help please with my solar shopping list

[wrcsixeight]

Kettles and rice cookers might require an inverter rated for 1500 watts or more depending.<br><br>This would overtax your current battery set up, and might require a 2000 watt inverter, which would need 00 gauge wiring, and possibly thicker, and much more battery.<br><br>In general, heating anything with battery power is not a good option.<br><br>To see how much battery power an appliance might consume converting watts into amps can help.<br><br>volts x amps = watts(AC or DC)<br><br>so 400 watts at 12.6 volts is 31.75 amps.<br><br>Your two batteries when new healthy and fully charged contain 106 amp hours. 53 of which are usable if the 50% rule is applied.<br><br>Discounting &nbsp;Peukert's law, and inverter inefficiency, a 400 watt draw would take you below 50% in an hour and 40 minutes.<br><br>Since Peukerts law and inverter inefficiency cannot be discounted, that hour and 40 minutes is down to about &nbsp;about an hour give or take 15 minutes.<br><br>Not very much is it?<br><br>My Laptop is my biggest consumer of battery power. &nbsp;Getting a car adapter power brick for &nbsp;the laptop, instead of using the inverter to power the original power brick, allows this laptop to consume up to 45% less battery power.<br><br>Go into Amazon electronics, type in your laptop make and model number and add "car adapter"<br><br>Mine was 22 dollars, free shipping. &nbsp;<br><br>I rarely use my inverter.<br><br><br>

 

[bantamcattle]

thats a great reminder about heating things with electric. i'll save my thrift store dollars for something else.

car adapter for my laptop sounds like a great thing. i've read of others getting the same efficiency boost. quite impressiv.

thankyu agin.

 

[peacetara]

I pretty much agree with all the advice around here, except everyone saying use X size wire.&nbsp; Nobody can tell you what size wire to use, until you also know the length you need the wire to run, and the amount of electricity you need to draw thru the wire. You can dream all day long that 4AWG wire will be big enough, until it isn't.<br id="tinymce" class="mceContentBody "><br>The general rules are: <br><ul><li>The further you need to go, the bigger the cable you need.&nbsp;</li><li>The more electricity you need to push thru the cable, the bigger the cable you need.</li></ul>It's not hard to use a calculator tool to tell you exactly what size wire you need, it's not rocket science:<br><a href="http://www.solar-wind.co.uk/cable-sizing-DC-cables.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.solar-wind.co.uk/cable-sizing-DC-cables.html</a><br><br>And it could end up saving you some money, cable is expensive!<br><br>With Love,<br>Tara

 

[VanGirl]

I solder all the time both mounted and stationary. My reason is that I've seen corrosion build up on low voltage (12 volts) crimps many times. The only crimps I've seen that held up are the ones from a factory. I've seen 12 volt cables start a fire and burn due to poor crimps.<br><br>Just an explanation as to why I solder. <br><br>VanGirl

 

[bantamcattle]

hi everydody. i just wanted to state how much yu guys kik ass. the information everyone provided help me be empowered to ask all the question i needed of the solar salesman and get a starting setup in place. so thankyu very much.
i went to SolarPenny in Mesa AZ and got a 100w panel (actually 108w, they hav the panels assembled for themselves and hav been in business 7yrs) and the MorningStar SunSaver10 charge controller. the salesman helped me wire everything and with yor guy's knowledge i got a safer setup than if i would hav if i walked in not knowing. the panel is light and not much trouble to move and is doing a fine job meeting my usage (1 week in), so i am happy to hav skipped getting a big panel. i got fuses on both sides of the battery bank's positive lines and the system works good. going on into the future i will keep an eye on my connections to see if they need improving. SolarPenny was very friendly with quite good prices. they'd be a great place to buy from but one would be better off having installation done somewhere else as that is not they're focus.
thankyu all.

 

[peacetara]

YAY! Happy Successes!<br><br>With Love,<br>Tara

 

[Seraphim]

Good thread. I've learned a lot.

 

[BigT]

hi everydody. 
i went to SolarPenny in Mesa AZ and got a 100w panel and the MorningStar SunSaver10 charge controller. 

I just looked this CC up on Amazon and it looks like a pretty nice (simple) design.  I like how easy it looks to set up and use.  
Sure it could use a more detailed state-of-charge meter, but I've always figured I'd have to add a analog Volt/Amp meter to whatever CC I bought.  

Does anyone have up-to-date opinions on this CC?  

 

[akrvbob]

I don't know that controller specifically, but Morningstar had been around a long time and hey have a very good reputation.
Bob