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kevhead101
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# Posted: 13 Jan 2011 12:40pm - Edited by: kevhead101
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Would this unit be sufficient enough for off grid living?
Phono Solar 1800 Watt Solar Generator Kit
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MtnDon
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# Posted: 13 Jan 2011 01:17pm - Edited by: MtnDon
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Yes and No. It depends what you expect, how much power you want to be able to use and for how long. Also depends on how much sunshine you have. Many variables.
I'd also bet that a person could put this together for less than the advertised price.
The place to start is to make an honest assessment of the electrical needs for the cabin in question.
One place (of many) where you can get a program to help with the estimate is HERE.
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kevhead101
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# Posted: 13 Jan 2011 02:50pm
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Thanks for the response! Would it make a lot of difference if 3 panels and an extra battery were used as far as consumption goes? All I can see being used is a laptop (2-3 hours a day), flat screen lcd tv (2-4 hours a day), Dish dvr (1-2 hours a day), light source (4-6 hours a day), small microwave (under 10 min a day).
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MikeOnBike
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# Posted: 13 Jan 2011 03:40pm - Edited by: MikeOnBike
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Given your information and making a LOT of assumptions it looks like you could possibly need 600w of solar panel and about 700 a/hr of battery at 12v.
Battery size is largely determined by how many days you need to run without sun at your calculated load. I used two days for your example.
You really should use the spreadsheet. It is a very important step. I think people generally underestimate their needs. Yes you can add more batteries and panels later. You can add more panels and another charge controller but I think it is difficult to add another inverter. I don't know if they will run in parallel.
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MtnDon
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# Posted: 13 Jan 2011 04:08pm
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Mike's got it. Guessing is simply guessing. What size system suits me might be too big for you. That one is certainly too small for me.
The single thing that most often causes people to be unhappy with their system is insufficient battery storage. That from an acquaintance who has been living and working (designing, selling and maintaining) with off grid PV systems.
Note that my personal experience has included discovering on my own that some small microwaves do not like the waveform of the power from some cheap square wave inverters.
Cheapo inverters can not be stacked to increase available power as a rule. The circuitry has to be able to sync the waveform.
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kevhead101
Member
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# Posted: 14 Jan 2011 11:17am
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Thanks guys, this is very helpful!
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Robert
Member
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# Posted: 29 Jan 2011 12:21pm
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That is a bunch of money for a 140watt panel.
You can get a panel like that for under 4bills
purchase a charge controller and inverter and 4 225ah 6v batteries paired to 12v
You most certainly would not need a 1400watt inverter unless you were running a 1kw electric heater and at that you would drain the batteries in 3 hours or so.
Add up your total be generous with your estimate plug in the numbers like suggested
just quick estimate you would be at under 1kw a day the batteries would store 3 days use @50%
A single 140 watt panel would not keep up or barely in the peak of summer.
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Robert
Member
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# Posted: 29 Jan 2011 12:28pm
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Also very misleading how they rate that system based on the output of the inverter.
2 200 watt panels,charge controller,inverter ,batteries and cables
would not total what they are charging for they system w/o batteries and way under the total output.
costco has the 225 ah 6v batteries for about 70bucks.
I suggest you shop around!
Have fun
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