Thursday, August 9, 2012

Cleaned Up Version of my Portable 60 Watt Solar Set Up

My 60 watt solar energy system has been working great. I get great power from the Sunsolar 30 watt panels. My cheap PWM solar charge controller does a good job at regulating the power that comes out of my panels. Here are some specifications on my outputs and measurements:
  • 30 Watt Sunsolar panel puts out 20.5 volts in full sun.
  • The CMP 12/24 solar charge controller at full power regulates input voltage to battery to around 13.6 volts.
  • The Cobra 400/800 watt inverter #CPI 475 measures 110 volts with a 100 watt load. This may go up when battery is on full charge.
I recently made some upgrades to my solar set up to clean up the wiring and add a simple automotive voltmeter. I will stress again that it is very important to put a fast blowing fuse on the power line going to the 12VDC side of your inverter to help you form accidentally cooking it. Here are some high points of my upgrade:
  • Added $8.00 large battery box from Walmart to hold all the vitals inside.
  • Added $7.00 automotive voltmeter from Harbor Freight
  • Panels are now wired with a quick disconnect plug made from a computer power supply. I found a 16 gauge power supply wire and traced a positive and negative to the inputs on the charge controller.
  • This system is now totally portable and safe.
Here are some good pictures of how it looks now.
60 Watt Self Contained Portable Solar

Solar Battery Box Enclosure

Side View of Battery Box

Back View of Solar Battery Box

Top View with Cover Off

Top-Back View Isometric

Top-Front View Isometric

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