solar budget

SOLAR BUDGET

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note: most excellent author and article ( how we are sheep, but not in the current definition ):
http://epsilontheory.com/sheep-logic/
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Thank goodness, nowadays you can REALLY own a budget solar system.  Before, “budget” or “cheap” or “affordable” was all relative.  My first system was $360, for 45 watts of power.  Today, that goes for $200 and is 100 watts.  And we are only talking a ten year time difference.  Of course, as always, I must insist that you buy panels NOW.  No, better yet, yesterday.

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 How many of you wish you’d bought $90 Mosin-Nagant bolt action guns with 22cent rounds of ammunition?  Don’t get me wrong, I hate the gun, but buying imported goods before they are embargoed is always a great idea.  You never know how long $1 a watt panels will last.  Once China and Russia completely scrap the PetroDollar-any day soon-Chinese goods might, mostly, disappear. 

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And while I’ll cover the frugal system, let’s also talk about upgrading that system.  All for cheap.  It is like food storage.  You only need to buy a bucket at a time, not the whole amount costing a grand or two.  Building your off-grid hovel, you need only build a room at a time ( this is where the geodesic plate kit comes in.  $109 for the kit, $79 for two by fours, some bolts, chicken wire and cement saturated sheets or blankets.  Boom, done.  $240 a room plus insulation ).

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 Power systems are the same.  Just buy as you can.  Of course, no, you can’t have a deep fryer, hair dryer, shag carpet ( throw rugs only, no vacuum needed ) or huge freezer, but as long as you require little and are thankful for the little luxuries, all is well.  Only damn fools, or fools with money to spare, try to duplicate on-grid power with solar.  Your area might differ, but my system uses the easy formula of “one hour charge equals all power used that day”.  It worked for me for years.  I have 45 watts in generation, I used 40-50 watts total in a day.

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I started writing at home rather than at work, I bumped it up to 70 watts production ( adding an hour of netbook computer use-and damn, even if that was cheaper than the initial system of $7 a watt, it was STILL $3, and that was with the new improved moly panels ).  Now I never run out of juice, or run down the battery, even with days of storms.  Don’t worry about actual verses claimed production, or the energy used to charge the battery.  This is just a broad guideline.  Now, if you ARE using too much power, that factors in of course ( panels perform 20% less than stated, 10% loss charging and try to avoid the inverter as that is another 10% ).

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All you need to start is $200.  That is one 100 watt panel and one RV/Marine battery, with a $10 charge controller.  Yes, you need wiring, but how hard to scrounge is that?  You can do a LOT with this system.  A LED bayonet bulb uses 4 watts, a standard size lamp bulb in LED, 8 watts.  I trust you’ll try to stick with 12v DC and eliminate the inverter ( you can buy laptop DC power units to replace your wall outlet ones ), so let’s stick with 4 watts.  In winter, 4pm to 10 pm, plus 6am to 8am lighting, 32 watts usage.  I used a truckers 12v TV, a dinky seven inch screen, but it only used 12 watts.  So, about 20 watts a night for TV ( why do you want a bigger screen to watch broadcast TV full of ads? ).  That leaves an hour and a half computer use.  In the summer, you can waste far more.

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From then on, if you want to power your toys, it is only $100 for another panel.  The average cold crank battery rating is 600 watts ( my easy to use if not completely factual rule of thumb is the cold crank amount is how much you can safely draw down the battery ), so take the number of cloudy days and that 600 watt usage into consideration, then add batteries from there.  I would recommend separating the batteries as stand alone units rather than in a bank-but that is just me being paranoid.  Remember, this is NOT the optimal equipment.  This is your frugal solar system.  FRUGAL.  Not “best”.

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Want a microwave ( great saver of propane )?  $500, for 400 watts of power and another battery.  A small oven will only use 400 watts in a half hour, and that is a LOT of cooking.  Potatoes only take four minutes to pre-cook.  Flat bread only 2 minutes per 200 calorie bread.  Heat water your solar unit only got lukewarm.  Of course, then you need a $100 extra for a 1,000 watt inverter if you don’t already have one.  But you can also use that, in theory ( turn off the fridge while nucking ), for your $500 solar refrigerator. 

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Even with a gifted or trash picked propane fridge, the gas costs $300 a year, so a $500 solar fridge makes much more sense.  A fridge is great for a single guy to buy cheap meat.  You go to the store, buy a family pack of meat, then keep in the fridge a few days, cook the rest up and save those a few days. 

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You can use a few 12v rotary fans to replace AC, assuming you are under shade.  Even without trees, although far from cheap, in an off-grid small structure a second raised roof not only delivers a rain catchment system but keeps you cool enough.  Fans and shade are all you need, not air conditioning.  Consider how often the grid crashes from overuse in the summer.  Record hot summers, record blackouts.  You’ll be glad you lack AC then.  How about a solar panel and inverter for hand tools?  Would that be easier than those rechargeable tools?  Even if all you’ve done is convert a backyard Mother In Law shed to an off grid back-up, solar is smart, easy and cheap.

END ( today's related link http://amzn.to/2xZPSki )

 

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