As my house move nears completion...

[BT Humble]

By Sunday afternoon I should have finished moving all of my stuff to my new home - a shed and 16' caravan (or "trailer" if you prefer) on 25 acres.  A couple of weekends ago I set up my 560 watt solar array, which should provide the majority of my electricity needs.  Here's a page about it for your amusement:

http://www.geocities.com/za2bb/solar/index.html

Once I've spent the customary month or so sorting through boxes and rearranging gear on shelves, I'll be continuing work on my 6-foot mill (I suspended it about 6 months ago due to more pressing concerns, namely getting my shed built).

I'll provide more news as it happens...

BTH

[TomW]

BTH;

Great! I always like seeing these user built power systems. Looks like you are on your way to a heck of a nice setup. Good luck and keep up the good work and thanks for sharing. Looks like a beautiful spot to hang your hat and call home.

Cheers.

TomW

[Adrian L]

Very nice setup indeed, a real off-gridder system!

What sort of solar regulator you got running there?

I like your home made bus bars, very nice and well planned out.

Cheers,

Adrian L

[BT Humble]

The solar regulator is a bit of an orphan - this is the only reference I've ever seen to it on the web:

http://wwwphys.murdoch.edu.au/WebRAPS/disr/casest7.html

It does 12/24/36/48V at up to 60A (@12V).  You can also plug it into a current shunt via those connectors on the right-hand-side to use it as an amp-hour meter, but unfortunately the shop had lost the shunt somewhere (old stock).  

It will also send pulses of current into the battery when the solar voltage is lower than the battery voltage (24V), which effectively gives me an extra couple of hours of charging per day.

My brother-in-law used to work in a switchboard factory (ie. they made electrical switchboards for office buildings).  He had some bus bar left over, it's 2"x1/4" solid copper, with tin plating.  I suspect it'd handle quite a few amps... ;-)

It's really easy to tap holes in, too!

BTH