Our Solar Project 2012

Last year at Quartzite, we lived very nicely on the power generated by our 3000w Boliy Generator.  We ran it about 4 hours an evening to keep our batteries { 2 @ 12v deep cycle} charged while we cooked dinner and watched TV.  We used about 10 gallons of fuel (Cheap) and had to shut down a quiet time in a few campgrounds to be good neighbors. 

I spent a lot of time reading and talking to folks that use solar power.  Many are very proud to NEVER run a generator, insisting the only thing they cannot do is run an air conditioner.  My favorite source is Handi Bob’s Blog.  Bob is rather anal with regard to not using a generator, he lives in the far north using his solar, he is a wealth of information.

To start our project, I installed 2 Trojan T105 Golf Cart Batteries, these have 205AH of capacity and will tolerate deep discharge.  They are the Gold Standard of wet cell batteries.  Other batteries such as lithium and AGM (Low Maintenance designs) are very good performers at 3x the cost. Cost = $84 x 2

To the rear of the Batteries, I installed a 45A 3-way charger maintainer for use when we have 110v available.  It is important that these batteries be kept at full charge and that they be equalized about every 30 days.  Cost = $120

I than installed a Bogart TM2025rv battery system monitor.  I think of this as a fuel gage.  It monitors the condition of charge and the rate of charge/discharge of the system.  The meter is presently showing 558a charging. Cost = $185

I installed all of the above in late fall of 2011.  The reason being that I hand to compile data BEFORE I could make informed decision on our usage and needs.  We also changed most of our lighting fixtures over to LED bulbs, these actually draw about 10% of incandescent bulbs, lighting is a very considerable part of the electrical budget it turns out.

I next pulled #4 wire from the battery compartment, thru the crawl space, and up onto the roof.  I terminated it in a 4” plastic box using a full tube od Dicor sealer, messy buy very effective.

Decision time, do I install the solar panels and charge controller?  I’d really like to, than I face the realization that I do not have the physical ability of the proper tools to pull this off.  I also want to get the proper panels with a matching charge controller.  This is a place to buy quality and not be too concerned with getting the last dime off the table.  Read Bob’s Blog above and you will see how expensive equipment is wasted when improperly sourced and installed.

We were directed to Starlight Solar in Yuma, AZ by some Chapter #8 friends, they are a small company marketing products and doing custom installs such as ours.  Mounting the panels has 2 most common methods: Flat is most common and cheapest.  Tilted adds $200 and improves performance about 20%.  Flat panels must be shadow free, not easy to achieve when sun is low in the winter.  You must climb onto the roof to raise tilted panels and park in the proper orientation to see the Southern Sky.

Starlight has a 3rd option call a rack.  The panels are assembled onto stilt like legs which makes them shadow free as they are above all of the roof’s protuberances.  We have a friend that has been using this system for several years.  A hidden advantage is that the racks may be easily removed to add to another rig.  These panels are ‘high voltage’ which reduces the wire size requirement and improves the efficiency in the end. Cost installed = $1400 Note: their output is guaranteed to stay at 80% for 25 years!

The end in this case is the mysterious Blue Sky Charge Controller that converts the 20+ volts from the roof to a more usable 14.3 volts {at a higher amperage} to charge our battery.  Remember the picture above that showed us charging at 558 watts, that’s not too shabby for a system sized to 480 watts! Cost= $341

How does it work? Fine! We have been dry camping in Arizona desert for 2 weeks, using lights and watching TV for about 4 hours during the evening with 50% battery left in early am when the solar system sends our charging machine back into the sky.

You may notice that we spend about $2100 on this upgrade, note that 30% is federal tax deductible and there is no Arizona sales tax (11%!) on solar.

We have also added a 1000w pure sine wave invertor that allows us to power up SMALL electrical devices such as TV and various chargers.  If we need microwave or toaster oven we run the generator for 1/2 hour or so.  It’s cloudy morning as I write this, we are charging about 10% of capacity, I will no doubt run genny about 4 hours this afternoon.