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electrical:solar:frugal [2019/05/16 21:07] frater_secessus [Making do with tiny solar setups] |
electrical:solar:frugal [2020/10/11 19:48] |
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- | ====== Making the most of your solar setup ====== | ||
- | [this is a dump of a reddit post I made; will clean up later. fs] | ||
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- | This page is more about making do with what you already have than about about what to buy if you are [[electrical: | ||
- | ===== system sizing ===== | ||
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- | Large solar installs are can be useful but are overkill (in size, output and expense) for many campers. | ||
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- | Reduce the size of your solar install (panels, batteries) by running your loads [[electrical: | ||
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- | ===== solar panels ===== | ||
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- | used panels may be found on craiglist and similar. Since they are older they will usually be rated for somewhat less wattage (ie, state of the art a couple years ago) but will cost less and someone else has already paid the insane shipping fees. | ||
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- | {{ https:// | ||
- | Grade B panels are apparently fully functional, but cheaper because they are not pretty to look at. If they are on top of the van you won't be seeing them much anyhow. | ||
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- | if you have room for them, residential panels (like 60 cell, nominal 20v panels) typically are cheaper by the watt. 72 cell are even cheaper by the watt but don't fit on many builds due to their large size. | ||
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- | ===== charge controllers ===== | ||
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- | You can eek out a bit [[electrical: | ||
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- | the Chinese " | ||
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- | ===== batteries ===== | ||
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- | First off: box store marine, dual-purpose or "deep cycle" batteries are [[electrical: | ||
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- | There is no magic way to increase the limited // | ||
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- | Drawing them down to only 80% State of Charge (also written as [[electrical: | ||
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- | If you don't have a spare battery you can even [[electrical: | ||
- | ===== converter ===== | ||
- | {{ https:// | ||
- | If you have an adjustable 12v power supply around you can make it into a dumb converter. In this pic the " | ||
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- | For deep cycling: | ||
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- | For shallow cycling: |