Question for someone who's done it.

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Magus

Magus

The Shaman of suburbia.
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HCL Supporter
Joined
Dec 13, 2017
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14,663
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Look behind you in that dark corner.
I made it three years on a pair of portable 8x10 job site panels, a generator and a bank of six batteries, not perfect, but I made it.
I'm considering going back out to my little piece of heaven pretty soon, so here's what I need:
A system that will run two medium sized refrigerators, lights, air conditioning in summer and a 50,000 BTU heater in winter, a TV, radio, computer and CB.
I was always having brown outs and battery failures, next time I go, its probably for good, so I'm going with a ready made system instead of something I
cobbled up in my garage. any ideas?
 
sheesh! No wonder the guy I rented those panels from was so happy to get them back!

Well, I need something, the propane refrigerator I got with my new trailer is shot!
 
Magus said:
Well, I need something, the propane refrigerator I got with my new trailer is shot!
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I replaced the working propane refrigerator in our RV with a standard 120 volt compact one. I put about 300+ watts of solar panels on the roof. It works fine but obviously we only use the RV during nice weather (though we live in Arizona so the sun is usually shining).
The solar runs the fridge, all the LED lights, water pump, and whatever small things we plug in to the outlets. We have 2 of the 100amh 12v batteries. A MPPT solar controller and a 750 watt (1500 surge) inverter.
You could look on ebay to see about what that would cost now. The solar panels I got were mixed ones I picked up here and there. Some were new and some were used. Still working after several years. The longest we ever camped was about a week at a time.
 
We went to Costco in Medford today and saw that they finally got some GC-2 210 amp-hour 6 volt batteries $94.95 plus whatever the going rate is for core charge, I wish they were sold without acid like they used to do, many years ago, I could store some away along with caddies of acid for future replacements.
 
We can still get dry batteries here, BUT they do not have a warranty.
There's this diesel repair shop way out in the middle of nowhere I get functional deep cycle batteries for 50$ when they are available.
 
hiwall said:
Except 120 volt models are way less money that could then be used to buy additional solar panels.
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I found it hard to compare the two. Used Al Bore's Internet for searches.

9.8 cu ft 12 VDC compressor refrigerator. $950. Power 247 Kilowatts per year (based on a reviewers experience).

10 cu ft 120 VAC compressor refrigerator. $650. Power draw listed at 378 Kilowatts per year.

A Renogy 200 watt panel is $300.
 
The Lazy L said:
I found it hard to compare the two. Used Al Bore's Internet for searches.

9.8 cu ft 12 VDC compressor refrigerator. $950. Power 247 Kilowatts per year (based on a reviewers experience).

10 cu ft 120 VAC compressor refrigerator. $650. Power draw listed at 378 Kilowatts per year.

A Renogy 200 watt panel is $300.
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That's about the ratio of dollars a watt that we paid for our eight 195 watt panels from Grape Solar, Grape Solar markets a lot of their kits and panels through Tractor Supply, that's where my friend ordered her four panel 400 watt kit, it came with a PWM solar controller but since it was such a good price, I told her to get an MPPT controller, which I feel, by experience, are far more efficient, especially when I hooked up her panels, series/parallel, even on not the best solar days she gets 44+ volts from the array, through the MPPT solar controller it topped off her four 255 amp hour GC-2 batteries at 13.7 volts, I told her that those were very good figures. I only wish I had been around to see the amp readings that brought the batteries up to that amount.
 
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My suggestion is to nix the ac and heater
build a rocket stove heater/ oven/grill Top that uses wood
depending on where you are, sub a swamp cooler for the AC

cold food storage, dig a hole, build a root cellar
 
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Frodo said:
My suggestion is to nix the ac and heater
build a rocket stove heater/ oven/grill Top that uses wood
depending on where you are, sub a swamp cooler for the AC

cold food storage, dig a hole, build a root cellar
Click to expand...
This is what my neighbor has been working on.
 
Magus said:
... so here's what I need:
A system that will run two medium sized refrigerators, lights, air conditioning in summer and a 50,000 BTU heater in winter, a TV, radio, computer and CB.
Click to expand...

Like Frodo said, Nix the AC and Heater. Depending upon where you are a swamp cooler might work. Use an alternate energy source (propane, oil, wood, etc.) for heat. Use a laptop computer if you can. They take a lot less energy.

The very best way to save money on solar power is to cut back on your energy needs. The system you desire may not even be feasible short of matching the national debt. Then every few years you take another hit when the batteries need replaced.
 
I've been living 100% off grid for several years now and love it. With my solar system I run 1 large refrigerator, 1 medium sized refrigerator, 2 chest freezers, washer/dryer (propane) central AC, propane furnace, etc. In other words we run our entire house, shop, and fur shed all on solar. In my system I have a 12 kw Perkins diesel backup generator set up with an auto start programed to start up when the battery bank drops to 24 volts.
The generator has a 55 gallon day tank with a 300 gallon bulk tank outside the electrical building. The only time that I've ever had a power "outage" was when I forgot to fill the day tank.
Edit: Although we have central heat we only use it if we are go somewhere in winter. Our primary heat is with wood. Cooking and water heater is with propane. We have 3 flat panel tv's in the house, one in the fur shed and one in the shop. Lights are all LED's and there's only about 5 days during summer that we need the AC, usually the ceiling fans are enough. The fur shed has AC also. Our solar system provides all the electric that we need. Our well pump is on a separate generator setup.
I guess we have about $50,000 invested in our system.
 
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We are 14 years off grid now. My youngest didn't realize other people lost power several times a year since we never do. Biggest thing I can say is quality counts when it comes to power components.
 
Biggkidd said:
We are 14 years off grid now. My youngest didn't realize other people lost power several times a year since we never do. Biggest thing I can say is quality counts when it comes to power components.
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You are absolutely right on the mark, also design for high enough watts over the running watts to start up motors because most all larger motors have a large surge of amps to get them up and running, often twice the running amps, this is where a lot of people run into problems with their generators, they don't get them with enough surge watts to run what they thought it should. This is often the case with deep well pumps. Our system, so far, is for standby in case of grid failure, in fact if you blinked your eyelids at the right time, you wouldn't even know that the inverter kicked in, the AC relay transfer time is 16 milli-seconds, the inverter is rated for 4,000 watts but has a maximum of 5,800 watts for 5 seconds, which is good for starting large motors, which in our case only amounts to one large freezer and a large refrigerator, the other fridge and freezer are smaller. Our backup system has ended up powering far more than I had originally designed it for and I believe that's because I did use quality components. Our average daily solar volts are around 80 VDC, even on rainy days I have seen in the high 60's to 70's. Before I built the solar array in 2019, we had the 20 GC-2 batteries charged by grid power since 2013, five banks of four batteries, 24 volts for 1025 amp hours. Electrolyte always topped with distilled water, ONLY, we bought a gallon distiller and it's amazing how much minerals coat the inside by the end of distilling 6 gallons to have on hand, if those minerals went into the batteries, they would be dead in no time. Never, ever use tap water and that goes for your vehicles radiator as well, I've seen the inside of the tubes clogged with minerals a number of times, when getting a used radiator.
 
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We live with a 2000 watt Aims pure sinewave inverter. It can run 2000 watts continuously and has a 20 second 6000 watt starting capacity. We are going to need to get a larger inverter in the near future as there are now 2.5 more people living here. My oldest daughter and her husband are here full time now and her son comes every other week for a week.

I just finished installing another 4) 300 watt panels this morning. These are wired directly to a water heater to heat a small area using in floor heating.
 
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