Harbor Freight 100 watt solar kit - The Real Truth
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- Опубліковано 3 вер 2018
- Personal review and honest talk about the Harbor Freight 100 Watt solar kits. They perform better than their specs in direct sunlight and not too bad in indirect sunlight.
Thank you for this info evaluation, Keep up your output on upgrading!
Currently I have 4 of the 100 Watts HF panels on top of my RV..three separate sets of batteries run my RV all the way around as to differentiate between usage thereof..
3 125 AH DEEP CYCLE
4 HF 35 AH (HF SOLAR )
2 (1000 mca onboard house battery/aux start..etc)..
I do Love to tinker with electronic projects.
In conjunction I have several inverters.. and when I say several everything from a 2000/4000 watt, all the way down to a 80/200 Watt..(lol I do go overboard for some reason 🤫) 8 or 9 in all a couple are pure sine and the others are modified wave..
My point is I have been able to power up quite an array of appliances not only during the daytime but also some of these overnight including my elect. Refrigerator that is basically you just keep my cold drinks (RV fridge/freezer norcold is a 3-way ,I use lp but still takes power from the RV house batteries) with all this said I am a 100% off the grid loving it individual..(I do in fact have three generators.. as I said I go way overboard 😁) but so far I look at what I have as solar power as small compared to what I have in mind, basically I will eventually have 1600 Watts at least.. the whole roof will be covered..
But all-in-all I give it an A-Plus for its capability to run for 3 years saving me 💲(appr.$7,000/3yrs) for not having to run gasoline in my generators 70%+/- of the time.. in fact I have to buy more deep cycle because I have a large surplus of incoming wattage. I guess that's how its setup and how you use it and if you can get to the nitty-gritty delegating the power usage as well as what type of devices are being used..etc.. I have three crock pots large to small.. waffle maker.. TV.. string LED lights 4 fans,etc. Not in use all the time and not all at once of course.. except for the fans during the summer.. which saves full-time AC usage from using also be generators to power up.. plus when using AC from the generator power fans are running on solar keeping the generator from having to carry valid extra load as well..
I do do things a little different and people tell me they don't understand how I'm able to do certain things and.. I used to look at it is pretty simple mathematics..
But I'm very happy with the solar panels.. hey 3 years.. and a saving of about $7,000... I must be doing something right.. and I hope everybody else will too.. that's all I've got to say, good luck to you and everybody 👌🇺🇸
I once saw Macgyver power a whole house with nothing more than a paper clip :)
You did a great job. I keep my 4 panel in the garage ready to go. I love it. It works great. All my neighbors have no lights and im up and running.
How do you keep your battery bank charged, when the Solar Panels are inside your garage?
@@MrSummitville he doesnt, and when he needs to use this system i bet its so small you can only use it to power a cell phone charger and laptop for a night and then its dead the next day. then he drags the 100 watt panels out and it takes 20 hours to charge the small battery he drained powering a cell phone charger and laptop to upload selfies to facebook oh his cool invention. i could be wrong but it seems like this system is too small for much more than learning, how all this works so you can eventually get the stuff that will work in the future.
thank you for making this I have watched soo many of these and it can get your head spinning
ginacardarella if that is a picture of you, omg you are beautiful.
I'm still using a 45 watt 3 panel array., 3 years now,lights my off grid cabin perfectly...no complaints!
Glenn Webster what do you operate with that very weak setup? 1 small led bulb 💡
I thought you were going to talk about these particular type of panels. And that these are the least popular panels for big systems. But what it ended up being is a general discussion on your setup. That's ok, but the title made it seem like it was a review on Harbor Freight panels. Let me help you.
Amorphous Silicon Solar Cell (7 to 10 percent efficiency) panels are the least common of the solar panels used for operations such as yours. People generally use Polycrystalline silicon (15 percent efficiency) (most common) and close common brother Monocrystalline silicon (20 percent efficiency).
Advantages: The principal advantage of amorphous silicon solar cells is their lower manufacturing costs, which makes these cells very cost competitive.
Amporphous silicon can be produced in a variety of shapes and sizes (e.g., round, square, hexagonal, or any other complex shape. This makes it an ideal technology to use in a variety of applications such as powering electronic calculators, solar wristwatches, garden lights, and to power car accessories. Small solar cells used in pocket calculators have been made with a-Si for many years.
The human eye is sensitive to light with wavelengths of 400 nm to 700 nm. Since amorphous silicon solar cells are sensitive to light with essentially the same wavelengths, this means that in addition to be used as solar cells they can also be used as light sensors (e.g., outdoor sensor lights, etc).
Disadvantage: these panels have a lower efficiency 7/10 than mono-crystalline solar cells 20, or even poly-crystalline solar cells 15.
