Page 1 of 3

small solar system help

Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2017 12:26 pm
by Precision
I am out of town currently. My best friend has purchased a 100 year old home for his family...long back story. They are in the process of a serious rebuild and I came out for a week to help with demo and some ancillary build work. Saving them many thousands on not having the contractors do the demo...

We are repurposing a screened building into a work shop for him. The current electrical system is SHITE. He wants to put in a solar unit to provide for the lights and small power consumption in this shop. Goal for the solar system is to be able to run several LED shop lights in a 30x18 building, run some local application lights as well as some minor appliances such as a dremel... Real power will be run from a generator as on demand until it makes sense (a year or three) to run appropriate land power to the shop. So running AC, Radial arm saw, drill press and the like will come from a generator for now.

I don't have my normal laptop with the solar sites bookmarked.

I need some sites for buying components for a .75k-1.5k system. Batteries, PV cells, inverters and the like. I want to DIY it to save cash as opposed to one of the buy here pay here rape places.

Thanks in advance.

Re: small solar system help

Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2017 1:04 pm
by MarkD
The only solar system help I can offer is:

My Very Enterprising Mother Just Served Us Nine Pickles

Or now I guess is should be:

My Very Enterprising Mother Just Served Us Nuts

:lol: :twisted: :P :roll: :o :ugeek:

Re: small solar system help

Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2017 1:14 pm
by First Shirt
MarkD wrote:The only solar system help I can offer is:
My Very Enterprising Mother Just Served Us Nine Pickles
Or now I guess is should be:
My Very Enterprising Mother Just Served Us Nuts
:lol: :twisted: :P :roll: :o :ugeek:
You're going to Hell for that; you know that, don't you? :lol: :lol: :lol:

Re: small solar system help

Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2017 1:24 pm
by MarkD
First Shirt wrote:
MarkD wrote:The only solar system help I can offer is:
My Very Enterprising Mother Just Served Us Nine Pickles
Or now I guess is should be:
My Very Enterprising Mother Just Served Us Nuts
:lol: :twisted: :P :roll: :o :ugeek:
You're going to Hell for that; you know that, don't you? :lol: :lol: :lol:
If I didn't do that, there'd be some other reason.....

Re: small solar system help

Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2017 2:40 pm
by Weetabix
I have very limited practical experience, but here's a set of articles that looked good to me:
Ground Solar, Part I
Ground Solar, Part II, The Combiner
Ground Solar, Part III, The Charger
Ground Solar, Part IV, The Inverter

Here's some more: A Small Solar Panel Project

And, my first thought on seeing the post title was, "I guess he means a system outside our solar system?"

Re: small solar system help

Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2017 11:40 pm
by rightisright
How far is the outbuilding from the main electric? Might be much more cost efficient to bite the bullet in the beginning and run a trench and wire... or an overhead depending on the situation. Maybe just wire a few 20A 120v and one 40A 240v(if needed) instead of rewiring the whole thing at once.

Re: small solar system help

Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2017 12:55 am
by Old Grafton
MarkD wrote:
First Shirt wrote:
MarkD wrote:The only solar system help I can offer is:
My Very Enterprising Mother Just Served Us Nine Pickles
Or now I guess is should be:
My Very Enterprising Mother Just Served Us Nuts
:lol: :twisted: :P :roll: :o :ugeek:
You're going to Hell for that; you know that, don't you? :lol: :lol: :lol:
If I didn't do that, there'd be some other reason.....
"Mother Very Easily Made A Jelly Sandwich Under No Protest" ('A' is for "asteroids"...)

Re: small solar system help

Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2017 1:09 am
by HTRN
rightisright wrote:How far is the outbuilding from the main electric? Might be much more cost efficient to bite the bullet in the beginning and run a trench and wire... or an overhead depending on the situation. Maybe just wire a few 20A 120v and one 40A 240v(if needed) instead of rewiring the whole thing at once.
I'd do a 50 amp subpanel.

Re: small solar system help

Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2017 2:43 am
by Precision
The end goal is its own 100 amp panel.

His issue is $50k for rebuild on the house After the $400k purchase price, so that is not a current action item and may well not be for a year plus.

The goal for solar is just to run the lights a few days per week. This will keep him from having to run a generator and the gas expense and noise factor of doing so. When real work is being done, a 3k generator will be fired up but that is a huge waste for a couple of LED shop lights.

Re: small solar system help

Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2017 2:48 am
by BDK
To run a few LEDs is a very different thing than running tools.

A few lights is a basic cabin set up.

A wind generator might also work