Question about living on solar power

[corporal_Canada]

Hello, my name is Chris, im a french-Canadian that moved to the Philippines, i built a cute cabin in this God kissed country and im rather sick of using electricity that comes from a coal plant, everything here comes from China so solar power is relatively cheap but im skeptical about plugging things into a dc to ac inverter, back in Quebec i was running a small fan that was plugged into a 300watt inverter, feeding off a 12v battery, eventually the battery was completely drained and the fan just stopped, heres the strange part the fan (this happened to 2 fans) never worked again in both cases, my question is, will draining the 12v battery also damage a 500watt ac ? Or a low power fridge ? I want to populate my entire roof with solar panels and have multiple car batteries (i dunno 5 or so), so if all 5 batteries are drained from overnight usage of the AC, will the inverter damage the AC permanently or the fridge ?

 

[Tomthumb62]

back in Quebec i was running a small fan that was plugged into a 300watt inverter, feeding off a 12v battery, eventually the battery was completely drained and the fan just stopped

What kind of battery was that? A regular car battery?

 

[pollenface]

Never heard of that happening before. Maybe throw that inverter in the bin.

Ideally you should be auditing your energy needs and building a battery that's not going to go completely flat overnight. Allow a bit extra incase you get a couple rainy days in a row.

 

[50ShadesOfDirt]

That is an oddity, but I'd suspect:
1. the inverter throwing some kind of bad power down the line to the fans
2. the fans, possibly being inexpensive, just didn't have the protection circuitry to avoid bad power coming from the inverter

An SMPS (wall-wart power block) or otherwise, might have helped for #2 above, as they eat all kinds of power problems and still manage to convert that to good power to the device they feed.

If possible, put a good "surge suppressor" power strip or block in front of any devices you want to protect from iffy power, and monitor them over the years (as a surge suppressor power strip will sacrifice itself and lose function over time). Surges (big, small) are possibly the biggest killer of electronics out there.

A high-quality inverter, wired into a circuit-breaker panel, and the panel having a good surge-suppressor device (these come in circuit breaker snap-in design), should protect most everything in the house. The inverter itself, regardless of the battery-bank it is hooked up to, is responsible for detecting low voltage from the battery-bank, and disconnecting AC output until the low voltage situation is cleared up by you. Every inverter does this in their own way, so lots of research, and buying a higher-quality model, should better protect your devices.

Hope this helps ...

 

[50ShadesOfDirt]

We've been on off-grid solar gear for upwards of 10 years now ... we do utilize a magnum ms4024pae (tier-1, LF) inverter for the main house, and it does a great job of protecting our house electronics devices. Rock-solid inverter unit, running way past it's original warranty ...

We also utilize a windy-nation 12v inverter, and an MPP 24v AIO inverter for various projects, and they work well ... no electronics issues downstream of them. Only thing I'm unsure of is how long will they last ... just to their (much shorter) warranty period, or beyond, and what I will do about it (probably buy multiples of them, replacing them as they die)..

Again, research and buy quality components, up to the amount you can afford, and I don't think you'll have these kinds of issues. I don't believe most people have them (if they also address surge protection), and if they do, I'd guess that the issues can ultimately be traced to low-quality inverters.

Hope this helps ...

 

[efficientPV]

The 10V turn off an inverter has is to protect the inverter. 10V will destroy your battery over time. Most inverters are hard to turn off as they do not have external connections to switch them on and off. Mine have slide switches and I solder additional wires to them and wire that to a voltage relay. This one you can set when it turns on and when it turns off. Yes, it is from China and only costs a little over $2 shipped.

 

[Mattb4]

Hello, my name is Chris, im a french-Canadian that moved to the Philippines, i built a cute cabin in this God kissed country and im rather sick of using electricity that comes from a coal plant, everything here comes from China so solar power is relatively cheap but im skeptical about plugging things into a dc to ac inverter, back in Quebec i was running a small fan that was plugged into a 300watt inverter, feeding off a 12v battery, eventually the battery was completely drained and the fan just stopped, heres the strange part the fan (this happened to 2 fans) never worked again in both cases, my question is, will draining the 12v battery also damage a 500watt ac ? Or a low power fridge ? I want to populate my entire roof with solar panels and have multiple car batteries (i dunno 5 or so), so if all 5 batteries are drained from overnight usage of the AC, will the inverter damage the AC permanently or the fridge ?

Quite a few people have no equipment issues with running DC to AC inverters. In is hard to kill a shaded pole fan motor. For your inverter to do this it must have been a really crappy one. Likely a MSW and not a pure sine wave.

Batteries designed to start autos are not a good choice for power storage and conversion. For that you want Deep Cycle types. Although higher cost going LiFePO4 is even a better approach. At minimum consider a 24vDC or better a 48vDC battery bank.

If you intend to power your cabin off of solar and batteries you will want good equipment. There are many reviews of these here on the Forum and you can also research particular ones you become interested in off the Internet.

 

[corporal_Canada]

What kind of battery was that? A regular car battery?

Yup, standard car battery, possibly 600cca (cold cranking amps i think it means)

 

[efficientPV]

I run my whole house on a car battery. If you treat them right, there isn't a problem. It is likely there is little chance of that.

 

[Tomthumb62]

Yup, standard car battery, possibly 600cca (cold cranking amps i think it means)

That’s your problem. Don’t use those as they’re designed for starting an engine and have very little storage energy for powering low loads like a fan.

