theoldwizard1 wrote:
Gdetrailer wrote:
Takes a lot of solar, battery AND MONEY to make the system you long for, way above your budget.
Why does everyone keep saying this !
Victron SmartSolar MPPT 100/50 Charge Controller - $325 Amazon
Victron SmartShunt Battery Monitor - $130 Amazon
Samlex EVO-1212F-HW Pure Sine Inverter/Charger - $745 Amazon
That is $1200 ! If you shop hard, you should be able to find 200W polycrystalline solar panels for under $200 each. ($150 a piece would be a very good deal at 75¢/watt, but do-able) Add mounting hardware and some wiring and yes, you will probably be up around $1700
(If I was building this for myself, I would want 600W of solar and a 2000W inverter and I would use a 24V battery bank but that would be over $2000.)
$1200 and you haven't even got to buy solar panels. You are also forgetting that shipping solar panels IS expensive.. They don't ship em for free..
One of the recent "cheap used panel" threads used 250W panels were priced at $50 each.. The downside was it cost well over $100 a panel to ship.. Making the "cheap used panels" not so much a "bargain".
OP WANTED to keep the "cost" at $1500, now you are encouraging them to sink even more money into a system that is going to cost $2500 and more.
Heck the "puresine" inverter that you pointed out alone ate up HALF the OPs budget..
Haven't even got to the batteries yet..
At the min to support long term 1500W loads without the inverter shutting down do to voltage sag, OP WILL need at a min of 4 FLA 6V GC2s.. This is due to some crazy law called "Peukerts law", in a nut shell the more energy you draw the faster the internal resistance goes up. Internal resistance goes up and the voltage sags.. Voltage sags below 11V and most inverters will alarm or shut down.
Also affects just how much and how quick energy can be absorbed by the battery when recharging.
To get around this issue, some folks use multiple batteries to spread out the draw, some have gone to more expensive AGM which has a lower internal resistance but those are more expensive and give you less capacity for the same size as the flooded cousins..
To get around AGMs limitations folks are moving to even more expensive Lithium technology batteries, light weight, have an incredible power density for the footprint, but, they are insanely expensive per Ahr.. Require BMS system to monitor discharge and recharge. Doesn't like excessive heat OR COLD so you basically must treat them like a person and keep them around "room temp" for greatest life and capacity..
To run a 1500W microwave for say ten minutes, that is 1.5kw if run for 1 hr..
For the 10 minutes of use you are looking at 250Whrs..
BUT, keep in mind, there are losses (inefficiencies), if you pull out and only put 250Whrs back into ANY battery, it WILL NEVER get fully recharged and it will go dead.. Gonna need 300Whrs or more to fully recharge the battery provided you have enough sun. Keep in mind at this point we have only been considering a microwave and nothing else..
Solar panels are not very efficient and a very little window exists that you will ever get close to max output and that is generally around noon time when the sun is at it's highest angle.. That is only perhaps a half hr to 1 hr window.. Even if you sat there all day to baby sit the panel and move it with the sun, it will be less than the noon sun..
OP will need at a min of 500W-600W of panels to pull off using a microwave and coffee pot.. The two highest power draws.. And I suspect that is not enough..
Just because the sun may shine, it doesn't mean that a solar panel is putting out the max rating all day..
It is far cheaper to simply run a gen for the high wattage draws than to build a high power solar panel system with all the supporting costs, for small stuff like TV/entertainment is is pretty low cost to run that from solar.. 200W worth of panels and maybe at the most a pair of GC2s will give the OP a long weekend..
Small systems can be had for small money, you can buy 100W panels now days for $70 and a 30A PWM controller for $20. So for 200W of solar you will only spend $160 PLUS OVERSIZED SHIPPING ($200 perhaps for shipping)..
OP already has PSW inveter for TV so zero dollars there..
OP already has a gen so zero Dollars there..
OP has no need for 2,000W inverter so zero dollars there..
What I would suggest is if OP really wanted to run all solar in the future they simply buy a couple of panels now to meet their needs for low power loads, as they get some spending money down the road, they can simply ADD several more panels, perhaps upgrade the solar controller, add some extra batteries and once they have enough solar and batteries then buy a big inverter for their microwave and coffee maker..
That is a great thing with solar, you can add on when ever you get the money, you do not HAVE to lay out a lot of cash up front, start small and add to it.. But keep in mind that overall the OP WILL be spending far more than $2500 either way.. There is no "free meal"..
