How to make your own home solar. With Pictures + solar book

[TristanWS]

ay ganun pala yun. binili ko to last august. pwede pa kaya dagdagan ng isang battery pa? or too late na?

binili ko kasi sya last august. then bumagyo ng september kaya since september until december po hindi nagamit yun battery.

palagay ko lang, pwede pa... kasi >4 months pa lang naman... dapat same brand, capacity at specs.

i-charge without load mo muna ang current batt mo kasi 3 months pala hindi na charge... dapat matunaw muna ang sulfates.

 

[kidzilla]

PICTURES + SOLAR BOOKs TO DOWNLOAD SA BABA !

PLEASE DON'T ASK FOR AIRCON... IT IS TOO MUCH ENERGY CONSUMING AND THEREFORE NOT POSSIBLE WITH SOLAR UNLESS YOU HAVE A VERY BIG BUDGET!!!

Good day guys!

Today I’ve decided to make this thread about solar at home. It’s a little bit complicated so I will try to make it simple ( but long! ). First I must say that I’m not an engineer nor an electrician. All what I learn about solar come from internet and my own experience: I made my small home solar with no other help than internet, and it works very well, so maybe I can help you, I have 3 solar panels 50 watts, 1 inverter pure sine wave 1000 watts and 3 deep cycle batteries 125 Ah.

Before deciding to go solar you first must re-think how you use electricity! Forget about big electricity eaters like aircon, big fans, ref (some ref can be run on solar, I will tell you how later) because, unless you are very rich, you will not be able to run all these things with solar. If you are rich, you can afford to buy 20 batteries and 5000 watt solar panels so this thread is not for you!

Try to change things in your house before buying any solar, For example, change all your bulbs with led bulbs, your big fans for smaller ones, your old tv for a led one, electric stove for gasul and so on. Doing so, even if you don’t buy any solar, you will see your electric bill going down by at least 20%.

Now here is a tip about ref that can reduce your electricity bill up to 40% (just using this trick my bill went down from 800 pesos to 500):

First you need a ref with a chiller (those with two doors, the chiller on top, the ref sa baba) or better pa, a chest freezer that you are going to use as a ref. You must know that a ref use a lot of electricity each time it starts because of its compressor. For example a 100 watt ref will use 100 watts of electricity per hour plus, each time the compressor starts, it will use up to 1000 watts!! Each time you open the door of your ref, the temperature goes up and your ref starts and you eat 1000 watts right away... This trick may work also with a regular ref but I didn't try it yet. For sure it will work very fine with a 2 door ref or a chest freezer because they are better insulated.

So, it’s very simple: go to cdr king or any mall and buy a mechanical timer that can be plug in an outlet (180 pesos sa cdr king) program it to run 15 minutes every 2 hours, plug it, plug your ref on it... Voila! Your ref will consume 2 to 4 times less electricity! It works a lot better with a chest freezer, because they are better insulated so you can program you timer to run the ref only 15 minutes every 3 hours. If you do that with a 2 door ref, you must know that the lower part of your ref will not be so cold, so you must put all meat and fish or meal left over in the chiller part of the ref. You can achieve the same thing with a temperature controller, but it’s more expensive. For more details feel free to ask. Using a timer for your ref, you may be able to run your ref on solar in daytime only if you have only few batteries or 24 hrs a day if you have more batteries.

Now, let’s talk solar! Before starting you must know what is your normal consumption of electricity per day. For that you take your monthly bill and find how many Kw you consume, then divide it by 30 you will get your Kw per day. Then decide what you want to run on solar, Be realistic! If you have very few appliances with a small electric bill (small Kw per day), so maybe you can run almost everything on solar. But if you have an aircon, several fans, big tv, desktop computer.... You will have to choose which one(s) you want to run on solar. You must also determine how many hours per day you want to use each appliance and how many hours per night. You can run an appliance on solar while charging your battery but at night your battery will be the only one providing electricity.

