Here is a quick video tour of my home made DIY solar back up power system. It can be done pretty cheaply. I would guess I have about 1600 bucks invested in these 2 systems and they do what I need if the power goes out. Also its handy in the garage to just plug in your garage door and pop it open when the power is out without having to pull the release. If anyone has any questions or ideas for improvement, feel free to post away!
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SmokeSativaIndica says:
May 9, 2012 at 4:38 pm (UTC 0)
This seems really complicated, would an ordinary joe be able to build a cabin like this and a solar power system? I’m really thinking about doing this
Louis Jasinski says:
May 9, 2012 at 5:04 pm (UTC 0)
Yea i heard him say 12v, but Trojan T105 on their website is a 6v battery.
NHindividualist says:
May 9, 2012 at 5:29 pm (UTC 0)
He explained at 3:10 that they’re 12v, but that you could wire 6v in series if you wished.
Louis Jasinski says:
May 9, 2012 at 5:33 pm (UTC 0)
Hey Lamar, you say you got 2 Trojan T105 batteries, are they each 12v or 2 6v tied together?
ItalyPaola says:
May 9, 2012 at 5:53 pm (UTC 0)
I like you house! And I like your alternative form to see the concept of house!!! We can have a confortable life using just creativity, our hands and sun! Congrats from Spain man 😀
solarcabin says:
May 9, 2012 at 6:45 pm (UTC 0)
Average new AC power installation is $5000 and much more if your house is way away from power lines. Power bill would be closer to $100 a month. AC power is going up all the time and in a power outage you are hurting. My power stays on when othee people lose their power in an emergency.
joehaasmedia says:
May 9, 2012 at 6:49 pm (UTC 0)
Is there any sort of inversion that you have to do between the generator and your battery bank when you are running the “extra” power back to the battery bank from the generator?
Scott Cihocki says:
May 9, 2012 at 7:31 pm (UTC 0)
Do you mean that it will power your appliances for 3 days, according to your habits of using appliances? Or do you mean that you can make so much power, you basically don’t have a power issue whatsoever? Ex: You can worry free watch television all day or all night, or you could afford (space allowing) say a washer and dryer, ect.
DON351W says:
May 9, 2012 at 7:50 pm (UTC 0)
how many batteries in bank
Scott Cihocki says:
May 9, 2012 at 8:17 pm (UTC 0)
Is there a variation/way you could earn a small profit in some form of variation by working with this Alternative Energy System? I suppose that would be more leading on the road to developing a power company though. Which does seem like a good idea anyways.
Shonuff75 says:
May 9, 2012 at 8:32 pm (UTC 0)
Net metering will not give you money. Feed in tariff would. Net metering, at least here in Hawaii, is where the electric company credits you 1 kWh for every kWh that you don’t use, so that way at night and rainy days, etc you are just using up your own credits. FIT here they give you 27.2 cents a kWh. They charge 33.7 cents here for energy though! So people doing FIT are just getting a 2nd system to make some money on.
princejaa says:
May 9, 2012 at 8:48 pm (UTC 0)
why won u connect a step up transformer to ur solar panel system. u can put out alot more of energy that way.
or simply connect a generator..
solarcabin says:
May 9, 2012 at 9:41 pm (UTC 0)
Solar panels have safety glass and can withstand hail storms. weather has never been a problem. Grid systems have more problems with weather.
neonseacow says:
May 9, 2012 at 9:49 pm (UTC 0)
How does your paradise stand against weather?
has Hail ever been a problem for your solar panels?
HilarityBribo says:
May 9, 2012 at 10:28 pm (UTC 0)
this guy is awesome, i’d love to be able to live outside of the system
daisy White says:
May 9, 2012 at 10:32 pm (UTC 0)
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Scott Cihocki says:
May 9, 2012 at 10:50 pm (UTC 0)
Is it possible to obtain money by net metering (being on the power grid) by supplying your own power, and send surplus power (within reason, you need some of it), back to the power company?
monkeymanobama says:
May 9, 2012 at 11:34 pm (UTC 0)
they will?…..it’s good to know that they’ll still charge despite less than perfect conditions.
NYCamper62 says:
May 9, 2012 at 11:46 pm (UTC 0)
He probably could, battery box has the room. But I’m guessing he’s already got 200+Ah reserve. Plus a generator. Even on a cloudy day amorphous panels will trickle charge.
NYCamper62 says:
May 10, 2012 at 12:30 am (UTC 0)
Looks like a balance of amorphous & crystaline. I use the HF panels at camp, know they are not as efficient but do generate in less then sunny weather.
lorrainecoleman says:
May 10, 2012 at 12:33 am (UTC 0)
Fabulous fabulous fabulous
rarshibond says:
May 10, 2012 at 1:10 am (UTC 0)
man you are living the life. i wish i could build one of those and not have to worry about all the bills and stress in my life.
papaown says:
May 10, 2012 at 1:15 am (UTC 0)
And you’re probably fat, and the only reason you have a man is because you married him while you looked decent?
harun1984 says:
May 10, 2012 at 1:21 am (UTC 0)
Why not combine both pv’s into the one system?
531tango says:
May 10, 2012 at 2:04 am (UTC 0)
Good day
If you have time Can you do a short video on how to hook up 2 12v deepcycle batteries together and how to hook up charge controller to batteries.
Thanks
My email is jayvetro@yahoo.com
MacOSJoey says:
May 10, 2012 at 2:07 am (UTC 0)
I love the high voltage sign. I have the same on my system. Kind of a novelty…
Iridium242 says:
May 10, 2012 at 3:07 am (UTC 0)
Probably in the range of 500 to 600 bucks.. but the panels I got cheap from a group buy a few years ago on another site.
99melissalynn says:
May 10, 2012 at 4:05 am (UTC 0)
Awesome. What did this cost, approx to do?
sirmasterpimp says:
May 10, 2012 at 4:57 am (UTC 0)
Nice setup man, how long does it take to charge the smaller system ?
w7mag says:
May 10, 2012 at 5:48 am (UTC 0)
Excellent. Keep us posted as we are looking forward to seeing how this evolves. 🙂
Iridium242 says:
May 10, 2012 at 6:42 am (UTC 0)
Yup.. they are mod sine wave. I wasn’t going to spend a fortune on Pure Sine Wave inverters for a backup system 🙂 I may be adding batteries soon, but then I plan on putting in a pos and neg buss bar and setting it up a bit different.
w7mag says:
May 10, 2012 at 7:18 am (UTC 0)
Nice!
Remember, You can’t have too much battery if you are going for a part time/emergency type system. If you are going for a full time use system then the dynamics change quite a bit. I’m guessing those are mod sine wave inverters?
Iridium242 says:
May 10, 2012 at 7:38 am (UTC 0)
Yeah I can do a hookup video as well.. btw the small charge control.. if you pause the video you can see that each “wire” that is there, is a red and black wire. One side connects to the panel and the other to the batteries. Its hard to see since the wires are kind of stuck together but each side has a red and black.
Schweizer135 says:
May 10, 2012 at 8:11 am (UTC 0)
Can you show how you have it wired up, exactly. It’s hard to follow. How can the small charge controller have just 2 wires to it? Thanks.
Iridium242 says:
May 10, 2012 at 8:25 am (UTC 0)
Cool, glad you liked it. Its grown some since I first put it in with one 25 watt panel and one deep cycle battery 🙂 But it really comes in handy out here when the power goes down. Also since we work at home, it allows a computer or 2 to run when the power is out so work keeps on going.
delta69alpha says:
May 10, 2012 at 9:13 am (UTC 0)
good job….glad you did a film about it….the stills on arfcom didnt do it much justice!