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Portable Solar Generator

Anonymous Wed 14 Aug 2013 00:07:21 No.178797 View View Reply Original Report

Quoted By: >>178939

I'm interested in buying a portable solar generator to run a well for me just in case the shit hits the fan and the electricity is out for a long period of time and possibly to run a small freezer for meat storage.

The well isn't manual, it needs a power source to suck the water up from the deep well.

Does anyone have a portable solar generator for the outdoors or for shtf?

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 14 Aug 2013 00:10:36 No.178802 Report

Quoted By: >>178812 >>178920

I doubt most people have used one of these things since many are purely outdoor enthusiasts.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 14 Aug 2013 00:28:54 No.178812 Report

Quoted By:

>>178802
It's worth a try, mate.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 14 Aug 2013 02:20:08 No.178891 Report

Quoted By: >>178923

Portable solar generator?
I've never used or seen one, but on my well (80ft deep, water pressure fills it to 45') I have a 3 horse pump which can run off grid electric, or an onan propane generator that has 1000 gallons of propane hooked up to it, and a battery bank hooked up to solar panels to charge them, so I only have to run the generator on days when the solar can't keep up.

I guess this is sort of in the realm of what you're talking about, but not portable.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 14 Aug 2013 02:48:38 No.178920 Report

Quoted By:

>>178802
yeah he should have posted on a board where they use the indoor solar generators

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 14 Aug 2013 02:49:13 No.178923 Report

Quoted By:

>>178891
Interesting, I'm looking for something that's not too expensive(not more than a couple thousand) that I can use to run a well and a freezer(for hunted meat storage) in case of a major shtf event(like a major economic collapse, etc.)

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO portable solar power.jpg, 41KiB, 1296x968

Anonymous Wed 14 Aug 2013 02:55:38 No.178928 Report

Quoted By:

When I get some more money I'm going to get my father (he's a licensed electrician) to help me build this portable power set up. The entire thing will look like a triangular box on a hand truck/dolly with solar panels attached to it. It will be the start of my off grid power system. If I use the right inverter then I can start with just one of these. When I need more and have more money I can make as many as I need to meet my power requirements and they can all be linked together through he inverter to increase the power output to anything I need.

I remember seeing something like this for sale on the internet once. Can't find it again and I'm pretty sure /diy/ing it is cheaper anyway.

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO portable solar power.jpg, 25KiB, 414x491

Anonymous Wed 14 Aug 2013 02:56:25 No.178930 Report

Quoted By: >>178958 >>178986

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 14 Aug 2013 03:02:44 No.178939 Report

Quoted By:

>>178797
I don't have anything set up, or likely any time soon. But a consideration I have is to feed the water into a pressurized reservoir first, even if just ten or twenty gallons of it (not counting the compressed air to maintain pressure) so at night, you'll have at least some usable water pressure. And if SHTF, you won't have as much worry about maintaining as large of battery banks for nocturnal water usage.

Also, if you're running water pump and freezer on solar, becoming better disciplined about timing of use will better reduce your draw on batteries.

Of course, I wouldn't suggest this rationing of power for anything but the most dire of situations.

Mule

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO DSC00040-XL.jpg, 152KiB, 576x768

Mule Wed 14 Aug 2013 03:35:26 No.178956 Report

Quoted By:

Charge out has to be less than charge in minus inefficiencies for the system to work.

Panels produce unregulated DC. You'll need a charge controller to regulate that and control the current going into batteries.

Deep-cycle marine batteries work well. Better yet is to use a pair of 6V batteries in series to make a 12v battery.
12v batteries, whether paired 6v or standard 12v, can be paralleled to increase capacity.
Sounds like you're only interested in one 12v or two 6v's if you want it somewhat "portable".

Once you're pumping current into the battery, hook whatever up to the battery.

To get 120VAC out, you'll need an inverter. Remember that for every amp on the 120v AC side, you've got over 10 amps on the 12v DC side. A small AC load can work out to a big DC load.

Inductive loads (like motors and pumps) don't always work well with inverters. Try it and see - watch both current and voltage on the AC side. If you see weird voltages or don't get rated current out, put a purely resistive load like an incandescent bulb on the circuit to bring the AC phasor closer to 90°.

I'm not a big fan of solar, but it has its applications. Decent power output requires a significant amount of panel area. You only get so many W/m^2 from the sun, even at 100% efficiency that's all you're going to get. Duty-cycling a big load is one way to keep power-out ≤ power-in.

Pic kinda related.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 14 Aug 2013 03:36:11 No.178958 Report

Quoted By: >>178974

>>178930
How much you think building that is gonna end up costing?

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 14 Aug 2013 03:51:07 No.178974 Report

Quoted By: >>178986

>>178958
I know for a fact if you buy solar cells off ebay and solder them yourself the panel can cost as little as $1 per watt. Half that cost is glass. Add the cost of batteries and inverter and I'm guessing it'll be somewhere between $3-5 per watt. I haven't done the math yet so I'm not sure how accurate that is.

If I had the money I'd use nickle/iron batteries because they'll last just as long as the solar cells. They're expensive but will last a minimum of 30 years, easily exceed 50 years if treated right. But I'm not sure it'll work well for this setup as they'd get cold in the uninsulated box.

Mule

Mule Wed 14 Aug 2013 03:53:27 No.178975 Report

Quoted By: >>178977

On the topic of batteries, and capacity.
Amp-hours is the capacity rating.
You've got half that (and only about 20% of that for starting batteries) capacity available before you start damaging the battery.

Do the math, look at the loads you have on the battery and the time those loads are applied.

I have an Energizer 29HM for my trailer. It's rated at 125 A-H, which gives me a little over 60 usable amp-hours.
The furnace in the trailer is the biggest load on the system. The blower draws about 7.5 amps when its on.

60 amp-hours ÷ 7.5 amps = 8 hours.
At 50% duty cycle on the furnace (on 10 minutes, off 10 minutes) that gives me about 16 hours before my battery's dead.
Add lights into the equation and that battery's good for 12 hours.

For solar to be feasible in this worst-case scenario (50%DC +lights, call it 5A load to make math easy), assuming 8 hours of (direct, full-power) sunlight...
5 amps x 24 hrs/day = 120A-H/day
120A-H / 8 hours = 15 amps
15A * 12v = 180 watts.

I'd need an array capable of putting out a minimum of 15 amps to charge the battery through the day, and that array would need to be in full sunlight for 8 hours. Clouds, snow, additional load, whatever, is all going to affect that charging, and potentially leave me with a dead battery.

Mule

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO DSC08474-L.jpg, 181KiB, 800x600

Mule Wed 14 Aug 2013 03:54:31 No.178977 Report

Quoted By:

>>178975
fuck

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO tech1a.gif, 57KiB, 303x218

Anonymous Wed 14 Aug 2013 04:07:10 No.178986 Report

Quoted By:

>>178930
>>178974
I just remembered a cool idea I had a while ago. Using a parabolic mirror, say an recycled satellite dish with mirrors attached, and a stirling engine together as a well pump.

A stirling engine is a heat engine that uses the differential of heat and cold. You could have cold well water on one side, and solar heated water on the other and the differential would produce a nice amount of power which could be used to pump more cold well water. Of course you'd need to prime the system with cold water to get it started each day and once the sun goes behind a cloud the whole thing either slows down to a crawl or stops completely.

This system would only work with a water storage tank which I know OP doesn't have but I just thought it was a neat idea and wanted to share it.

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