You should know the watts and the amperage for each appliance. Usually watts are written somewhere on the appliance. to know the amperage you just have to divide the watts by 220 (the electricity in the philippines is 220 volts), Let’s take for example a 500 watt desktop. 500 watts divided by 220 volts = 2.27 ampers AC (AC means alternating current, the one from your outlet). Solar panels and batteries are usually in 12 volts DC (direct current)

Everybody will think that, in a solar set up, the most important is the panel... I would say NO, the more important is how you are going to stock your electricity, meaning....

the BATTERY: Batteries are rated in Ah (Ampere Hour) (ampere DC not ampere AC), for example, in theory, a 100 Ah battery will be able to run a 100 ampere DC appliance for 1 hour or a 10 amperes DC appliance for 10 hours. Coming back to our 500 watt desktop it will draw from the battery 46 amperes DC each hour so your battery will last 2 hours until totally discharged. Something very important in solar: NEVER TOTALLY DISCHARGE YOUR BATTERY. If you want them to last 7 and up to 10 years you should keep them at a 50 % charge. Meaning that you can use only 50% of your 100 Ah battery, so only 50 Ah. So, in our example the desktop will run only 1 hour before your battery is 50% discharged. Of course, time to time you can go up to 80% discharge but keep in mind that the more discharge is the battery, the less time it will last.
You can see that, if you want to run many appliances you need many batteries, and these are very expensive. For solar purpose use only deep cycle batteries. They are made to be charged and discharged many times and up to 80 % discharge with no problem. Some people use car battery. Car batteries are made to start a car, so they just give a fast and strong kick and the car starts, this just discharge a little the battery and then the alternator will recharge it right away. They are not made for deep discharging and recharging. So you can use them for a while but they will not last. It’s ok if you are in a remote place and you just want to have a light a night.
Batteries can be connected in parallel to get more capacity. 2 x 125 Ah battery in parallel will give you 250 Ah capacity so 2 times more time for your appliance to run.

SOLAR PANELS: solar panels are getting cheaper, that’s good news... You must first decide what appliances you want to run on solar, then you will know how many batteries you will need and only then you decide how many solar panels you need (if you want to expand your system, you can always add solar panels and battery) Usually 1 watt solar cell will charge 2 to 3 Ah, for example a 100 watt panel could charge 2 batteries of 125 Ah each. This is based on a 5 to 6 hour of direct sun on the panel. Solar panels can be connected in parallel to get more wattage. 2 x 50 watts panels in parallel = 100 watt panel
Solar panel must face South at a 10 degree angle. If you mount them on your roof you must make a chassis to allow the air to pass around. Overheating solar panel are less efficient and can be damaged. Avoid mounting them on a G.I sheet roof, it’s too hot in summer. Avoid any shade of trees or other... A small shade will lower a lot the wattage of the panels.

INVERTER: inverters are needed to transform the 12 volts current you get from your solar panels thru your batteries into the 220 volts of your appliances. If you use only 12 volts appliances (like 12 volts bulbs) you don’t need inverter. How many watts will be your inverter depend on how many watts are your appliances. A 300 watts inverter can run a tv and a laptop and lights. Some inverters are pure sine wave, others are modified wave. Pure sine wave are needed if you want to run a ref or sensitive equipment (some led tv might prefer a pure sine wave) To run a ref the inverter must be a minimum of 1000 watts. Don’t forget that the inverter will also draw some amperes from your batteries!

CONTROLLER: Controller are used between solar panels and battery to prevent the battery to overcharge and they help charging smoothly the battery. If you have more capacity battery than solar panels, you don’t need a controller because it will take more time to charge your batteries so no risk of overcharge. But you must monitor your batteries with a tester, time to time, to be sure that they are not overcharged. You can find cheap controller (around 1300 pesos for 20 amperes controller) be aware that these cheap controllers are fake. They will not charge your battery as a controller should, they just act like a switch by turning on and off time to time, the solar panels. Still useful, but expensive for a switch! I just use and old breaker box, that I switch off when I see my batteries getting overcharged, which is very seldom actually!
If you want to use a charge controller, the best is to buy a MPPT controller. It's more expensive than a PWM controller but a lot more efficient... With a MPPT controller you can charge your battery even if the total wattage of your panels equals the rating of the batteries (for example 100 watt panel and 100 Ah battery) This is almost impossible to achieve with a PWM controller. With a PWM controller you will need 2 times more panels to be able to charge your battery (for example 200 watt panel and 100 Ah battery)


WIRING: Never use smaller than #10 wire to connect your solar panels to the batteries unless your batteries are less than 5 feet from your panels. Up to 20 feet from the panels you must use wire #10, father you must use #8 or even #6... The farther the bigger wire.

