The purpose of this channel is to explore, explain, and demonstrate economical, inexpensive ways to live more self-reliantly. Emphasis will be given to de-mystifying solar power generation, but we will also consider ways to reduce costs of daily life.
You may contact me about my channel at: pwamackEMT@gmail.com
The kill a watt do not die it was connected to the inverter and when the inverter shut off well there was no power to the kill a watt but thanks for the info if I ever needed in the future and of course thanks for your comment
I do not know much about battery but the battery used is only a 440 watt hour, I am not sure if is possible to pull more than 440 watts from the battery.
Link seems not to be... Any idea what went wrong with your previous one? This seems like a pretty simple charger that should run just about forever (looks a lot like my 30yr old craftsman).
You have such a 'disarming', straight-to-the-basics type approach to teaching people, that I often (~3-5x/week) refer clients (I'm a data/telecom & limited energy install/repair tech, ie; fire alarms, some solar, alarm systems, CCTV surveillance, et cetera) who very often want more information and/or further education about their devices/systems. You've been a 'force multiplier' in my further education for clients 'toolbox', & I certainly hope at the very least, I've sent a couple new subs your way... Frankly, it's the least I can do, as you've made my day job that much easier.
Hi new subscriber here. Have you tried linking more batteries like this. Say like 4 of them? I like the size of these. P.S Thank you for the video you’re a great teacher
i don't have a battery but would like to connect this to a solar panel to charge usb devices. is that ok? does it matter what watt solar panel? thanks, and i appreciate the video!
Connecting the charge controller to a solar panel without a battery will damage the charge controller. I do not recommend you do this. Thanks for your comment.
I have a 900/1800 watt Power Bright Modified Sine wave inverter. I'm interested to see what all it will run in my detached garage that has no electricity. Hoping to run some LED lights, a fan & mini fridge with 200 watts of Solar & 100ah Power Queen battery.
The lights and fan will be OK, but I dont know how much power that mini fridge will draw. Good luck on your project. Let me know how it works. Thank you for your comment.
@@shoestringprep Will do my plan is to later purchase a 3500/7000 watt pure sine wave inverter with a total of 600 watts of solar panels & two 100ah lipo4 batteries. Will have to make you a video once everything is installed.
All good. Video basically spells it out, how to install a solar setup. One thing to keep in mind is that DIY systems using different parts from various brands can make for plenty of incompatability problems. So it's not that simple.
I have a rabbit hutch for guinea pigs im planning to winterproof and use heated wiring to keep them warm among other ways to shield their enclosure. How would i keep it solar and not connected to household power as i have limited ways to plug in anything outside without running wires from the inside out?
Your first step is to figure out how much power you will be drawing. Once you know that, you can begin to build your system from there. Thank you for your comment
I love your videos, but I have a couple questions. #1) You know the 35 amp hour batteries that harbor freight sells, what is the highest interver you can use with one of those?>>I have a solar panel, a charge controler (I can't remember if it's 20 amp or 30 amp, but I believe it's 20 amp?), I need adapter cables to go from solar panel to charge controller. Then the cables from the charge controller to the battery. #2<<Do those need to be a certain gauge though, coming from charge controller to battery? I do have a little 300 watt pure sine wave inverter with alligator clips I could use with it, but I wanted to know the highest watt one you could use with one of those. I know the DOD is only 50% on those batteries and I guess you'd keep track of that with a battery checker, the correct name escapes me ATM?
You have several questions here. Let's try to answer them for you. 1) You can use any size inverter with a 35AH battery, but I would recommend not using anything larger than your 300-watt inverter. Anything larger will just draw the power out faster. 2) Most solar panels come with their own wires. However, the last time I had to buy wires, I got some 10AWG and they have been working fine. You may use the same size cables on both sides of the charge controller. 3) As you know, it's best to use only 50% of the lead-acid battery's capacity before recharging. However, with your inverter, the manufacturer says it is 300 watts. And you may accept that as its upper limit. If you try to pull more than 300 watts, the inverter will just shut down (but I don't think it's damaged by the experience). Good luck with your solar power journey. Thank you for your comment.
How do you hook up a battery charger powered by a gas generator to this system? Can you just connect the charger directly to the batteries without harming the panel, charge controller and inverter?
I HAVE A TRISTART S45 IT IS A PWM IT DOES BETTER THEN MY MPPT CONTROLLER I LOVE IT JUST GOT A RELIABLE IN VERTER 24V 5000 WATT OFF AMAZON OVER STOCK 338.00
I have 4- 100 watt solar panels, they all connect to the hub (Its all HF) its melted my input of my HF charge controller, so I bought a Renogy charge controller, now its melting the +wire to the new charge controller. maybe I need a bigger charge controller? any thoughts?
It sounds like the charge controllers you are buying can't handle the voltage being put in from the panels. I would in fact suggest you get a larger charge controller that can handle at least 500 w. Thanks for your comment
I know just enough about electricity to make me dangerous. Can I say that if I follow the info in your video, that I can have enough power to run a frig and a few lights and maybe a small portable ac unit for one bedroom?
Your first task is to figure out how much power you will need. Once you know what size system you need, you can use these videos to guide you in the build-out. Thank you for your comment.
There are one big question and a lot of a lot of rumors out there that make me confused. Will the modified sine wave damage the fan motor in the long run? I read a lot stating that modified sine waves should only be used in non-motor equipment. Yes, a modified sine wave will run a fan motor, but it will damage it in the long run. Is it true?
Is there a reason why you connected two batteries “nooby way“? And I think that is the reason why your battery voltage drops to 11.1v. When you use two batteries set-up you wanna connect the positive wire on one battery and the negative wire on the other battery.
I want to charge 12V old car battery and use it for WIFI surveillance camera that uses 12V. Commercial manufactured solar or battery powered cameras can't do 24/7 they only wake up with PIR sensor. Camera uses up to 8W of energy, to run 24/7 it will be about 192Wh /24h. From 12V battery it would be about 192/12=16Hh, Old battery is rated at 45Ah, so I assume that it can hold a third of its rated power, and it will get some light during the day directly from solar panels, so from the battery it will have to run only for max 16 hours when there is no sun. So in the winter short cloudy days I might need some 100W to 200W so it reliably can top off while sun is available. There are plenty of cheap used panels available locally, panels in 100 to 200W range are almost for free. But most of them have higher rated working voltages, 40V or more, up to 100V. I wonder what will happen if I connect such panel (say 50V working voltage, and use only one 12V battery) to this little inverter that is rated for panels up to 25V when using 12V battery, or 50V with 24v battery. Will it fry controller, will it fry battery, or full potential of solar panel will not be used, and extra Voltage will go to waist, and I will get only half of what solar panel would be able to deliver?
I'd prefer to use Lithium phosphate, they're safe, higher capacity, they can be safely discharged to near empty, they have longer cycle life, and nowadays you can get them for the same price as AGM. They also produce no gasses and are very low maininence.
I just bought this battery and found a problem with the BMS. When charging with the Power Queen 14.6v charger, the BMS cuts off the current at 14.2v, so the charger never reaches the CV stage and therefore does not fully charge. It will almost fully charge if you have a CC/CV charger that can be set to 14.2v, but not with a charger fixed at 14.6v. Your video doesn't address this, so I wonder if your battery has the same BMS issue.
