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I have been off grid for 7 months in south west virginia living in a 28 foot travel trailer.before I can get power I have to put in a 25000 dollar septic system so I decided to try solar. I started out in april with 4 avg sun hrs and 2 100 watt renogy mono panels open box for $210 a 30 amp pwm controller$40 and 2 6 volt golf cart batterys with 208 amp hrs$220 I Bought a aims 300 watt pure sine inverter $70 and a endless breeze 12 volt fan $70 a boss 2000 briggs generator $125 on craigslist to run my 10000 btu ac microwave and toaster. unplugged my converter and I got a used napa dumb napa battery charger $40. $800 SYSTEM. I built a 2 axis pole mount and In april I was averaging 68 amp hrs daily. Not enough for my 12 hours of 42 inch led tv at 50 watt hrs. And led lights lights dometic refrigerator electric blanket water pump so I bought 2 more 100 watt panels $250 now with 400 watts I'm bringing in 135 amp hrs so I decided to go with 2 more batterys $220 so now I'm up to $1270. I can watch 12 hrs tv run 20 led lights with no thought of turning them off my electric blanket all night my 6 amp water pump 45 mins a day listen to the radio. Run the fan on low 24 hrs. So far All the power I need.as long as the sun shines every day but now it's Nov and I'm running my furnace some looks like I'm gonna have to add more solar$500 and batterys $220 or pull the generator cord.or buy a gas heater $169 think I'll go with the heater.so far 400 watts and 400 amp hrs seemed to work for my needs. What works for you guys off grid
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Propane or wood for all heating. Use the generator on cloudy days to recharge, or you will destroy the batteries quickly. Read the off grid stickies.Powerfab top of pole PV mount (2) | Listeroid 6/1 w/st5 gen head | XW6048 inverter/chgr | Iota 48V/15A charger | Morningstar 60A MPPT | 48V, 800A NiFe Battery (in series)| 15, Evergreen 205w "12V" PV array on pole | Midnight ePanel | Grundfos 10 SO5-9 with 3 wire Franklin Electric motor (1/2hp 240V 1ph ) on a timer for 3 hr noontime run - Runs off PV ||
|| Midnight Classic 200 | 10, Evergreen 200w in a 160VOC array ||
|| VEC1093 12V Charger | Maha C401 aa/aaa Charger | SureSine | Sunsaver MPPT 15A
solar: http://tinyurl.com/LMR-Solar
gen: http://tinyurl.com/LMR-Lister -
That's what I'm leaning towards a new 18000 3 brick heater my charger is 40 amp so I charge about 3 hrs on cloudy days or up to 85% on hydrometer generator uses around a gal of gas. With only 5% solar charge rate think I'd need 2 more panels your thoughts would be appreciatedComment
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If you think the 20% drop in PV Watts from October to November is bad ...
Your PV Watts may drop another 40% from November to December
And then your PV Watts may drop another 10% from December to January.
February should be an increase over January.
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So I can look forward to needing 70% more watts more like 700 to live like I would from April to oct?Comment
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Hallo, I am new on the forum and cant find the place to start new topic. So sorry if I burst in here.
I had 3 x 75 w solar panels. My Amps are running up and down. from zero and up. If I put two in parallel if runs between 0.2 up to 5 Amps and back, it is not new panels they where in use.
Can it be that the panels are old.
Thank you for any help.Comment
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Go to stickys and look for testing panels. You will need a multimeter.Comment
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Thank you.Comment
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