# Pic's Of a Poor Man's Solar System



## Nadja (Jan 12, 2011)

I figured out that pic's say a thousand words, and when it comes to solar, especially for the newbie, they may prehaps say even more. Most of the new people to solar only see the "proffesional" installed system, which although works, costs about 50% more then what you can do it yourself. So, the link below will take you directly to the page on my web site where you can see how it works . Nadja

MySolarSystem


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## jungatheart (Feb 2, 2010)

I am so jealous.


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## Nadja (Jan 12, 2011)

jungatheart said:


> I am so jealous.


I started with one 80 kyrocera panel and two batteries about 16 years ago, and just one at a time unlil last year when I bought 6 It is like saving money, don't worry about the 100 dollar bills, just worry about the 1.00 bills. They add up faster then you can believe.


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## Jimmy24 (Apr 20, 2011)

What all are you powering?

It's beyond cool!

Jimmy


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## mosquitomountainman (Jan 25, 2010)

Thanks for sharing. We began n a similar way with one - 65 watt panel I picked up for doing some vehicle repairs. We then added a 100 watt panel, then three 130 watt panels then four 135 watt panels.

We purchased a used 800 watt trace inverter which is dedicated to the electric refrigerator and we use a Xantrex 1000 watt inverter for household duty. We recently removed the 65 and 100 watt inverters to use them on other projects. We now have six golf-cart batteries for storage capacity. We also have a 500 watt wind turbine but it's not hooked up at the moment. 

Little by little it all adds up.


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## Nadja (Jan 12, 2011)

Jimmy 24 I power my entire house on it. all the time.


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## Jimmy24 (Apr 20, 2011)

Nadja said:


> Jimmy 24 I power my entire house on it. all the time.


I was pretty sure you were 100%. Just a couple more questions, if you don't mind.

How much reserve do you have? I know the wind blows there just about all the time, so your wind gen works all the time.

What type/brand of fridge do you use? Has it worked well?

My little dinky solar is just me trying things out, but have that dream.

Thanks so much for sharing.

mosquitomountainman any thing you can add I would love too!

Jimmy


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## Nadja (Jan 12, 2011)

Jimmy24 said:


> I was pretty sure you were 100%. Just a couple more questions, if you don't mind.
> 
> How much reserve do you have? I know the wind blows there just about all the time, so your wind gen works all the time.
> 
> ...


Ok. I run a Hotpoint refer/freezer, a magic chef chest freezer. Two desk top computers both now with flat screen. A 27" crt tv, lights, stereo, and whatever else I need to.

Refer and chest freezer use about 1.1 amps ea on normal cycle, a little more on start up which is only about 1 second ea. 
Wind here really isnt all that good, you see I am in a heavily treed small very private hidden valley, so not much wind. For the money I put into the wind gennie along with a lot of hard work etc, it was not even close to worth it. I could and should have just bought more solar panels.


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## rdwolf (Mar 14, 2012)

Nadja said:


> I figured out that pic's say a thousand words, and when it comes to solar, especially for the newbie, they may prehaps say even more. Most of the new people to solar only see the "proffesional" installed system, which although works, costs about 50% more then what you can do it yourself. So, the link below will take you directly to the page on my web site where you can see how it works . Nadja
> 
> MySolarSystem


Hi, just curious to know on the Wind Turbine how long is the wire run from the turbine to the charge controller?


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## Nadja (Jan 12, 2011)

The wire run is about 120 ft. Not a problem as my wind generator is ac 3 ph.


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## ovosapian (Mar 6, 2012)

This is inspirational, I would love to be off the grid; never thought it could be done slowly!


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## Nadja (Jan 12, 2011)

I suppose to sum this up for the new or beginning solar person, I would strongly recomend that you avoid the wind generators until you have the solar and gained some useful experience from it. To get started cheaply, shop around on the net for a solar panel or two, also the components. Most likely you would really want to go with the outback inveter's if you plan on moving up and letting your system grow to run your entire house. If you start with the smaller inverters, then down the road, you will need/want to upgrade into a much more usable inverter. Same with the charge controllers. The outback mppt80's are the best, but also the priceiest of them all. However, they are much more flexable then most all the rest, and allow you to grow quite large without constantly upgrading. 

