diy solar

diy solar

LV5048, 4 renogy 300w panels and 8 Battleborn batteries...in de box!

Haha thanks for edumacation....I learned something as a electrician hacker....get plenty plenty plenty of all of the varieties of else....cause things can change in design. Got els at homely despot
 
Are you doing 120/ 120 split phase for 240? I am planning a very similar set up. I was going do diy sinopoly prismatic for batteries but since I am new to this I think I’ll just spend the little extra and do battleborn. The big question is what are you running off of this and for how long can you run for? Any big appliances?
 
Yes I am doing 120/120 split phase....(240). I didn't do the cheaper sinopoly because I liked the idea of having to not deal with lots of BMS wires. Yes you could make sure it was all done right with strain relief on the leads and providing a proper enclosure...like battleborn has!. The battleborn batteries are complete with all protection needed and they are warranted 8-10 years. If you build the Sinopoly I don't believe you can claim warranty because BMS would be your design...and its a key ingredient to keeping the LIFEPO4 going strong.

I'm running 10 dedicated circuits including two refrigerators an a wine cooler. Usually drawing between 600 and 900watts between the two phase loads. Full 8 battleborn batteries battery gets me about 10hours. In an emergency situation I would cut off as much load as I needed to only burn the power generated by the solar panels. I also have a 3000watt generator that runs on multifuels (gasoline, propane and natural gas) which will charge my batteries up or provide power for many days on the stock of propane I have have (200lbs (two 100lb tanks) and 5 20lb tanks) enough to run the generator for days on end according to my tests. With solar it will extend my electricity use by a lot of weeks. With my electric car I have a 12V inverter than I can use to attach to my 12volt battery which is recharged by a 64kwhr battery. for more power (see Wills video on this).
 
As much as I'm here for the cool solar projects can't help noticing the mast with multiband HF antenna with what looks like stepper driven elements! Very cool indeed, regards, a fellow ham from UK!
 
Enjoyed reading the write up, I also had unfortunate mishap with my first mast! But we live and learn from mistakes and improve next design!
 
ebdesroches said:
Yes I am doing 120/120 split phase....(240)
Click to expand...
ebdesroches said:
Yes I am doing 120/120 split phase....(240). I didn't do the cheaper sinopoly because I liked the idea of having to not deal with lots of BMS wires. Yes you could make sure it was all done right with strain relief on the leads and providing a proper enclosure...like battleborn has!. The battleborn batteries are complete with all protection needed and they are warranted 8-10 years. If you build the Sinopoly I don't believe you can claim warranty because BMS would be your design...and its a key ingredient to keeping the LIFEPO4 going strong.

I'm running 10 dedicated circuits including two refrigerators an a wine cooler. Usually drawing between 600 and 900watts between the two phase loads. Full 8 battleborn batteries battery gets me about 10hours. In an emergency situation I would cut off as much load as I needed to only burn the power generated by the solar panels. I also have a 3000watt generator that runs on multifuels (gasoline, propane and natural gas) which will charge my batteries up or provide power for many days on the stock of propane I have have (200lbs (two 100lb tanks) and 5 20lb tanks) enough to run the generator for days on end according to my tests. With solar it will extend my electricity use by a lot of weeks. With my electric car I have a 12V inverter than I can use to attach to my 12volt battery which is recharged by a 64kwhr battery. for more power (see Wills video on this).
Click to expand...

Thanks, I realize that the question about usage is subjective, and I need to correctly calculate my loads, but it always helps to get a read on some real life situations, if I am going to load in to a full system for 10-15k (Canadian) then I need some assurances lol.

Regarding the Battleborns, I think it's the more expensive but ultimately best route. I fear that my BMS selection in a DIY could be the weak point, plus living in Southern Ontario (Canada) I'll need that low temp cutoff as well. So, the big question is how did you connect your battleborns? Based on what I see for 48V you can go either way, did you parallel connect 2 complete strings of 4 or do 1 string of 2 paralleled? I have heard with LifeP04 that its best to parallel first (but that was with raw cells).

As for panels, I would hope to go as high as 3000 watts, maybe more due to my latitude, just would need to get the voltage up so I am guessing 3 x 300w in series to get up to 120v open circuit. But for now would not mind getting this up and running as a UPS first.

Thanks for you time!
 
I bought a victron 712 monitor. The wiring diagram for the batteries shows two 48v strings connected to buss bars.

I bought the temp sensor. You can also monitor the midpoint voltage deviation....but not at the same time. So I used a spdt switch to do both.
 
ebdesroches said:
You can see how I built the tower and the lower beam on my site: hambuilds.com
Click to expand...
I love your solar setup, battery bank, 10 circuit control, and propane generator. I really love that you used a palm tree to mount your ham radio antenna.

I have been wondering why we don't use trees more to mount things. Only saw one guy mount solar panels with trees, so far.
 
The 60' 160, 80, 40m vertical on palm has raised (fence high) trapped coaxial radials. There is a tuner box with fixed L's and C's at the base. I also have a TR switched 160, 80, 40 trapped dipole on fence line for receive noise reduction....all on a small City. The homemade diy 35' telescoping mast with the beams on it took a while to build.....6' deep X 2' X 2' hole for mast base plate mount was dug by hand. Concrete for base was strength tested to see if it met mechanical design doc I needed for permit. All the bronzr flat bearings and pully assembly was made in my small machine shop....or welded.
 
ebdesroches said:
The 60' 160, 80, 40m vertical on palm has raised (fence high) trapped coaxial radials. There is a tuner box with fixed L's and C's at the base. I also have a TR switched 160, 80, 40 trapped dipole on fence line for receive noise reduction....all on a small City. The homemade diy 35' telescoping mast with the beams on it took a while to build.....6' deep X 2' X 2' hole for mast base plate mount was dug by hand. Concrete for base was strength tested to see if it met mechanical design doc I needed for permit. All the bronzr flat bearings and pully assembly was made in my small machine shop....or welded.
Click to expand...
I still have a 200’ retractable mast in my moms yard... never unpackaged since the 80’s... I helped my ham dad hang Yaggies from trees every time we moved somewhere... (Air Force brat... we moved a lot)
 
I think we have the 20’ fiberglass antenna that goes with it, and a TON of heat kit built stuff... several radio sets...
 
Much more difficult when you build it from scratch...buying steel from steel mill, having it galvanizing cutting and drilling etc. I motorized it....so that it's less trouble to raise or retract
 
erik.calco said:
I'm trying to get the details on how it is all fastened. I can see you have clamps on each side of the panels to the steel, but don't see how those clamps are attached to the panels themselves. And how is that fastened to the roof?

Any chance you got close ups before putting it on the roof?
Click to expand...
I did some trig and found out generally how to make the supporting structure fit the slope of the roof. The roof slopes in the opposite direction that I wanted it to slope....slopes to the North. I basically used the old idea that triangles in a structure makes it strong (parallels allow the structure to sway). The supporting structure for the array was built 2X4 by 2X4 on the roof starting from the "feet" which amounts to 4 2X4's that hold the structure down. The ends of the two by fours on the top of the roof are held by #10 2 1/2 stainless screws toenailed to the rim of the roof...and actually through the roof (overhang).
 
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