# Starting a solar power set up?



## Deathdealer (Oct 26, 2013)

Hi I live in norther Wisconsin and would like to know how to set up a small solar power kit to run a indoor Electric heater off of! Last winter was a bad one and my Electric bill was threw the roof bc I had to use a space heater all day and all night literally 24/7! So I would like to know how to set up a solar powered kit to run that space heater off of this winter so it would be free to run it off of! Any kits or knowledge would be extremely welcomed to know about! I'm not to knowledgeable about all of this and electronics to begin with so I could really use all the help I can get from all of you to helping me out with this! I did find a kit at my local harbor freight but I'm not sure if it can run my space heater for the entire winter! And my goal is if I can get this set up to work and understand fully how it works then I can grow my solar powered system in the future! So please all the help I can get is needed


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## hiwall (Jun 15, 2012)

Basically what you want, you can not do.
I would suggest some kind of portable LP gas (propane) heater. Way cheaper and much more practical.


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## cowboyhermit (Nov 10, 2012)

Direct electrical heating is one of the most difficult things one can do with solar. By difficult I simply mean that it requires a TON of panels compared to most applications. A typical space heater will use 1500W of power, so 1500W of panels could run that heater in full sun, (maybe with losses and overrated panels). When the sun isn't shining though, it is another issue entirely, then you have the issue of losses in batteries on top of things, and you need a LOT of batteries compared to other applications. So, at the very minimum you would likely require 3000W of panels, a 1500W inverter, several batteries, etc., a very large investment (and one that could alternatively run a fridge, freezer, lights, electronics, etc).

It is entirely doable, but is likely not your best option. At the very least running a heat pump instead of a heater will likely be a better option. An air sourced pump will give give you more heat than electricity put in but it's efficiency is dependent on ambient temperature. A ground sourced heat pump is more efficient, especially with cold air temps.

Another option is solar thermal heating, either with evacuated tubes, or other methods, these are typically MUCH more efficient than solar electric heating.

One more thing is that spending a significant of money (such as would be required for this setup) on improving the efficiency of the building envelope might be a better bet.

Lastly, if one decides to go the solar electric route then some form of thermal storage is a very good idea. Heating some sort of mass during the day is much less costly than increasing battery bank size.


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## Viking (Mar 16, 2009)

I like what cowboyhermit had to say about thermal storage. The reality of solar electrical systems is that you really need to think minimal electrical usage when designing one. The system I designed is for two refrigerators, a small chest freezer and a few low wattage led lights. My wife wants to be able to run a dryer with solar but I'm trying to educate her that resistance heating systems use tremendous amounts of current and are just not all that feasible for solar-storage battery systems. That's where thermal storage would make the most sense, having solar panels that collect heat in a circulating liquid system either glycol or special high temp oil that can be transferred to large water storage tanks in a basement or underground system, these systems can be expensive, but the thing is trying to heat with solar electrical systems would be more expensive due to reduced battery life. There is also a solar heating system that uses the sun to heat water columns, brick, heavy floor tile or large river rock in bines, I had considered doing the bin storage using crawl spaces under the floor and having a fan run heated air through the rocks during the day with the stones giving off heat up through the floor during the night. Turns out we have plenty of firewood to heat our well insulated home and sometimes that's too much and we have to open windows even with a small fire going.


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## mosquitomountainman (Jan 25, 2010)

Cowboy Hermit is on course. 1500 watts per hour for 24 hours is 36,000 watts per day. With maybe five hours of maximum solar generation per day you'll need to generate 7,200 watts per solar hour to keep that heater going 24 hours. That'll cost over $7,000 in just the panels. No Inverter can run at maximum output 24/7. Your inverter will need to be at least 3,000 watts. Your batteries must store and then release at least 23,000 watts for just one day. Minimum requirements for a battery bank is three days power in case of consecutive cloudy days. Not enough reserve battery backup will shorten battery life due to batteries being drawn down too much each day. That means your battery bank should store at least 108 thousand watts of energy. Now figure in 20% more of everything to compensate for losses within the system. 

Cheap it is not going to be. Either plan to spend some serious cash or find alternative methods to get warm. Some good suggestions have already been made.


