Recent content by Red Squirrel

That is a good idea, if I could find a place to buy something like that here in Canada. I'd have to dig around some more next time.

Interesting I figured a high level solar flare was much harder to protect against and that a simple faraday cage was not enough. And yeah I lumped EMP all together, as it's a sorta similar type of threat in the sense that it's sending tons of energy out that can damage electronics. A solar...

My goal is to eventually live off grid, bought the property now I need to start building, will be a long process due to work and often lack of good (non rain) days to go work on it, but with inflation I won't be able to keep living in the city if I want to eventually retire. But yeah, need to...

So wiring is done, did end up going with resistor, I feel better doing it that way than wondering if the switch is being damaged every time I use it. This is more or less the final product. The solar panels stow away in front and door closes over them. The two small switches at the bottom...

The panels are out of the equation when I connect it, it's just the charge controller alone, as the battery does power it to show the display etc. It seems they decided to put a fairly beefy capacitor in there on the battery side. I might go ahead and just add the resistor anyway to be safe. I...

I know the loads are under 1800w as they are rated for a standard outlet. Of course the surge can be more, but most non chinesium inverters can handle double that. Basically this is a 200w system with 2,000w+ surge, if I was to actually rate it. I have not actually measured the loads, only...

Oh yeah I get that, I'm also limited by 200w nameplate solar as that's what the portable panel is, but I rather have more inverter capacity than I need than not enough, so it can deal with surge loads etc. Lithium cells are very hard to get here and I'm not that great at electronics yet to...

I won't be typically loading it up to it's full capacity, I just like the ability to be able to momentarily (ex: mitre saw) if I need. I did 1800w as a test and yeah the voltage drop is massive and I also lose capacity much faster. Typically though I'll be pulling 400w or so, maybe 800w. It...

Everything is prewired so everything gets hooked up at once, technically. Charge controller and inverter both connected to battery, the switch would then take the battery out of circuit. The solar panels are plugged in the back so are disconnected from circuit when the station is being setup...

I'm building a portable solar power station, it mostly all works except I have not implemented the cut off switch yet because I was waiting for it to arrive in the mail. I want to be able to turn the entire system off at the battery when not in use otherwise the charge controller will stay on...

Ah shoots ok, so it works like most inverter chargers then. Was hoping this could be a cheap solution to do what I want without building something out myself.

Anyone have experience with this unit? https://ca.renogy.com/48v-3500w-inverter-charger/ I am curious if the AC comes from the inverter at all times when it's in grid mode. Ex: can I use it as a dual conversion UPS? Hook it up to grid, and to battery, and then if power goes out there's zero...

You definitely want something that has a bit of intelligence, such as a delay before switching. A fast transfer switch could work for non motor equipment such as computers if you're trying to use the transfer system as a UPS, but for general purpose where you're going to plug anything in it...

Did some changes to the setup. Re-tilted the panels so that 1: snow has a better chance of coming off and 2: if it doesn't, I can at least see them from the ground, so it's easier to see what I'm doing with the long brush. So far it seems snow is staying mostly off though. The main issue is...

I did this mistake with a 12v cigarette lighter wiring. First thing I plug into it was a little inverter, an el cheapo 50w one that just plugs straight into the plug. "poof". Then I realized I never tested the polarity of the plugs to make sure I wired it right... I didn't. Oops. Some...