And last Amporphous is often the first panels that a person would buy (it was mine), before they move onto Poly Crystalline or Mono Crystalline panels. You can thank Harbor Freight for it popularity.
mine lasted 1 yr, then output was down to about 25% of original rating, only making 9 watts per panel. they seem wear out quickly if that is possible. will not buy again. roger
@@youmanskids Generally is it not the Si - but the panels will cloud. I have manged to get short term boosting by cleaning and oiling. However, my panels are tiny, for experiments, so I am not recommending anything.
@@youmanskids Yeah, these amorphous panels often allow water ingress into the junction between the cabling and the panel material itself. This corrodes the actual connexion to the thin film and eventually crap out compleatly.
Good job on this. Thank you for your time and work
Thank you for your real world honesty.
Wow thank you for helping people keep up the good work God will see this
Really good video, keep up the nice work.
Just getting into solar and what you say makes sense thank you for your input
None of this makes any sense. This is a "... don't try this at home ..." type of video.
My house is being ran from these kits.
Want to see a detailed video? Let me know. I'll be happy to upload one
Yes please
Yeah that would be great!
Hey guys this is one I recorded awhile back in the fall.
I'll record another one starting from the panels all the way down soon as I can.
I'll tell you this batteries are going to be one of the most important next to how many panels and what kind it takes to charge your bank.
ua-cam.com/video/O2kf9l4D6TI/v-deo.html
His ham radio is designed for grif power. He is knocking solar because its a more, conservative, approach. Meaning devices need to be designed with low wattage and power efficiency in mind. A ham radio? Thats a damn power house if its long range!. You got 200 watts of solar panels. Running inefficiently on pwm. And btw, your array facing wide is poor engineering. They should be long ways from ground up. Reducing the angle of sun to panel.
OFF-Grid HillBilly Style He should be using MPPT CHARGE CONTROLLER-- more efficient. I also use Battle Born , lithium batteries they will last. Check out book by Will Prowse.
Greetings "November 4 Results May Vary", North Carolina. Great set-up! Thank you for running your repeater. Here in Hurricane Alley we can appreciate reliable communications during power outages and inclement weather.
HF has their 100w monocrystalline panels for $119 right now. I'm confident a wily geek like yourself could incorporate them with a MPPT charge controller and boost your input meaningfully.
I have (2) of their 100w arrays myself, in addition to an ancient 45w array from yesteryear. I'm hopeful of putting an off-grid 2m station hitting our local repeater in Raleigh into service from my barn.
73's!
Thank you so much for your information! I am very ignorant of this stuff but trying to learn a little. Bless you!🙏😊👍👍
Melody Tenisch Watch more full time RVers. Some of them live off of solar much of the year. They run everything in their rigs, including their AC units. Some can run their AC units for several hours during a hot/sunny day.
Depending on how you want to use your solar, I can make a few suggesting. Just tag me in your reply.
D.
Thank you for keeping it real!
Nice vid. I bought the harbor freight solar set up, for a portable ice shack. It works awsome. Im new to it. I did alot of research on converting to 110 and 120 for a coffee machine. Found out they make 12v machines. The main thing you need to know is . what do you want to run. How big do you need a battery bank. Most importantly the type of deep cycle battery you use. And while installing the charge control. Always hook your battery wires up first before you hook your solar panels in. Saves on destroying control unit.
Nice... Ya I found a 20 amp fuse in that same controller. Im running 200 watts through it as well. Going for a 3rd kit and 2nd battery. Im not running mine 24-7 like you. It's mainly for emergency use to run a fridge. I beleave with 3 kits I should be able to keep a fridge running since I will be producing more than it uses..
I have a 2 way RV fridge, runs on AC power most of the time, but in an outage, switches automatically to propane.
20 Amps into a 12V battery is 240 Watts, so yeah, 200 Watts is within its capability. The funny part is that they rate the controller at 30A, and then put a 20A fuse in it.
That thing would blow apart by the wind where I live. Is it still standing?
I had 24-100 watt panels on a Zomeworks trackers. The criterion by which solar panel manufactures use to determine panel wattage is based upon the panel at the equator, perpendicular to the sun without any ambient haze. My panels were rated at 89 watts and they rounded up to 100 watts.
The panels need to be shifted on their vertical axis four times a year Approximately one and a half months before the autumnal equinox, summer solstice, winter solstice and spring equinox to maximize energy output. The angle is determined by your latitude.
Im teasing you btw, keep of the project. Good job
Nice setup. What kind of stand are you using for the repeater. It looks like it's aluminum.
Thanks for share your real life use of solar power.
4:38 I like the little :) by the positive and negative terminals; presumably those are good cells.
LOL... those arent :) Those are die-cut vents in the plastic... hehehe
If you haven't already, I would recommend bolting down that 2 post rack. They're not as stable as they look, especially with heavy equipment up top.
So the one kind of solar panels for the gates do they go directly to the 12 volt battery if they're 12 volt 10 amp solar panels or do you need a controller
I like your video and the ham radio application. (But as a EE myself, it drives me crazy to hear "10 amps charging voltage"! It should be "10 amps charging *current*." Thanks!)
