The reclusive part of the home, and place of peace and some time is the right time.
Most men are attuned with running a house and having some time to enjoy life’s little pleasures, at the same time we care about the costs and how we effect the house hold budget. For some men its not about budgets and quiet and just time to enjoy a hobby but about mastering things in your safe place.
If you are here, then you are looking at power, you are looking at maybe off grid to run tools, heating, your gaming station or your table saw maybe even some model railway and some lights. Well you have found the right place.
We have made various posts in respect of the man cave and you can read these here: (they open in new tabs)
The Solar Shed: Electrifyingly Good for the Modern Man Cave — RenewSolar
Off Grid Solar kit planning — RenewSolar
First Steps in solar — RenewSolar
We also did a few videos in how to set things up on our youtube channel.
Here is the Solar Play list link.
You will find a range of “learning solar” and electronics around solar and power on the play list. it will certainly keep you busy for a long time.
What is the best way to start in Solar?
Our solar journey started amounts 20 years ago. its was little things, but then solar wasn’t as well developed. We had made voltage converters and wired lights and generally most homes had solar, its was just that they were garden lights.
Roll on a few years, and we were looking back at solar, We made small power banks that was used for CCTV. Then we moved our Servers to off grid. then the workshop was powered by the sun. Then the house. I don’t think I have every spoke to anyone who did not start with a little bit of tinkering and keep developing their solar journey. The famous last words; just a little one… to start.
I guess the starting point for me was a little different, but it comes up in the groups from time to time, DC or AC.
If you don’t know, most things run on DC power, you have the power bricks that change AC to DC on or in most things, so when you start did you want to run DC power?
TV’s and Computers all run on DC power, and you have DC lighting too. it is just a matter of providing the right voltage and having the right supply current to make things work. think of it as a battery charger.
Computers are 12V DC Laptops are 19vDC as are TV’s with some variations.
AC on the other hand is normally 230v (240) and is basically the single DC current flipping 50 times a second. to Alternate ( Alternating Current) and when we want AC ( mains) Power we can “H bridge” DC power to make AC mains power. – We have projects for building your own inverter!
For most, your will start by charging a battery and then hooking up an inverter to run things, when it comes to summer and you have excess power, you will be looking at growing your solar system.
It is wise to plan ahead, many many times people buy a small kit which usually costs more than a bigger kit while the term they have is “testing it out” so don’t buy small kits that you cannot add to and upgrade.
A typical example is a 12v system, you will pay more for a 12v panel that will have lower power and voltages that will limit your growth. Let me put that another way; you can pay £80 for a 140W 12v solar panel, or you can pay £62 for a 420w panel. or you could pay £25 for a 260w used solar panel. As you grow adding 2 or 3 more panels the costs to power just wont add up. Now this is only part of the story as to why this is not a good idea.
Don’t buy ebay specials
You will find a lot of Small on panel inverters for around £40 or so. they are not only illegal but also dangerous. they don’t last long, so you could end up with a working for a few weeks and find the fire and smoke bomb. so you replace that and now your at £80.00 for your next problem. for just over £100 you can buy a legal one. – See micro inverters that will last.
Converting solar to power.
Solar power comes from DC generated, and I am not going to deal with how solar panels work here. But we will say they comes in a few voltages, somewhere between 17v and 56v, your likely to see panels around 37v.
The voltage is important as it must be higher than the battery voltage. if you were to project a direct AC, then this is important as well as any grid tied as you will need to meet minimum voltages, and there are of course maximum voltages This applies to ALL hardware.
MPPT and PWM, a MPPT will convert power are a wider range than a PWM, so you can use different panels and get more power and use higher voltages. PWM you cannot do that. Basically a charge controller can convert power to a different voltage. while maintaining the power from the solar, a PWM tends to be like a switch dragging things down to battery voltage with no regard for peak performance.
Normally the conversion ( charge controller) will be 150v. you have to power factor your output current, this is simply input voltage divided by output voltage. That will give you a figure that you use to multiply the current. giving you the total power.
I best give an example as most people struggle with this;
38v 12 amp solar panel.
12v system (battery)
38v / 12v =3.16
12a X 3.16 =38a
2x 38v 12 amp solar panel.
76v / 12v =6.33
12a X 6.33 =76a
As you can clearly see the output currents are bigger than the solar current, this is ohms law at work.
You should take from this, that the battery charge rate may not be the same or less than the current that you can make. lets say you buy a
You can put in 100v and the output current is 30 amps, therefore you can see that you are “clipping power” as you have 38 amps on our first example, and 76 on the second, therefore you will not be converting power and it will go to waste. However if you jump to 24v the current is halved.
so that single panel example, will out put a current of 19 amps, and this controller is fine for that purpose.
There are alternatives to the Victron energy charge controllers, we even have our own charge controller project. But you may want to think about a AIO.
AIO – All in one.
For the most part it is fun building your own hardware or picking out bits to put together, but in the same its more smaller and simpler as well as cost effective to but a AIO.
Going off grid is probably one option that you would want to try, independent power!
You can run part of the house off grid if you wanted, our use a ATS. splitting part of the home on or off grid. This can be a little more tricky and complex, but is generally a later stage.
To be or not to be…
Being on grid or off grid is a important factor, its is easy to install a grid tied system. BUT unless you have a hybrid you wont get the best money savings, on the flip side you will have grid power, but you will pay more over all.
if you go off grid, you cant use power from the grid. you can split power loads, but you have to be independent and maintain the system and make sure it works for you. with a ATS you can usually get the best of both worlds. but for Man caves, you wont be able to shift power to the house and its loads that are on grid power.
You can have a grid tied system –
Will power the house, so if you are not in your cave using the power it will take money off the house power bill. – You wont have storage unless you get a hybrid system. it will cost more.
You can have a ATS system –
this is off grid, but part of the home and the workshop can be powered by off grid solar – you are in charge and you can switch back to grid if required, this is a lower cost and you can go bigger without DNO limits ( legal requirements for grid tied).
You can go off grid –
Going off grid and home power connectionless. this means that the power will be only for use with your off grid. you may not use all the solar power that is available leading to waste. it is the most cost effective, but in winter if solar is low, you may need to find a way to charge that is not from solar. The benefits are limited, but you could add an ats..
THE BIG PICTURE
Planning solar has a few points on which I have mentioned, the plus points and the short comings.
If you want to start small, then build your self a battery charger. Take a look on our projects page.
when you build this charger, you will have the platform to add an inverter, or add to the panel with a AIO, its a good middle ground to start from.
If you want to try out solar, then a micro inverter is the lowest cost option. this will power your house and anything connected to your homes power.
If you want to go small with a battery charger ( and inverter) then grab a panel and take a look at the “no controller” post for a lowest price option.
If you want to jump in to solar then take a look at the AIO’s its off grid but you can expand from there with ATS systems, so you could off grid part of your home. This is the most simple option if you are not technical. – battery required in most cases.
More posts to come on starting out in solar.
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