Who is up for a challange?

[Bob142]

I understood all that besides the "DoD of 50%"
What is DoD?

Depth of Discharge. Typically in lead acid batteries you want to only use about half the capacity to make sure you get the longest lifespan. The deeper you discharge the battery on a consistent basis, the shorter the battery life.

Tbh this will basically just make me some coffee,

You'll want to take a look at the recent coffee maker thread below. Many use more power than you might think and may influence your inverter size. It's got some great suggestions for low power coffee making:

Coffee Maker

Forgive me if you are on all of the different Facebook DIY Solar sites etc and saw my request for this already... I've done a good job at our new cabin of selecting all low wattage LED lights etc... The 1 guilty pleasure we would really like to pull off is a coffee maker. We already have a...

diysolarforum.com

 

[Bob142]

100 Watt Amorphous Solar Panel Kit

Amazing deals on this 100 Watt Solar Panel Kit at Harbor Freight. Quality tools & low prices.

www.harborfreight.com

$199

12V, 35 Ah Sealed Lead Acid Battery

Amazing deals on this 12V 35Ah Sealed Lead Acid Battery at Harbor Freight. Quality tools & low prices.

www.harborfreight.com

$73

Harbor Freight Tools – Quality Tools at Discount Prices Since 1977

Harbor Freight buys their top quality tools from the same factories that supply our competitors. We cut out the middleman and pass the savings to you!

www.harborfreight.com

$30

Total price = $303 - plus 9% tax here so roughly $330

That seems amazing.....

Does this system seem viable?

Looks like i can buy 3 things and be all set up

.....

Im just curious as to how long i could run that inverter without hurting the battery, or if there is something i can use to cut off the inverter before it could damage the battery.

I looked at the HF kit and thought maybe we can do better in quality, longevity, and safety for that money. I'm also trying to keep it as simple as possible to assemble, so I list ready-made cables rather than ones you'd have to build yourself (still some cutting and stripping of wires but no need to buy crimping tool(s), heat gun, lugs, connectors, heat shrink etc.).

I also put some thought into how to expand it if you need to with your $50/month budget. Here's what I have so far:

Item	Cost	Notes
HQST 100W mono solar panel	$80	I have several of these and they work very well for me.
Renogy Wanderer 30A PWM charge controller	$40
10 foot 12 AWG solar panel (MC4) to charge controller (bare wire) cables	$17.50	Cut the 20' cable in half to make the two 10' cables you need.
4 foot 8 AWG charge controller (bare wire) to battery cables (5/16 lugs)	$16.50	Cut off the lugs from one side of each of the ready-made cables to connect to the charge controller.
Blue Sea dual terminal fuse block	$23	Let's keep things safe! This fuse block mounts right to the battery terminal and holds two fuses. One will be for the connection to the charge controller. The other will be for the connection to the inverter.
30A Blue Sea MRBF fuse	$14	This fuse is for the charge controller connection.
Harbor Freight 12V 35Ah sealed lead acid battery	$73	Your original battery choice.
Subtotal	$264	Not including inverter and fuse.

I didn't include the inverter in the table since you mentioned coffee high on your list and it's not clear if you intend to use an AC coffee maker or will go a different route based on the suggestions in the coffee maker thread.


Expansion suggestions using the $50/month allotment from your first post:

1) Save for two months and buy a second battery and battery connection cables (make sure to connect the charge controller and inverter to the positive of one battery and negative of the other battery so they charge and discharge evenly):

• 2nd HF battery: $73
• 2/0 AWG battery to battery connection cables: $16

2) Save for two more months and buy a second solar panel and parallel adapter cable:

• 2nd 100W HQST mono panel: $80
• MC4 parallel Y connectors: $9

The initial build gets you the 100W of solar, 35Ah battery bank system like the HF package but with better components and fuses for safety.
After 4 months you could have double the solar and battery bank capacity if you did both expansions. During the first couple of months you can figure out whether your usage requires more overnight or bad solar day stored capacity (go with expansion 1 first) or faster recharge/more daytime power (go with expansion 2 first).

You can add more batteries over time and more solar panels as well. There's some additional wiring/fusing considerations that can be discussed if you decide to go this route.

I hope this helps.