Like Edison = Incandescent Lamps. Holland = Bulbs!!!
So true, too much fluff. You hit the nail on the head 🤙🏾👍🏾✌️🏾
Did you put a vapor barrier in before your vinyl backed fiberglass???
That is very interesting that the fan is going on and off. I have a question was there a conversation going on? I would sort of think if there was no load AKA conversation on the repeater that the fan would be on at all.
Where did you source these particular batteries?
What about the RF noise from the solar charger ? I have been told that this charger is very noisy on the HF radio bands .
The FIRST change I would do to your solar is get a 40amp renogy MPPT controller... then serial he 4 panels, and parallel the two sets... get you 74v input, to the mppt, only 2 amps... get out 24amps to the battery bank.
40amp so you can add more solar down the line.
No way to get 24 Amps out! Those controllers do NOT work like that. Each panel in the kit is 25 Watts @18V and 1.38A output. In series connection, you get 72 Volts at 1.38 AMPS or 99.26 Watts! 100 Watts IN equals 100 Watts OUT, less losses due to resistance etc.
@@paulmoffat9306 except he has two kits, and I recommend 3 kits... or more better get better 100w panels.
Of course 100w isnt going to put out 24A...
Does the repeater have a stand by mode? If it does can you put on standby mode and have the computer go into sleep mode when not in use?
Good job. Thanks for sharing your project.
You seem to have good knowledge on real world use of Solar. I have 600 watts of solar on my roof, and 900 amp hours of battery banks. I use my solar every day, BUT ONLY to power my homes led lighting. Doing that alone allows my batteries to come to FLOAT mode every day before noon and stay in float mode all night with a voltage never below Float (at 13.0 volts).
I have solar setup to run my homes led lighting which is very efficient, AND my energy efficient fridge (for when grid power is OUT). During hurricane Irma (I live in Florida) our power was out for 2 weeks and I had lights in every room, and the fridge ran fine on solar only. I also ran my TV and laptop from time to time (phone lines were fine), my small Ham rig from time to time, and my WELL pump as needed (about 1 time every 2 days for 15 minutes).
Running these things did of course NOT allow me to keep the bats in float mode as there was always a tax on the bats array. I think the bats (if I remember) went down to around 12.4 volts at night but did manage to come up to over 13 volts during the day and the days were very cloudy/rainy.
Solar is a good option for an emergency situation IF you conserve power and size the system wisely according to the power demands you have. In any event no one who has a solar system should believe there is NOT a need to have a decent backup generator, fuel to run it, and a decent battery charger (at least capable of 25 amps output) in order to get your bats topped off so sulfication does not compromise them (which is what happens to bats NOT able to reach float mode).
Joe, where can i get info on starting out on solar? You seem full of knowledge and would love to get some direction regarding this.
Sounds sensible
Since you're in Florida, ever think about attaching some blades to an old truck alternator and sticking it on a small pole? 8ft maybe? Could churn out a little more electricity to charge your batteries I'd think.
John Hogan. Well stated. As a power failure, rural setup what you have is ideal. I too have a pump, small fridge and LEDs. Much more than that in the Blue Ridge latitudes can't work without a full on big time $30000 investment. That can't really pay for itself.
Most who do their cost benefit payback look at their power bills in August with AC blasting, lots of wasteful lighting, 20 appliances, an electric dryer, electric range, WH, and think I'll save $250 a month or more. In reality after solar goes in, the house is reworked for efficiency. Gas range, wood heat, no AC just fans, efficient lighting, passive solar or gas WH, very judicious appliance use...
If you did all that first, your power bill is probably down to $60/mo. That's when you do the cost analysis. So i tell people to "solarize" your usage BEFORE buying a solar array. You may find it doesn't work cost wise, or you may find you can buy half the solar you thought you needed.
Never fully listen to advice of an enthusiast, a politician or the person selling the gadget.
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Thank you for your honesty.
I appreciate your honesty about real world applications and the challenges that come with it.
How wide is your frame ?..I have two 100 watt kits like yours but need to build a frame , I live in a camper year round in RI and am just using it to keep my batteries charged while I'm not there to run my fridge igniter, and on occasion the blower for my heat, I haven't unboxed them yet because I want to build my frame first , thank you for your help..
When measuring amps it's only going to go as high as it needs to. Battery may only allow for 10 amps but panels could put out more
Well you do need to match your system to your power needs. I have lived off grid for 20 years now. The cheap harbor freight stuff is great for learning /just starting out. You also need to match your battery bank & solar / wind input. Going to large or small either way to make it unbalanced just Leeds to problems. It's really not that complicated. Anyone with a little bit of automotive electrical experience can figure this out easily. I knew nothing when I started. Now I don't even run a generator to supplement my needs.
You should never go too large or small either way.