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## Deathdealer (Oct 26, 2013)

Damn it was wishful thinking! I still want to get into solar energy bc my main plan is to eventually be off grid completely! But thank you guys so much for all your input it's really appreciated! And please if you have any links that helped you guys get into it and understand how everything works please send it to me I could use all the help I can get I want to start small then grow from there!


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## zimmy (Aug 17, 2012)

http://www.wearesolar.com/

Here is a link to the company that I bought my hot water collectors from. I use them for heating domestic hot water but will also work for space heating. They are very easy to install once the manifold system is installed, someone on the ground can hand the glass tubes up to you on the roof and you just plug them in to the manifold openings. They are some of the most efficient, low cost collectors on the market but it has been my experience that most people would rather buy beer, cigarettes, boats, motorcycles, instead of buying renewable energy that gives you a return on your money. Oh and they were within driving distance for me to go look at them, talk to the man about installing them, and save on shipping cost.


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## hiwall (Jun 15, 2012)

Here are a couple links for you to read..............................

http://www.preparedsociety.com/forum/f16/solar-generators-20036/

http://www.preparedsociety.com/forum/f16/d-i-y-solar-generator-less-than-500-a-15496/


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## tmttactical (Nov 23, 2015)

hiwall said:


> Here are a couple links for you to read..............................
> 
> http://www.preparedsociety.com/forum/f16/solar-generators-20036/
> 
> http://www.preparedsociety.com/forum/f16/d-i-y-solar-generator-less-than-500-a-15496/


Hiwall, thanks for the links, great info presented.


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## mosquitomountainman (Jan 25, 2010)

Check my blog. The address is at the bottom.
Sorry, if you use a computer my books are listed at the side. My phone doesn't show them. Type in an Amazon.com book search for Steven Gregersen. I have a book published that covers solar power in layman's terms.


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## piglett (Dec 10, 2010)

Deathdealer said:


> Hi I live in norther Wisconsin and would like to know how to set up a small solar power kit to run a indoor Electric heater off of! Last winter was a bad one and my Electric bill was threw the roof bc I had to use a space heater all day and all night literally 24/7! So I would like to know how to set up a solar powered kit to run that space heater off of this winter so it would be free to run it off of! Any kits or knowledge would be extremely welcomed to know about! I'm not to knowledgeable about all of this and electronics to begin with so I could really use all the help I can get from all of you to helping me out with this! I did find a kit at my local harbor freight but I'm not sure if it can run my space heater for the entire winter! And my goal is if I can get this set up to work and understand fully how it works then I can grow my solar powered system in the future! So please all the help I can get is needed


up here in the backwoods of New Hampshire almost everyone has a wood stove. even folks with a nice new house.


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## LastOutlaw (Jun 1, 2013)

I suggest a real good pair of wool socks.


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## TheLazyL (Jun 5, 2012)

Deathdealer said:


> Hi I live in norther Wisconsin ... winter was a bad one and my Electric bill was threw the roof...


Have ya already went the cheap way of saving on heating costs by sealing cracks and insulating?

Heating with electric I'd assume water heater is electric too. Insulation blanket around the tank and if the family schedule permits, a 7-day timer to turn off the heater during the off hours.


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## Deathdealer (Oct 26, 2013)

Ya my whole house is electric besides my damn stove so the electric bill is always threw the roof! I have brand new insulation in all walls and attic just installed this summer hoping that will help this winter on the electric bill cracks were filled with spray insulation too! I've looked into buying a wood burner kit for my house to install but I'm going to have to make my own by buying a door kit bc assembled kits up her run almost a grand with shipping and handling! But thank you guys for all the links Ill be reading them all night


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## Tirediron (Jul 12, 2010)

Deathdealer said:


> Ya my whole house is electric besides my damn stove so the electric bill is always threw the roof! I have brand new insulation in all walls and attic just installed this summer hoping that will help this winter on the electric bill cracks were filled with spray insulation too! I've looked into buying a wood burner kit for my house to install but I'm going to have to make my own by buying a door kit bc assembled kits up her run almost a grand with shipping and handling! But thank you guys for all the links Ill be reading them all night


You probably don't want to build a wood fired burner to heat your house, there is a lot of knowledge put into an efficient controllable wood fired heating device. and a fair bit of knowledge involved in operating one efficiently, probably 80+ percent on wood heaters are not ever approaching their efficient operating "zone" because everybody thinks they already know how to run one.


