diy solar

diy solar

Hello from the bib mitten - Michigan to some of you.

Johnny Lightning

New Member
Joined
Dec 24, 2019
Messages
34
I'll probably just lurk and learn for a while. I plan on moving into a motor home in the spring or summer and have been looking at ways to add a reasonable amount of solar for less than the $7-8000 it costs for 1,000 watts & 4 Battle Born batteries. I think I found the place to do that. I have the skills but I need the design knowledge and parts vendors.
 
You found the place! A couple places to check out:


 
With the budget of 7-8K you can build a very nice solid & robust system without requiring a lot of "compromise" parts.
Words of Advice ! STUDY ! Ask Questions, think things out and recheck them and most importantly apply the rule of KISS !
There is no such thing as a Stupid Question, except for the one that is not asked ! If in doubt, ASK.
Two adages to be well aware of !
"Penny Wise & Dollar Foolish" - "Penny Foolish & Dollar Wise" both can apply equally, especially if Murphy's Laws come into play.

You will need to figure out how much power your going to be using on a daily basis to run your equipment (fridge, Lights, computer, TV etc).
Then you will want to figure out how many days you want to go without solar charging (cloudy & bad weather days).
Next you will need to think of how to recharge on bad days (small generator or grid power or ?).

You can't begin figuring out what system parts you will need till you know how much power you will require & how much autonomy you want.
 
I'm trying to stay under the $7-8000 range, I can just buy stuff from Northern Arizona Wind and Sun and hook it up for that kind of money. I have a Kill-a-watt I got from my Mother-in-law's second husband so I can monitor my usage. The motor home I'm going to buy will have a 6-8000 watt gennie built in but I want the solar because it's quiet and once purchased essentially free and maintenance free. Because of the gennie I won't need more than a couple of days of capacity. If I could come in around $3-5,000 that would be great. I will have 2 100 AH lead acid batteries in the motor home when I buy it and I think an inverter but I'm not sure if it's pure sine wave or the size, but I'll know that soon enough. I'm not necessarily looking at drop in replacement batteries due to cost and the fact that the current battery compartment is not sealed because of the lead-acid batteries. I guess I could seal it but I'll probably just use the slide-out tray for something else like maybe more propane capacity, I don't know yet. All those reasons are why I'm going to lurk and learn, but knowing me I'll be asking some questions too.
 
I'll probably just lurk and learn for a while. I plan on moving into a motor home in the spring or summer and have been looking at ways to add a reasonable amount of solar for less than the $7-8000 it costs for 1,000 watts & 4 Battle Born batteries. I think I found the place to do that. I have the skills but I need the design knowledge and parts vendors.

Hello,
I'm in San jose, Ca, just finised my 48v Off Grid system,
Here is my setup :
- 375w REC solar panel x 9 ( Total 3375 w )
- Midnite Classic 150 Charge controller
- Meritsun 48v/200AH Lifepo4 battery Powerwall ( Total 10Kwh )
- 48v/7000w/120v ac Reliable Inverter
It's been running very nice, power a whole home ( 1200 Sq ) all day and night
For the total price less than $9000 Usd, pretty good deal,
 
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