Solar power for emergency and portable use, and isolated sites.

When we moved into our ancient farmhouse in France, the down-side was we'd have a huge amount of work to do to get it comfortable to live in. Our five year plan turned into a ten year plan, then fifteen, twenty, and still much to do. However, the up-side was that we had a very big plot.  My husband, Alex, is a keen gardener, and collects RN books and memorabilia in his 'man cave' converted from an old boiler room, so that's him sorted with hobbies.

Cabin...

My interests were/are music and writing (I write niche category novels) so I earmarked a site 60m from the house as a perfect place to build a cabin for me, but it wasn't until 2010 that this came to pass.

60m is a long way to trail an extension lead; I'd need electricity after all. And the risk of running over it with the mower was high. There had to be another way. Digging a trench for a buried supply didn't appeal, and a noisy petrol generator was the last thing I needed.

In 2010, solar for domestic use was available, but the technology was in its infancy. Amorphous panels were physically big for the power they produced, and expensive, too. But we dived (dove?) in and bought eight 15w panels from Maplin (remember them?) and erected a southwest facing framework behind the cabin to mount them on.

We wired the interior for lighting, and built a distribution cabinet. A PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) solar controller was installed along with a 600w inverter to convert 12vdc into 230vac. Two period meters were obtained from a steam rally odds-and-sods stall. One for amps in from the panels (highest ever was only 8 amps) and one for amps out. The 120ah Halfords Sealed Lead Acid deep cycle 12v battery we bought is still going strong after almost 14 years!

Because this year I have successfully applied for my lapsed ham license and bought more radios and equipment than in reality I need, I've upgraded the cabin solar to a single 150w monocrystalline panel which is more powerful than, and a fraction of the physical size of, the old ones, not to mention a fraction of the price, too.

Campervan...

Having learned so much about solar with the cabin build, installing panels on the campervan was a no-brainer. 250w total open circuit (two panels) on a roof rack into a Renogy MPPT (Maximum Power Point Tracking) solar controller, keeps two 85ah SLA leisure batteries fully charge year round (plus tops up the starter battery), and also charges our 1248wh portable power station that runs the 230vac appliances in the van; m/wave oven, induction hob, and coffee machine. And now I have my portable ham gear, there's plenty of power for operating from the van.

Conclusion...

Although having solar to power ham equipment is a great workaround in an isolated or mobile situation, it does have downfalls!

Whichever type of solar controller you choose, they are electrically noisy.

Avoid laptop computers that require more than 12v to charge. 230vac inverters are very noisy electrically. Even the 12v laptop converters produce a lot of noise across the spectrum. I've found a cheap laptop that only requires 12v to charge, so all good for me.

If you reached the end of this post without falling asleep, well done.

Deb

Nicely written article there Deb and a pleasure to read with a lot of useful first hand information that can be invaluable.  

(I've still got Maplin stock in the shack and miss them as we had a store just down the road from us.)

We had a near neighbour with solar panels on their roof which for all intents & purposes could've been a massive S.E.T.I. transmitter with the amount of RF spewing into the cosmos from it!! (Especially dawn/dusk with their inverters - ruined my greyline work. )

Luckily they sold up and the new owner saw fit to remove it all from the crumbling 70 year old roof tiles it was clinging on to.

The 'noise' issue was the main reason I stayed away from typical solar inverters let alone cheap chargers and hence why I just have an inexpensive battery workaround with a relay control. (Great for the last power outage we had after a lightning strike nearby.)

I might just have to take a look back at it all with your pointers on how the technology has come on leaps and bounds.

Thanks again, brilliant stuff and just perfect for this new forum section.  


All the best,
Victor



(Like I do you've apologised in a roundabout way for a long article - Keep them long, it's enjoyable to read!)

Thank's for that Deb.
Very interesting and informative.