Is it possible to run lights (led) and power tool chargers in a 14x20 shop. This is just to work on my race car. I just use a Milwaukee air ratchet and screw gun.
I would like to not have to run power to the shop.
What would you recommend to make this happen. It's hard to get the truth out of solor companies, especially when you dont know about the systems.
Thanks for your help. Sid
@@cory0702 You need a battery bank for the solar panels to charge. Not the little 35 Amp Hr one they show you. I have 4 100 AH batteries on the boat (Not counting the engine starting battery). Then you can connect an inverter (12vdc to 110vac) to the battery bank and run all the things you mentioned. Add up the watts of what you might use at the same time and get an inverter somewhat larger for a safety margin. I only use a small inverter for things I can't get in 12v.
He said his batteries are 320 AH each. I googled that and it looked like $2000 each. Too rich for my blood. I go to Walmart and get two 100 AH batteries for $216 and get 2 more free in 3 years. (For my diesel dually of course - A marine battery only has a 1yr free replacement.
How do you get 2 more free batteries in 3 years?
I have a gmrs repeater I was thinking about doing the same thing. Thanks for the info
Why?
Would it help the battery’s last if you added super compactors to your system?
What type of batteries are those and where did you get them??
Great video, the Harbor Freight solar set ups work great. I use my harbor freight setup all the time. We love it!
What do you use of FOR ?
What if you ran two or three 35 amp hr in Parallel ? Or would you need to also increase the amount of panels ?
Thank you for the video. What brand / model of batteries did you use? I used two 105 Amp hour Duracell golf cart batteries to my HF 100 watt system. Don't know much about batteries, but hope these might be more forgiving of discharge. But they are heavy and from what I can tell are about the same size as your batteries.
Also, you measure amps coming in, perhaps with a Fluke 36 meter, which may be discontinued. My HF charge controller shows the volts, but does not seem to show the power with watts or amps, so don't really know how much electricity is coming in. The charge controller does indicate charging in low light, but seems to be pretty worthless in low light, perhaps because have the volts, but few amps?
Tips?
The form factor of batteries that he is using are 12 / 490, usually capable of between 130 to 150 amp hours
I built a VAT from a GM alternator and PVC. I have to relocate it to a better wind coverage area to keep up the amps. I would recommend fiddling with a VAT to add to a solar array. I will put up a video. Thanks for the video, nice battery array. Hope you consider a VAT project, happy to help.
VAT? No !
THANK YOU for the real world information! I love this type of detail to help make a correct purchase decision.
I'm looking at installing solar to trickle charge my riding mower 12v battery, and another to power my continuously running home computer.
Just some random points loose the combiner thingy and the charge controller expense by simply paralleling the complete kits . It's scalable, robust, and redundant. All good things. Also I would recommend adding an extra kit rather than tracking east to west and returning daily. The amorphous panels are well suited for stationary mounting with only seasonal adjustments for solar angle. I personally think that you are on the right track. I am currently running 9 HF kits with good results.
How long is your aray. And do you think it would run some battery chargers and led overhead lights
FreeTheGeek - I am curious what your battery choice is ? The Navy haze-grey color and lack of labeling indicates they may be more sophisticated than standard lead-acid. And I think you said 320 AH which is way better than my type 31 Lead Acid at 110 AH each. ? I don't like lead-acid since lithium alternatives do not have to be brought above 80% for maximum life, and can 'work' between 20 to 80 percent charge/discharge with almost no degradation.
I have two type 31 lead-acids with an MPPT controller off grid system I use only during the day to charge my Nissan Leaf and for cooking / refrigerator / etc. until the Sun starts to sink. THEN, I quit using that system to let the batteries get back to Float level before dark.
I have a 'Goal Zero' 1000 "Portable Power Station" which is exactly that. It can be left at and used from a variable state of charge between 20 to 80 percent with almost no degradation. (I thank the "batteryuniversity.com" for that knowledge) Helps me extend the life of my Nissan Leaf as well knowing that. The Goal Zero products are 'pricey' BUT . . . . . you get what you pay for ! The Goal Zero will run my washing machine and clothes dryer -no problem-. The Pure Sine Wave Inverter from Windy Nation (Vertamax) will run microwave, induction cook-top, and exhaust blower motor (1/2 HP PSC) . . . . but will NOT run my Washer or Dryer motors . . . ? ? ! ! Why? I don't know.
Anyway, I have taken enough of your time with my 'details', but am curious of your batteries . . . not lead-acid but maybe nickle-iron or something else ? ? Thanks for your website and your time. Take Care, Rich
Thanks for this. I went to NC years ago (when people had tv antennas) and everyone had an antenna rotater. With that on the tripod you could turn it from inside. Some of them had beam cb antennas with the same rotater. Spell check says rotate is ok but rotater is not.
*rotator
I would like to set up a system to run my stealth E250 econoline dont know what batteries are best and how much solar do I need on the roof can you help me build my system??