FUSE AND BREAKER: for a small set up you need only a breaker or a fuse between the inverter and the batteries. If you have a controller you will also need a fuse or a breaker between the controller and the panels. Breaker and fuse must be for DC current not AC.


So, now, concretely, how it works? Ok, let’s take my small set up as example. As I said earlier, I have 3 x 50 watts panels, 3 x 125 Ah batteries, 1 x 1000 pure sine wave inverter, 1 fuse box with no fuse that I use as a switch, between the solar panels and the batteries and 1 DC breaker between the batteries and the inverter. Batteries and solar panels are wired in parallel to give me a total of 150 watts solar panels and 375 Ah capacity battery. My batteries are only 30 % discharged everyday (meaning that I could use 2 times more appliances or 2 times longer than I do up to now. But because the weather is still bad (still rainy season) I prefer to keep my batteries charge in case of brownout (frequent here).

So with this set up, I can run my laptop (50 watts) 8 hours, my led tv (80 watts) 4 hours, dream satellite receiver (20 watts) 4 hours, a led bulb 4 hours, external speakers (5 watts) 4 hours. As I said, I could run two times longer time all these appliances and my batteries will still be 40 % charged. When summer will be back, I will also run my ref. I already tried it and it works fine. The only problem is that I don’t have enough batteries to run it at night so I will just run it in daytime.

Be aware that appliances with engine like fan, power tools, blender, can be harsh on solar...

Now it’s time for questions..... Feel free to ask, I will do my best to answer you!

Go here for a simple step-by-step on how to make a diy off grid solar system
http://waldenlabs.com/diy-off-grid-solar-system/

Go here for a Small-scale Off grid Solar PV: Installation Manual (alongside with others small interesting docs... just scroll down to get to this file)
http://answers.practicalaction.org/our-resources/collection/solar-energy-1

Go here to calculate ampere AC to DC http://www.batterystuff.com/kb/tools/ac-to-dc-amperage-conversion-run-through-an-inverter.html

See attachment for a chart to monitor battery with a tester


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wow naman.... solar energy.... maganda toh.... eco friendly pa... salamat dito sir

 

[ahmish]

palagay ko lang, pwede pa... kasi >4 months pa lang naman... dapat same brand, capacity at specs.

i-charge without load mo muna ang current batt mo kasi 3 months pala hindi na charge... dapat matunaw muna ang sulfates.

ok lang ba icharge na nasa mppt? yun lang kasi pang charge ko ng battery.

.P.S pag mainit nag 12 to 13 volts yun battery ko. pero pag gabi kahit hindi ko ginamit maghapon bumababa sa 11 point something ang volts. sign ba yan ng sulfation?

 

[TristanWS]

ok lang ba icharge na nasa mppt? yun lang kasi pang charge ko ng battery.

.P.S pag mainit nag 12 to 13 volts yun battery ko. pero pag gabi kahit hindi ko ginamit maghapon bumababa sa 11 point something ang volts. sign ba yan ng sulfation?

palagay ko ay sulfated talaga ang battery mo... palagay ko rin na hindi pa yan umabot ng 14.xx volts... need talaga iyan ma-desulfate at ma-equalize.

mas ok kapag mppt ang scc... basta "charging without load" ka muna hanggang makita mo na umaabot na ng 14.xx volts ang battery mo... ang sakit ng battery mo ay "chronic undercharge" or palaging hilaw ang pagka-charge araw araw.

 

[awinahe]

ok lang ba icharge na nasa mppt? yun lang kasi pang charge ko ng battery.

.P.S pag mainit nag 12 to 13 volts yun battery ko. pero pag gabi kahit hindi ko ginamit maghapon bumababa sa 11 point something ang volts. sign ba yan ng sulfation?

