Solar project website

This seems like a great website for info and links to all solar related projects. I had to share it with you guys!

http://www.builditsolar.com/


I have ideas to build a solar space heater, water heater, wind turbine, and PV array.

veloman said:

This seems like a great website for info and links to all solar related projects. I had to share it with you guys!

http://www.builditsolar.com/


I have ideas to build a solar space heater, water heater, wind turbine, and PV array.

Click to expand...

Lot's of great DIY projects there. I just glanced through a few of the DIY PV panel projects, and I would say don't follow them. Plywood isn't really a good material for panels because moisture can get in. Approach it in a way to reasonably expect a 20yr+ service life, for which plywood isn't acceptable outdoors. I'll share what Harold and I think are the best links once we finalize our approaches.

I dig solar stuff too!

I just bought mlsolar's 40 cell kit including wire, flux and diode on ebay for $54 shipped. Should be a good way to get started with playing with solar. 40 cells would give about 70watts max, and 20 volts, so I may buy more cells to get to 40 volts for charging, or I'll need some sort of inverter??

veloman said:

I just bought mlsolar's 40 cell kit including wire, flux and diode on ebay for $54 shipped. Should be a good way to get started with playing with solar. 40 cells would give about 70watts max, and 20 volts, so I may buy more cells to get to 40 volts for charging, or I'll need some sort of inverter??

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I've been eyeing their stuff, let me know what you think.

You need a charge regulator and you need an inverter.

You guys realize there are many appliances that run on 12V Dc ?? Many electric motors for fans and such. This is what I plan to do, to run everything I can directly off the battery.

So you are going to keep a SLA bank that you charge with solar?

How long will those batteries last? It's likely you will never fully drain them, and you can have LOTS of ah since you won't be moving them on an ebike :wink: How many years could you expect a solar charge SLA bank to last?


I might try picking up some big SLAs so I can have power at night or when it's cloudy too. I take it that trying to run directly off solar or wind is not very practical?

If you don't plan on ever moving it, get some old forklift batteries. Big enough inside that you can (in at least some) actually reach down in there with scrubbing tools to scrape sulfation off the plates, and you can flush out the electrolyte when necessary and refill with new (or filter the old and reuse it, after rebalancing it's chemistry).

Running directly off solar or wind limits you to the available instantaneous power of whatever your source is. If the wind stops, or it gets cloudy (or near sunset/dawn) you have no power. At noon with solar, you may have too much power (if you have no charge regulator). In high winds you might have so much voltage things go POOF (if you have no limiter).

Use the battery to level all this out, with a charge regulator that not only takes the overages down but boosts the minimal power up to charging levels, and you can draw a lot more useful power out of the system.

I use to work in a warehouse with forklifts and pallet jacks. Those batteries were massive! I think the smaller pallet jack ones were 700lbs. Often times we had to try kicking them when swapping in new bats on the jack, because the lift wouldn't slide it in straight. It was interesting how much faster they got drained when I was moving heavy pallets. It was cool to see battery power used to power the hydrualics that lifted the forklifts, often times carrying a 4000lb pallet 30 feet up. I think working there is what got me interested in ebikes. I just loved twisting the throttle and moving with no engine noise, even though they topped at about 12mph.

The sad part is that they never kept the low batteries topped off. They would just sit in the jack until someone needed that jack, then put in a new battery and charge the old one. I wonder how much life they lost on those batteries by keeping them dead like that.

I think I rather stick to SLA that I can move with my hands, maybe some 35ah ones.

Lighting is not such a big factor, in our house. Refrigerator is the biggest draw, especially at startup. We use a Pedestal fan most days. It's a small amp usage device. Electric Stove will use some decent amount of juice. I want to get a gas rig, and use Methane from the farm. Converting the Wife is the biggest amp draw. Stubborn as 3 mules.

In the Wood Shop is where I use a lot. Planer has a 5HP motor. Table saw 2HP. Wood Lathe ½HP. Various drills, Routers, Grinders, Jigsaw, I imagine 1000W avg.

