Solar Stuff...

[Great-Kazoo]

Grant, thanks for the nice write up. This project seems more reasonable for the entry level person.
Knowing you barter or buy used when possible. What price point for those who don't know how to barter would one be looking at for your finished project ?

Then there's weight of unit vs portability, or will this be a stationary one ?

Of course the final item would be footprint. Working with limited space could be (for some) a deal breaker.

[Grant H.]

Grant, thanks for the nice write up. This project seems more reasonable for the entry level person.
Knowing you barter or buy used when possible. What price point for those who don't know how to barter would one be looking at for your finished project ?

Then there's weight of unit vs portability, or will this be a stationary one ?

Of course the final item would be footprint. Working with limited space could be (for some) a deal breaker.

I'll have to pull a few things together for pricing, but size is pretty easy for me to get you. Weight will be something I can get later today. The box and panel are on the roof to charge with what sun is available today.

The end game with this as a portable unit, will be to put a bracket on the solar panel and lid of the box that allows the solar panel to fold down flat when stored, and then hinge up, and have a prop/support to hold it at a 45° angle when in use, thus making the foot print of the whole system smaller and one unit when in storage.

The box is 13"x11", and with the unistrut on the back is 7.5" tall. The panel that I have is 16"x10.5"x.75", so it's not terribly large. As you can see in the previous photo, there is plenty of room for more batteries to make it a larger capacity, but this was just to keep these batteries tended for now, and proof of the concept.

Weight will be 2 very different numbers between the lead acid batteries, and the super caps once I try them. Super caps are significantly lighter than normal SLA batteries.

This picture is sort of my concept of the hinged panel, but this is just temporarily set on the roof.
0519171039 by ARNEWB, on Flickr