Hi, loved your videos, very informative. Cleared doubts about amps needed to charge a big battery. Thanks. I have a question or idea, can you use one of those super capasitor batteries people are useing for professional music sistema on their cars to help the battery last longer or even charge faster by pulling the starting power to turntable equipment or fans on intermidieatly? I mean if a refrigerator needs 2000watts to start but only 900watts so stay on til the compresor ties on and need again 2000watts. That 2000watts can be pulled from the capasitors battery and then pull the lower power to stay on from the battery bank. Would this work? I have no knowledge what so ever but been seeing lots of videos on UA-cam and this idea came to mind , seen just 1 person combine 18650 Lithium batteries to 6 capasitor on parallel with out the lead acid battery on his car and said it worked beautifully. Can you tell me if you try it? Thank you
You could use one on the load side not the battery side. You would need one for every device that requires it. If you were to only use one it would run fine untill a loaded needed it, discharged it then everything else would be out of power untill it recharged. Capacitors are not passive.
Can battery powered drills be used for wind generators? Most have permanent magnets.
I can run my 5,00 btu A/C for 4 hours. I only have 290W of solar so far. You are right though it takes two full days to completely recharge. 21A at 12V charging. Bateries are lead acid total of 672 Ah.
Well I could. Tried to run our washing machine to finish some laundry on a day we lost power. 2000 watt inverter let the magic smoke out. Washing machine has 15amp 110 plug on it inverter was rated to 18.2 amps at 120V. not sure what happened.
@@michaelleatherwood610
The chooch, boys.
Just curious is this thing wind resistant looks kind of top-heavy to me
Lots of solor geniuses here. They should all get together so we could be completely solor powered in about two hundred years.
Do you always complain about things that you can't spell.
Great job. Thank you for sharing.
We have a harbor freight here, but I opted to get these HQST 100w panels from amazon that are now 86 dollars each. I have twenty or so of them, and I get some good juice with renogy batteries and inverter. The price is much lower from amazon, but there can be advantages in buying store brands. I use it with the inverter to run my CPAP, charge my phone, etc. I can even hook up my fridge if necessary. It could do more with more amp/hours.
Why didn't you mount the solar panels with the blue lights and wires coming out the bottom? It would give you more wire and keep your solar panels from getting water in them where the wire goes in. Just curious appreciate it!!
FreeThe Geek - AND, I like that you use the lower-power Harbor Freight set-up ! Along with higher power mono and poly panels I have the Harbor Freight panels as well. They are on one charging circuit while the monos and polys are separate. Guess who charges best on a cloudy day . . . . . Harbor Freight panels are Amorphous and work better in low-light conditions. Okay, low-light . . . not as high charge rate . . . but, my Dad liked to say, " A small leak can sink a Great Ship." And IF you have a good storage capacity, and are not in a hurry . . . . they continue to charge in low light and over TIME all that energy ends up stored in your 'battery' ! ! ! It's all about TIME. Here in California people rush from one red-light to the next, brake hard and wait. Major waste of energy. Major wear on the drive-train and braking system. Smart !
I learned so much from you. I do have the 100 watt kit from harbor frieght. I just bought two lots in a private country place. I'm starting to understand charging batteries for night use. I'm trying to see how you wire your batteries together to power more detailed please. I'm trying to figure out how to run some power tools to clear off my lot nothing major. Living wise, small hotel fridge, possible box fan at night. You make sense of all this harbor frieght solar power and battery set up. Thank you for the video and more real applications. I do have the 400 watt continuous/800 watt peak power inverter by cen tech
Who manufactured your batteries? I didn't hear you say who it was. Thank you!
Love the set up you seem very knowledgeable about this I have 2 sets of the harbor freight solar panel kits I’m going to build that frame like yours thanks for the idea got you under my likes for sure 👍😎
Glad i could give you ideas ;)
Agreed, I see ways I could use this setup just for at least some simple lighting and phone charging
How do the new Hf panels compare to polycristalen or Monocristalen
good video i want u to keep making videos like this, cool that u got a repeater setup also, those 12/490 batteries are usally 140ah, and u gotta get rid of those shitty panels, i love shell solar panels, I have 2, 85 watt panels bolted together like a suitcase so it hinges open for portability, and they are 1/4 the size for the wattage.
I never heard you say how many amps your radio system was consuming...maybe I missed it?
Hello! New subscriber, so I purchased the energizer portable power station and the harbor freight thunderbolt 100w kit are you saying I need to get those humongous car looking batteries in order to get them to work? Please help me out here I'm new to all this SOLAR stuff please thank you I appreciate it.
I noticed your tower - How well would these work for portable (example Ham Radio Field Day) operations?
de W1DGL
i use one panel to run a gate operator 600 plus feet from the house. i rigged up two 1157 led bulbs in lanterns on gate posts i keep the lights on 24/7 with a cheap charge controller i like it being able to have battery reading and charge control out by the gate. a regular car battery lasted five years out there in the florida heat.
