If the wire is too small for the terminal hole, you can strip off more insulation, fold the wire in half to make it thicker, and reinsert it into the charge controller terminal. If you have pets, this is a must! It is wise to buy solar panel extension cables. Paint your RV white: Not as hard as people would think. Electrical energy can be carried in two ways: Direct Current (DC Power): The flow of electricity is direct and flows like a river. This detailed guide is your go-to source for everything you need to confidently navigate the ever-changing scene of this booming industry. The angle of the panels, time of day and weather conditions will also determine how much power your solar array will produce. Over the years I have learned that the charging system of most vehicles is not designed to charge a deeply discharged solar battery. Find a rugged, waterproof and rechargeable flashlight that is actually expensive. Do not use a cheap 5 dollar LED flashlight. Appliances can be designed to use DC or AC power. To reduce the possibility of having a solar panel fly off and kill someone, you should add a safety line. 3. Harnessing energy from the sun used to be a fantasy, along with flying cars and floating cities. 3. The losses can be huge! Depending on the size of your project, you could expect to see your solar panels becoming mobile for less than $1,000, and it might be the best investment you'll ever make. This is easily done by wiring them in series. endstream endobj 941 0 obj <>stream [Prowse IV, William Errol] on Amazon.com. There are two golden rules that you must follow: 1. In most instances, it is, but it can cause some problems. After you connect a group of different solar panels together, check their voltage. Heating an entire vehicle with electricity can be difficult. This chapter explains how to attach solar panels safely and how to attach them to batteries that can power them while driving. Attach the switch to the positive wire of any appliance. You should see a green light or a screen turn on! 0 Bolt this wire and connector to the negative terminal of your battery bank. Do-it-yourself step by step instructions. All connectors and wires should be cold to the touch (unless they are carrying a lot of electricity, such as during full sunshine or during inverter operation). All you need is hot water, which you can do with a stove, or an induction stove top. They may create a buzzing noise, but its fine. Increasing solar output by reflecting light onto your solar panels A really fun way to increase the output of your current solar system is to build large reflectors to direct more sunshine onto your panels. Be sure to check this metric before you buy your battery bank. The wire is not thick enough to carry enough current to trip the fuse. [DOWNLOAD] Mobile Solar Power Made Easy! Choosing an inverter technology is the most critical decision you'll make when going solar. Tools Required for Crimping: Crimp Tool: The crimp tool below is designed to crimp, and it can also cut large wires. If you want to complicate things, you can buy what is called a bulk DC-DC converter. RVs and some vans will have a battery bank compartment. They can bend, but not a whole lot. It will show you how to design and quickly install the solar power system you always dream of. Use long bolts and fender washers to secure the solar panel mount Lbrackets to the roof. Some connectors also have a second area to crimp, which will hug onto the wire insulation. These units are easy to setup and use, but they do require a SIM card from a cell carrier. It will take only five minutes to add it. You need to discharge to at least 90%, once a week, to keep the batteries happy. Fast Method Fill the roof with as many solar panels as possible: Vehicles have a limited roof space for solar panels. How to install the solar panels Solar Panels require: Air flow under the panel Secure, waterproof connection to the roof Here are your options: Option 1: Check out the Solar Panel Mounts section on my website at http://www.mobile-solarpower.com for a constantly updated list of methods, pictures, hardware and adhesives for attaching your solar panels to various roof materials. This simple device takes your solar systems 12-volt power and converts it to whatever voltage you please. Cut the ends and splice it in. Without The Right Guidance, Learning Electronics Can Seem Daunting. Your file is uploaded and ready to be published. The hardest part about choosing a charge controller location is finding a wall location that is close to the batteries. The leverage of a wire stripper is not large enough to crimp properly. Connect all of your panels together so that you have only 2 wires: one positive, and one negative that will connect to your solar charge controller. This book provides a step-by-step guide to beginning your solar journey while on the move. Also feel the wires to see if any of them are getting warm. Connect all batteries and add the main fuse 2. Check it out on Amazon here What is Will Prowse's Website? I do not recommend this for beginners! Its practitioners often attempt to reduce their ecological footprint (including their carbon footprint) by altering their home designs and methods of transportation, energy consumption and diet. If you do not have an amp meter, you may be able to rent one. Most battery banks for vehicle applications are going to be 12 volts. Batteries 2. A solar oven is the most efficient way to use the sun to cook food. You want minimal wire loss here. By (author) William Errol Prowse, IV. Here is a full system watt usage example: A solar power system has 4 solar panels that produce 5 amps each, at 20 volts, which means each solar panel produces 100 watts (5 amps x 20 volts = 100 watts). A properly rated fuse, in a strategic location, will prevent most problems from happening. LED Lights Controlled with a Wifi Smart Plug: This combination will allow you to schedule or remotely operate your lights with your smart phone. Estimate the daily load (how much electricity your appliances will consume in 1 day) Use the estimated daily load to calculate the battery bank size Use the battery bank size to calculate how many solar panels you need Use the solar panel array size to calculate the solar charge controller size 1. Monocrystalline is technically better due to higher efficiency, longer life span and ability to handle higher temperatures. How to add a safety line: 1. All you need are solar panels, inverters, a charge controller, and batteries. If you wire them in parallel, they can handle a combined maximum charge rate of 105 amps! The Off Grid King This setup works well if you: Plan to use a