Newbie looking to install one 235 watt Orion solar panel and twin battery pack need help

Arkseven
Arkseven Registered Users Posts: 2
OK, I know you guys get us "newbies in all the time with really stupid questions, so here goes mine.

I am looking to install one 235 watt Orion solar panel and twin battery pack for myself and another for a buddy of mine that is a disabled Special Forces veteran. These systems will be for a temp use in the event of power failure. Maybe run some lights, or a small heater, radio, or occasionally the refrig for a few hours.

I purchased two 235 watt Orion solar panels (one for me and one for my buddy). I know I will need a controller for both systems but which one? What brand is best? Do I need a monitor? What is the best batteries to buy and will two batteries be sufficient? Will a 235 watt solar panel keep 4 batteries charged? What is the best inverter? I am thinking a 2000W inverter, is that about right?

Any help would be very much appreciated as there is ALOT of sources and information out there to research.

Comments

  • Photowhit
    Photowhit Solar Expert Posts: 6,002 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Re: Newbie looking to install one 235 watt Orion solar panel and twin battery pack need

    Sell the panels and buy a generator. It's too unrealistic to power a fridge or heater.

    Lights and radio will work, with out a problem, but you would get more run time for your dollar with a generator.

    I haven't bothered asking yet, what the VMP rating is for your panel? It's likely around 30 volts, high enough to waste 80% charging a 12 volt battery without an MPPT charge controller which would cost more than the panel(likely) and too low to charge 24V battery.

    If you choose to buy a charge controller that will likely cost more than your panel, you would be able to keep 2 6Volt golf cart batteries(another $80 each) charged(provided you had good sun exposure, south facing no shade), Which might keep a modern fridge going for a couple days in the summertime, you would also meed a true sine wave inverter $350-400 for a Xantrex pro series or ProWatt.

    With batteries in charge you'll have to watch the water levels monthly. With a gennerator, you pour the gas into your car and rebuy every 6 months...
    Home system 4000 watt (Evergreen) array standing, with 2 Midnite Classic Lites,  Midnite E-panel, Magnum MS4024, Prosine 1800(now backup) and Exeltech 1100(former backup...lol), 660 ah 24v Forklift battery(now 10 years old). Off grid for 20 years (if I include 8 months on a bicycle).
    - Assorted other systems, pieces and to many panels in the closet to not do more projects.
  • westbranch
    westbranch Solar Expert Posts: 5,183 ✭✭✭✭
    Re: Newbie looking to install one 235 watt Orion solar panel and twin battery pack need

    Welcome to the forum.

    Well the first thing we need to know about is what are the batteries powering?

    (Virtually) everything about solar has to be based on the loads to be run and how long they will run, minutes hours , all day?

    So are these for a wheel chair, just lights, phone, anything else other than what you listed. One of the Mods has an axiom, all loads grow over time... sort of like Well I have juice , now I want to do more...

    hth
     
    KID #51B  4s 140W to 24V 900Ah C&D AGM
    CL#29032 FW 2126/ 2073/ 2133 175A E-Panel WBjr, 3 x 4s 140W to 24V 900Ah C&D AGM 
    Cotek ST1500W 24V Inverter,OmniCharge 3024,
    2 x Cisco WRT54GL i/c DD-WRT Rtr & Bridge,
    Eu3/2/1000i Gens, 1680W & E-Panel/WBjr to come, CL #647 asleep
    West Chilcotin, BC, Canada
  • Arkseven
    Arkseven Registered Users Posts: 2
    Re: Newbie looking to install one 235 watt Orion solar panel and twin battery pack need

    ooof! Sell the panels and buy a generator? Photowhit you may be right. My head is spinning trying to research the solar capabilities.

    Our thought process is to create a basic solar system to start with, using the 235 Watt, 30.10V Orion panel, a couple batteries, controller and inverter to get whatever emergency electricity we can obtain during power outages. a few light lights, recharge cell phones, power radios, maybe a TV...was thinking even the possiblity of running the refridge a couple hours or a small heater but it appears that would be overreaching at this point. The plan is to eventually expand the system, but again simply for emergency power.

    Thanks for the responses.

    OH, I can possibly get 4 more of the solar panels. A guy that is leaving the military is selling them (they are new) because he will not be moving into a cabin and living off the grid after all (just had a new baby)
  • Photowhit
    Photowhit Solar Expert Posts: 6,002 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Re: Newbie looking to install one 235 watt Orion solar panel and twin battery pack need

    Sorry for being blunt, but if your looking to expand, the deal is it's hard with solar. Realisticly your panel is designed for mppt charge controller (or grid tied inverter). You really could, in an emergancy situation, provide some fridge use if your maintaining 2 6volt batteries, but if you have a goal I would try to define it now, since a 30 Amp Mppt charge controller that would cost a bit over $300 would work for 1 and maybe 2 panels, but if you expand, with out going to 24volt system you would want to replace it. You can get one that will handle up to 90 amps for @$500, Midnite Classic lite.

    Same for batteries, you don't want to mix old and new batteries, the golf cart bat's would have a 3-5 year life, so it would generally be waiting for them to die to switch or replacing them in total.

    So you say, batteries are the cheap part, we'll just do a 24volt system now, well then you get into more expensive inverters, I think you can get an Exelltech 1100 watt 24volt inverter for around $600, the 12 volt xantrex inverters I spoke of earlier are 1800 watt(about as big or perhaps bigger than you'd want to do on a 12 volt system.
    )
    Sorry I usually find links and explain things a bit more, but it's bed time...
    ...hope this helps.
    Home system 4000 watt (Evergreen) array standing, with 2 Midnite Classic Lites,  Midnite E-panel, Magnum MS4024, Prosine 1800(now backup) and Exeltech 1100(former backup...lol), 660 ah 24v Forklift battery(now 10 years old). Off grid for 20 years (if I include 8 months on a bicycle).
    - Assorted other systems, pieces and to many panels in the closet to not do more projects.
  • techluck
    techluck Registered Users Posts: 5
    Re: Newbie looking to install one 235 watt Orion solar panel and twin battery pack need

    In an emergency you would reduce the amount you open your fridge and you may be able to get by running it manually every few hours as you have power. You might be able to over cool it in the daytime (if it's sunny) and let it sit all night but at some point you also need to charge the batteries for your nighttime use.

    You want to get a Kill-A-Watt and measure the power it takes to run your fridge, that's going to tell you what you can do. The fridge also has a start up surge so you need to know your inverter can handle that.

    Just an example, a fridge that uses 170W to run probably needs about 300W to start. A 600W Pure Sine inverter would be great for that.

    You can also get a daily reading of how many kilowatt hours it needs to run for 24 hours from the KAW. Remember a fridge doesn't run all the time, more like every 30 minutes or so and only for a few minutes. This will help you estimate if you will want more panels or batteries. There are formulas online to convert amp hours to watt hours to figure out what your batteries will do and all the other stuff you want to do.

    And you can take your batteries lower if they are deep cycle types in an emergency, but not all the time, you want to go no more than 50% in most cases.

    If you can, go with a 24V system, you will thank yourself later.

    Well, there's some basic info, hope it helps.