Hardscrabble's Main Solar System

I'm posting about our solar systems today, so everyone can see where our electricity comes from and how easy it is to set up yourself.

First we have the solar panels. These are sets of (3) 275-watt panels wired in series. There are two sets of panels (6 total) powering the main system. That gives us around 1,150 watts of peak power coming in.

All panel wiring comes to an emergency shut off box before going in to the charge controller.

The panel wires come in to the charge controller, which moniters how much power is coming into the system and adjusts everything accordingly. This component is crucial, it keeps your batteries from getting overcharged and tells you how much power you are producing. It is also programmable to do a whole lot of other cool stuff, like equalizing your battery bank.

From the charge controller, the power goes back outside to the batteries. Here, you see (2) 6volt T-105 golf cart batteries. They are wired in series to give us 12volt of power.

In addition to the solar system wiring, there is an auxillary 12v pump and DC lights wired to the batteries.

From the batteries, we have wires coming into the back of our inverter. The wiring used is the size of battery cables and can be difficult to work with. From the front of the inverter there is a power squid. There is space at the back of the inverter to run your own house wiring from it, if you so choose. No way I was ripping out the walls here to do that, though!

This setup allows us to charge phones, run lights, charge the cordless drill, run a fan, watch movies, ect. It isn't big enough to power a vaccum or the air conditioner or power tools.

For everything the solar system can't handle, there is the generator. This one is a Harbor Freight special, and has been amazingly faithful considering its source. She just got a spark plug change last weekend and is still running strong.

The generator only gets regular use for the air conditioning in summer. Less regular uses for it are the vaccum (we have hardwood floors so mostly just sweep it), charging batteries during long winter storms, running the table saw (or Skilsaw...or the Sawzall, you get the idea.)

Hardscrabble's Tiny Solar System

Here is our small DC solar system.

This is a 45 watt solar array that powers the electric fence for the time being. First, the panels on the shed roof. Very dusty, I'm going to have to do something about that!

Next, the charge controller. This is a cheap 3-amp charge controller, about $20 from Harbor Freight. Not the best quality, but it's been in use over 2 years without issue.

Charge controller goes to the battery. This is just a regular deep cycle marine battery.

In this picture the solar panels are not hooked up to it, because apparently charging the battery while the electric fence is hooked up is NOT a good idea. The battery gets charged once a month or so unless something shorts the fence out, then more frequent charging is required.

This DC electric fencer is wired directly to the battery.

Currently, the electric fence is the only thing this system is running. I do have plans to run one or two DC lights off this system, but have no plans to hook an inverter up to or overuse such a small system.

This setup will give you basic DC lighting and power on a small scale.