I have 3 APC UPS's. 2 are 1KW, other is 650W. One on the Computer is 350W. I want to convert these to run straight off the battery. Don't need Commercial Power Co. more than is absolutely necessary.

Took down the experimental Wind Generator. Going to add a large set of Governing Blades, and put it on a 60' Tower. That and 3-4 Solar Panels should get up way down the road on power bill.

I'm trying to source Golf Car batteries. They are plenty heavy for me to wrestle around. I used to sell reconditioned Telephone backup batteries. They were 480 Amps at 6V, and weighed about the 250#, EACH. Used to put them in crawl spaces under houses, in some installs. Try that by yourself.

I was more aiming at folks that are wanting to use Solar or Wind, and try to show them alternatives to 120V Appliances. As I keep stating, getting things shipped in will cost more than some items, once you have to pay the Duty fees.

For example, I can buy a pretty nice 1990 year model vehicle, in Fl. for less than $5K. Shipping is around $1500.00 and DUTY is $5860.00 All I have to do is, find an HONEST person, to help me get that vehicle through Customs, by paying off someone, and I can get the car into CR, reasonably. I hear that guys that do this all the time, have Custom Agents on their payroll.

YUP, different lifestyle down here. :lol: :lol: 8) 8) 8) 8)

veloman said:

I use to work in a warehouse with forklifts and pallet jacks. Those batteries were massive! I think the smaller pallet jack ones were 700lbs. Often times we had to try kicking them when swapping in new bats on the jack, because the lift wouldn't slide it in straight. It was interesting how much faster they got drained when I was moving heavy pallets. It was cool to see battery power used to power the hydrualics that lifted the forklifts, often times carrying a 4000lb pallet 30 feet up. I think working there is what got me interested in ebikes. I just loved twisting the throttle and moving with no engine noise, even though they topped at about 12mph.

The sad part is that they never kept the low batteries topped off. They would just sit in the jack until someone needed that jack, then put in a new battery and charge the old one. I wonder how much life they lost on those batteries by keeping them dead like that.

I think I rather stick to SLA that I can move with my hands, maybe some 35ah ones.

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You guys have a bit to learn. I've been there myself. A good place to source batteries are golf cart dealers and golf courses. Lots of good used batteries can be had from these businesses for just core charge prices. Velloman, the batteries you need to be looking at should have over 100+ amp hour reserve. I have been experimenting with solar for years and have alot of advice and tips if anyone is really interested. Believe me it was a learning process for myself when I started out too. I like the idea of harnessing the methane. I do not know about methane collection process or how viable or efficient it would be to power a gas refridgerator, gas stove, gas dryer (clothes line), or gas heater/AC. Those four appliances alone take massive amounts of panels if you want to run them on photovoltaic panels. It is better and more efficient to have those as gas appliances if you are off the grid. Of course if money is no object, do it all in panels and cut out the gas. Well I could write a book but I don't have time. The internet is a great wealth on solar information and all it takes is your time and desire to look it up. Anyway the lead acid battery bank should last you a good 5 years +or- and just like your e-bike it will depend on how you cycle it. A normal inverter should keep you from overly discharging your battery bank by shutting off the load if you drop below a certain level. Your charge regulator(s) should keep your batteries from being overly charged. On to another note. I understand about a woman being one of the most difficult things to convert. :lol: Mine refuses to use a clothes line to save energy. Or turn off lights, or t.v. or unused electronics, etc. I did get her to use the "time of day rate plan" offered by the utility company though! I don't yet have enough panels to power my whole house, so I have made what I call a split system. P.S. Be careful when you are soldering your cells together because it is real easy to solder the ribbon on the wrong side of the cell by accident. I found for me, living in the US, that it was hard to build a panel for much cheaper than buying one after (all things) are considered. And if you can find good used panels, bonus! I understand some will still want to experiment and enjoy learning for themselves. I did! Good luck and have fun.

Interesting stories.