 

[Solardork]

I looked at the HF kit and thought maybe we can do better in quality, longevity, and safety for that money. I'm also trying to keep it as simple as possible to assemble, so I list ready-made cables rather than ones you'd have to build yourself (still some cutting and stripping of wires but no need to buy crimping tool(s), heat gun, lugs, connectors, heat shrink etc.).

I also put some thought into how to expand it if you need to with your $50/month budget. Here's what I have so far:

Item	Cost	Notes
HQST 100W mono solar panel	$80	I have several of these and they work very well for me.
Renogy Wanderer 30A PWM charge controller	$40
10 foot 12 AWG solar panel (MC4) to charge controller (bare wire) cables	$17.50	Cut the 20' cable in half to make the two 10' cables you need.
4 foot 8 AWG charge controller (bare wire) to battery cables (5/16 lugs)	$16.50	Cut off the lugs from one side of each of the ready-made cables to connect to the charge controller.
Blue Sea dual terminal fuse block	$23	Let's keep things safe! This fuse block mounts right to the battery terminal and holds two fuses. One will be for the connection to the charge controller. The other will be for the connection to the inverter.
30A Blue Sea MRBF fuse	$14	This fuse is for the charge controller connection.
Harbor Freight 12V 35Ah sealed lead acid battery	$73	Your original battery choice.
Subtotal	$264	Not including inverter and fuse.

I didn't include the inverter in the table since you mentioned coffee high on your list and it's not clear if you intend to use an AC coffee maker or will go a different route based on the suggestions in the coffee maker thread.


Expansion suggestions using the $50/month allotment from your first post:

1) Save for two months and buy a second battery and battery connection cables (make sure to connect the charge controller and inverter to the positive of one battery and negative of the other battery so they charge and discharge evenly):

• 2nd HF battery: $73
• 2/0 AWG battery to battery connection cables: $16

2) Save for two more months and buy a second solar panel and parallel adapter cable:

• 2nd 100W HQST mono panel: $80
• MC4 parallel Y connectors: $9

The initial build gets you the 100W of solar, 35Ah battery bank system like the HF package but with better components and fuses for safety.
After 4 months you could have double the solar and battery bank capacity if you did both expansions. During the first couple of months you can figure out whether your usage requires more overnight or bad solar day stored capacity (go with expansion 1 first) or faster recharge/more daytime power (go with expansion 2 first).

You can add more batteries over time and more solar panels as well. There's some additional wiring/fusing considerations that can be discussed if you decide to go this route.

I hope this helps.

Thank you bob, to be honest i just bought the kit, battery, and inverter. It is super easy to setup, and honestly once i get there ill have alot more options to order things online and get a better system. The problem right now is, im without a car, im 20 milea from town, and i need to have everything within a week, and my buddy had to drive me around, so a one stop harbor freight trip was best. When i get the the land, ill be buying a car in that area. As for the coffee maker, i changed my mind on that simply because i can use my camping brewer. So really, the only power ill need to consume from this system is to charge my phones, and power packs to run my 5c stuff, run the lights that came with it, and thats it, ill be cooking on a camp stove and eating food that doesnt require a fridge. After i get the truck, ill be starting on a cabin and will set that entire thing up with a high quality solar system. This system here, will stay for my camper incase i need to run lights in there or something which ill be using the camper as storage.

 

[Solardork]

Depth of Discharge. Typically in lead acid batteries you want to only use about half the capacity to make sure you get the longest lifespan. The deeper you discharge the battery on a consistent basis, the shorter the battery life.


You'll want to take a look at the recent coffee maker thread below. Many use more power than you might think and may influence your inverter size. It's got some great suggestions for low power coffee making:

Coffee Maker

Forgive me if you are on all of the different Facebook DIY Solar sites etc and saw my request for this already... I've done a good job at our new cabin of selecting all low wattage LED lights etc... The 1 guilty pleasure we would really like to pull off is a coffee maker. We already have a...

diysolarforum.com

This is the battery i went with, as for the coffee maker ill just brew it in my camp brewer. Runs on my propane stove.

 

[rin67630]

You can be pretty sure that every current device labelled "110V-240V AC" has an electronic switching power supply inside.
These power supplies will rectify the AC to DC, then chop it at high frequency to a small transformer...
These devices will nicely run at 110V DC as well. There is no need to waste energy and money on an inverter.
You just need a boost DC converter capable of 110V output.

Only caveat: avoid small mechanical on-off switches that do not deal nicely with DC.
Electronic on-off and remote On-off is OK.