HELP HELP HELP :)

Michael:

You need to get some hard numbers on the fridge and how many hours a day it runs. It will drive your system size. I would actually recommend that you get a kill-a-watt meter (about $30) and plug the fridge into it, so you can get a real good number on what it uses at this time of year.

If your desire is to have it plugged in 24/7/365 and be able to power it plus the lights in Dec/Jan, I believe this system is bigger than you think.

"I would go up to about 500.00 if needed."

You are probably looking at something closer to 10 times that amount, and possibly more, depending on the numbers.

Ken

Michael,

You're probably not going to like this, but you need to go back and read some more. Decide (ie measure) how much power you need, and then decide if you need/want a sine wave inverter or if a modified sine wave will do, and then how much (battery) storage you want.

I spent six months reading and researching before I placed an order with the Alternative Energy Store. Having a badly broken leg that had me in a chair for the last three months with leg elevated and unable to work probably helped a lot during that period.

I started correspondence with about one dozen companies and slowly eliminated most of them because of high prices or low knowledge. I corresponded with the solarkits.com company that you gave the link to. They seem to have several companies that operate under the partsonsale.com umbrella. In the end they were only able to offer to beat anybody's price on Mitsubishi modules. If you scroll down that link that you gave you will come across "New for 2005" which does not give me a lot of faith that they can deliver anything at the advertised price. In fact most of their other sites like to use "Prices too low to list - call for details".

Here are a few other sites that you can look at if you're just looking for the lowest possible price:
http://www.scsolar.com/index.html
http://www.wholesalesolar.com/index.html
http://solar4me.com/
http://www.directpower.com/index.html
http://www.discountpv.com/allitems
http://www.alphasolar.com/
http://store.solar-electric.com/
http://www.affordable-solar.com/

Generally speaking, I found the people working in Arizona and New Mexico to be the most knowledgeable about what they were selling. In the end it came down to Affordable Solar and the Alternative Energy Store. Pricing was very close, but I wanted to purchase everything from a single supplier so I choose AES.

wow guys,  i go home for the night and 4 responses.  I agree with ken, as usual, the fridge is likely a monster, and I would say to ditch it for a small solar starter system.

If you don't mind the expense $32 + shipping (prob 10) then get a kill-a-watt and measure the heck out of what you would like to run.

I fear that your budget will be insufficient to run the loads that you listed if you include the fridge.  If you have access to back issues of home power magazine, (library or online) I would suggest issue 93 page 86.  This is a great article on a starter system.

In response to John, also a great forum contributor, there are MANY competitors that can post lower prices.  Whether they have things in stock, and or answer the phone are usually a different story.  As far as New Mexico and Arizona companies knowing more, well, perhaps, but I think our staff here is fairly knowledgeable, and more importantly, we will tell you when we don't know.  Heck, I would rather be in New Mexico, the weather here in Mass is AWFUL, but it is the people that keep me here.  I/We remember our customer's names and have visited a few in person.  It's about RE and the RE community here, not just internet sales.  If it was not that way, you would not see - Alt-E staff after my name. 

anyway, good luck with the research, and call or email me if you want some more help.

james - Alt-E staff

Michael:

You are about to make a $1500-$2000 mistake that we have been trying to warn you about.

That cabin kit you are looking at is really more suited to stick in a RV trailer.

I told you “You need to get some hard numbers on the fridge and how many hours a day it runs. It will drive your system size.”

John told you “Decide (ie measure) how much power you need, and then decide”

James told you “then get a kill-a-watt and measure the heck out of what you would like to run.”

We know that the loads and reserve factor drive your battery size. The 2 in combination, plus the solar insolation for your area,  drive the size and number of panels. It is harder to design a small system than a big one. A small mistake that would pass un-noticed in a large system, will kill a small one. There is just less room for errors. And we are already know the answers and are making allowances for things that you have not even thought about yet.

I would bet that if you ask James why AE doesn’t sell kits, he will give you an answer something like “kits really don’t work very well, each customer has different ideas and desires, we would rather customize the system for each of our customers needs and circumstances.”   

In about a year, you are going to crying that the controller you bought is noisy, doesn’t really seem to fill the batteries as rapidly as other controllers. That it doesn’t talk to other equipment that you want in the system, and you seem stuck at the 2 panel size. The system is not delivering more than 600 wattshours with the 2 panels at this time of year etc. (meaning you will only get about 300 watthours a day with one panel)
And possibly you will be complaining about the AGM battery , if that’s what you are thinking of buying.
The battery is not in the kit, nor is an inverter.

So, go right ahead and spend that $1500-2000 bucks, it’s your money.
Enjoy the period of euphoria that you will have right after you install it, because that happy feeling isn’t going to last very long.

Ken

John

Actually, I am trying to get his attention and get him to slow down. He's jumping around like a cat on a hot tin roof.

The other approach he can take is go minimal, 12v lights only, and possibly a small inverter load in the summer when he has more power availible. (An inverter that can be disconnected so there is no parasite load when not needed.)

Realize that the system will not be expandible. Use it as a learning experiance. Make the mistakes on a small cheap system.

Then come expansion time, make the decision whether to transfer the lighting loads onto the new system and sell/toss the old, or keep it and have two systems.

Ken

If you can get something going for 900 bucks I think we will all be seeking guidance from you. Good luck.