I always line dry, or hang up clothes inside now. The dryer draws 23amps, so that's like 2500+ watts? Crazy, especially when the breeze and sunshine takes no power other than a little effort hanging them up. When my transportation only uses 300watts, I tend to shun luxuries that take kilowatts for a slight convenience.


Is there a way I can directly wire up a small space heater to a homemade wind turbine that uses a 24/36v scooter motor? That appliance is something I'd like to just have a direct transmission on, since I will want it running whenever it can, starting in October, and since it's only an "assist" I don't mind if it shuts off when there's no wind.

I was checking out our oil run hot water heater. There is a lot of heat pouring off the top of it where the pipes are.... I could practically just channel an air duck from there into my room with a small fan.


Oh, good question I've had:

Is there any significant reason why you don't want your dryer to exhaust into the house? Is it because of the humid air? Now, I don't use the dryer, but my mom and brother do. I'd love to capture all that heat and send it in my room in the winter!

The dryer needs to stay vented outside. All those material fibers are bad for your lungs. Way back when, alot of textile workers would die from breathing in too many fibers. A space heater is an example of one of the least efficient heating methods. Think of it as a hair blow dryer on steroids.

veloman said:

I think I rather stick to SLA that I can move with my hands, maybe some 35ah ones.

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Don't use SLA; you can't top the electrolyte off or fix sulfation. For stationary stuff, use FLA (regular wet flooded lead acid, like car and golf cart batteries are). You can service and maintain those, and they could last you many years more than SLA will, which you cannot do anything for once they have a problem. (unless you're willing to do a lot more disassembly than even I am :lol.

veloman said:

I always line dry, or hang up clothes inside now. The dryer draws 23amps, so that's like 2500+ watts? Crazy, especially when the breeze and sunshine takes no power other than a little effort hanging them up.

Click to expand...

Yeah, here in Phoenix, in summer it's only about 15 to 30 minutes, even on "humid" but sunny days, to completely dry my clothes. In winter it might take a couple of hours, since it is drier but cooler. If it is breezy it will take even less time.

Stuff I don't want to fade from UV I hang under the shade tree and it still dries really fast.

Is there a way I can directly wire up a small space heater to a homemade wind turbine that uses a 24/36v scooter motor?

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Well, probably not. Most of the space heaters I have had use up an awful lot of power (1500W, perhaps more), and all run on at least 115V. They probably won't make much heat at the low voltages such a motor is likely to produce under such a heavy load (assuming the load doesn't just lock the rotor as if it were a regen brake :lol.

You might want to see if there are more efficient low voltage heaters you can get than a typical space heater would be.

I was checking out our oil run hot water heater. There is a lot of heat pouring off the top of it where the pipes are.... I could practically just channel an air duck from there into my room with a small fan.

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You probably could do so. Or make a heat exchanger with pipes wrapped around it in a coil, and insulated around that, then use a very small pump to move that to a radiator with a fan, like one from a PC cooling system.

Is there any significant reason why you don't want your dryer to exhaust into the house? Is it because of the humid air? Now, I don't use the dryer, but my mom and brother do. I'd love to capture all that heat and send it in my room in the winter!

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LIke he said above, the little fibers. Unless you can filter that air really well, I wouldn't do it. Have you ever dropped the lintfilter and gotten a cloud of "dust"? That's the stuff.

John in CR said:

veloman said:

This seems like a great website for info and links to all solar related projects. I had to share it with you guys!

http://www.builditsolar.com/


I have ideas to build a solar space heater, water heater, wind turbine, and PV array.

Click to expand...

Lot's of great DIY projects there. I just glanced through a few of the DIY PV panel projects, and I would say don't follow them. Plywood isn't really a good material for panels because moisture can get in. Approach it in a way to reasonably expect a 20yr+ service life, for which plywood isn't acceptable outdoors. I'll share what Harold and I think are the best links once we finalize our approaches.

Click to expand...

John;
We have direct burial plywood which is soaked in preservative (poison) and I have some in the wet ground over 25 years with no sign of service life problems. I have similarly treated pine garden ties, some of which have rotted away in 6 years.
You have to get Harold to genetically modify his balsa to be fungi proof.