How I'm combatting rising fuel prices with solar.

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Biggkidd

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This has been an ongoing project for many years. As we have been off grid for 14 years and reliant on a generator and a small solar power system. Our small system at the house can handle ALL our needs on sunny days only. The battery bank is sadly undersized! So some of the time we run a generator. I also have to run one anytime I need to use tools in my shop so another expense that often keeps me from working on things I want to. A few months ago I decided to setup another even smaller system at the shop. I dug a 12 inch round post hole 42 inches deep filled it with concrete and shoved a 3 inch ID 1/4" wall iron pipe in. I had cut a section of pipe off which I then cut in two. The longer piece got split down the middle and the shorter piece pushed in one end about 3 inches leaving about 5 inches out and welded together. Then I fit the open end of the other end over the pipe and welded a piece of bed frame over the now wide split like this /\ which allowed me to slightly loosen the fit of the "collar" piece by spreading by force. In other words I squashed the point down pushing the edges of the pipe farther apart. I wanted it to rotate but with some drag. We also drilled the top short pipe sticking out of the collar horizontally to accept a 1/2" pivot bolt. Then we built a simple wooden frame and mounted it to the pole via the pivot bolt and put the panels on to it. I found an old school type locker a decade or more ago and it became the power house now sitting under the panels. We mounted the charge controller and inverter inside along with 12) 2 volt cells wired series parallel for 12 volts. Only gives us 304 amp hours at 12 volts but that's what I had on hand. In fact I had all the parts on hand except the concrete.

Only the solar panels were new even though I bought them several years ago (2018). Everything else was used previously. This system currently consists of the following parts.

4) 300 watt Renogy monocrystalline panels
1) 60 amp PowMr charge controller used while waiting for my new midnite solar controller for our main system
1) Samlex 1500 watt modified sinewave inverter ( found in a junk car)
12) Absolite AGM 152 amp hour volt cells odd amount left from last batch of used batteries I bought in 2018

Nice to have but not necessary features this setup has are the ability to tilt and turn with ease by hand to face the sun.

Only 2) of the 4) panels are currently hooked up as that's all the PowMr 60 amp controller can handle at 12 volts. Once I can buy some more batteries and a replacement fan for another 48 volt pure sinewave inverter I have we will hookup the other 2) panels.

Since this system will normally be used during the day and in sunny conditions hopefully the limited battery won't hurt to bad. It will be running power tools, battery chargers, small air compressor, drill press whatever we need around the shop that doesn't require the larger generator IE welder, plasma cutter, large air compressor.

I'll take some pics tomorrow it was well after dark when we finished tonight.
 
Pics of what we got done, still more to go. Click pictures to see better.

Panels are faciing east in these pics.

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Notice the pipe sight for aligning with the sun. No shadow shows on the 2x4 under it.

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In the next pic notice the shadow off to the side, I turned the panels slightly south second pic turned fully south.

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The swivel and tilt.

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Power house cabernet.

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The charge controller at 9am with panels facing east.

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I considered a movable solar array mounting system but when I talked with Grape Solar they told me, just mount the panels due south and the angle of the panels facing south close to what earthly parallel line we live on. With eight panels mounted series/parallel I get up to 80+ volts during prime charging time and as the sun is getting ready to set I'm still getting about 36 volts, considering the voltage of the battery bank is 24 volts, I get some charging up to the point of sunset. Since I have far greater voltage than I need, I don't get any voltage loss to amount to anything in the distance from the array to the solar controller. All wires are sized above required minimums, especially the battery wires and all DC wiring is kept as short as possible.
 
There wasn’t a noticeable use of solar panels when we moved to Texas less than 15 years ago. I was surprised. Now they’re more in use. My biggest concern would be damage due to hail storms. Are they sturdy enough to withstand an average hail storm?
It is sunny here for sure.
 
There wasn’t a noticeable use of solar panels when we moved to Texas less than 15 years ago. I was surprised. Now they’re more in use. My biggest concern would be damage due to hail storms. Are they sturdy enough to withstand an average hail storm?
It is sunny here for sure.
I'm sorry I no longer have the figures for the monocrystaline panels, I looked it up on the Grape Solar site and all they had was for wind and snow load, years ago when we bought our solar panels they had those figures, but as I remember they were sturdy enough to handle an average hail storm and probably even more. The glass they use is really strong, if you are interested, you could contact them.
 