I'm loving mine. I use mine to power my tv and ps4 off grid
i bought 2 of these 100 watt kits about a month ago and sat on them until recently when i bought 2 more for a total of 400 watts. i watched this video and many many more when i was first looking to get these harbor freight kits. one thing i see right away that is different for you than a lot of people is that apparently you were not using an inverter, also a lot of assumed that pc was being used, my mistake, it was not being used and the radio was powered straight from the battery. also, that charge controller has like 3 or 4 modes, you can put it into a higher charge mode, on the highest it will say 14.4v and show that its not giving any power to the 12volt light symbol on the cheap little display, not sure why its that way but none the less. when you were outside you said you can get 20 amps out of the panels. my panels at max get 4 amps (four 25 watt panels connected and treated as one 100 watt panel), so the most i get is 16 amps since i bought and i am am using 4 kits. also you said the fuse is a 20 amp fuse and that you might run into trouble at 18amps. i am just trying to point out possible mistakes or possible learn that i misunderstood. also i noticed your measuring amps from the panels to the controller, what about measuring from the controller to the battery? i am still trying to learn, i suspect your amps will maybe be the same but your volts will drop considerably, there fore a huge drop in watts. i do understand your point about how you and maybe many people assumed that they can power stuff from this kit ever day, but to me the main thing you can do with this cheap kit is learn the fundamentals and then either scale up or just tinker around with it, or toss it and get better stuff for less money. for now, i plan on running my main pc, gaming systems and tv upstairs and dehumidifier in my basement using a pure sine wave inverter and small battery bank and some ac extension cords. this will be my next big test. fyi: when you learn the basics you learn these arent good kits, they are over priced, the quality is low, the documentation is a joke and this doesnt scale well, the connectors suck and that hub in the video sucks and is super low power. some time soon when i get all my data together i will put a video together showing 1. amps collected by panels, 2. amps charged though the charge controller, 3. amps stored in the battery bank, 4. amps delivered to the inverter and 5. amps delivered to devices that run on ac power. there is bs and misleading marketing jargon all over the place about solar stuff. for example the box says 100 watt kit but you dont get 100 watts, here is what you get from the panel 24volt x4amp =96 watts, but the charge controller outputs to the battery: 14.4v max x 4 amps max =57 watts max. its usually closer to14v x 3-3.5amps =43watts. 57 watts seems to be the absolute highest i have been able to deliver, but i have 4 of these kits so i am getting according to my math and confirmed through measurement is 228 watts. right on the box it says 100 watts but that is not what i am getting.. i assumed i would get 400 watts, i even bought their "500 watt" controller, but inside the manual is says its max output is 18amps. 14.4v x 18amp =259watts, lol. the smaller charge controller delivered more power than the big 500, i measured the big controller's output and it was 11amps output or so when the other smaller one can do 16amps lol. anyways i am not done and will be uploading a video with my findings.
@Jason Brown - sounds like you know your stuff 💪 i have a question ?
I need to be able to run just under 300 watts for about 17hrs straight a day
Is that relatively possible for a decent price setup ? If so about how much? or would something like that be really expensive ?
Thanks in advance 👍
@@d-boyzeighteenhundred i will answer this later during the day
@@d-boyzeighteenhundred ok i am back. first of all i am an amateur at solar, i have learned a lot and quickly but i am by no means even done with learning the basics. you mean 300 watts for 17 hrs a day, is that 300 watts ac? also have you been able to confirm this 300 watts by some means of measurement like a killawatt meter? assuming you math is good and you mean 300 watts ac, you can take 300wx17h=5.1kwh. or 5,100wh. we need to find the efficiency of the inverter you have or will get. its safe to say you should get a pure sine wave inverter and its going to be about 90% efficient. so your inverter will take about 5.7kw to make 5.1kw, because you loose 10% due to efficiency losses. now there is where my knowledge stops and my guesses begin. i have many batteries here that i experiment with and i can share with you my findings. ok, i dug out my notes from a few weeks ago and here is what i found. i ran a load off of my inverter that varied from 210 watts to 290 watts, i started that load of one fully charged 95ah agm battery at 1:05am and didnt shut it down until the inverter started beeping at about 11volts low voltage warning at 4:23am. which puts my hours at 3.266 hours.