Get any one of these and you’ll be golden:

LiFePO4 Batteries for Offgrid and Mobile Solar

The lithium batteries below are considered "Drop-in Lead Acid Replacement" because you can use them with standard 12/24/48 volt solar charge controllers/chargers/inverters and more. Simply hook them...

www.mobile-solarpower.com

 

[Tomthumb62]

I run my whole house on a car battery. If you treat them right, there isn't a problem. It is likely there is little chance of that.

While possible, I wouldn’t recommend this approach to a beginner. Too many variables to keep in line for this to work.

I could pedal across the USA on a single speed bicycle, but I wouldn’t recommend that. A 10- or 27-speed would be better suited.

 

[corporal_Canada]

Never heard of that happening before. Maybe throw that inverter in the bin.

Ideally you should be auditing your energy needs and building a battery that's not going to go completely flat overnight. Allow a bit extra incase you get a couple rainy days in a row.

I already did, it was some US brand

 

[Supervstech]

While possible, I wouldn’t recommend this approach to a beginner. Too many variables to keep in line for this to work.

I could pedal across the USA on a single speed bicycle, but I wouldn’t recommend that. A 10- or 27-speed would be better suited.

A bus, car or airplane would be a better idea.

 

[corporal_Canada]

That’s your problem. Don’t use those as they’re designed for starting an engine and have very little storage energy for powering low loads like a fan.

Get any one of these and you’ll be golden:

LiFePO4 Batteries for Offgrid and Mobile Solar

The lithium batteries below are considered "Drop-in Lead Acid Replacement" because you can use them with standard 12/24/48 volt solar charge controllers/chargers/inverters and more. Simply hook them...

www.mobile-solarpower.com

That website only ships to the states, im not there nor will i ever step foot in there, (sorry some of us in Canada are still touchy about the 1812 attempted invasion)

 

[corporal_Canada]

That’s your problem. Don’t use those as they’re designed for starting an engine and have very little storage energy for powering low loads like a fan.

Get any one of these and you’ll be golden:

LiFePO4 Batteries for Offgrid and Mobile Solar

The lithium batteries below are considered "Drop-in Lead Acid Replacement" because you can use them with standard 12/24/48 volt solar charge controllers/chargers/inverters and more. Simply hook them...

www.mobile-solarpower.com

Found this while searching for lifepo4

 

[Tomthumb62]

That website only ships to the states, im not there nor will i ever step foot in there, (sorry some of us in Canada are still touchy about the 1812 attempted invasion)

Okay how about Amazon.ca? Windy Nation sells there.

4/0 Gauge 4/0 AWG 10 Feet Red + 10 Feet Black Welding Battery Pure Copper Flexible Cable + 10pcs of 3/8" Tinned Copper Cable Lug Terminal Connectors + 3 Feet Black Heat Shrink Tubing
https://a.co/d/iBg0et5

 

[efficientPV]

While possible, I wouldn’t recommend this approach to a beginner. Too many variables to keep in line for this to work.

I could pedal across the USA on a single speed bicycle, but I wouldn’t recommend that. A 10- or 27-speed would be better suited.

I think everyone should start with an old car battery. Everyone destroys their first battery. If they learn how to take care of that, and only then, they can move on to something better.

 

[corporal_Canada]

Okay how about Amazon.ca? Windy Nation sells there.

4/0 Gauge 4/0 AWG 10 Feet Red + 10 Feet Black Welding Battery Pure Copper Flexible Cable + 10pcs of 3/8" Tinned Copper Cable Lug Terminal Connectors + 3 Feet Black Heat Shrink Tubing
https://a.co/d/iBg0et5

I also found this, it sais lifepo4 and it costs a little over 300$cad

 

[Rednecktek]

I think everyone should start with an old car battery. Everyone destroys their first battery. If they learn how to take care of that, and only then, they can move on to something better.

I've said for a long time that if you might break something, break something CHEAP! That's why I have so many WallyWorld DC29 batteries.

That website only ships to the states, im not there nor will i ever step foot in there, (sorry some of us in Canada are still touchy about the 1812 attempted invasion)

I wouldn't be too upset, you guys won that one. We didn't have insurance on the big house anyways. ?

Batteries designed to start autos are not a good choice for power storage and conversion. For that you want Deep Cycle types. Although higher cost going LiFePO4 is even a better approach. At minimum consider a 24vDC or better a 48vDC battery bank.

Fortunately from what I've seen, when you take into account the 50% limit on an AGM, the LFP and AGM are pretty much even on cost per usable watts. I.E. if you can get 100Ah out of a LFP battery for $350, it'll cost you about $350 to get 2 100Ah AGM batteries, so it's a wash.

 

[corporal_Canada]

I've said for a long time that if you might break something, break something CHEAP! That's why I have so many WallyWorld DC29 batteries.


I wouldn't be too upset, you guys won that one. We didn't have insurance on the big house anyways. ?


Fortunately from what I've seen, when you take into account the 50% limit on an AGM, the LFP and AGM are pretty much even on cost per usable watts. I.E. if you can get 100Ah out of a LFP battery for $350, it'll cost you about $350 to get 2 100Ah AGM batteries, so it's a wash.

Wouldnt it make more sense to buy a chinese clone of a blue,etti or ecoflo ? They have the charge controller,inverter built into it..and they are like 200$cad for 1000 wh