[missmyljdaze]

temporary thread hijack alert....

You fellas waffling on about solar power and 12 volt stuff has got me curious.
I am guessing it is possible with the available tech. and off the shelf stuff to put together 12 volt lighting for a house using solar panels, LED lamps and a decent battery, but what about household appliances.
Would it be realistic if building a new house- to design it to be off the mains electrical grid- and run only on 12 volt?

stephen

[got_bar_work]

U could but u wouldn't . off grid systems run 24-48v batt depending on inverter size
u usually run 100-250v solar to a charger to control the batt then inverter to make the 230v ac
a house can draw way to much current for 12v . u would need a massive batt bank
a small shack i wouldn't go less then 2000ah @24v and a house with a family i would be going min 2000ah@48v
12v lighting is a good idea but u will need to run like a 16mm cable around all the light switches then like a 4mm up to the light because of the voltage drop. I would go 24v most led are multi volt anyway

[shep]

Just go 240v solar, my oldies run air cons etc after putting a $25,000 system on their roof. We pay around $1500 a 1/4 so they will be in front after 5 years. Biggest bonus however is they will never get another power bill.

Our next house will get a 30kva system

[got_bar_work]

30Kw how big is ur house
u got a hydo system in the shed

[tonyevans]

got_bar_work wrote:

That completely backwards to a normal system
must be because its so small it doesnt matter about switching under load
if u did that in a house it would burn to the ground
sorry tony u were right
If u parrallel the 4 up u should have a fuse on each panel as well to protect them
if only 2 u dont need to but 3 or more u do
wat size panels are they

I just wrote a long post but have decided why bother

[shep]

got_bar_work wrote:

30Kw how big is ur house
u got a hydo system in the shed

6 aircons going flat out in 40+ deg with 90+% humidity tends to use a lot of power.

[got_bar_work]

tonyevans wrote:

got_bar_work wrote:

That completely backwards to a normal system
must be because its so small it doesnt matter about switching under load
if u did that in a house it would burn to the ground
sorry tony u were right
If u parrallel the 4 up u should have a fuse on each panel as well to protect them
if only 2 u dont need to but 3 or more u do
wat size panels are they

I just wrote a long post but have decided why bother

Plz tell me what part of that is wrong
The string fuses are mandatory if more then 3strings in parrallel
In a real standalone system the panel voltage is normally up above 100v dc.
ever seen what happens to a switch that is been turned on under load at low voltage dc
it arks and melts away till the cable burns open circuit

[Jezza86]

i think the point was lighting only. i think the biggest problem would be wiring and switching 12volt. we use relays in cars for 55w lights, any my kitchen has 200W of lighting.
if you were to run relays it would probably be more efficient to run 240v lighting, and cheaper in the long run. i have however seen this done. my old gliding club was solar, and everything was 12 volt.

[tonyevans]

got_bar_work wrote:

tonyevans wrote:

got_bar_work wrote:

That completely backwards to a normal system
must be because its so small it doesnt matter about switching under load
if u did that in a house it would burn to the ground
sorry tony u were right
If u parrallel the 4 up u should have a fuse on each panel as well to protect them
if only 2 u dont need to but 3 or more u do
wat size panels are they

I just wrote a long post but have decided why bother

Plz tell me what part of that is wrong
The string fuses are mandatory if more then 3strings in parrallel
In a real standalone system the panel voltage is normally up above 100v dc.
ever seen what happens to a switch that is been turned on under load at low voltage dc
it arks and melts away till the cable burns open circuit

You are talking Grid attached systems - My set up and hundreds of others around here (I live in the Opal fields and there is no mains power) most (at least 95%) are 12volt with average 2500 AH of battery or more - 12 volt lighting (with LED now they don't care about a bit of voltage drop and inverters are also 12volt DC to 240 AC - Inverters are installed near the battery banks and then 240 volt AC is run to the residence with no problem with no problem with voltage drop. OH! and we NEVER connect the inverters via the load terminals on the regulators.