Before adding any battery you must first be sure that you battery is ok pa! You should charge you battery more than 13 volts... 13 volts (while charging) means your battery is not fully charged. So if you use it always when it is not fully charge your battery will be sira agad... So first of all charge your battery at least up to 14 or 14.5 volts. If you cannot achieve this voltage don't use your battery for one day and charge again the other day. If you really cannot charge it more than 13 volts, unplug everything (inverter and controller) and charge directly your battery with your solar panel. Just monitor the charging with a digital multimeter. How many watts is your solar panel and how many amps is your battery?

 

[ahmish]

palagay ko ay sulfated talaga ang battery mo... palagay ko rin na hindi pa yan umabot ng 14.xx volts... need talaga iyan ma-desulfate at ma-equalize.

mas ok kapag mppt ang scc... basta "charging without load" ka muna hanggang makita mo na umaabot na ng 14.xx volts ang battery mo... ang sakit ng battery mo ay "chronic undercharge" or palaging hilaw ang pagka-charge araw araw.

Before adding any battery you must first be sure that you battery is ok pa! You should charge you battery more than 13 volts... 13 volts (while charging) means your battery is not fully charged. So if you use it always when it is not fully charge your battery will be sira agad... So first of all charge your battery at least up to 14 or 14.5 volts. If you cannot achieve this voltage don't use your battery for one day and charge again the other day. If you really cannot charge it more than 13 volts, unplug everything (inverter and controller) and charge directly your battery with your solar panel. Just monitor the charging with a digital multimeter. How many watts is your solar panel and how many amps is your battery?

ano pong mga meters gamit nyo? wala kasi ako mahanap na battery meter lang yun indicator kun ilan volts at ilan percent pa ng battery.

bale may warranty pa naman yun battery ko kaya plano ko dalhin sa shop ngayon for warranty purpose. kun hindi pwede plano ko na lang bumili ng desulfator sa olx.com for faster desulfation.

 

[awinahe]

ano pong mga meters gamit nyo? wala kasi ako mahanap na battery meter lang yun indicator kun ilan volts at ilan percent pa ng battery.

bale may warranty pa naman yun battery ko kaya plano ko dalhin sa shop ngayon for warranty purpose. kun hindi pwede plano ko na lang bumili ng desulfator sa olx.com for faster desulfation.

Before buying anything, please answer few questions. It is not 100% sure that your battery is sulfated so sayang ang pera mo!

We need to know what are the components of your solar setup and how do you use your battery.

How many watts solar panels?
How many Ah your battery?
How many amperes is your controller? MPPT or PWM?
How many watts is your inverter?

When you charge your battery do you use it in the same time?
When you use your battery what do you run with it (how many watts and how many hours)

The digital multimeter can be found in cdr king like this one http://cdrking.myftp.org:888/Product/Detail/131405

 

[ahmish]

Before buying anything, please answer few questions. It is not 100% sure that your battery is sulfated so sayang ang pera mo!

We need to know what are the components of your solar setup and how do you use your battery.

How many watts solar panels?
How many Ah your battery?
How many amperes is your controller? MPPT or PWM?
How many watts is your inverter?

When you charge your battery do you use it in the same time?
When you use your battery what do you run with it (how many watts and how many hours)

The digital multimeter can be found in cdr king like this one http://cdrking.myftp.org:888/Product/Detail/131405

250 watts solar panel 30v
20amp mppt epsaver tracer a 30v to 12v
120AH battery 12V battery (1pc)

not using inverter for few days already kasi naka load lang ako direct sa mppt ko. (LOAD around 50watts light bulbs only) pero di ko na ginamit since yesterday dahil 12-13 volts daytime. taz pag bagsak ng night time kahit walang load na ginamit maghapon bigla po bumabagsak sa 11 point something yun volts ng battery

 

[awinahe]

250 watts solar panel 30v
20amp mppt epsaver tracer a 30v to 12v
120AH battery 12V battery (1pc)

not using inverter for few days already kasi naka load lang ako direct sa mppt ko. (LOAD around 50watts light bulbs only) pero di ko na ginamit since yesterday dahil 12-13 volts daytime. taz pag bagsak ng night time kahit walang load na ginamit maghapon bigla po bumabagsak sa 11 point something yun volts ng battery

Your panel is likely to be for a 24 volt setup but with the mppt controller it should charge your battery (not sure if it won't have any loss...) Your usual load is how many watts? you said lights 50 watts but for how many hours? If you use your 50 watt lights for 4 hours, it's already 200 watts or 16 amperes (if your lights are in 12 volts! if you use an inverter, it can be a lot more) It's important to know what is your regular use of your battery (wattage of the appliances and number of hours they are used) to know if you overused your battery...

