LIVING OFF GRID

This blog is about our travels in our solar powered "Airstream" and living off grid, in our passive solar home, near Bancroft, Ontario, Canada.

If you have any questions send us a comment; we love to hear from our readers.
Click on pictures for larger view

Tuesday 7 February 2012

Amps from the Panels

Many have asked about our solar system. We have 3 Kyocera, 135 watt, 7.6 volt panels on our trailer which we can tilt, a Prowatt 2000 Sine-Wave inverter, 75 Amp Converter w/IQ4, Morningstar 45 amp solar charger, and 4, six volt Trojan 105 batteries rated at 225 AH.  With this system we can brew coffee, use the toaster, pump water, watch TV, use the hair dryer and still have power left over. We usually have full batteries by 1:30pm and on cloudy days we can last for 3 or 4 days, since even on cloudy days we will collect 5 amps/hour.



This was our meter reading a few days ago.  (23.6 amps) We are collecting the maximum amount of energy from the sun;  our system is working perfectly.



This camper has 7 solar panels collecting power for him. Usually that is far more panels than necessary, unless he has a large bank of batteries. To many solar system are installed with inefficiencies, like wire that is too small, or solar charger too far from the batteries, so the folks go out and buy more panels thinking this will supply the needed power to the batteries. Not necessary. Read "handybobsolar.com" on the internet to get the true picture. If you have an Airstream get Paul in Texas ( contact me for his e-mail) to do your system; you won't be disappointed.

Thanks for dropping by and safe travels.

No comments:

Post a Comment