Newbie - Need help

[checkthisout]

Thanks for the replies, unforunately not answering my question.

I will not be in the garage working full time, only on weekends about 10 hours in total, the only appliances that will be on whilst I am working will be the 2 optimates & the 2 LED lights.

A gen is not an option as the location of the garage is in a residential area & I'm sure the residents wouldn't appreciate the noise & pollution, for the amount of use I would use the power tools it doesn't make econmonic sence to buy them.

Adding up the wattage of the appliances I will be using adds up to 108 watts. I understand a 100 watt panel & a 100AH battery will give me 1200 watts of power. I'm not setting up a commercial workshop, a pure sine wave is not need for what appliances I am going to run, a modified wave inverter will be fine for my usage.

The best way I can describe what the intended use is, think of having LED lights set up if you were camping, that's how much power I would need.

Andy.

You can get a little Honda 2200 watt inverter generator for less than you will spend on your system and have plenty of power to run your tools.

For your lights, you could get a battery charger and just keep a couple Group 31's powering some cheap 12V led spotlights. They will run off the batteries for several hours. Whenever you fire up your gen just make sure the charger is plugged in and it will top the batteries back off.

Like others have said though and what I said above, just get a generator or if you're hell bent, just get a 3000 watt inverter (with 6k surge) and run it off your car battery. That would be fine if all you have to do is make a few cuts but then you're over half the cost of a generator sooo.......

[Mike90250]

You listed a bunch of power tools, any of which need a seriously large PV system.

Now you are backing off and just some lighting..

> x2 - Optimate 4 battery chargers - 0.384 watts (these will be on constanly, when the bikes aren't being ridden)
That wattage is wrong. it's not 0.4 watts, it's closer to 104 watts, if the 4 batteries are being trickle charged at 2A each. The chargers will likely require pure sine wave,
on mod-sine, they may last 10 minutes and then fry. All depends on their internal construction. Cheap out and take your chances.
2 chargers, you will need 300W of PV just to run the chargers.

Same with the Grinders and other motors. They will run on mod sine for a while. Then overheat and die.

[bcroe]

Brand H has some really quiet gen sets, should be no problem. An inverter style
will not even rev up until you apply a serious load. Bruce Roe

[SunEagle]

Thanks for the replies, unforunately not answering my question.

I will not be in the garage working full time, only on weekends about 10 hours in total, the only appliances that will be on whilst I am working will be the 2 optimates & the 2 LED lights.

A gen is not an option as the location of the garage is in a residential area & I'm sure the residents wouldn't appreciate the noise & pollution, for the amount of use I would use the power tools it doesn't make econmonic sence to buy them.

Adding up the wattage of the appliances I will be using adds up to 108 watts. I understand a 100 watt panel & a 100AH battery will give me 1200 watts of power. I'm not setting up a commercial workshop, a pure sine wave is not need for what appliances I am going to run, a modified wave inverter will be fine for my usage.

The best way I can describe what the intended use is, think of having LED lights set up if you were camping, that's how much power I would need.

Andy.

Your math is off. A 100Ah 12V battery can provide maybe 360watt hours a day (12V * 100Ah * 30% = 360wh) which can easily be used up with a 3500watt inverter. And a 100 watt panel will never put back what you take out of that battery. A 100watt panel can support a 55Ah battery but it is not enough for a 100Ah. And that 100Ah battery is not enough for your load usage.

But hey it is your money and IMO you will find out the hard way that the battery will die quickly and it won't even light up those LEDs

[Green Hog]

Thanks for the replies, unforunately not answering my question.

I will not be in the garage working full time, only on weekends about 10 hours in total, the only appliances that will be on whilst I am working will be the 2 optimates & the 2 LED lights.

A gen is not an option as the location of the garage is in a residential area & I'm sure the residents wouldn't appreciate the noise & pollution, for the amount of use I would use the power tools it doesn't make econmonic sence to buy them.

Adding up the wattage of the appliances I will be using adds up to 108 watts. I understand a 100 watt panel & a 100AH battery will give me 1200 watts of power. I'm not setting up a commercial workshop, a pure sine wave is not need for what appliances I am going to run, a modified wave inverter will be fine for my usage.

The best way I can describe what the intended use is, think of having LED lights set up if you were camping, that's how much power I would need.

Andy.

[bcroe]

I would go for all battery powered tools, charge the batteries at home. For something
that must be line powered, get a small portable gen set when you run it.
good luck, Bruce Roe

[Mike90250]

The motors in the Drill and Grinders will consume a lot of power. Lots. And they need a large pure sine inverter to start and run them

Look at the electrical tag/label on the machines, and see if they have a Wattage or Volt Amp ( VA ) rating. Then you simply add up tha watts for the number of hours you plan to use each one

Drill 800W x .75 hour = 600watt hours
kettle 900w x 2 hours = 1800wh
solder iron 300w x 3 hr = 900wh
grinder 1200w x 2 hr = 2400wh

Add all the wh up, and that is 30% of the wh your battery needs to be. Then you size ( several ) solar panels and charge controllers to be able to recharge the panels.

or you can purchase a generator and run your gear from that.

An small, efficient house can use about 10,000 watt hours in a 24 hr period.

[SunEagle]

Hello Green Hog and welcome to Solar Panel Talk

Before you purchase any solar equipment you really need to determine what your daily watt hour usage is. If that number is high (which is will be if your loads are big) then you will probably have to decide to go with a higher voltage battery system (say 48V) or find a way to run grid power to that building. In the past the average cost to put in a solar/battery system has been about $1500/kWh it can safely deliver. So if you plan on using say 3 kWh then the system may cost about $3000. That 35000watt inverter will easily consume more then 3 kWh a day so the cost will be higher. Which usually means a 48V battery system that is about 400Ah which is way bigger then what you figure.

I always say "do the math" first and then open the wallet.

[Green Hog]

Hi,

a little back ground. I'm geting evicted from my workshop as my letting agent is converting it in to a house. I have found a garage, it's just a garage where you would park a car, there is no electricity supply.

I need an electricity supply so I can do my custom motorcycle building, so I thought the best solution would be to install an off grid solar system. I have never done anything like this before & need advice on the equipment I should be buying for the appilances I will be using.

This is what will be used a lot:

x2 - Optimate 4 battery chargers - 0.384 watts (these will be on constanly, when the bikes aren't being ridden)

My DAB radio - 7.5 watts.

x2 - 50 watt LED lights.

These are the appliances I will be using very rarley & I can't find any info. on their wattage :

Pillar drill

Angle grinder

Bench grinder

Kettle

Solder iron

Hand drill

This is the equipment I think I need to buy :

100 watt monocrystal panel

10 amp controller MPPT

100AH deep cycle battery

3500 / 6000 watt inverter, not the pure sine wave type.

20 amp circuit breaker

Correct gauge cable

Maybe a fuse box.

Would the choices I have made be the correct please?

TIA,

Andy.