NEW 500 AND 400 WATT SOLAR ARRAYS

Photo's above show the new 500 watt solar power system on the LEFT and the additional 400 watts of solar power on the RIGHT, for a total of 900 watts. I use this power to charge six 6 volt deep cycle batteries wired in series, then parallel to power a Ham Radio Packet Network, a laptop computer, weather station, webcams, and low voltage 12 volt led lighting inside and outside of my home.

Here is the new 50 watt 2.85 amp solar panel that has replaced the smaler 20 watt panels seen at the bottom of this page. The new 50 watt panel is used to charge a 125 amp hour deep cycle battery used for my 224.560 mhz ham radio repeater. The older 20 watt system was more or less a trickle charger. They worked very well, but I needed a larger panel for my application This new 50 watt panel is a much better choice, and is perfect on stormy winter days when sunlight is not as easy to find.

New 150 watt array used to charge two 125ah 12 volt deep cycle batteries, which power 3 Ham Radio packet nodes. Three 50 watt solar panels mounted onto a recycled Primestar satellite dish mount, with angle iron used to support the three panels. Also a 230 watt solar panel mounted on the roof adds to the charging ability of the array.

Above is a photo of the my 510 watt solar array as it was being constructed. This array will be used to power my workshop as well as inside and outside lightning at my home.

This photo remains for historic reasons

NEW SOLAR CONTROL CENTER

I custom built the two controller boxes in the above photo. The main solar array is split into two individual systems. which use Tracer 30 amp MPPT controllers, this way if one system fails, there will still be a backup system for charging batteries.

The two new charge control systems were named Spirit and Opportuniy, and activitated on the same days both Spirit, and Opportunity landed on Mars.

I guess I have always been an outer space nut...!

OLD 510 watt solar array up and running (Summer 2010)

Photo remains for historic reasons

Back side of 510 watt solar array. The mount was made from a recycled C Band satellite dish mount, 2x4 and 4x4 lumber and can be moved east and west with the attached 12 volt satellite positioner motor.

photo remains for historic reasons

Above is the older 150 watt solar system that has now been taken down during the upgrade. These panels were added to the new 510 watt array seen in the photo's at the top of the page. The old mount was modified to hold the smaller Harbor Freight 45 watt array.

This photo remains for historic reasons

Southwest Windpower Air 403 12 volt 25 amp wind generator.

This photo remains for historic reasons

BATTERY BANK

The photo above shows my current battery bank, I have 4 125ah batteries tied in parallel for a total of 500ah, I plan on adding one more 125 ah battery shortly.

This photo remains for historic reasons

OLD SOLAR/ WIND POWER CONTROL SYSTEM

Above is the old control system that has been replaced with two new control systems seen at the top of this page.

You can see where the power from both the solar panels, and the wind generator come together. The two large gray boxes on the left are the solar panel and wind generator disconnect switches, the meter above these two disconnect boxes is the wind generator amp meter. The large gray box with the red tag is the house disconnect box and fuse box. The four small white boxes are junction points where the wiring from the solar panels and the wind generator enter into the shed from the outside.

The blue box on the right is an amp and volt metering panel as well as the controls for the solar tracker. The disconnect switches and controller transfer switches are also shown.

Two solar controllers were used in this design. The main unit is an ASC 12 amp PWM controller mounted inside the blue metering and control box to the right, and a Trace 30A controller for backup.

From here the power travels 50 feet under ground and then into the attic of the house, and from there to the back room where the repeater is located.

This photo remains for historic reasons

Here are a few photos of my new smaller 20 watt solar array is now being installed as a secondary backup power source for the repeater

This system is made up of two 10 watt solar panels and a group of four 20ah gell cell batteries. The charge controller is built inside the control box which has metering for both volts and amps.

I will be adding more photos of the system as soon as the install begins. The sole purpose of this secondary system is to help maintain battery power to the repeater, in the event the main 510 watt solar system goes down.

These photo's remain for historic reasons

Well, I almost met my install date! It is September 17, 2008 and the new panels are installed and running the repeater. I had a 1 hour QSO today on the repeater and the system worked fantastic! The mount as well as the panels were purchased off ebay for about $225.00. The pole was just an old push up mast I had here at the house. The charge controller is an ASC 12 volt 8 amp unit.

This photo remains for historic reasons