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Solar Power

Currently running 240 Watts, 12V Solar PV (3 x 80 W) into 6 Trojan T105 batteries (675 AH), driving a 600Watt inverter (12 VDC to 230VAC), powering the weather station and its laptop (which updates the web site).

The system makes no financial sense what-so-ever - but it does increase my energy independence slightly and it's a fun experiment. My plan is to add another 80 Watt panel every year, more batteries, then upgrade to 24 volts (which will require a new inverter).

My next goal is to build it up to the point where it can power the 230volt 190 Watt web server that this site runs on.

Plans

• Add 2 more batteries - Exide sells Trojan T104's direct to the public at the best price I've seen. This would bring my total up to 8 batteries and 900 Amp-Hours.
• Add a 4th solar panel - enough to run the web server(?)
  • buy Chinese panels via TradeMe
• Add pure sine waver inverter to drive the web server (300 Watts would do). My server does not like the current 600W modified sine wave inverter I am using (which runs the weather station).
  • 600 Watt (1000W surge ) 12VDC Sine Wave Inverter $418.90 (Aug 2008), Standby current: <850mA, Efficiency: >85%
  • Invertek HF Inverter - 1500W 12/24VDC Pure Sine Wave, NZ$800, 83-86% efficient, Below 1-Watt consumption in power save mode.