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## HardCider (Dec 13, 2013)

Gotta agree with what's already been said. A simple woodstove or one with an oven and water reservoir is way more resilient than electric, oil, propane or solar. Wood heaters with circulating pumps still require electricity. If there was a widespread grid down event or economic collapse, propane, electric and solar components along with everything else might cease to be delivered. Storage batteries and inverters will probably wear out long before a heavy duty cast iron woodstove. Think crosscut saws, axes and splitting mauls. You're surrounded by fuel


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## 1XJ99 (Oct 17, 2016)

Long story short, the gas company cut the
gas off when we were on vacation. They 
wanted a $300 deposit to turn it back on.
I took the $300 and bought a really nice
woodstove insert for the fireplace.

I heated the house with it (2b, 1b, 1,000sqft)
for 8 years. Off the grid heat, at a fraction of
the price! No blower motors, or anything. Just
left the bedroom doors open at night. 0.02










Nice and cozy!










Just have to keep the air flow turned way down 
or the living room could get close to 90*! Time
to open the doors (windows were painted shut)
when it's in the teens outside!

New house uses a LPG fireplace, but it's a closed
system and heats up the living room pretty fast.
I'd prefer wood....


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## AmmoSgt (Apr 13, 2014)

Okay lets back up this is probably doable , but as so many have said not with photovoltaics (solar panels and electricity)

with this kind of solar











and you can store what you collected for use at night











This is just to show what canbe done .. most of it is DIY and from recycled stuff so you can try it on the cheap and see if it knocks down you bill but first is always going to be sealing up leaks thermal pane windows upgraded insulation

check here for government subsidies and tax credits for exactly that kind of home efficiency upgrading http://energy.gov/savings

you can even put an inline solar water heater booster on your roof 



 to cut electrical usage


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## hiwall (Jun 15, 2012)

Over two hundred gallons of antifreeze solution in that system! At roughly $10 per gallon (for 50/50 mix) would be $2000 just for that part of the system. Wow.


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## Meerkat (May 31, 2011)

We hope to try and get solar again. Now that the people of Florida has won the solar war with the corporations. Nov.6th,2016 we voted and we won.

Will start buying it again soon as we can.

We had so much help from so many here and leaned alot about installations and solar systems.


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## azrancher (Jan 30, 2014)

Meerkat said:


> We hope to try and get solar again. Now that the people of Florida has won the solar war with the corporations. Nov.6th,2016 we voted and we won.


Tell us more about what the solar war was all about? And you voted on Sunday Nov 6th? Really?

*Rancher*


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## readytogo (Apr 6, 2013)

I`m very interested on Solar power ,hell living in the Sunshine State after al; well also alligators but that`s another issue ,but after some research and calculation $$$$ it will take a good chunk of cash to power my little house 100% so a small system to run a 3 way refrigerator or freezer and a fan or two will suffice me .Solar technology has advance a lot and it continues to do so as I write, new solar power appliances are all over and since I`m looking for emergency purposes only I don`t plan to go overboard but like stated here already, solar for heating is out of the equation how about Kerosene Heaters or Propane or Wood or how about a smaller home with more insulation ,just a thought .


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## mosquitomountainman (Jan 25, 2010)

readytogo said:


> I`m very interested on Solar power ,hell living in the Sunshine State after al; well also alligators but that`s another issue ,but after some research and calculation $$$$ it will take a good chunk of cash to power my little house 100% so a small system to run a 3 way refrigerator or freezer and a fan or two will suffice me .Solar technology has advance a lot and it continues to do so as I write, new solar power appliances are all over and since I`m looking for emergency purposes only I don`t plan to go overboard but like stated here already, solar for heating is out of the equation how about Kerosene Heaters or Propane or Wood or how about a smaller home with more insulation ,just a thought .


Be careful about the three-way fridge. All of them I've seen were very inefficient using electricity. They need a lot of power and are energy hogs on solar power.


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