[HCARC] Fwd: Solar Powered Station

[Virgil Bierschwale]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Virgil Bierschwale <vbiersch at gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Feb 16, 2015 at 12:03 PM
Subject: Re: [HCARC] Solar Powered Station
To: Gary J - N5BAA <qltfnish at omniglobal.net>


I have the harbor freight system, and its' not big enough to charge a
typical 12 volt deep cycle battery like you would find at tractor supply.
It will show that the battery is 100% charged, but the light that comes on
that shows that it has had a full charge within 2 weeks never cycles simply
because it is not big enough.

http://www.solar-electric.com/solar-panels-mounts-kits-accessories/prsy/rvandsmbasoc.html

I would look at a system more along the line of the 280 or 560 watt system
that is on this page.

If you will be running your rigs off of 12 volt power, you will not need an
inverter.

I bought the harbor freight system to experiment with and I found that it
simply doesn't have enough oomph, although it charged up my cell phone
quite well before I had electricity hooked up out here which gave me
pandora, email and phone.

As a matter of fact, if anybody wants to experiment with one, I'll sell my
system for 100 bucks which includes the harbor freight 45 watt system, a
300 watt inverter, a midnight solar battery monitor and a 12 volt deep
cycle battery and a ice chest that I keep it in with all associated
equipment.

oh yes and a good quality morningstar charge controller.

All are about a year old.

Myself, after studying the sizing of the systems, etc. (it is confusing), I
think I'm going to try the 280 watt system and I base that on the article I
saw in QST about a year or two ago where the guy charged one battery and
ran his transceiver about 3 to 5 hours a week.

Virgil
N5IVV


On Mon, Feb 16, 2015 at 11:51 AM, Gary J - N5BAA <qltfnish at omniglobal.net>
wrote:

> John,
>
> I have a copy of 's book on operating on Emergency Power.  It has an
> excellent section on Solar Power.  If all you want to power is your radio
> shack then Harbor Freight has a 45 watt solar setup that is inexpensive
> (panels, controller, etc) for I think $139.00 now  -  the price goes up and
> down between $139 and $169.00.  If you are wanting a larger system that can
> power significantly more, my neighbor has a good setup.  I have a couple of
> sets of the Harbor Freight kits waiting to power my station.  They will
> power some pairs of 6 volt (hooked in series and parallel) golf cart
> batteries from Costco. Series to get 12 volts, parallel to get power for as
> longer time.   Golf cart batteries are designed to charged and discharged
> more frequently than even Deep Cycle batteries used for fishing trolling
> motors.  They are however more expensive (X2).
>
> This is the month I am going to finally make a purchase of a HexBeam.  I'm
> going to put up a directional antenna if it kills me!!   Lots of people are
> talking about a kit sold here - It's the best price on the net and may be
> almost as inexpensive as making one.  www.k4hex.com/description.asp  They
> even have a Layaway program that lets you buy it over as many months as
> needed.
>
> Gary J
> N5BAA
>
> -----Original Message----- From: John Weisinger via HCARC
> Sent: Monday, February 16, 2015 11:25 AM
> To: HCARC Reflector
> Subject: [HCARC] Solar Powered Station
>
> Does anyone in the area have a solar powered station that could give me
> some suggestions and help? I want to incorporate this into my new home.
> Thanks.John - W5BGP John WeisingerWeisinger's Winerywww.weisingers.com541-621-2864
> (cell)ysingers at yahoo.com
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