Poor Man's Working Solar System

[nadja]

I figured out that pic's say a thousand words, and when it comes to solar, especially for the newbie, they may prehaps say even more. Most of the new people to solar only see the "proffesional" installed system, which although works, costs about 50% more then what you can do it yourself. So, the link below will take you directly to the page on my web site where you can see how it works . Nadja

http://www.southwestjewelryatitsbest.com/MySolarSystem.html

[nailpounder]

Thanks for the pics - cool jewelry too!;)

[offgridbob]

What all do you power with it and how often do you need to charge the batterys?

[nadja]

What all do you power with it and how often do you need to charge the batterys?

My entire house. Refer/freezer Chest Freezer, two desktop computers, 27" crt tv. stereo, lights, micro wave oven, now and then. Pretty much what any normal house uses it for. Batteries charge from first light to dusk, Once in awhile like yesterday, I run one of my gennies for about an hour as there was very little sun all day long.

[Briee]

Do you have a detailed description of how you hooked up your system and approximately cost? Thanks so much for your pictures.

[nadja]

Do you have a detailed description of how you hooked up your system and approximately cost? Thanks so much for your pictures.

Briee, I have been doing this as a work in progress for about 16 years now. When I started until just the last year or so, I was paying about $5.00 per watt just for the panels. Now, with a bit of shopping around on the web, you can get panels for as little as $.78 per watt. Never kept track of it, but if you figure 1500 watts for about $5.00 per and then about $3,000,00 for the pure sine wave inverter, and about $300.00 ea. for the 4 charge controllers you can get a rough idea. There are many extras involved also. A person I know is about to take the leap into solar also, and he is starting with about 1800 watts and spending about 1.50 per watt, but only by purchaseing a pallet.

As the market gets flooded with the cheap chinese junk the prices on the good stuff come down, or they will go out of business.

[Briee]

Thanks so much nadja! (almost missed this answer, sorry).

[nadja]

Thanks so much nadja! (almost missed this answer, sorry).

Not a problem. If you have any questions about the actual solar and working with it, give me a pm. I love to help people save money by not going to the "professionals" for costly info and over sales.

[LaMar]

Nice system but looks a bit pricey!

I have a 580 watt solar and 400 watt Air X wind turbine, eight 6 volt deep cycles, morningstar mppt power controller, and 700 watt inverter.

That powers my off grid cabin for lights, water pump, 2 tvs, laptop, 12 volt fridge and lots of gadgets and cost under $3000.

I have been off grid for over 15 years and started with a real small system that I expanded as I needed.

I have wood heat and propane for backup. Solar composting toilet.

If people will just reduce their power use they do not need a big expensive system in my opinion.

You can see my setup on my youtube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJsDOD0dTQI

LaMar