Before any of you put out the sheckles to buy anything, do a lot of research on everything and ask all the questions you can think of . It will save you a lot of money and frustration in the long run.


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## greene (Mar 23, 2012)

Ok I am new to this. I woul be very interested to see a dumbed down over generalized drawing or summary as to what components you need just to get tarted and what it would be able to have added to it. Id love to tie my house in for now, see how it goes and maybe ad to it later and go off grid. I also have a cabin that I am going to be off grid from the get go. I have very very minimal requirements for that but still need a charging system. Any sugg? Sorry for spelling and abbrevviations. My phone is acting up.


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## Nadja (Jan 12, 2011)

greene, if you use your cabin more the just a little bit, then you may want to start with it first. That way you will not make mistakes with grid wiring. Why don't you shop around on the net for a panel about 225 watts, 24 v. Then get yourself 4 wallyworld 6v golf cart batteries. Next look around for a Xantrax C-60 charge controller and a cheaper xantrax sine wave inverter. Those would be the main componants and depending on your needs may run pretty much all you need in the cabin. Also, this will give you pleanty of experience on installing and using a very basic solar system


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## greene (Mar 23, 2012)

Ok, I have a used 4ld 12 volt battery. Its a large capacity battery with a lot of reserve but not a deep cycle. I was going to use it to get me going. I want to get an inverter andd if I need to ill use a smalll generator to charge it for now... I will start shopping for a panel and controller. Also for the cabin, should I run any 12 volt through it or wire it for 110 and plug in the inverter? I'm not ssure how to plug into exiting wiring


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## Nadja (Jan 12, 2011)

My recomendation for your cabin would be to keep it ac all the way. Once you have an inverter, it will match up to any and all exsisting wiring other then 220. Keep your needs small, and in that way you will find the shortcummings quickly and will be ready to fix or add as nec. to your system. That old 12v battery will not run much, other then maybe a light or two but, will work ,,,, sorta


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## greene (Mar 23, 2012)

Ok, I know that battery will do for a few lights. I won't have anything but a few cfl in it anyhow. So say 100 watts at any given time, should only draw 8 to 10 amps from that battery, right ? I do however want to get a little fridge to put in it and that is another dc v ac question. Go with an rv fridge or try to find an efficient mini fridge? For now we plan on using the cabin for weekends only, its a mile off the farm on the river, so nothing will be on most of the time. SO my thought for now is work toward more reserve capacity and a slower charge is ok. Rather than having a charge capacity equal to my usage rate.


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## Nadja (Jan 12, 2011)

you should not be using more then about 1 amp , if that for a few cfl lights. For the fridge, my neighbor who uses his cabin a few weekends ea summer, bought one of those dorm refer's and it uses the same as my large kitchen refer. 1.1 amps running and about 2.5 for a split second start up.


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## greene (Mar 23, 2012)

For the fridge, you are aying 2.5 amp startup draw of 110? I figure a 60 watt cfl, draw 13 watts useaage, say I had 9 of them at about 120 watt total sshould be using about 10 amps from the batttery right? I was just rounding up and guesing for the fridge etc. Prob have a pump or two as well.


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## Nadja (Jan 12, 2011)

My fridge and or freezer each have a start up draw of a little over double of reg running use. But that is only for a fraction of a second. Pumps will pull some power, of that have no doubt. Why on earth would you need so many lights on at once ?


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## DKRinAK (Nov 21, 2011)

Nadja said:


> greene, if you use your cabin more the just a little bit, then you may want to start with it first. That way you will not make mistakes with grid wiring. Why don't you shop around on the net for a panel about 225 watts, 24 v. *Then get yourself 4 wallyworld 6v golf cart batteries.* Next look around for a Xantrax C-60 charge controller and a cheaper xantrax sine wave inverter. Those would be the main componants and depending on your needs may run pretty much all you need in the cabin. Also, this will give you pleanty of experience on installing and using a very basic solar system


I have had luck in the past buying 6 V batteries from a golf course for the scrap value of the lead. Take a voltmeter to check fro dead cells before you cart them away.


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