Isn't it time for a "Definitive Guide to Long Term Solar Setup" sticky thread?

W

wrcsixeight

Adventurer
I would like to contribute to this effort.

One every forum I visit, there is always somebody who will not use the search function, or even notice a sticky at the top of the page that directly relates to their question.

They want somebody to do answer them directly, and get their answer with minimal understanding and effort.
But it would be great to have a nice concise area to point to and say ask a question after reading this you dumb $hit.
I think some simple stickys that draw the eye like:

-----Electrical draws of common appliances.
Fridges
Lights. Incandescent. LED. Flourescent.
Stereo.
ventilation
Cell phone chargers
Power tool chargers.
Laptops.
Winches


------ Inverters: Creating 120 volts from a 12 volt battery
MSW inverters
PSW inverters
Wattage requirements for common devices.
DC to DC converters, avoiding the power brick/wallwart

------Battery types
Deep cycle versus Marine/Dual purpose versus Starting
AGM vs Flooded vs Gel

Cranking amps versus storage capacity

------ Dual batteries. Methods of battery isolation and pros and cons of each.

manual switch
Dumb solenoid
Smart solenoid
Diode based isolator
Low voltage disconnects
And Wiring diagrams for each


---------Battery charging sources
A. Alternator
B. Solar
C. generator and grid powered battery charging Via battery chargers and RV converters
D. Wind
E. maximizing transmission by minimizing voltage drop

--------Circuit protection.

Fuses
Fusible links
Circuit breakers.

-------------------- My Electrical system
Forum Members reveal their systems, and how they evolved to suit their needs.
Opinions

I think that the above covers a lot of the repeated questions I have seen asked here since I have been a member.

I do not really have any idea how to incorporate product links or previous posts or new questions into the threads without derailing the Sticky.

I think there should also be a separate section for those who have a product to sell and let opinion and motivations distort facts
 
Last edited:
windsock

windsock

Adventurer
teotwaki said:
Maybe these Basic Posts/Chapters which could be set up and edited as needed:

  1. Solar Intro
  2. Pro's and Cons
  3. Basic Elements
  4. How to design for your needs
  5. Math (spreadsheets)
  6. Examples
  7. Members' Real Life Examples
  8. Vendor Links
  9. Thread Links
  10. Additional Useful Links


Or is there a better approach? :ylsmoke:
Click to expand...

Only things I would add to that list are:

How to calculate your needs. This will likely have a cross-over to a spreadsheet type thing whereby one has a list of typical appliances and their power requirements, and then the user just has to enter the estimated duration of daily useage.

Solar resource information for various locations/regions. This will include such sites as NASA solar site and other meterological web sites. This is important as for overland travel we are going to be going from one location/region/hemisphere to another and to design a sucessful system, this variation in solar resource needs consideration at the design stage.

Design software. There is some great solar design packages out there. One such example is the HOMER software from Denver, ex-NREL.
 
southpier

southpier

Expedition Leader
pods8 said:
Some of the problems I see coming up with solar is folks either don't understand or won't take the time to understand how much power they use, how batteries function, etc. They just want someone to tell them to buy X.
Click to expand...

i like a steak at a restaurant once in a while. i don't want the waiter to explain all the parts of the cow.

maybe some of us just want to "plug & play"
 
mountainpete

mountainpete

Spamicus Eliminatus
teotwaki said:
Love the avatar... must be a story too :sombrero:

I would like to lead on it if no one has already volunteered. How do we build a FAQ in an open thread yet avoid discussions and hijacks? Two parallel threads? One for Facts and one for the Discussions?

What I had thought was to start by trolling through as many of the existing posts as possible, paste a bunch of things into a Word document and post it all at once in a new thread. You could lock it and we could open a discussion thread for the community's inputs on how to shape it and improve it.

Maybe these Basic Posts/Chapters which could be set up and edited as needed:

  1. Solar Intro
  2. Pro's and Cons
  3. Basic Elements
  4. How to design for your needs
  5. Math (spreadsheets)
  6. Examples
  7. Members' Real Life Examples
  8. Vendor Links
  9. Thread Links
  10. Additional Useful Links


Or is there a better approach? :ylsmoke:
Click to expand...


Avatar is just a good memory from last December. Went to Maui as part of my recovery from cancer and just before going back to work. Met this guy on the Surfing Goat dairy farm. Goats = the original overlander :elkgrin:

Couple of things to consider... if I make the post a sticky and the close it, anyone can see the post but only a mod can edit it. I would happily edit it, but you would need to PM me the changes. Alternatively, it can be a sticky but anyone can reply and I can go in and clean the replies every once and a while. It also means that if you take the lead, you can then still edit the main post and keep the FAQ up to date (a good thing).

To start it, you can either create it in a MS Word file and I can post it or you can just create it all as a reply here, get the group feedback and then I can pull the one post out and set it up as a new sticky. You're call - I'm good either way.

All I ask is that if you need me to make a specific change please PM me - it's tough to watch every thread sometimes :sombrero:

Pete
 
mountainpete

mountainpete

Spamicus Eliminatus
Lots of great ideas in this thread. I'm thinking more and more that it would be good to compile it all here into one shell and make that into the sticky FAQ.
 
teotwaki

teotwaki

Excelsior!
mountainpete said:
Lots of great ideas in this thread. I'm thinking more and more that it would be good to compile it all here into one shell and make that into the sticky FAQ.
Click to expand...

I think that this thread just took on that role :sombrero:


I'll go troll thru other threads for "wheels" that have already been invented
 
dwh

dwh

Tail-End Charlie
SWbySWesty said:
I just found all this on TheSamba:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/vi...ht=solar&sid=be2a93ec97409eeae859c7113cbff72e

VW Bus and Solar:
The completely idiotic guide to solar on wheels
Click to expand...

That's a decent write-up.


This part (in blue) is incorrect:

"But wait! There is always more. Apparently there are three different kinds of battery construction: AGM, Gel cell and Acid. I did some minor reading, but here, I am just going to take the word of another Samba member

Quote:
“I also did both: a 110 AH Trojan deep cycle battery and 125w solar panel. I put my battery under the sink. If you do on line research (not on the Samba) You'll find lead acid batteries provide superior deep cycle ability over AGM or gell cells. AGM batteries are not true deep cycle cells.”"



A) AGMs are lead-acid batteries and like any battery can be deep cycle if it was designed for that purpose. The quotee is obviously referring to flooded lead-acid, some of which can have better deep cycle performance because they'll accept a higher bulk voltage (14.8v) than some AGMs (14.4v).

B) Some Gels have far better deep cycle performance than either flooded or AGM. They just aren't as popular because they are touchy about charge voltage.
 
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