However, I think the best to do, if your battery has still a warranty is to return it. It might be sulfated or has a defect in the plates (maybe too thin plates). But the bat is only four months old, if you used it correctly it should not be sulfated! Try to have it replaced first.

 

[JB1579]

TristanWS,
Thank you for your immediate reply..
For the meantime I will go for CDR-king Solar Kit for my parents in province. till now la pa rin kuryente because of Typhoon Nina... saka timer para s 2 door ref nila umaabot ng 2k/month ang kuryente, thanks to TS for wonderful infos ..i am keep on reading all the threads page65 na ako haba pa ng babasahin..
Warning!!!"Reading can seriously damage your ignorance" hahahaha

 

[TristanWS]

250 watts solar panel 30v
20amp mppt epsaver tracer a 30v to 12v
120AH battery 12V battery (1pc)

not using inverter for few days already kasi naka load lang ako direct sa mppt ko. (LOAD around 50watts light bulbs only) pero di ko na ginamit since yesterday dahil 12-13 volts daytime. taz pag bagsak ng night time kahit walang load na ginamit maghapon bigla po bumabagsak sa 11 point something yun volts ng battery

basing on personal experience, dapat talaga may digital multimeter ka para ma-double check ang accuracy ng mga solar gadgets (na usually hindi accurate)... at kung off-grid ka, dapat meron ka din AC automatic battery charger (para kung sunod sunod na makulimlin meron kang pang puno sa battery).

ang ginagawa ko kapag bago ang battery ay tsina-charge ko muna (initial charge) using AC charger... kapag na-full charge na, tsaka ko na kinakabit sa solar set up.

good idea, na dalhin mo talaga sa binilhan mo ng solar master at ipa-charge mo sa kanila initially... tapos ipa-check mo na rin kung nagho-hold ang charge or dapat 12.7V siya after resting for 6 hours.

 

[JB1579]

TristanWS,
Thank you for your immediate reply..
For the meantime I will go for CDR-king Solar Kit for my parents in province..may tanong lang ako..
Ok lang magdagdag ako ng isa pang panel na para sa solar kit na bibilhin ko?
Till now la pa rin kuryente because of Typhoon Nina... saka timer para s 2 door ref nila umaabot ng 2k/month ang kuryente, thanks to TS for wonderful infos ..i am keep on reading all the threads page65 na ako haba pa ng babasahin..
Warning!!!"Reading can seriously damage your ignorance" hahahaha

 

[TristanWS]

TristanWS,
Thank you for your immediate reply..
For the meantime I will go for CDR-king Solar Kit for my parents in province..may tanong lang ako..
Ok lang magdagdag ako ng isa pang panel na para sa solar kit na bibilhin ko?
Till now la pa rin kuryente because of Typhoon Nina... saka timer para s 2 door ref nila umaabot ng 2k/month ang kuryente, thanks to TS for wonderful infos ..i am keep on reading all the threads page65 na ako haba pa ng babasahin..
Warning!!!"Reading can seriously damage your ignorance" hahahaha

actually, sa solar power kit din ako ng cdr king nag-start... afaik, naka-design na ang solar kit basing sa built-in battery... therefore, hindi na need na mag-add pa ng panel.

 

[JB1579]

TS,
Safe po ba bumili ng mga components ng solar sa Raon, Quiapo?
If meron po, anong name po ng tindahan.. thanks..most of components sa CDR king out of stock..

