tesa's Off Grid System

Started by tesa, January 30, 2009, 05:57:51 PM

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MountainDon

We have a couple of battery (C cell) alarms that we got from Sharper Image some 20 years ago. They have adjustable alarm volume, plus a setable snooze time. Tells date and time. There must be something similar from someplace online you'd think...  ??? ???
Just because something has been done and has not failed, doesn't mean it is good design.

tesa

i did some searching, i think what i really want is music vs that buzzzzzz of the alarm

i thought one of those shower radios would work, beings they run off batteries, but the
ones i saw didn't offer any kind of alarm

people sell plans to build nuclear bombs on the web, surly a girl can find a battery operated
radio/alarm clock

tesa
"building a house requires thousands of decisions based on a million bits of information"-charlie wing


glenn kangiser

I feel better about L-16's than any of the AGM's - more forgiving -- it looks like if you pull the AGM's too low you may lose them permanently.
"Always work from the general to the specific." J. Raabe

Glenn's Underground Cabin  http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=151.0

Please put your area in your sig line so we can assist with location specific answers.

MountainDon

Just because something has been done and has not failed, doesn't mean it is good design.

tesa

just posting a quick update, as we've worked all weekend, and are quite exhausted

ordered the kit from "parts on sale" delivery will be in about three weeks, as our pole mounts
are fabridated to order

batteires are on their way, special order too, but we found a deal here in houston, and
the company isn't going to charge us shipping, if we wait till they place their order

extimated delivery time, two weeks

alarm clock delimea has been resolved to everyones satisfaction, i never know our cell phones
had alarms on them

nice chime, not too obnioxius (sp) quite pleasant as a matter of fact, and free, too boot!!

i had mentioned to a friend about our alarm clock situation, and she said "hell, why don't you
just use your cell phone?" i never knew!!

problem solved!

i still haven't had a chance to order the thinlites, i plan to do that tomorrow (monday) as we spent
the entire weekend at the property

i'd just like to take this chance to thank everyone who helped me with all the PV workings

i plan to post pictures when everything arrives, and pictures of the finished array

have a great week!

tesa
"building a house requires thousands of decisions based on a million bits of information"-charlie wing


glenn kangiser

Looking forward to your next posting.  Sounds good.
"Always work from the general to the specific." J. Raabe

Glenn's Underground Cabin  http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=151.0

Please put your area in your sig line so we can assist with location specific answers.

tesa

phew, what a crazy week, lots of things going on, it seems i had something to do every day

our thinlites arrived and daniel installed them

very interesting

a totally differend spectrum of light, i really wasn't expecting such a clear white light

very nice!

the 115's are perfect for over the couch, and in the bathroom, with the celing so low here in the RV,
its turned out to be a great reading light

the 111 we put above the sink seems to be quite enough light to do dishes by

i'm a very satisfied customer, and plan to order a few more to replace bedroom lighting, and another light
in the center of the RV, but that will have to wait a few weeks

we cut our watt usage for those three lights in half! [cool]

part of our array shipped last wednesday, all the cables, hardware, and inverter, but the panels themselves
wont ship till monday, or tuesday, and the pole mount is still in production

tesa
"building a house requires thousands of decisions based on a million bits of information"-charlie wing

glenn kangiser

"Always work from the general to the specific." J. Raabe

Glenn's Underground Cabin  http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=151.0

Please put your area in your sig line so we can assist with location specific answers.

MountainDon

I knew you'd like the Thinlites  :)
Just because something has been done and has not failed, doesn't mean it is good design.


tesa

ok, we're less than a week from moving the RV

daniel has been researching how to go about setting up our PV system

he's concerned we'll have to re-wire the entire RV

is it possible to still use the shore line plug?

the solartron people told us we'd have to disconnect the converter and buy 12v breakers

daniel is an electrical engineer by trade, but this is all new to him

i understand what the converter does, and why we don't need that anymore

could someone give us a quick rundown of "order of operation"

we purchased a shed from homedepot to act as a battery house/equipment house and built it
right behind the RV

we also purchased 6 vents to put into the walls for fresh air intake

our batteries are in storage, we picked them up friday

tesa

"building a house requires thousands of decisions based on a million bits of information"-charlie wing

MountainDon

First, the RV DC circuits should already have DC breakers or fuses. Mine does. There should be no need for new ones.

Are you going to be running everything inside the RV on strictly 12 VDC?  No AC power at all?  No AC supplied from an inverter?  Tell me about that before I go further.


Just because something has been done and has not failed, doesn't mean it is good design.

MountainDon

Regarding the shed and the batteries. Is this a metal shed? If so you should likely place something like wood, hardboard, plastic or whatever on the wall behind and above the batteries. It may take a while but fumes from the batteries can eat away at the metal. I have a rust streak up the inside wall of my shed here at home where acid fumes ate away the paint.

Just because something has been done and has not failed, doesn't mean it is good design.

tesa

we do have a small a/c load.

the tv, computer, one small task light (30watts).

we have a 30watt room fan we'll be running in summer

and a 7watt nightlight in the bathroom for tia

we've put into storage all our other a/c appliances

we purchased a 1000 watt pure sine inverter

and the shed is wooden, we had heard about problems with metal buildings and out batteries, so we
opted for a wood structure, but thanks for the heads up

i think "re-wire" the entire RV was a bit misleading, he's just not sure how power actually gets into the RV itself

right now, we're connected to shore power thru the big plug at the back of the RV, he thinks that is going to need
some sort of re-wiring

i wish the solartron folks would have been more helpful, maby they didn't understand what daniel
was asking

he thinks maby he'll have to run the wires up under the RV, to the fusebox, which would mean drilling some sort
of hole into the rv itself, maby

tesa
"building a house requires thousands of decisions based on a million bits of information"-charlie wing

MountainDon

Most likely the solartron people don't have any idea of how an RV is wired.


Here's one method...
1. disconnect the RV converter, so when AC shorepower is applied it will not kick in and try to charge the batteries from the inverter.

2. wire the AC output of the inverter to the shorepower input. Use a cord and plug or hardwire it inside the RV. I used the plug in method, but replaced the standard RV plug and socket with a twist lock type.

3. Wire the DC lines from the batteries to the DC input on the RV. This will be wherever the RV batteries were designed to sit by the RV manufacturer. In mine this is under a rear bench seat. That necessitated a hole to be drilled underneath, and a grommet to be installed to protect the battery cables as they pass through.

The RV's AC circuit breakers will still function. Ditto the DC breakers or fuses. The only danger would be from someone unwittingly plugging in an AC load that is too big for your inverter. In that case the inverter should shut down.

I think that should do it.
Just because something has been done and has not failed, doesn't mean it is good design.


tesa

thanks a million! i'll let daniel read this when he comes home

tesa
"building a house requires thousands of decisions based on a million bits of information"-charlie wing

MountainDon

And when disconnecting the converter I'd disconnect both the AC input and the DC output lines.
Just because something has been done and has not failed, doesn't mean it is good design.

tesa

daniel says "thank you so much, now i'm clear on many points!" :)

tesa
"building a house requires thousands of decisions based on a million bits of information"-charlie wing