like i said, my load varied, because it was a gaming laptop hooked up to a tv and sometimes i was gaming other times watching movies and a big old 65 inch led smart tv. so i cant use it as a static variable but i did run this through the killawatt meter at the time and its reading were this: .86kwh. and if i devide out the 3.266hrs i should find an average for the watts: 263 watts is the answer. which is close to your target load which is why i dug these notes up. now i was able to pull 263 watts for 3.266 hours before one 95ah agm battery was low voltage.now deep cycle lead acid batteries should never be drained past 50% of their stated amp hour stated as "ah". clearly i did just that. i bought this battery so i could drain it 100% everytime for twice a day for about 3 weeks and then i returned it. shame on me. this 95ah battery gave me 98ah when i first tested it and when i returned it i was only getting about 79ah, so yea i think this depth of discharge to no more than 50% is important, but it also makes this expensive because it means you need to double your batteries. back to my math and how it could apply to you. i ran my 263 watt load for 3.266 hrs on a 95ah battery. you need to run for 17 hrs which means 5.2 times longer than me. 5.2 x95am means you need 494 amp hour battery, but since you dont want to drain it 100% but instead want to drain it to about 50% you need about 988ah. ok, thats where my math stops, i recommend you treat my math as wrong as there are probably mistakes. now moving onto the next phase: how do you charge about a 1000amp hours worth of batteries? well that is where i am in the journey. you could get 4 250ah batteries, or one big lithium bank etc etc i ran out of time and money for now. i currently have everything at a 12volt system but i plan on scaling it up and maybe away from 12v and move into 24 or 48 volt system which just means different inverters, different charge controller configs and different battery bank wiring. hopefully my ramblings helped a bit. you may be seeing what i saw, solar can get expensive real quick. i currnetly have 125 watt panel in my yard for the last 2 weeks starting on 05.31.2020, i started gathering watt hour ratings and calculated that this 125 watt panel has only brought me in about 3,806.4 watt hours total including todays numbers of 375 watt hours. 3,806.4 watt hours is most of the time called 3.8kwh. which could mean 3.8kw for 1 hr, or 1.9kw for 2hrs, or 1.3kw for 3hrs etc etc. anyways 3.8064kw times .11 (cents) = .41 cents. i have made a total of 41 cents from that 125 watt panel in the past 11 days. bottom line, electricity is cheap unless we are making it our selvs lol., dont get me wrong i am going to keep on keeping on
@Jason Brown - thank you very much for such a detailed reply I truly appreciate it you have definitely helped me I now understand to achieve something like that I would need a huge battery bank and lots of panels to be able to charge that which is probably entirely out of my price range at the moment, once again thank you for all your help I’m going to subscribe to your channel hoping you have uploads in the future 👍
@@d-boyzeighteenhundred glad i could help. once i have a few more pieces of info on this topic of solar energy understood i may make some low production videos.
I have a couple of comments. First, your solar panels are probably have a Vmp of around 18 volts. When you connect them to a battery via a PWM controller that draws the panels down to battery voltage without significantly changing the amperage output. Doing that decreases charging power. For your system operating at 10 amps and 12.5 volts, that means your are charging at 125 watts. If you had an MPPT controller you would be getting about 180 watts out of the solar panels. So by using the PWM controller you are throwing away about 30% of your panel output. Second, unless you have really huge hands those are not 320 amp-hr batteries. An 8D battery is about 220 amp-hr and is about twice the size of your batteries. At most those are Grp 31 batteries and are rated at about 110 Ah. The only way your batteries could be 320 Ah is if they are about 20" tall, which they certainly do not appear to be. Your repeater looks like a Motorola XPR8380 which will draw 7.5 to 12 amps when transmitting depending on the power setting and about 1 amp when on standby. If your transmit duty cycle over a 24 hour period is 50%, that system will consume about 155 amp-hr per day with a maximum of about 300 amp-hr if it is busy most of the time. So depending on how busy your repeater is you need at least 310 Ah up to 600 Ah of battery capacity to run the repeater for a day. If you want to be able to replace 300 Ah (~3,800 watts) you will need a minimum of 800 watts of solar on 100% sunny days and perhaps 2-3 times that in the real world.
Very well explained. Maybe the next video will show some changes.
Hey Todd Dunn, I was wondering what you would suggest because we are planning on getting a harbor freight 100 watt solar panel system to keep our cattle's water defrosted since we don't have any electricity at our ranch. It is a 1250 watt tank heater. Thanks
plus pc pwr and if dmr is connected to internet? pwr for inet gear
@@drybonesrising3607 A 100 watt solar panel system will only run a 1250 watt heater for about 2 hrs a week with good sunny weather all week.
drybones rising ha
Could you have another array charging a backup battery that doesn't have the repeater drawing from it and some sort of switch that you could switch between each battery when the other drains enough? Cost vs output I guess or just supplement the current array with another one and that would help. I do like the wind idea also, gives your two sources to pull from when one or the other isn't working.
Would these solar panels be good for hooking up a stereo system in a boat ?
5:38 You should put a Noctua fan in there. They are the best you can buy in my opinion. I'm not positive on their efficiency but I would be more than willing to take some power measurements (measuring current and voltage across the fan) on mine if you'd like. Plus it wouldn't sound like the rack is about to take off like a helicopter.