I had a 5-6 inch thick and 10-12 foot long pine limb land on my Renogy panels and not so much as a scuff. We have also had some rough hail storms without damage. Panels are TOUGH!!!!

For years we had stationary mounts after seeing with my own eyes the difference turning to face the sun can make I might redo all my mounts this way. I say the increase is probably better than 50% more power. It's not like you have to go turn the mounts but it's nice that we can if we choose to. I saw this set make about 80% way after all the stationary panels quit all together before dusk.
 
In my next step for combatting rising fuel costs I bought a couple OLD as in made last century old golf carts yesterday. Both are basket cases that need new batteries and lots of repair but considering the price of a decent used cart these days is a few thousand bucks 2) for $600 isn't terrible. One is an 88 the other is a 99 both club car DS models. I did manage to get one going today. It now moves and drives somewhat considering the batteries are TOAST! After fixing a bunch of wiring, cleaning all the terminals and filling them with water they only had 18 volts in a 36 volt system. I'm going to try and get them to take a charge but it looks doubtful at best. According to my math that could take anywhere from 15 to 30 hours charging steady. 225 amps at 15 amps an hour until the voltage starts coming up and then the charging amperage starts decreasing so it could take even longer. But I figure no less than 15 hours minimum. Hopefully I can revitalize them for a while anyway.

The second one is a 48 volt cart about ten years newer and it's batteries seem to be quite a bit better. I've already fixed a bunch of wiring issues but there's still a lot to do. I did at least get it far enough along to be able to charge it's batteries also. Both sets took about 1.5 gallons of distilled water each. This one is computer controlled so who knows if I'll ever get it going. But I plan to keep working my way through the systems and see what I can find and fix without spending a fortune. If it turns out not to be fixable with my limited electrical knowledge then I will probably swipe the batteries and use them for the shop power system. They are 8 volts each or I'd use them in the other cart but it uses 6 volt batteries.

My favorite part of this project so far is QUIET in the tiny distance I drove the one today it was SILENT! I so love the quiet the older I get. But the real bonus will come in fuel savings I burn 3 to 5 gallons of gas a week doing chores. All our power well make that almost all our power comes from the sun and we are making way more than we can use when the sun shines. So once everything is straight and up and running refueling will be FREE! Although I am considering mounting a solar panel on the roof so it can charge itself where ever it happens to be when the sun shines.

If y'all haven't figured it out yet I hunt these kinds of deals hard. They are out there but you have to be patient and have cash in hand when one pops up!
 
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Biggkidd, I like the swivel & tilt setup, if I ever go solar I won't have anything else. I still tell folks about the guy I saw in the field with a large tilt-up panel rack atop his camping rig... all he did was orient the rig toward the sun & flip up the panels, and he had more juice than he ever needed to run everything he had out there. I like that kind of innovation, it makes sense and appeals to my practical nature, lol. ;)
 
Biggkidd, I like the swivel & tilt setup, if I ever go solar I won't have anything else. I still tell folks about the guy I saw in the field with a large tilt-up panel rack atop his camping rig... all he did was orient the rig toward the sun & flip up the panels, and he had more juice than he ever needed to run everything he had out there. I like that kind of innovation, it makes sense and appeals to my practical nature, lol. ;)
I had read somewhere that the effort or investment in tracking the sun isn't worth it. Seasonal elevation maybe.

Engineer 775 does a lot of ground mounts with some roof mounts as good bit of his work. Did share a video on how to evaluate array placement etc.



Ben
 
In my next step for combatting rising fuel costs I bought a couple OLD as in made last century old golf carts yesterday. Both are basket cases that need new batteries and lots of repair but considering the price of a decent used cart these days is a few thousand bucks 2) for $600 isn't terrible. One is an 88 the other is a 99 both club car DS models. I did manage to get one going today. It now moves and drives somewhat considering the batteries are TOAST! After fixing a bunch of wiring, cleaning all the terminals and filling them with water they only had 18 volts in a 36 volt system. I'm going to try and get them to take a charge but it looks doubtful at best. According to my math that could take anywhere from 15 to 30 hours charging steady. 225 amps at 15 amps an hour until the voltage starts coming up and then the charging amperage starts decreasing so it could take even longer. But I figure no less than 15 hours minimum. Hopefully I can revitalize them for a while anyway.