 

[ahmish]

Sir Awinahe and Sir TristanWS!, cheers po ok na ulit battery ko! after charging without load for 2 days hindi na bumabagsak sa 12.4-12.6 nominal volts nya. umabot sa 14.7volts while charging without load.

mga sir ask ko lang din po. from 30v yun solar ko dumadaan po sya sa solar charge controller. tumataas po ba yun rated amps nya or the same? kasi rated amps ng 250 watts is 8.333 for 30v. pag binaba ba ng controller ko to 12v eh tataas ba yun 8.333 amps ko to 20.8 amps? curious question lang yan.

250 watts panel 30v. (12v system using mppt controller)

 

[TristanWS]

Sir Awinahe and Sir TristanWS!, cheers po ok na ulit battery ko! after charging without load for 2 days hindi na bumabagsak sa 12.4-12.6 nominal volts nya. umabot sa 14.7volts while charging without load.

mga sir ask ko lang din po. from 30v yun solar ko dumadaan po sya sa solar charge controller. tumataas po ba yun rated amps nya or the same? kasi rated amps ng 250 watts is 8.333 for 30v. pag binaba ba ng controller ko to 12v eh tataas ba yun 8.333 amps ko to 20.8 amps? curious question lang yan.

250 watts panel 30v. (12v system using mppt controller)

wow, nice to know that you have successfully revived your solar master... btw girl din po si ma'am awinahe.

ang mppt controller ay designed for "high voltage or grid-tied" panels, idi-detect ng mppt ang voltage ng battey at i-a-adjust niya ang amperes para mag-generate ng pinakamataas na power base sa actual condition... ang 30V x 8.333A = 250W ay laboratory condition @ 25 degree celsius... na bihira lang mangyari sa pilipinas... kapag binaba ng mppt controller sa 12V, itataas din niya ang amperes base sa actual condition... kung napakalakas ang sunlight at malamig ang panahon, posible na umabot ng 20.8A ang current ng panel.

ito ay hindi mangyayari kung pwm ang controller... at ito ang dahilan kaya expensive ang mppt controller.

 

[ahmish]

wow, nice to know that you have successfully revived your solar master... btw girl din po si ma'am awinahe.

ang mppt controller ay designed for "high voltage or grid-tied" panels, idi-detect ng mppt ang voltage ng battey at i-a-adjust niya ang amperes para mag-generate ng pinakamataas na power base sa actual condition... ang 30V x 8.333A = 250W ay laboratory condition @ 25 degree celsius... na bihira lang mangyari sa pilipinas... kapag binaba ng mppt controller sa 12V, itataas din niya ang amperes base sa actual condition... kung napakalakas ang sunlight at malamig ang panahon, posible na umabot ng 20.8A ang current ng panel.

ito ay hindi mangyayari kung pwm ang controller... at ito ang dahilan kaya expensive ang mppt controller.

nice to know na ganun nga ang nangyayari kasi all this time ang iniisip ko eh 8.3333 amps lang maximum na nakukuha ko. so dahil converted from 30v to 12v yun energy kaya from maximum 8amps possible abutin nya yun 20.8 amps maximum with optimal condition

 

[TristanWS]

ma'am ahmish... sorry, pero hindi ako nagre-reply sa pm, kasi gusto namin ni ma'am TS na nababasa ng lahat ang mga reply para ma-share sa lahat at ma-korek sakaling meron mali sa advise namin.

inquire ko lang kung sinabihan ka ng solar seller, na halos eksakto lang ang 20A epsolar mppt controller para sa 250W grid-tied panel... ano daw ang gagawin kung mag-a-add ka pa ng solar panel?

