SolarDIY
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I picked up a Kill A Watt that shows peak usage so I can make sure the CA is rated correctly.
Thank you for the input on batteries. This has me conflicted because if there is just one battery and it fails the system dies. But if I have multiple batteries and just keone fails the system still dies and I have to replace every battery anyway since you can't mix and match. But that last option has more cables needed.
I have a basic handyman electrical kit so I can crimp standard household gauges 10 and smaller wires but will eventually have to get crimps for heavier cables.
I'd love a calculator where you plug in how many watts you need at a given volts and it tells you the inverter size, battery capacity including cranking amps and solar cell wattage for a given zip code so that I can minimize the amount of manual math needed.
And at what size system do I need a cooling fan? And how big does that fan need to be?
An issue we have this week is the hurricane. Multiple people on Facebook looking for a place to sleep that has power so they can run their CPAP. Any system capable of charging a tool battery (essential for chainsaws after a storm) is more than capable of running a CPAP overnight. And with a tool battery adapter you can charge a cell phone.
Sounds like you're well on your way. Mine still has some issues so I'd love to stay in the loop on your build a d will offer any help I can.
That's a good point about the multiple batteries, I guess I hadn't considered that.
I was able to get mine to run a chest freezer over the summer, but once the sun shifts to fall it isn't able to charge back up fast enough. I've only got two panels and they are on the wrong side of the roof. Also we had a power outage last year during a snowstorm. I was able to plug my house fridge/freezer into my system and it kept our food from going bad. Running a few cpaps should be simple.
There are a lot of uses for a small offgrid solar battery system