The second one is a 48 volt cart about ten years newer and it's batteries seem to be quite a bit better. I've already fixed a bunch of wiring issues but there's still a lot to do. I did at least get it far enough along to be able to charge it's batteries also. Both sets took about 1.5 gallons of distilled water each. This one is computer controlled so who knows if I'll ever get it going. But I plan to keep working my way through the systems and see what I can find and fix without spending a fortune. If it turns out not to be fixable with my limited electrical knowledge then I will probably swipe the batteries and use them for the shop power system. They are 8 volts each or I'd use them in the other cart but it uses 6 volt batteries.

My favorite part of this project so far is QUIET in the tiny distance I drove the one today it was SILENT! I so love the quiet the older I get. But the real bonus will come in fuel savings I burn 3 to 5 gallons of gas a week doing chores. All our power well make that almost all our power comes from the sun and we are making way more than we can use when the sun shines. So once everything is straight and up and running refueling will be FREE! Although I am considering mounting a solar panel on the roof so it can charge itself where ever it happens to be when the sun shines.

If y'all haven't figured it out yet I hunt these kinds of deals hard. They are out there but you have to be patient and have cash in hand when one pops up!

"
Although I am considering mounting a solar panel on the roof so it can charge itself where ever it happens to be when the sun shines
"

That is such a great idea. Completely self-sufficient vehicles. Limited only by the capacity of the batteries , usage. and panel capacity. Not enough? Add a second.

Ben
 
Ahh ha Found it! A charge controller that will let me use one of my existing panels on the roof of my cart.


https://www.solarevsystems.com/solar-kits/mppt-solar-charge-controller-36v48v
It's a bit pricy but worth it in my opinion for this application. I bet it will greatly extend the battery life too seeing as they will hardly ever get discharged more than 10-20% with a 300 watt panel on the roof. I do believe this will happen.

For this considering it could get broken I will probably use one of my oldest 300 watt polycrystalline panels. They aren't as good as my monocrystalline panels but that's okay...
 
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A little more searching found one made by Renogy for a few less dollars. All my panels are renogy so another reason to go this route instead of the first one I posted.

 
I did an internship at a military test station in the late 80s, they had an electric cart with solar panels mounted as a roof over the seats and cargo bed. The panel would provide just enough juice to extend the driving range of the cart to the point that they only had to really charge the batteries on the weekend and on Wednesday nights. They said that it usually could go all week without a recharge, but sometimes it didn't.. It got driven every day and I'm sure it saved a ton of gas.
 
Other than getting my butt kicked by my own stupidity today was a pretty good day. The golf cart made it up the hill and around to feed critters tonight. I drove it both ways so that was nice. I put the charger on it every time I use it trying to bring the batteries back. I don't think that's going to happen though. I did price some new ones, anybody got a spare grand laying around looking for a home. LMAO!
First thing this morning the right rear tire was flat and down inside the rim. I didn't even notice it until I was up the hill with it.

Worked on the other one some more. I have found one issue but I'm fairly certain it's not the root cause of it not moving though. The throttle is not reading the correct ohms. It should read from 5000 down to 0 and it's only reading from about 2000 to 0.

I've been doing tons of research and suddenly I wish I hadn't. They have just about any kind of modification you could ever want to make possible! NOT good news for me I can already see the one having issues is more than likely going to get tricked out. Aftermarket high performance parts really aren't all that much more than straight replacement parts. Until you really try and go FAST anyway. These things looks as though they could be about as addictive as drag racing was and nearly as expensive! ! ! Gotta admit instant 100% power is sweet! No lag or wind up to the power band. I had forgotten that about electric motors. Granted the one I have running has crap batteries so it's not much and I doubt I've had it up to ten MPH except going down this hill. Fun none the less and I LOVE the QUIET!
 
