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thing is, I AM REALLY UNLUCKY. My luck is so bad I have to account for bad luck in everything I do, by taking precautions against bad luck.

Oh, now you're just talkin crazy!

Reminds me of the turnkey nuclear reactor proposal from 15 or so years ago. You could own your own & bury it in your back yard for only $25m (plus regulatory approval, insurance, and other incidentals.)

Meh. I enjoy a little extra jumpstart in the morning.

1:16 i'm glad you finally put on some gloves. People look to you for safety examples as well!

A pair offers more flexibility in setup changes later on (a multi-12 v panel system can be rewired to be a 24v system, but a 24v panel is difficult to split). 2 smaller panels are also more easily placed around obstructions. A larger panel may cost you less than two smaller ones, and may...

They lost me at the second layer of tomatoes. NOBODY needs that many tomatoes. That's just crayziness. If you have room for an additional layer, why not a second layer of bacon?!

It was a 1/4 baked foolish response that was meant to inject humor, and I linked the wrong comment at that. Please just ignore it. I'll show myself out.

If you drive a car, I'll tax the street If you try to sit, I'll tax your seat If you get too cold, I'll tax the heat If you take a walk, I'll tax your feet

Seems there would be the chance of exceeding the C rate for your batteries, if the charge controller is feeding too much power. If the scc & panels are capable of sending the full 9.6 kw, and the battery isn't capable of charging at 1C (one full charge in 1 hour) that could cause damage.

Hey...

There are also vids on youtube about making bubblers to keep water troughs from freezing. Since you mentioned an inverter, look at a 24 or 12v pump. They'll allow you to bypass the inverter. I got a seaflo on someone's recommendation, and it's a hearty thing that puts out good pressure &...

The shade would be my first guess. A 10% shade can severely reduce solar output, and you have far more than 10% shade there. Without a bypass diode, solar panels need sunlight to allow electricity through. Bypass diodes may help here.

Got some myself. Replied, "You ugly tho..."

9:01...the metal needs to be 500 degrees c to work? That's a lot of consistent heat, even for Texas.

Near-grid generation & usage is something I know many people do, but I rarely see it discussed as such. Do you own a solar calculator. ? Are you using it in a grid-connected building? Do you use a battery in your notebook? Do you ever power it with solar panels or from your car? Then you're...

Where is your load? Are your batteries already charged?

Instant hair came before its time. Now people spray paint their hair orange (bald spot optional, ymmv, ianal, qrstuv ,no insects were harmed unless they bit me or ate my food or smelled bad or were ugly, )

http://solarpicker.club/ Caveat emptor - this page does not mention quality (the shun-bin theatrics, for instance, are documented elsewhere on this forum) and i don't know how frequently the data is updated. I don't have any affiliation with the site.

If you feel you MUST buy this brand, do it through a big name reseller and insist on a money-back guarantee when it's not as described. When SB demands that you send it back, verify whether you're allowed to do so legally. You'd be surprised at how illegal their shipments may actually be. If...

Did you find any *reasonable* prices?

Here's a start for your consideration. A great deal of your expense is in time shifting (battery storage). If your use case can be limited to daylight hours, you can save some $. How many watts do you need, total? 50 smart phones of 10W each = 500 watts. How efficient are your chargers...

Here's a shorter / different take, but it does NOT take batteries into consideration - it assumes no storage and works only during insolation hours: 500w for the phones + 50w for the fan +30w for the lights = (roughly) 600w usage. So plan on about 1000 watts of panels + a charge controller...

I like where you're going with this... Since I'm stationary, the weight of a water mattress isn't a deterrent.

Whether you need an inverter depends on the method you're using to power the appliances. You likely need some form of inverter / converter to make the 12v from the solar panels available to usb for the phones. Strictly speaking, a dc-dc change of voltage is done by CONverter, not an INVerter...

yep. responding to your edit, this would have to incorporate a thermostat to selectively run the pump. It's no surprise that a waterbed usually has a heater, so instead of an electric heat pad, I could run temperature controlled water through a coil under the water mattress, as you suggested...

Please ask your questions publicly. 1) it enables people who have the same questions to search these forums and possibly find answers they need. 2) you benefit from multiple perspectives. when people answer. 3) I may not have the answer to one of your questions, though I can, possibly...

Honestly I never hooked it up. Project got back-burnered. Sorry to disappoint.

That's why they're sold there.

Ohms law. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohm's_law I'm not saying you must read the whole entry. I haven't. But amps is a function of both watts and volts. https://www.rapidtables.com/calc/electric/watt-volt-amp-calculator.html will help you play with the numbers.