WDB
New Member
Hello, my name is Wayne.
I live in the Mojave Desert, and have just started to collect items for an off-grid setup.
I first got interested in Solar power over thirty years ago, I was a subscriber to Home Power magazine from about issue #10.
My first experience playing around with solar was when i bought some 1' square Amorphous Silicon cells and made small panels with them, I got some surplus Johnson Controls sealed lead acid batteries for storage, I lived in an apartment at the time so I was only doing stuff like running small electronics off them, luckily my back porch faced south. When I moved a few years later I bought an old Itasca class A motor home and added some solar panels to it, I got some used Arco panels from the Carrizo solar farm, they were a little bronzed but still worked, I think I was getting about 34 watts each out of them, in 1994 new panels were really expensive so it was a lot cheaper to go used. I used 6 volt golf cart batteries for storage, they were cheap at about $40 dollars each, I had a 2000 watt modified sine wave inverter for some not so great AC power. I bought my house a few years later and I gave the motor home to my brother.
Well now I want to set up something, decent, I bought some Sharp 220 watt panels several years back that have just been sitting in my shed, I bought a cheap all in one 48 volt Inverter last year and a ground mount, my older brother gave me some batteries and I bought a BMS for them. I am just waiting for nicer weather so I can get a small building for them built, I want to make sure if there ever is a fire that it stays contained, it will either be concrete block or metal. I am sure once I get it all up and running that I will want to upgrade the inverter to something higher end.
I live in the Mojave Desert, and have just started to collect items for an off-grid setup.
I first got interested in Solar power over thirty years ago, I was a subscriber to Home Power magazine from about issue #10.
My first experience playing around with solar was when i bought some 1' square Amorphous Silicon cells and made small panels with them, I got some surplus Johnson Controls sealed lead acid batteries for storage, I lived in an apartment at the time so I was only doing stuff like running small electronics off them, luckily my back porch faced south. When I moved a few years later I bought an old Itasca class A motor home and added some solar panels to it, I got some used Arco panels from the Carrizo solar farm, they were a little bronzed but still worked, I think I was getting about 34 watts each out of them, in 1994 new panels were really expensive so it was a lot cheaper to go used. I used 6 volt golf cart batteries for storage, they were cheap at about $40 dollars each, I had a 2000 watt modified sine wave inverter for some not so great AC power. I bought my house a few years later and I gave the motor home to my brother.
Well now I want to set up something, decent, I bought some Sharp 220 watt panels several years back that have just been sitting in my shed, I bought a cheap all in one 48 volt Inverter last year and a ground mount, my older brother gave me some batteries and I bought a BMS for them. I am just waiting for nicer weather so I can get a small building for them built, I want to make sure if there ever is a fire that it stays contained, it will either be concrete block or metal. I am sure once I get it all up and running that I will want to upgrade the inverter to something higher end.