I love my ATV but its loud. I thought about a golf cart but need the clearance and 4wd because of the off road work I need to do.
They sell 6 inch lift kits for $300 add some taller tires and they can go a lot of places you wouldn't believe. Couple of neighbors have them and go just about anywhere a 4 wheeler goes except deep water.
 
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This green cart up first a 99 year model and it's loaded with problems! The Potentiometers bad , the motor is toast and I believe the controller may be bad as well! But the front body is not to bad. Oh and the batteries are about shot. The back half of the body is also shot and the frame cross member is broken. BTW it's a 48 volt. Forgot the wiring could stand replacing also.

The white one here is an 88 36 volt. Old school resistor cart. As these pics tell the front body is trashed but the back half is good. This one runs somewhat . The batteries are even worse than the green cart.

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Hey @Biggkidd, looks like a 2 into 1 project. Kinda like Johnny Cash's Cadillac


I know you're not asking but if it were me, I think I would use the green front with white chassis and coach. I guess I would pull out all the batteries and then check each one and make a new pack using the least bad of the group... The white one has as top, so I could see you making a "luggage rack" extending all the way to the back, with extra supports at the corners. I'll bet you could get 300 or 400 watts of solar up there. I would pull the back seat and add a cargo/dump box so I could do some real work with it. I think it will be a fun project. ;)
 
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Hey @Biggkidd, looks like a 2 into 1 project. Kinda like Johnny Cash's Cadillac


I know you're not asking but if it were me, I think I would use the green front with white chassis and coach. I guess I would pull out all the batteries and then check each one and make a new pack using the least bad of the group... The white one has as top, so I could see you making a "luggage rack" extending all the way to the back, with extra supports at the corners. I'll bet you could get 300 or 400 watts of solar up there. I would pull the back seat and add a cargo/dump box so I could do some real work with it. I think it will be a fun project. ;)


That's sort of what I'm planning to do. Priority number one is a way to get around the property without using gas. So I'm doing everything I can to get the white one running enough to use daily. Already ordered the solar charge controller for it and I have the 300 watt panel in hand. But if I can't get the batteries to do any better than they are I'm in deep doo... I'd like to leave the rear seat for the kids / grandkids to be able to ride with. But I also need to be able to carry tools around to work with. Either way it's going to have to have a lift and tires to get around here most of the year. But that will have to come after new batteries. This project may take a couple years to afford. Once I get all the running / driving like I want it then I'll worry about the body panels lights etc.! I will probably use body parts off both carts indiscriminately for this one. But that's life and like Johnny Cash I'll just have to do it a piece at a time. But the white one is going to be done on the cheap as much as possible.

Now the green one on the other hand not so much as it's going to get 100% rebuilt and customized as a one of a kind. I LOVE projects like this. It's how I built my race car ONE PIECE AT A TIME from the frame up! It may well be the last real toy I ever do so I'm planning to do it right. It may end up stretched a tiny bit and be a true 4x4 on demand if I can just get my hands on one more club car ds like these for parts.

As it stands right now I have a running and driving (albeit poorly) golf cart for $600 and a pile of parts for a someday project. I am a happy camper at the moment! LMAO
 
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Red Neck Hill Billy engineering for the win! I swapped the batteries out of the 48 volt cart in to the 36 volt cart. I only hooked up 5 of the 6 which gives 40 volts nominal on a 36 volt system. These 8 volt batteries are far from good but way the heck better than the 6 volt batteries that were in there. I just rode back and forth up the hill and then over to the neighbors cabin. About 20 times as far as before the battery swap and there was still battery left when I got back. Woo Hoo!

Compared to the pargo cart I had and ran for years this one is sadly slow and lacks any power but still way better than none. The old pargo would run 22 - 25 on flat ground this one might do 10 or 12 at best. But it is quiet and no fuel bill!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Redneck hillbilly engineering has evolved yet another level from 101 to 102. LMAO The cart now does burnouts at the drop of the pedal! It still tops out around ten MPH but at least it'll climb hills with it full of people now. I'm talking good hills here with four not small adults. Nate's the smallest at 165-170. So that was a load.

