Ham4CW
Administrator
Late last year I finally got around to assembling a small workshop (man-cave!), constructed a bench and some shelving from discarded cupboards, and then sat down and wondered how I could power everything.
Although the 'shop' is not too far from the house, trying to run a power cable to it could be a real pain as there is no easy path for the cable to be run along. With lots on concrete, and various well established garden areas (that my XYL warned me not to touch on pain of death!), I had to think of some other solution.
I've tinkered with solar power before, but only for small items (such as a weather station transmitter), so I needed to do a bit of research to find a reasonably cheap solution.
In the end I opted for a 100W solar panel, an MPPT controller, and a heavy duty battery. Lighting is in the form of two 5W LED lamps (equivalent to 110W from filament bulbs), and high voltage is supplied by using an inverter.
The inverter I currently have is rated at 300W continuous output with 600W peak surge, but the idea is to obtain a much higher wattage unit later, possibly 1.5KW-2KW.
At first sight a 100W solar panel (and don't forget the 100W is only available in full on sunlight with the panel correctly angled to the sun) may not seem enough to supply the energy required, but my thoughts were that the panel would be constantly topping up the battery whenever there was daylight, so some occasional high current drain from the battery would be compensated for by the very long periods of trickle charging.
The MPPT charge controller does an excellent job of extracting every last ounce of energy from the panel used, and directing it to the battery for later use.
I've added a few photos below of the MPPT controller, and remote keypad display. Apart from the display there is also a data logger fitted, this enables storage of multiple readings from the controller (one reading every 10 minutes for up to four months). Due to the RS485 communication system it is possible to go online to the unit using a laptop and some free software from the manufacturers website.
So far the system has been faultless, with lighting whenever needed, and some experimental tests of the inverter using assorted soldering irons and other devices to load the output.
The whole lot is self contained and self controlling, a kind of fit and forget system.
73, Mark...
Although the 'shop' is not too far from the house, trying to run a power cable to it could be a real pain as there is no easy path for the cable to be run along. With lots on concrete, and various well established garden areas (that my XYL warned me not to touch on pain of death!), I had to think of some other solution.
I've tinkered with solar power before, but only for small items (such as a weather station transmitter), so I needed to do a bit of research to find a reasonably cheap solution.
In the end I opted for a 100W solar panel, an MPPT controller, and a heavy duty battery. Lighting is in the form of two 5W LED lamps (equivalent to 110W from filament bulbs), and high voltage is supplied by using an inverter.
The inverter I currently have is rated at 300W continuous output with 600W peak surge, but the idea is to obtain a much higher wattage unit later, possibly 1.5KW-2KW.
At first sight a 100W solar panel (and don't forget the 100W is only available in full on sunlight with the panel correctly angled to the sun) may not seem enough to supply the energy required, but my thoughts were that the panel would be constantly topping up the battery whenever there was daylight, so some occasional high current drain from the battery would be compensated for by the very long periods of trickle charging.
The MPPT charge controller does an excellent job of extracting every last ounce of energy from the panel used, and directing it to the battery for later use.
I've added a few photos below of the MPPT controller, and remote keypad display. Apart from the display there is also a data logger fitted, this enables storage of multiple readings from the controller (one reading every 10 minutes for up to four months). Due to the RS485 communication system it is possible to go online to the unit using a laptop and some free software from the manufacturers website.
So far the system has been faultless, with lighting whenever needed, and some experimental tests of the inverter using assorted soldering irons and other devices to load the output.
The whole lot is self contained and self controlling, a kind of fit and forget system.
73, Mark...
