Aloha from a Solar Newbie in Hawaii

[WH6FQE]

If the off grid experts and you can solve the energy problems, I might be able to help with
switcher noise. There are a couple boxes of near new EMC filters removed from equipment
in my attic. If some fit the issue, could get to HI in a Fixed Rate Box, instead of cluttering here.
Bruce Roe

That would be awesome, I really appreciate it. I have the 40amp Renogy "Rover" MPPT solar charger now that I accidentally ordered when I was trying to order the 100amp version of it. If everything will work, I am wanting to put the 12-volt 100-watt panels that I have now on thatsolar controller and order a 100-watt Renogy MPPT controller for the 300-watt panels when they get here. a couple hams here were telling me to run the 12-volt panels on a PWM controller, but I have had several people tell me to stay away from those, especially with radios. So since I will already have the 40amp MPPT as an extra, I may as well use it to see if I can get what little power out of the 100-watt panels that I can.

[WH6FQE]

How many batteries do you have ? I worry about the dead load. Water beds weigh more, but are spread out over more area.

do you close the windows in storms (not likely to have much charging going on then)

You should exercise the auto switch over once in a while, pull the plug or switch off the breaker. Make sure it works, and also, batteries on float 24/7, sometimes forget how to discharge, and should be deeply cycled at least once a year to keep plate material active.

Are your computers laptops or desktops ? Big difference in loads, 80W for laptop, 300w for desktop & more for it's monitor

I have 24 of the 6-volt Trojan T-105 batteries. They are sitting directly above a load bearing wall downstairs. I also store several 55 gal barrels of drinking water for emergencies so I know about making sure the floor underneath is well supported for the additional weight. When you have a stack of two 55-gal barrels on a rack full of water fall through the floor, believe me, that memory stays with you throughout the future, LOL.

My windows have not been closed once in the 17 years we have lived here. I did close one set directly in front of my computers and radios during Hurricane Lane and Olivia, but the other 17 windows stayed open through it all. I set up a temporary plastic tent to cover my desk to keep any water spray away from my radios and enjoyed the breeze, singing "riding the storm out" lol.

I plan on doing monthly or at the bare minimum, quarterly, off-grid exercises where I will operate everything from DC power to exercise the system and make sure everything is ready to go and spot any issues that need to be addressed.

I am using 2 tower computers, one is an HP Z400 Workstation and one Mac Pro. The Mac has triple 27" wedescreeen LED monitors, and the PC has dual 23" widescreen LED monitors. I am trying to get moved over to a laptop in place of the PC tower, but so far I haven't been able to get it switched over yet. I am still working on it. If I am able to get that to work, I will attempt to do the same with the Mac system next. The widescreen monitors I will not be able to get rid of though, I need to get those connected to the laptops.

[Mike90250]

With the passing of Sears, a handy piece of gear got harder to get. Sears had a nice DC clip on Ampmeter, which you could clip around your battery cable and you will know within 5% of what your load is.
Amazon has some too, but you have to be very careful and read the specs and make sure you get a unit that does clip-on DC amps. Man only do AC amps, and fraudulent ones require you to break the circuit and go inline.


With a good clip-on ampmeter the next piece of gear is the Kill-A-Watt meter. It's a totalizing watt meter, reads power factor, voltage, volt-amps, watts and you can let it run a week to get a nice daily average

[WH6FQE]

With the passing of Sears, a handy piece of gear got harder to get. Sears had a nice DC clip on Ampmeter, which you could clip around your battery cable and you will know within 5% of what your load is.
Amazon has some too, but you have to be very careful and read the specs and make sure you get a unit that does clip-on DC amps. Man only do AC amps, and fraudulent ones require you to break the circuit and go inline.

Are you talking about one like this: https://www.amazon.com/MS2108A-Range...gateway&sr=8-1

With a good clip-on ampmeter the next piece of gear is the Kill-A-Watt meter. It's a totalizing watt meter, reads power factor, voltage, volt-amps, watts and you can let it run a week to get a nice daily average

I put one of those in my Amazon shopping cart a little while ago. It will take me a while to add everything up that is plugged in to the 6 outlets and power strips, unless I order several of these things and measure it all at once, but then I cant see a use for all of them afterward, lol.

[azdave]

Are you talking about one like this: https://www.amazon.com/MS2108A-Range...gateway&sr=8-1

I have that same model and use it mostly for checking the load on a portable, battery-powered vehicle lift. Had it about a year now and used it many times with no complaints. I paid $40 delivered but I see the price has gone up.

[WH6FQE]

I have that same model and use it mostly for checking the load on a portable, battery-powered vehicle lift. Had it about a year now and used it many times with no complaints. I paid $40 delivered but I see the price has gone up.

Yes, it seems the price on everything has gone up recently. I just looked at this a couple weeks ago and it was about $10 cheaper then, lol.