[tonyevans]

Jezza86 wrote:

i think the point was lighting only. i think the biggest problem would be wiring and switching 12volt. we use relays in cars for 55w lights, any my kitchen has 200W of lighting.
if you were to run relays it would probably be more efficient to run 240v lighting, and cheaper in the long run. i have however seen this done. my old gliding club was solar, and everything was 12 volt.

I have a 16mm pair running the full length of my house (It's a converted Sydney Red Rattler train) and run all the lighting of that but with LED lighting now you don't need it that heavy. The wire I used was the train wires that ran the lights in all the carriages and they were 32 volt DC.

[shep]

Didn't like the tent bolted to the lid so made a bit of a rack

Going for a test run over the weekend, hopefully it makes it back in one piece.

[Marko_SJ]

Thats unreal. Makes the Taj-Mahal (sp?) look like roughing it.

[got_bar_work]

Looking good shep
so wish i did this instead of building a hard floor camper
and tony i was talking about proper stand alone off grid systems that u would get now.
20 Years ago 12v systems were common but that was because thats all there was and the industry was dogy as hell and no one doing them were electricans
now that the industry is ran by sparkys the systems are getting much more efficient.
the only way to do that is to increase all the voltages to cut down copper losses . i use midnight solar controlers that take between 100-250v solar input and put out 100a @48v. i ve installed 7kva inverters in houses. these systems are now as good as being on the grid. but they are major bucks
sorry shep. for hijacking ur thread i will stop now

[shep]

Going to leave my fridge running on a 100amp battery and 120w of solar panels and see if the solar keeps up with the fridge. It is charging at over 8 amps when the sun is out so hopefully it will run indefinitely. Hopefully get the fridge box finished this week

[pezz]

shep wrote:

Going to leave my fridge running on a 100amp battery and 120w of solar panels and see if the solar keeps up with the fridge. It is charging at over 8 amps when the sun is out so hopefully it will run indefinitely. Hopefully get the fridge box finished this week

nothing like real world testing, way to go!

[shep]

Decided to slap a ute box on the draw bar rather then build a box. Heaps of room for fridge and battery's etc

[atari4x4]

what's your ball weight going to look like once that is all loaded with batteries & a fridge full of wobbla?

[shep]

It shouldn't be more then 30-40kg as the spare tyre and 55L water tank will hopefully even it out.

[Jezza86]

how did the fridge/solar/battery test go?

[shep]

Jezza86 wrote:

how did the fridge/solar/battery test go?

Bit of a failure due to dead battery's, trying to get the energy together to get the deep cycle out of my boat. The fucker weighs 45kg

[missmyljdaze]

shep wrote:

Jezza86 wrote:

how did the fridge/solar/battery test go?

Bit of a failure due to dead battery's, trying to get the energy together to get the deep cycle out of my boat. The fucker weighs 45kg

put solar panel, fridge and beer in boat?

[shep]

missmyljdaze wrote:

shep wrote:

Jezza86 wrote:

how did the fridge/solar/battery test go?

Bit of a failure due to dead battery's, trying to get the energy together to get the deep cycle out of my boat. The fucker weighs 45kg

put solar panel, fridge and beer in boat?

Haha but the boat isn't kept in the sun. think I will forget about solar for now as the deep cycle in my boat will run the fridge for more then a week

[Jezza86]

imagine if the wife catches you siting in the boat that you have towed into the back paddock, drinking beer and watching your fridge like its about to grow legs.



i think she would be worried enough to let you buy many, many things!

[coily96]

Hey shep when you ordered the hubs through active fabrications what stud pattern did you use to fit suzuki wheel?
Guessing f100

[shep]

Yeah mate, f100. I did tell them it was for a suzuki rim and they didn't think it was strange so I reckon they have sold a few to suzuki people.

[alexxx]

gotta love mechpro boxes haha

[shep]

Haha was cheaper then buying the bits to build one. Plus is shiny.

[alexxx]

and cheap!! good for the price though!!

[shep]

Painted it the same colour as the jimny. Well sort of the same anyway

[christover1]

Color matching is the most important bit, well done