Solar Homebrew first...

[sandovalch]

Here are some pics of my homebuilt solar panels. So far only 14, but I am planning on doubling the amount of panels. Just need a new charge controller, because the one I'm using is at his capacity.

another angle from the same panels

I'm using an AIMS 2.5kW inverter and a Trace C-30 charge controller. The only problem with my inverter was that once some people came to my house to do some soldering and connected the machine to the inverter?! I was not home and... of course the inverter went up in smoke. Luckily I opened it and found the spare part, changed it and it now works fine.

Since the location of my batteries and my inverter is not ideal I'm constructing a new place for it, it still is in construction. Guess I'm taking my going AE very serioulsy, so far I could olny cut half of my electric bill, but I'll get there.

This was my first attempt at a solar panel, with cells from silicon solar, but they were very expensive and the output was not that great.

This is the post for my wind genny to be... at least I already have something to start with...

[iFred]

Thats really nice!! All thats left is to build the solar panel frames so the panels don't get blowin in the wind!! it looks like your building this all on a second story roof or somethin? interestin... what king of genny?

[sandovalch]

I constructed a small wall around them, so no one can see what is on my roof and also to protect the panels from the wind.

The genny will be Hugh Piggott´s dual axial flux, I´m going for the big one in my first attempt, hopefully everything works out OK

[pyrocasto]

They look nice. The only thing that doesnt look right is it looks like you mixed some big chipped cells with some whole good cells, which will limit your output.

[sandovalch]

Yes, you are right. The first ones I made, I mixed up some of the chipped cells with the whole ones. I'll try not to do that in the future and make a "smaller" panel with only the chipped ones.

[nothing to lose]

That's a really neat job. I like those.

I wanted to try building some but I spent my money on machine stuff instead of cells, so I geuss I will be waiting a bit longer still.

"The only problem with my inverter was that once some people came to my house to do some soldering and connected the machine to the inverter?! I was not home and... of course the inverter went up in smoke. Luckily I opened it and found the spare part, changed it and it now works fine."

Not sure I understand that? What did they connect, and what spare parts?

 I have a Aims 5kw so I am pretty interested in this.

Great job on the pannels, very neat looking setup,  and good luck on the wind mill.

[commanda]

"The only problem with my inverter was that once some people came to my house to do some soldering and connected the machine to the inverter?! I was not home and... of course the inverter went up in smoke. Luckily I opened it and found the spare part, changed it and it now works fine."

I also am confused. My soldering iron is something I hold in my hand, and it consumes 48 watts. Less than most incandescant light bulbs.

I suspect something got lost in the translation, and you actually meant arc welding.

Amanda

[TomW]

Amanda;

Yes, I wonder, too. I run my soldering station regularly on my  cheap 1500 watt inverter. Being a simple, half amp or so resistive load it seems unlikely it would kill an inverter. However, I think welding with my 110 VAC wirefeed may have been a factor in killing my 2500 watt cheapie inverter a few months ago.

Cheers.

TomW

[sandovalch]

Yes, sorry for not explaining it very well.

Someone came to my house to do some arc welding and they connected the welding machine to an outlet connected to my inverter.

Usually when I do Amps demanding jobs I switch back to utility energy, but I was not home so they blew up my inverter.

I opened it and found out a MOSFET was gone, I looked it up, bought the spare and installed it. It now works great again!

I do also a lot of soldering for my solar cells with my soldering iron and have had no problems with the 2.5kW inverter.