I got to thinking and remembering back in the day almost anything electrical was built to withstand 300% of it's rated output. We're talking old school resistor type stuff. So going from 36 to 48 volts shouldn't hurt a thing in fact it should help higher voltage with the same wattage equals less amperage and therefor less heat and line loss. So I wired the sixth battery in and installed the 48 volt charger base in place of the 36 volt.

Now I need to figure out how to kill the speed control or limit switch or whatever it has stopping it from passing 10ish mph.

I also went digging around in the junk piles today and think I may have found enough junk to improve the ride drastically and give it some lift so it can clear taller tires. Taller tires will help ride quality and top end speed as well. The springs are shot and as soon as one person sits on the cart all the suspension is bottomed out. Sitting on the stops! Yep it rides like a brick! Gonna fix that and it shouldn't cost me a dime. Oops I take that back I am going to buy new bushings for the suspension. So far other that the original $600 I paid for the carts I've spent a grand total of $4 and change for some eyelets to fix some wiring. I already started cannibalizing the other one for parts for this one. lol I still hope to project the other one one day but other things must come first. Now I have ordered the solar charge controller but that's not a needed repair that's a major upgrade and not included in the base cost of what it takes to make this thing useful here. At least not in my opinion because it will save way more dollars in the long run.

Stay tuned for the next class, class 103 in red neck engineering and homemade suspension / lift. HAHA
 
Biggkidd, I'm proud of ya, lol... some of those carts have 'microswitches' hidden in odd places, I know you're dealing with electric carts but the gas-powered ones I used to wrench on at the golf course in Benson had microswitches under their accelerator pedals. Might be worthwhile, hunting up a manual for that exact model you have, aye? Pretty soon, you'll be tearing around at Mach Speed in that cart... breaking the sound barrier like these jets out of Holloman AFB, lol. :oops:

P.S. I have an honorary Master's Degree in Redneck Engineering... honorary, because the real thing wouldn't be worth the paper it's printed on, lol. TRUE Redneck Engineering requires resourcefulness one just doesn't learn in SKOOL... ;)
 
Drove the cart down to the big creek by road then turned around and went out to Martins then back home. All in all about 5 maybe 6 miles up and down some Steep hills. I was by myself so no extra weight. Honestly I'm not sure a passenger or three would have hurt I still had good pep when I got back. Plenty of power pulling the hills I don't think I ever needed more than half throttle. The switch from 36 to 48 volts was a good thing as long as nothing gets fried from it. lol

The golf cart is also a way for me to save some money (gas) I was spending way to much doing the chores. I don't have any energy left to do things if I walk to do the chores. Plus it's a prep for me in a way if gas / fuel becomes unobtainable bet I wont figure out a way to work the soil with it.

Didn't really do much on it yesterday, nothing major anyway. Fixed a really irritating squeak & squeal and a few others. Then I fixed a couple rattles. One of which was bolting the rear seat back down. It had lost the bolts sometime in the last 34 years I guess. It has two broken mount tabs that I tried JB Weld steel stick on but that didn't hold even without anyone sitting on it. Had to swap a wheel and tire it had gone flat twice in three days and come off the bead both times. Dang things have such stiff walls you can't tell anything with the old thumb press test. lol
 
I got to pull a trailer with it today. Just a very small lawn & garden trailer but still nice to actually be able to use it for work around the farm. Carried a large cedar fence post, 5 gallons of gravel and the tools needed to plant it. I set this one in tamped in gravel since I've heard that makes them last longer. It's a tie post for a terribly sagging corner of the fence. I tied off to it with a ratchet binder and pulled the woven wire fence a lot tighter than I thought I'd be able to. Once I get this thing up off the ground a bit I'll be able to set it up to tow a little larger trailer but right now there's no space to put a regular trailer hitch. Heck there was barely room to slip a nut on a bolt through the pin hole location.

Spent a little time looking at how I'm going to mount this huge solar panel on the roof. Panel measures 39x77 it's a Renogy 300 watt 24 volt panel about ten years old. Same exact width as the roof that's on there now but 21 inches longer which is a good thing far as I am concerned. The charge controller for it should be in by middle of the week. It's going to mount using the same hardware right back to the original mounts. Bonus the rear seats will be under roof once it's done. lol
 

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