Roll Up Solar Panels / Ogre MPPT Controller
I would LOVE to get 10-12 amperes of 12 volt grade charging for my new group 31 Lifeline. But I have a motor-scooter size toad, that forces me to the roll-up kind of solar panel, and woe is me, the...
Forum Discussion
Running the Kubota is a 4 dollar an hour proposition, not counting engine maintenance or a 75 mile round trip for fuel. Feeding the battery bank with 24 volt solar power is a dream but it takes 3.3 amperes just to maintain equilibrium. The 4024 Trace does this with shore power - a dedicated service drop and meter.
It's the house that is the issue, when there is no shore power. Amazing what old-age screws up. Liking waking up in pitch black and trying to orient where the hell the night stand is with flashlight sitting atop. Nine times out of ten I knock the light off the stand with clumsy fingers, it rolls under the bed and I braille my way from there. I want to reach behind my head, fumble for a fixed switch and ignite enough LED to make it to the bathroom and back. During summer, the power goes off for days in a storm and the power lines all fall down in the marsh 25 Km down the road.
Life is flat miserable without a fan. Jesus comes, grabs the 800-watt 2-cycle generator and heads for the enramada to power the kitchen, and refrigerators. He hauls a 55 gallon drum of gasoline for his outboard motor and taps into it for the Harbor Fright generator fuel. When customers show, they head to the enramada with power and music. Brenda serves them crackling cold ice cube drinks while adjacent powerless competitors serve up melted lumps. 2C beer helps too. So does the red-white-green LED rope light bragging the enramada has power.
The Trace comes online at the gen shed and keeps the three Torrey freezers happy. The single 12/2 line that runs to my kitchen keeps the Viking cold. The batteries can keep the freezers happy for 4-5 days. The kitchen is divorced from the bedroom by 35'. And the BiPAP and MSW Trace are mortal enemies.
But I am stuck at night with a constantly depleting AGM battery. Turn off the fan and trying to sleep is fitful and sweaty. Power to the BiPAP has to come first. I just don't want to have to move that heavy battery in order to charge it. With a herniated disc and 1-1/2 hands, such a try would look like a Marx brothers act and that's with a wheeled dolly.
So panels are an answer. Maybe the only intelligent one. My neighbor wants about 2,000 dollars in pesos to use his backhoe to scrape a trench through damned near solid rock 150' from generator shed to the bedroom. Then I would have to purchase conduit and wire and then run the Kubota to operate a bedroom charger. That makes for a foolish, vulnerable, plan. In a pinch I can snag the generator and try and power the Cheapowatts. 800 watts is pathetic.
And mixed into all this mess are the mosquitoes that invade through an opened door.
I just want to take the most intelligent path of least resistance and fewest dollars.
It's the house that is the issue, when there is no shore power. Amazing what old-age screws up. Liking waking up in pitch black and trying to orient where the hell the night stand is with flashlight sitting atop. Nine times out of ten I knock the light off the stand with clumsy fingers, it rolls under the bed and I braille my way from there. I want to reach behind my head, fumble for a fixed switch and ignite enough LED to make it to the bathroom and back. During summer, the power goes off for days in a storm and the power lines all fall down in the marsh 25 Km down the road.
Life is flat miserable without a fan. Jesus comes, grabs the 800-watt 2-cycle generator and heads for the enramada to power the kitchen, and refrigerators. He hauls a 55 gallon drum of gasoline for his outboard motor and taps into it for the Harbor Fright generator fuel. When customers show, they head to the enramada with power and music. Brenda serves them crackling cold ice cube drinks while adjacent powerless competitors serve up melted lumps. 2C beer helps too. So does the red-white-green LED rope light bragging the enramada has power.
The Trace comes online at the gen shed and keeps the three Torrey freezers happy. The single 12/2 line that runs to my kitchen keeps the Viking cold. The batteries can keep the freezers happy for 4-5 days. The kitchen is divorced from the bedroom by 35'. And the BiPAP and MSW Trace are mortal enemies.
But I am stuck at night with a constantly depleting AGM battery. Turn off the fan and trying to sleep is fitful and sweaty. Power to the BiPAP has to come first. I just don't want to have to move that heavy battery in order to charge it. With a herniated disc and 1-1/2 hands, such a try would look like a Marx brothers act and that's with a wheeled dolly.
So panels are an answer. Maybe the only intelligent one. My neighbor wants about 2,000 dollars in pesos to use his backhoe to scrape a trench through damned near solid rock 150' from generator shed to the bedroom. Then I would have to purchase conduit and wire and then run the Kubota to operate a bedroom charger. That makes for a foolish, vulnerable, plan. In a pinch I can snag the generator and try and power the Cheapowatts. 800 watts is pathetic.
And mixed into all this mess are the mosquitoes that invade through an opened door.
I just want to take the most intelligent path of least resistance and fewest dollars.