Are you running the solar charge just to one battery, after you daisy chain. You can have many battery. But the set up would be, one on neg then the next would be on the other end of Daisy battery. So all the battery would be charged.
Great video. What is the song at the end credits?
Thanks for the information. I have been looking at systems for a whole house. I seen a 10KW system for a little over 13k dollars. I have done some research and I think that will run everything that I intend to power. The problem I'm running into is that nobody has any videos showing how long a battery bank will last powering a complete house. Also can't find information on how big of a battery bank i will need to make it through the night.
I want to go off grid but not 100% off grid. Still would like to have internet, and running water but I could live with a well of need be. I wanted to go completely solar and wind as a backup. Hydroelectric would great as well of I have that option. Just wanted to cut as many bills as I could and be self sufficient.
What kind of batteries are those and are they what u would buy again if u had it to do over...really great honest video! Thank you!!
Would this with the thunderbolt batteries run 0.56 amp linear air compressor. Aereation for a pond full time?
Do you need the big old tower computer for a dedicated PCI card for the repeater setup? If not, can the required software run on a more recent low-power SBC? Or if it's a must, can you replace the switching power supply in the computer with one that runs directly off the DC system, like you might see in data centers?
Hi, the tower isn't used for anything its just there.
@@freethegeek4403 Sounds like my house!
Very cool setup qnd nice amateur radio antenna close to that solar rig, 73's
Good vid. I have seen some complain about that HF combiner module that it might loose you power. Make sure to have max cable thickness or just combine it yourself. The thing to check is the output impedance (resistance) of your array and the input impedance of the controller and thence also the battery. Max power only happens when app the impedances (resistances) are matched. On the panels this can be determined by the short circuit amperage amps and volts in peak sunlight or the max power case and the series or parallel arrange you are using. Similar for the battery (I.e. what is its internal resistance). The charge controller is harder to quantify and may be dynamic, so might just have to try different arrangements of panels (series parallel combos) until you get max power.
Being from HF makes them cheap but not inexpensive, I feel you get more watts/$ from some LG panels etc..
Like everything better to buy from a Wholesaler if you can, not many discriminate who they sell to. Mine sells for much less than you see online. LG360 are my favorite at the moment, though when I did my house it was LG315....
user suggestion...the panel hub and all connections (exposed stuff) should be in a water proof box or boxes long term if you haven't done that already.
thank you for the video and commentary.
they're those panel's you buy from ebay to charge your usb stuff... they're all sealed, probably why they're more expensive then the one's with the open contacts at the back
Very nice set up great job
I have a question, in climates below zero, do the panels need some special care ? like Nebraska
Clean the snow off
My one question is why not fully charge all the batteries with an AC to DC charger and leave them all connected and just rely on the solar to keep it "topped off"?
Some good information here! Just glad I have plenty of bandwidth and a full charge.
defiantly telling the truth... takes a lot of panels to run a whole house continuously... i have been doing it for years and panels, batteries, and "GOOD" Inverters = MONEY and lots of it.
Its really not worth the investment for most places.
I lease solar and sell back my extra to the electric company.
But I live in the Vegas area and got my lease before the power companies changed what they will pay for your extra power (I got lucky)
I'm not a fan of all these batteries but understand the need if you're off the grid.
Batteries are horrible for the environment
My area, solar for whole home system is not worth the cost.
1) Solar panels are too inefficient for the amount of sun available year round
2) you have to buy 1 million dollars of homeowners insurance if you get them on your house (way to costly by itself)
3) the "break even" point on the solar panels and other equipment cost goes beyond what life expectancy of the panels are.
Solar is not viable in most areas due to government over-regulation. Due your homework before even thinking about it.
Kyle Cooper can you help me figure out how much watts and batteries I’ll need to run my camper completely off solar. I have recently got rid of the 12v system inside of most RV’s and was going to wire it up with a 100 amp box and run power to it but for long reasons the electrical company will not put a pole out where I am so I decided to get solar I’m just completely lost
Good video thanks for the info
For the inverter, what and where did you get the grounding rod?
Home Depot sells copper grounding rods 6' long.
Thank you for the info!
suggestion if its in your basement you might want a sump pump with an outdoor drain. ive had floods 🗻. lost things in many homes. nice video 👍
Thanks for the great video
almost a year later and im back watching these hf solar panel videos to see how much i have learned. i looked up that radio and on dc power it uses 13v x 1a= 13 watts for standby, 13v x 10a =130 watts for low power, and 13v x 13a= 169 watts for high. we know the panels are producing 10 amps but that is about as good as it will get with that setup. i have no idea how often your repeater is used, i am guessing not much so you a 24 hour period i bet you use close to 30ah, which this system should be able to charge the battery faster than you drain and last all night, unless of course the repeater is used a lot more than i imagine, just a guess though
would it been easyer too buy an 300w pannel at 36v and an 36v volt charge controler . So it would been one panel making the power