11/2/11

My Back Property Solar Project

In order to power our water timing system in the back of our property we needed power. In another post I will discuss the water timer system setup.
Back to solar - it is not economical run a 110V line all the way back into our property so we decided to go with solar. We found the 45W system at Harbor Freight for $149.99. Its a complete set with panels and charge controller and some other helpful cables and two lamps. Unfortunately the mounting system is not worth the steel scrap cost. In addition to the system I purchased a deep cycle AGM (maintenance free) 12V scooter battery with 55 Ahr.


Next I went to home depot and got some screws and angle iron. I mounted the three panels on a rail and used small screws (pre-drilled) to fix the panels to the rail.



In between the panels I used larger screws to compress the corner of the panels. These are the main securing force.





I used a fence pole and its gate security attachment as the main way to attach the panel to the pole. Here is the completed panel.





Onto the property - after a week of securing the cement for the pole I attached the panel. Luckily I got a Truck box for free to store battery and controller.





The bottom rails allow me to tilt the panel in different angles to adjust for the solar position in winter, spring/autumn & summer.



I charged all day my Dewalt batteries for another project - worked perfect!