, would it be better to go with better quality ( lithium) and less run time? And safe. This is just a fun project, I cannot spend a lot , thinking around $400
Enjoying learning curve and challenge.
Can we hook up also a small windmill? I am building one.
Thanks for your help
Run time ?? I need to go with a budget. Good call on low light, it is in a wooded area. I was thinking, would it be better to go with better quality ( lithium) and less run time? And safe. This is just a fun project, I cannot spend a lot , thinking around $400
Enjoying learning curve and challenge.
Can we hook up also a small windmill? I am building one.
Thanks for your help
Absolutely.
I would get the biggest, best, panel i could find for 45-55 cents a watt (125$-150$/300Wish 20v if available. Pwm cc will not have an issue. Some pwms have high voltage acceptance also) and the heaviest deep cycle 100Ah-150Ah 12v battery for 125$-200$ group 31 are used for floor scrubbers, industrial lifts, power supply, etc. Pretty tough, there are others.
A deep cycle marine can work. Will not last as long as a golf car battery.
Then id toss another 100 in the budget for wire, fusing/distribution and a charge controller
(And upgrade to two golf car batteries)
A deep cycle marine can work. Will not last as long as a golf car battery.
Then id toss another 100 in the budget for wire, fusing/distribution and a charge controller
(And upgrade to two golf car batteries)
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