Will this be good enough quality for what I am needing to start figuring out exactly what my daily power useage is instead of going by the estimates from others?

[littleharbor]

These Uni-T models are really nice little clamp meters, cant beat the price.

https://www.amazon.com/Uni-T-UT202A-Auto-Ranging-Handheld-Multimeter/dp/B0149K9TZI/ref=sr_1_6?keywords=Uni-T+DC+clamp+meter&qid=1553286039&s=gateway&sr=8-6

[SunEagle]

These Uni-T models are really nice little clamp meters, cant beat the price.

https://www.amazon.com/Uni-T-UT202A-...gateway&sr=8-6

I own that model Uni-T and I am very happy with it and it's accuracy for such a low cost clamp-on.

[WH6FQE]

These Uni-T models are really nice little clamp meters, cant beat the price.

https://www.amazon.com/Uni-T-UT202A-...gateway&sr=8-6

And unfortunately when I go to look at that one I see something very familiar on Amazon: This item requires special handling and cannot be shipped to your selected location.

I am so sick of Amazon, I got that notice the other day when I tried to reorder another pair of shoes that I just ordered from them 6 months ago. It is rediculous how many things will not ship to Hawaii.

[littleharbor]

Wow! The price you pay to live in paradise. I can relate, somewhat. I live on Catalina Island. My issues with restrictions and cost of living here could fill a book. How about $7.xx a gallon for gas? That picture isn't current. We've had GAS prices in the $7.25 range.

Anyhow try Ebay, you might have better luck. Just be sure the clamp meter is a model that will do AC and DC. some do high current AC only.

Gas prices in Avalon..jpg

[jflorey2]

My antennas do not shadow my roof at all.

OK, good. One problem solved.

Yeah, thats the part that is worrying me now. I may be doing all of this for nothing if it interferes with my radios.

I never ordinarily suggest this, but this might mean PWM charge controllers may be better for you overall. You will have to be a lot more careful with panel sizes/voltages/connections tho.

The only thing that is on 120 are the computers and monitors.

Computers can be retrofitted with 12V power supplies. If they are LCD monitors, they typically run on 12-19 volts DC, so you may be able to dispense with the inverter altogether.

My radios and lighting are currently connected to a pair of 50amp power supplies and battery isolators that will be connected to the system.

In general you don't need relay type isolators for this - a simple set of diodes would work fine. The battery charger can connect directly to the batteries, and if there is any current being backfed, a diode can ensure the supply is isolated.

[jflorey2]

Wow! The price you pay to live in paradise. I can relate, somewhat. I live on Catalina Island. My issues with restrictions and cost of living here could fill a book. How about $7.xx a gallon for gas? That picture isn't current. We've had GAS prices in the $7.25 range.

On the plus side, not many places to drive to . . . .

[littleharbor]

On the plus side, not many places to drive to . . . .

Since I brought my latest truck over I'm getting just a hair over 7MPG. So about a dollar a mile.
But for about a 35 mile round trip we have this to enjoy.

S6300696.jpg Buffalo over Little Harbor.jpg

[WH6FQE]

OK, good. One problem solved.

I never ordinarily suggest this, but this might mean PWM charge controllers may be better for you overall. You will have to be a lot more careful with panel sizes/voltages/connections tho.

I thought PWM controllers caused interference as well.

Computers can be retrofitted with 12V power supplies. If they are LCD monitors, they typically run on 12-19 volts DC, so you may be able to dispense with the inverter altogether.

That is something that has always puzzled me, you connect a computer to 110 volts so that it can power its internal 12 volt power supply which powers everything else. There should be an easy way of bypassing all of that wasteful conversion.

I have several old computer power supplies that I have converted to work as radio power supplies for new hams. They work great and save them an arm and a leg getting their first station setup.

I never even thought about the monitors, I was just searching online for 12-volt monitors, but not having a lot of luck besides little 10" things that are smaller than the laptop screen to begin with, lol.

In general you don't need relay type isolators for this - a simple set of diodes would work fine. The battery charger can connect directly to the batteries, and if there is any current being backfed, a diode can ensure the supply is isolated.

These I got mainly for the auto switching, so that as soon as power stopped coming from one source it automatically switched over to the second source very quickly, and then switched back when the main source was restored.

Yes, I am a ham radio operator, but I can't build a cheese sandwich without something going wrong with it, lol. I am much safer purchasing pre-made items than to try to build them myself. My hands are no longer steady enough to solder and the doctor refuses to stretch my arms out to make them longer so I can read easier, lol.

[WH6FQE]

Computers can be retrofitted with 12V power supplies. If they are LCD monitors, they typically run on 12-19 volts DC, so you may be able to dispense with the inverter altogether.

I wonder how feasable this would actually be. Do you think it would this be possible for me to run the PC tower, and Mac Pro tower, all the monitors and radios directly on the battery bank? Im thinking that the cables to the computers would have to be huge to handle the current at just 12-volt.