Large RV or Bus Want to power large appliances, such as power tools and microwaves for prolonged durations Weight and aerodynamics is not a huge factor for your vehicle Recommended components: 800 watts of solar panels and a 80 amp MPPT solar charge controller (or 2x 40 amp MPPT solar charge controllers) 12 volt, 350-500 amp hour lead acid battery, or 300 amp hour lithium battery (Choose the largest battery that you can afford to buy and can safely carry in your vehicle. Wire the appliance to a male type plug connector, such as an XT-60 plug or Anderson Powerpole connector. If an appliance uses too much power when it is turned off, you may need to wire a switch to the appliance, so you can manually turn it off when it is not being used. Inspect the solder joints and wiggle them to look for faulty connections. Feb 3, 2023. To master this skill quickly, I recommend jumping on the internet and watching a video tutorial. How to Wire up your Solar Power System How to Crimp 1. If you find sheet metal, you can cut it and bolt it to the battery terminals. Country Cooking Made Easy offers a wealth of healt, 617 You can also have the security camera send an alert to your phone if it detects movement or a loud sound. Selecting an Inverter Inverters can range in price from 20 dollars to 5000+ dollars. Click Here, If you want to put 2X LV6548's in parallel, check out my complete 48V system blueprint by clicking here. Example: You live in Alaska and your 100 watt solar panels only produce 40 watts in full sunshine. Heat shrink is recommended for crimp connectors that do not have insulation, but I like to add heat shrink to all connectors for added protection. As an example, lets say you buy a 1000 watt microwave and a 1000 watt inverter. They connect the solar panel array to the solar charge controller and are designed to be passed through your roof with the Cable Entry Gland. There are many different kinds of wire insulation. There should be a large bolt-on fuse on the positive lead of your battery bank that connects to the inverter and fuse block, and any other large appliances you plan to connect to the battery bank. They can be safely discharged to 0% (if the battery management system allows for it). This can damage the battery, and hurt you. Calculating the Load 2. Do-it-yourself step by step instructions. This can be a little dangerous, so I recommend seeing a professional electrician to have this done. Many people underestimate the importance of wire selection and run into many problems. If you are building a stationary solar system and you have no shading problems, then you should wire the panels in series to create the largest voltage possible (that is safe to use with the solar charge controller). An inverter uses 1-3 amps if it is turned on, regardless of if anything is connected to it. (Pictured on left) Bolt a 50 amp fuse onto the big fuse, or attach it to another positive battery terminal on another battery. Mobile Solar Power Made Easy! Battery monitor guidelines: Wire it directly to the battery bank and nowhere else. This is for advanced users only! These come in a range of sizes and work extremely well. This is usually true, but be sure to check the manual. If you have a large battery bank fuse, such as a 250 amp fuse, you cannot connect an 8 gauge solar charge controller wire to it. You can mount this fuse directly on the bolt-on fuse. - DIY Solar Power - Made Easy! I usually buy small thin dowels and slide them under the panel. The heavier your vehicle is from carrying a large battery, the harder it is for your vehicle to stop, and the harder the engine and transmission has to work to move the vehicle. These converters will transform your systems 12 volts to any voltage you want. The largest variable to consider when choosing a wire is the wire gauge size, which is the overall thickness of the wire. These recommendations apply for 17-24 volt output solar panels. Using a Bulk DC-DC converter can be incredibly useful for powering strange appliances that require weird voltages. Solar Panels 1. In this situation, a 15-20 amp fuse would work extremely well. Usually they cannot bend more than 30 degrees, unless they will be permanently damaged. If the cables are becoming really warm, it is a sign that you need a larger cable. If you have really tall batteries, you may need to secure them with a strap, so they do not tip over. Alternating current is more efficient than direct current over long distances, but direct current is required if you plan to store the electricity in a battery. Fuse Block- A fuse panel where multiple small fuses supply power to appliances. Read more, 1,109 : Mobile 12 volt off grid solar system design and installation. Some shunts can be wired to tell you how many watts of power your solar panels are producing. If instead, you want to build your own wiring kit, this is what I recommend for inverter wires under 6 feet: -250 watt inverter requires 12 gauge -500 watt inverter requires 10 gauge -1000 watt inverter requires 4 gauge -1500 watt inverter requires 2 gauge -2000 watt inverter requires 0 gauge -2500 watt inverter requires 2/0 gauge -3000 watt inverter requires 4/0 gauge After you install your inverter, attach a large load appliance and feel the wires. After you attach the positive wire, go back to the charge controller to see if it is turned on. Wires and connectors need to be clean before they are crimped. How to install the solar panels Solar Panel Safety Line Should you tilt your solar panels? Swamp Cooler: Bad idea in my opinion. A LED light strip uses 12 volts at 5 amps, so it uses 60 watts. This connection can fail if it gets too hot. This could be a sign that an appliance has developed a short circuit, or that the wrong size fuse and wire is being used. Mobile Solar Power Made Easy! Night Vision: Typically security cameras have night vision, but some come with infrared LED lights which increase the night vision capabilities drastically. Parallel Now that we understand volts and amps, we can go over different wiring configurations: In Series: Daisy chain configuration. The fuse will literally warm up, all the time. Just be sure to buy a larger than needed solar charge controller so that you can always add more solar panels or batteries when necessary. Using a TSW will fix this problem. How to use a Bulk DC-DC Converter If your laptop, or appliance, requires a strange voltage, and you cannot find another way to power it, you may need to use a bulk DC-DC converter. Cloud video recording storage is recommended: Usually this costs about 5-10 dollars a month, but it is worth every penny. 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