Dave shares his experience with solar through this video. His cabin system is powered by two 80 watts solar panels, via a Blue Sky 2012i charge controller; this system charges a 12 V battery pack. He uses a 1000 W off grid inverter to convert DC current to AC, which supplies his home energy needs, such as lights, television, microwave, coffee blender, fan, refrigerator, etc.
Four MK/ Deka batteries in series and parallel provide him with a 12 V and 440 Ah capacity.
This is a great DIY, “Do It Yourself”, example for solar enthusiasts. As you can see in the video Dave says “it works great!” We are happy to share this video with our customers.
Published
13 years 10 months ago
Comments
What battery enclosures would you recommend for this off grid solar system? Although the batteries are inside, I am concerned about the exposure of the wires. Thanks for the great video.
Thank you for your question Jeff. You are right, it's advised to include an enclosure to such system especially when there are children around.
There are couple of battery enclosures in the market. I found Midnite Solar battery enclosures at Greentech Renewables website. https://www.greentechrenewables.com/manufacturers/midnite-solar
You can find sunwize, ironridge and dpw solar enclosures online too.
Thanks, one more question. What is the expected life of a deep cycle battery. I saw the warranties are roughly 5 years but how long should they last if cared for?
So 160 watts and a 440 ah battery bank is enough to keep all of those kitchen appliances running? I would think that the refrigerator alone would draw more than what the system could supply on a daily basis.
440 ah is probably a large enough battery bank, the question is how does he keep it charged with a constant load using only two 80 watt panels. My guess is that they are not using full load all the time (this might not be a primary home) in which case the panels would have sufficient time to recharge the bank.
Hi Jeff I am building my on panels so I am new to this. I have one so far and another on the way that is 12v and 3 amps each. I will end up with 3 or 4. I like the setup!! Question is how do I size wires. I have a 14 coming out of my panel. What do I use to go to the controller and from the batteries to the inverter? Also where did you get your batteries?
Thanks
Hi pic_az,
The wire size depends on the distance, amperage and current on each string. Here is a good resource to use: https://www.greentechrenewables.com/article/understanding-solar-pv-wire-management
You can contact Greentech Renewables since they have all kinds of batteries on their system:
https://www.greentechrenewables.com/question/what-battery-material-enclosure-recommended-steel-or-plastic