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Madness

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Joined: 08/10/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 2498

Posted: 06:30pm 15 Jan 2014

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Thought I would post what I have been doing the last few months to get off grid solar power at a budget price.

All these items where bought second hand mostly through Gumtree and Ebay.

$150 5 180 watt sharp solar panels (also included grid tie inverter that I sold for $200 So $350 - $200)

$1000 11 additional 180 watt sharp panels including freight.

$300 Outback MX60 Mppt charge controller.

$1200 Trace 4.5 KW 48 volt inverter charger including freight.

$600 For secondhand golf cart batteries that need some TLC and desulphation that should end up giving me around 1300 AH @ 48 volts.

Plus cables from a scrap metal dealer, new switchboard, fuses etc.

All up with wiring etc I have not spent over $3,500 plus another $500 for a secondhand solar hot water system. Previously I was paying around $500 a quarter for grid power. So all going well it will pay for itself in under 2 years at today's power price. The plan though is to move to a bush block away from the grid.

I also have several generators that I picked up cheap, main one is a later model 2 cylinder Lister 7 KVA that I bought for $400 not working. It needed new diodes AVR and main field rewinding. I did the rewind myself and all up it owes me around $650. This generator can be controlled by the inverter so if the voltage on the batteries drop below a preset level the generator starts and there are several ways to set when it stops such as after a preset amount of time.

There are only 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't.

yahoo2

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Joined: 05/04/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 1166

Posted: 01:13pm 16 Jan 2014

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Looks like you are almost there. Done fantastically well on the panels!

Are you going to need panel racking?

I'm confused, no wait... maybe I'm not...

Madness

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Joined: 08/10/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 2498

Posted: 02:09pm 16 Jan 2014

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At the moment I have the panels tied down securely with wire, however the local scrap dealer told me the other day they get complete rails in quite often. Do you have some to sell?

I was well and truly P'D off the other day, someone had 16 190 watt panels for $20 each. I went to get them at the time he told me but when I got there he sold them to someone else. They where water logged hence the price but I was going to try drying them out and reseal them.

There are only 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't.

yahoo2

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Joined: 05/04/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 1166

Posted: 06:27pm 16 Jan 2014

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I usually buy my racks for oddball jobs from marsol ind

last job was for 80 watt panels so I got a large kit for bigger panels with rail joiners in it, told them the panel depth plus got some extra panel clamps and the shorter 15-30 deg tilt brackets (because they are shorter panels). Haven't checked their prices lately but it saved me a lot of headaches mixing and matching parts that day.

I'm confused, no wait... maybe I'm not...

Madness

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Joined: 08/10/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 2498

Posted: 06:37pm 16 Jan 2014

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I have seen there prices, however I think I can do a lot better than $320 from them even though they are not very far from me. The ones from the scrap yard will be a fraction of the price.

There are only 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't.

Downwind

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Joined: 09/09/2009
Location: Australia
Posts: 2333

Posted: 12:19am 17 Jan 2014

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I was cheaper than that,

and put my second hand panels on 75mm C section, at $20.00 for a 6.1m length (or was it 6.5m length ?)

All held down with 65mm roofing Tek screws and stainless mudguard washers.
I did put a rubber belting strip between panels and C section at the fixing points (rubber was an old supermarket checkout conveyor belt about 3-4mm thick)
To help stop the corrosion problem between galv steel and alley.

I also cut some rubber washers with a hole saw to fit under the mudguard washers.

It might sound a lot of work, but all up it was very simple to do, and worked out rather cheap for the area covered.

....................>>> several years later and have not seen a problem in any area.

The panels are a low output of 60W x 65V panels, glass top, at 12.5Kg each, so over 1/2 ton.

Why did i bother?... Well they were all free panels that i picked up on 2 pallets fork loaded onto the ute.

My workshop roof was doing nothing, and i had the area to use them, the only condition of accepting them was, they could not be used for a GTI application and no REC claimed.

There was 50 panels all up, and 2 extra have been added after the photos were taken, so about 3Kw free.

The cost of MC4 connectors and wiring, was far greater than the panel costs, and i thought the racking at under $300.00 for the area was also cheap.

Pete.
Edited by Downwind 2014-01-18

Sometimes it just works

yahoo2

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Joined: 05/04/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 1166

Posted: 01:39am 18 Jan 2014

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Pete, as workshop roofs go, that is a thing of beauty