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BILL XAM LIVE EVERY NIGHT AT 6:30 PM, EST ON THE ANIMAL FEEDER SETUP SHOW!
Disaster
planning should be part of every single household across America, strike that,
the world. When disaster strikes, people die or lives are changed. In times of
plenty, forego the Playstations and buy extra food. You can explain a lack of
toys better than a lack of food to your children.
Three
years ago, our home caught fire. I spent time in intensive care and almost died,
thus I know from whence I speak.
As
we go into our third season of "This Old Shack", disaster planning and
survival episodes become more important. After all, that's what alternative
energy is - the ability for you to survive without an infrastructure. All of our
episodes of This Old Shack and our new show, "CSI:SALINE" will reflect
this in 2009. Oh, of course there's going to be laughs and beer drinking - this
survival crap is depressing to think about.
So,
practice your fire drills with the crumbcrunchers, practice evacuating
yourselves, your pets, your neighbors. Learn how to use a fire extinguisher. And
watch our videos!
NAVIGATION
Home Energy News Feeds DiaryDex Energy blog This Old Shack Cheap solar water heater A trip to the cabin! Xantrex Charge Controller Death of a battery About the system Photos of my system Battery bank setup My generator updated Generator article reprint Generator buying tips Battery wiring Installation Wiring the cabin Appliances for cabins Building your own panels Handy conversion formulas Gas mileage (Dodge Dakota) Privacy policy - please read! Sitemap 4-8-07 Links Earthquake/vocano activity
But why solar power?
There were several reasons for the
switch:
Benefits:
- Renewable power.
- Learning about solar power.
- Own stock in the solar panel company. :-)
- I like batteries.
- I can sit around smoking a cigar because I'm
an energy mogul!
Drawbacks:
-
Maintenance.
-
Installation.
-
Bunch of black glass panels sitting around.
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Wiring the cabin
Here's a description of my wiring and my charge
control system:
PV panels
-
2 sets of 45 watt Harbor Freight panels, total 90
watts ($400). Rewired and tested. You can see the rewiring in the first episode
of This Old
Shack for the 2008 season.
PV wiring
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Panels wired to low voltage junction box (Lowe's,
$2.99), bonded together with stainless bolts.
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Panel negative and ground bonded together.
Grounding
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1 ground rod ($20) at east end of cabin, 100 amp
service ground cable.
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east rod bonded to 12 volt negative.
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1 ground rod ($20) at west end of cabin, 100 amp
service ground cable.
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west rod bonded to 110 volt neutral / ground.
PV to charge controller
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10 gauge solid wire (low voltage orange) purchased
at Lowe's home improvement. 30 foot run.
Charge controller
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Xantrex C-12 charge controller/12 volt
distribution panel ($82).
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Bulk setting at 14.3, float at 13.3, auto
equalization off.
Generator
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2500 watt 110 volt, 12 amp 12 volt outputs ($495).
Battery Charger
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Schumacher battery charger ($80) with
bulk/float. Used at 30 amp setting.
-
Uses 110 of generator output for power.
Battery bank
- 5 group 31, 110 amp hours each, wet cell, non-maintenance free.
House wiring
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Square D QO (12 volt, 110 volt rated) distribution
panel ($79).
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3 circuits used. Circuit one is bedroom, circuit 2
is outdoor lights, circuit 3 is living area.
Inverter
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Xantrex 350 watt modified sine wave inverter.
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Bonded to 110 volt panel feed.
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Neutral successfully bonded to 110 grounding.
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