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Author Topic: Article to teach how to put together a solar battery charger?  (Read 285 times)

N1AUP

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Is there a good article on building your own solar battery bank / charger to run your ham station if TSHTF?

I'd like to understand the reasoning how you assemble a system.

Thanks
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K6SDW

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Re: Article to teach how to put together a solar battery charger?
« Reply #1 on: May 02, 2022, 10:47:23 PM »

I believe the ARRL has a book on the subject.

GL/73
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K5LXP

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Re: Article to teach how to put together a solar battery charger?
« Reply #2 on: May 03, 2022, 05:24:31 AM »

Lots of solar power websites and forums, the end application (amateur radio) is somewhat secondary (a load is a load).  The question to answer before you start is just how much power you need.  If you're running an HT for half an hour a day you end up with one solution, if it's a 100W HF rig plus computer 24x7, the solution is something else entirely.  Once you know your operating constraints then designing a system is largely by the numbers with widely understood solar application information.  If you care to discuss your goals I'm sure there are plenty of folks here that will talk you through it.

Mark K5LXP
Albuquerque, NM
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K6AER

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Re: Article to teach how to put together a solar battery charger?
« Reply #3 on: May 03, 2022, 10:41:03 AM »

My station here in New Mexico is 100% solar. My background is I am a retired principal engineer from the cell phone industry and have put many solar sites but had unlimited resources for the task.

Doing your own system can be a bit different.

I bought used solar panels, 300 watt units for about $40 each. They were taken out of service due to reduced output and were tested for 260 watts out.

A 60 amp, MPPT charge controller, cost me about $70. The MPPT controller are cleaner from a RF perspective. My system is 28 volts for the AC inverter with a tap off at the 12 volt point for the radios.

I charge 8ea. 150 AH marine wet cells I bought from NAPA for  $94 each. They are model number 8270N. The storage battery system is set up is 28 volts at 600 AH.

The batteries supply a 4000 watt AMIS 240 volt split phase inverter. This runs the 1500 watt amplifier and the Heater or Air Conditioner depending on the time of year. I bought the inverter used for $760. In addition I have placed toroid's, Mix 31 on the input and output of the inverter. My noise level in the desert is S-0. Noise level is everything. If you can not hear them you cannot work them. The amplifier takes care of the return path. The old adage was that antennas are everything but in this digital world it is now your noise floor.

A single 300 watt used panel, $40 charge controller, 400 watt inverter for the computer and a 150 AH wet cell battery can be had for under $250.

I hope this might give you some ideas for solar operation. Quite frankly I will never recoup my investment going solar but is was a fun engineering exercise.

73 Mike K6AER
« Last Edit: May 03, 2022, 10:46:40 AM by K6AER »
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N8AUC

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Re: Article to teach how to put together a solar battery charger?
« Reply #4 on: May 06, 2022, 09:13:05 PM »

Quite frankly I will never recoup my investment going solar but is was a fun engineering exercise.

73 Mike K6AER

100% agree on never recouping the financial investment.

Then again, I viewed the investment in solar not as an investment for financial reasons, but an investment for resilience.

My solar setup is portable, and was built for Field Day. It would work fine if I ever wanted to do POTA as well.
Nowhere near as beefy as what Mike (K6AER) has. But it runs the radio (FT-857D), laptop computer for logging, and lights for all of Field Day, with power to spare. I've got a 120 watt folding monocrystalline panel, a 20 amp PWM charge controller (looking into MPPT), and a 12V 50 Ah LiFePO4 battery. If I don't need to run the computer, I've got a 42 Ah AGM battery box that will run the radio just fine, with the panels to keep the battery topped off.

73 de N8AUC
Eric
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VE3WI

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Re: Article to teach how to put together a solar battery charger?
« Reply #5 on: May 07, 2022, 06:54:39 AM »

Some possibly useful products and info at CirKits:

http://cirkits.com/

73
Dave, VE3WI
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