 

[ahmish]

ma'am ahmish... sorry, pero hindi ako nagre-reply sa pm, kasi gusto namin ni ma'am TS na nababasa ng lahat ang mga reply para ma-share sa lahat at ma-korek sakaling meron mali sa advise namin.

inquire ko lang kung sinabihan ka ng solar seller, na halos eksakto lang ang 20A epsolar mppt controller para sa 250W grid-tied panel... ano daw ang gagawin kung mag-a-add ka pa ng solar panel?

plan ko kasi if ever eh magaupgrade naman ulit ng mppt. or dalawang mppt na tracer kun pwede sila ipagsabay.
nabasa ko naman sa manual na yun 20amps na mppt ko eh halos sakto na sa panel ko kaya naisip ko dumagdag na lang ulit

 

[awinahe]

Sir Awinahe and Sir TristanWS!, cheers po ok na ulit battery ko! after charging without load for 2 days hindi na bumabagsak sa 12.4-12.6 nominal volts nya. umabot sa 14.7volts while charging without load.

mga sir ask ko lang din po. from 30v yun solar ko dumadaan po sya sa solar charge controller. tumataas po ba yun rated amps nya or the same? kasi rated amps ng 250 watts is 8.333 for 30v. pag binaba ba ng controller ko to 12v eh tataas ba yun 8.333 amps ko to 20.8 amps? curious question lang yan.

250 watts panel 30v. (12v system using mppt controller)

Nice to see you batt is ok na! But this must be a lesson for you: if your batt was in this state it was probably because you over used it so it had no time to recharge properly. My advice is to use it less or, if you can, add another battery! It's always better to have a lot more batteries than what we need.

You did not tell us what was the daily use of your battery and how many watts is your inverter...

I want to share here my experience about the "big" inverters and what happened to my 5 years and half SM batteries:

Few months back one of my 3 batteries (120 Ah) died, it was 5 years old and I did not expect it to last so long... so I was left with only 2 batteries. I have also a 1000 watt inverter PowerStar which, I assumed, used about 35 watts when running... Because I had only 2 batt left, I decided to buy a smaller inverter to see if I could save some power! I found a cheap chinese inverter/charger 300 watts (only 1200 pesos) brand Osini. I first tried with fans from different wattages and then with my laptop... everything worked fine so I use it as I was used to use my Powerstar. Amazingly, with only 2 batteries and my new 300 watt inverter, my consumption of battery was exactly the same than with 3 batteries! Using exactly the same appliances for the same number of hours my 2 batteries in the morning had the same voltage (12.50) than when I had 3 batteries and my 1000 watt inverter!! I never imagined, all these years, that my inverter was consuming 30% of my batteries!! So, if I had one advice to give it's don't oversize your inverter, it's really a waste of energy.

Now, what happened to my batteries? Well, after the first died (it was only 10.50 volts) I tried many things to revive it: charge it with high voltage and then low voltage, charge it high voltage only, charge it low voltage, drop it on cement to break sulfate... the voltage went down to 8.50 volts... so I decided that it was time to convert it to an alcaline battery! But my husband had an idea: he plugged the battery in his tricycle and run in rough road! His theory was to charge and shake in the same time. He did that about 30 minutes to one hour every day. After 1 week, I could not believe it, the voltage was 13.70 after a "run" and 12.36 after a night rest!!! One month later another of my 2 batteries left died... same voltage 10.50... same "remedy"... same new voltage: 12.36! So we put these 2 batteries together in parallel, connected to 150 watt panels, and I used them in day time only... we kept the only good battery left, connected to 70 watt panels, for the night... but maybe one month later my third battery died also... Same cure, same results! Now, as I don't have the budget to buy new batteries, we are still using our 3 batteries, connected to 220 watt panels... They are 5 years and half old and still give us plenty of electricity! I use them in daytime from 9 am to 4 pm (when sunny) and from 7 pm to 9 pm at night (which is 3 hours less than before) In the morning the voltage is always around 12.36 which is more than 50%... Just hope they will last few months pa so I can save to buy new ones

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ma'am ahmish... sorry, pero hindi ako nagre-reply sa pm, kasi gusto namin ni ma'am TS na nababasa ng lahat ang mga reply para ma-share sa lahat at ma-korek sakaling meron mali sa advise namin.

inquire ko lang kung sinabihan ka ng solar seller, na halos eksakto lang ang 20A epsolar mppt controller para sa 250W grid-tied panel... ano daw ang gagawin kung mag-a-add ka pa ng solar panel?

I have no problem with people answering thru PM, if they want to... I am not a dictator it's just that the answer can benefit everybody so I often say to the people who pm me to better ask on the thread so they can have several answers from different people and it can be useful for other people.