1KW Solar System Completed

[iFred]

right click on image and "view image or show picture" for a larger view. if images fail to appear -refresh or reload your browser

Back view of solar array



Side view of solar array



Front view of solar array, 12ft x 12ft structure array



back view showing wiring box, wiring and back of panels



This is a gear box that drives the main shaft for lifting and lowering the solar array



the gear box drives the main shaft which is connected to two lifting cables one on each side which raises and lowers the solar array



the other side of the main shaft. lifting cable and electrical junction box



up close view of the solar array



lifting cable and lifting pully, the lifting cable goes from the array frame to the cable to the pully and connects to the main shaft



a different view - also showing the bolts and holes that I use to lock it down with. each time I lower or raise I apply the bolts and lock em.



One side of my electrical system is composed of a - tristar c60 , 1000 watt inverter and meters indicating amps and charge volts and a 60 amp shunt (2-30 amps in Parallel) - There is a DC disonnect and fusebox and fuses shown as well on the right hand side. I also have a laptop computer that measures everything in real time and is hooked to the tristar through a serial port, this is a very neat way of reading data and seeing exactly whats going on. This system controls my house power. meters read 15.33volts and 20.9amps



This is the other controller, it is composed of dc disconnect, fuses, a tristar c30, with an 1000w inverter an a 30 amp shunt with meters showing charging voltage and current. For my garage.



and here is the battery bank. lots of battery's. Mostly they are Trojan L16Gs.

Since I have two solar controllers (basically in parallel), they both read about 20-28 amps charging each, this means that all day from about 11am to about 6pm on a sunny day I see the meters saying this. not bad considering all things. If I shut down one system all the amperage goes to the other controller, so I can dedicate things like equalization and charging days.

I get 22.5 vdc open circuit voltage which the controller then converts down to battery charging voltage. The highest I have seen the current go is 48 amps to date.

Update on hooking 2 tristar controls together. split panels only to each controller and parrelle the output to the batterys. There is no other way to increase your current range, two controllers off one panel does not work. I am talking to tristar to get this corrected as well as talking to them about how you equalize the batterys from two controllers that are independant? go figure, I don't think it was part of the original design.

So here is the breakdown. You need at least 12ft x 12ft of solar panels to generate 1KW of solar on a good sunny day, and need somewhere to store it, as I have personally found out now, I need allot more batteries or more solar or wind for my needs at least double now that I look at it. just not enough power.

Solar is nice, quite and hassle free, but the sun doesn't shine everyday. and it is those times that you still require means to generate and maintain battery's without a grid if thats the intention.

Dan, Thanks for a great message board! Thanks to all that helped me throughout the years with your knowledge and experiance, I would'nt have missed it for anything. Your guys are great!

THANKS!!!

[wooferhound]

Double Cool

Did'nt you hand build those panels from eBay Solar Cells ?

[DanB]

That better ifred - thanks (picture size I mean).  But still...  it seems like you should be able to display much nicer images that are about the same size there.  Maybe its better to work with .jpg files.  Most of the pics I post come in around 50 or 60K @ 480 x 360 and they come out lots cleaner than that.  Im  no expert on this stuff so Im not sure what to suggest...

nice system there!

[iFred]

Hi Wooferhound! Yes, these are those cells. everything here was hand made. it took a bit of doing, I am short 2 panels of glass, which I think i'll find around and/or cut and place them in. I estimate a total capacity of 1040Watts when this is completed. I have broken cells now to deal with. I figure I can make an additional couple more panles from them, and make a new frame as well. it's going to get bigger.

Hi Dan, forgot to use JPG's, your right, I should have.. maybe correct that again.

THANKS!

 

[c1josh]

That's great work.

Is there a post that describes the building process of the cells/panels?

Was there a specific seller on eBay that you used?

Thanks,

Josh

[Tom in NH]

Nice, Fred. You have been busy. How many amp hours is your battery bank? I hope your cells hold up better than mine did. I've got to replace a few that broke and resolder the tabbing throughout. After a year of use, I'm getting a measly 8-10 amps on a sunny day when I used to get 50 amps. --tom

[iFred]

HI Tom! Nice to hwar from you again.

I still get the same per panel, in this case 3 amps per panel at 15.5vdc. I did rewire them however in series and made some half panels to bring the voltage up to 22.5 at 3amps. I have had a couple smaller joints go but resoldered them again. When I built them originally I soldered them both front and back and added extra solder for more support. I have not had any problems with condensation or anything else for that matter. seems to be preforming well. The first 15 panels where up throughout last year and now added 8 more. I figure I can add an additional 8 more soon as I get them built.

 

[roddy]

have you saved money by building yourself? I haven't found anything small that was available for less than what you can buy the big panels for

roddy