chrissyp
New Member
Hi all! I'm working on my first small solar and battery system. It's meant to be a homemade alternative to a Jackery for camping and offsetting some home use. It's also an exercise in understanding how cheap it is to assemble a DIY system (esp vs a jackery!)
I've come up with 3 BOMs and I'd love the community's feedback. Am I missing anything? Are there any cheaper options available to me?
One thing I'm struck by is how cheap this all is! In Northern California, our power is around $0.4/kw and so these systems would pay themselves back in less than 2 years. That's A LOT shorter than the 5-15 year solar+battery payback period that I've heard for ages.
Scenario 1 - $259 for $400w- The smallest and cheapest scenario
Energy (kWh) - 0.384
Cost - $259
$/kWh - $674
PV (Solar Panels) - 1 New Rich Solar 100W ($90)
Battery - 1 Battery Hookup 12V 3Ah - $81
Solar Charge Controller - Renogy Wanderer 10A (130W PV) - $18
Inverter - Giandel Used 1.6kW 12V - $70
Scenario 2 -$400 for 1500w - 12V and not a pure sine wave -
Energy (kWh) - 1.536
Cost - $416
$/kWh - $271
PV - 1 230W Used Yingli from Santan Solar (would need to sell the other 9 panels in the palette)
Battery - 4 Battery Hookup 12V 3Ah - $243
Solar Charge Controller - Victron 100V 20A (290W PV)
Inverter - Giandel Used 1.6kW 12V - $70
Scenario 3 - $770 for 3073W and Pure Sine Wave but lower output (300w)
Energy (kWh) - 1.536
Cost - $770
$/kWh - $251
PV - 4 230W Used Yingli from Santan Solar (would need to sell the other 6 panels in the palette)
Battery - 8 Battery Hookup 12V 3Ah - $243
Solar Charge Controller - Victron 100V 20A (290W PV)
Inverter - Victron 48V 375VA - 300W output - $118
***
A few open questions:
- Can I run the Battery Hookup 12V batteries in parallel or will the BMS/SoC not behave? I'm new to this
- The inverter output seems like a tricky piece of the puzzle - 300W output is pretty low and it's unclear if I need a pure sine wave for my home appliances or not.
- The Santan Solar panels are so cheap (5x cheaper! $0.2/w!) but I don't need 10 of them. So do I try to sell on craigslist? Anyone had luck with this?
- What else am I missing? Gotta look in to fuses etc as outlined here: https://www.mobile-solarpower.com/the-classic-400-watt-rvs-vans-buses.html
- Anyone had any luck with these Battery Hookup batteries? They are cheaper than the Watt Cycle ones.
-$251/kWh - How much cheaper does this get at scale?
I've come up with 3 BOMs and I'd love the community's feedback. Am I missing anything? Are there any cheaper options available to me?
One thing I'm struck by is how cheap this all is! In Northern California, our power is around $0.4/kw and so these systems would pay themselves back in less than 2 years. That's A LOT shorter than the 5-15 year solar+battery payback period that I've heard for ages.
Scenario 1 - $259 for $400w- The smallest and cheapest scenario
Energy (kWh) - 0.384
Cost - $259
$/kWh - $674
PV (Solar Panels) - 1 New Rich Solar 100W ($90)
Battery - 1 Battery Hookup 12V 3Ah - $81
Solar Charge Controller - Renogy Wanderer 10A (130W PV) - $18
Inverter - Giandel Used 1.6kW 12V - $70
Scenario 2 -$400 for 1500w - 12V and not a pure sine wave -
Energy (kWh) - 1.536
Cost - $416
$/kWh - $271
PV - 1 230W Used Yingli from Santan Solar (would need to sell the other 9 panels in the palette)
Battery - 4 Battery Hookup 12V 3Ah - $243
Solar Charge Controller - Victron 100V 20A (290W PV)
Inverter - Giandel Used 1.6kW 12V - $70
Scenario 3 - $770 for 3073W and Pure Sine Wave but lower output (300w)
Energy (kWh) - 1.536
Cost - $770
$/kWh - $251
PV - 4 230W Used Yingli from Santan Solar (would need to sell the other 6 panels in the palette)
Battery - 8 Battery Hookup 12V 3Ah - $243
Solar Charge Controller - Victron 100V 20A (290W PV)
Inverter - Victron 48V 375VA - 300W output - $118
***
A few open questions:
- Can I run the Battery Hookup 12V batteries in parallel or will the BMS/SoC not behave? I'm new to this
- The inverter output seems like a tricky piece of the puzzle - 300W output is pretty low and it's unclear if I need a pure sine wave for my home appliances or not.
- The Santan Solar panels are so cheap (5x cheaper! $0.2/w!) but I don't need 10 of them. So do I try to sell on craigslist? Anyone had luck with this?
- What else am I missing? Gotta look in to fuses etc as outlined here: https://www.mobile-solarpower.com/the-classic-400-watt-rvs-vans-buses.html
- Anyone had any luck with these Battery Hookup batteries? They are cheaper than the Watt Cycle ones.
-$251/kWh - How much cheaper does this get at scale?
Last edited:
