In this Instructable I will attempt to explain and show how I created my portable solar powered outlet.
I've been able to continuously power an 80 watt device for approximately three hours without interruption and it could have gone much longer, as well as run an electric drill under load with no hesitation or slowing. This is one powerful machine!
Remember as you construct your device that Volts x Amps = Watts.
There are a couple things to note before proceeding.
1) This is my first Instructable, I hope I get it right.
2) I am not an electrician or a handyman. I'm just an average Joe who used resources available to me and figured out something cool. This Instructable involves wiring. If you are not comfortable doing it or if you don't know what you're doing, learn before doing and don't blame me if you zap yourself.
What you'll need:
1) Battery (I used a 12V 26AH battery that I ordered off the internet for about $65)
2) Inverter (I used a 410 continuous watt inverter that I bought at Wal-Mart for about $35)
3) Charge Controller (I bought one off the internet for about $18)
4) Solar Panels (I used the garden lights that I bought from Wal-Mart for $0.97 each)
5) Electrical wire
6) Soldering Iron and solder
7) Wire strippers
8) Something to bracket everything down
9) "Normal tools" (needlenosed pliers, screwdrivers, stapler, drill, etc.)
10) Dremel tool or sandpaper
11) Multimeter
Ready?
I've been able to continuously power an 80 watt device for approximately three hours without interruption and it could have gone much longer, as well as run an electric drill under load with no hesitation or slowing. This is one powerful machine!
Remember as you construct your device that Volts x Amps = Watts.
There are a couple things to note before proceeding.
1) This is my first Instructable, I hope I get it right.
2) I am not an electrician or a handyman. I'm just an average Joe who used resources available to me and figured out something cool. This Instructable involves wiring. If you are not comfortable doing it or if you don't know what you're doing, learn before doing and don't blame me if you zap yourself.
What you'll need:
1) Battery (I used a 12V 26AH battery that I ordered off the internet for about $65)
2) Inverter (I used a 410 continuous watt inverter that I bought at Wal-Mart for about $35)
3) Charge Controller (I bought one off the internet for about $18)
4) Solar Panels (I used the garden lights that I bought from Wal-Mart for $0.97 each)
5) Electrical wire
6) Soldering Iron and solder
7) Wire strippers
8) Something to bracket everything down
9) "Normal tools" (needlenosed pliers, screwdrivers, stapler, drill, etc.)
10) Dremel tool or sandpaper
11) Multimeter
Ready?
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Signing UpStep 1: Prep the panels
This step is pretty easy but tedious.
Remove the top of the garden lights and expose the screws.
Unscrew the "lid" and set aside (don't throw it away). You should see some hardware (battery connectors, wires, LED, battery).
Remove all the unneeded hardware - this would the battery, the wires for the battery (make sure you don't pull out the panel wiring), battery connector and LED.
Remove the top of the garden lights and expose the screws.
Unscrew the "lid" and set aside (don't throw it away). You should see some hardware (battery connectors, wires, LED, battery).
Remove all the unneeded hardware - this would the battery, the wires for the battery (make sure you don't pull out the panel wiring), battery connector and LED.
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You can check the mah rating on the batteries that come with them. I've seen quite a few of them, and most are 350mah, meaning a 10% charge of 35ma. The largest mah battery I've seen in a solar garden light was 700mah, the solar panel from that garden light put out around 75ma in good sun.
You also said that you had a 26AH 12vbattery (~312Watt).
I would estimate (and i might be thinking wrong) 1.4 Amps into 26 amps would mean it would need about 19 hours of straight light/charging to fully charge your battery. That is not including the loss in the charging process.
I have concluded that I think you just have a fancy batter pack that you would be better off charging off an 120v outlet if you knew you were going to need it. That is not saying you can not run things off the solar. Just saying that you cant count on the panels doing a very good job of charging the battery (but I might be wrong).
1 solar panel should be able to run 2 LED's (100mA each). That would give you about 14 LED's! 1 USB powered device also pulls about 500mA. so you might be able to charge around 3 cell phones at once just off of the panels.
I looked into charging a laptop. In AC they would draw less than 500 mA, but in low V DC, it takes 3-4 Amps!
Your inverter will allow for higher Voltage but it will reduce the amperage that your panels/ battery are supplying. You are better off trying to run all DC devices than going from DC to AC and back to DC (like phone chargers and laptop chargers).
With your battery, you will be able to run a lot more, but again, don't count on your panels to recharge it.
I hope this helps. You got me looking into doing something similar to your design and those where the things I came up with.
Hopefully someone else can confirm my thought!
Hope it helps and sorry for being wordy! Great work though.
The only thing I wonder about is how much current they put out. I've generally found that little garden lights don't put out very much current in general. For $40 you could easily buy a 5 Watt panel from someone or buy some "b" grade surplus cells and make your own panel.
Just an idea. I love "up cycling" stuff, especially stuff found at the dollar store. (Buy a dollar store radio and two garden lights. Hack them together and make yourself a solar radio!)
-Doctordv
As for cost, I'm going to assume that you already have all the necessary tools and wiring.
Battery: $65
Inverter: $35
Panels $0.97 x 35 = $35 (I'll round up)
Charge Controller: $18
Electrical boxes/covers: $5 (I'm guessing here, but it's close)
Total: $158 (ish) before tax/shipping
As for how long to charge -- that's a good question that I simply don't have an answer for. The easiest (and most accurate) answer would be: it depends. It depends on how much you drain it and how much sun light you expose to your panels. All my readings I mentioned in the instructable were taken in full sun light. Obviously if you have passing clouds or intermittent sun light your input will vary. Also the charge controller has a lot to do with it. If you use one with differing cycles then it will typically charge to a certain percent and then trickle charge after that. Mine isn't that fancy.
I hope that's helpful.
If you search on Amazon for that I bet it wouldn't be difficult to find.
Good luck!
The wattage from the controller is less important than the wattage from the inverter because you can just leave the box in the sun to re-charge but you want a higher wattage to power whatever you want to power.
My inverter is a 410 watt continuous inverter so it will provide 410 watts of constant power. My battery can deliver 300+ watts for one hour before it is drained and in need of recharging so my inverter is perfect for my battery. You'll need to determine how big you want your components and select them appropriately. For example, I considered purchasing a 1,600 watt inverter but that would be too big for my battery in the sense that it would provide a lot of power but the battery wouldn't be able to keep up for long -- does that make sense?
And yes, the battery is the big dollar item.
A manufactured 80 watt system for $900?! This set-up, while needing to be re-charged from tie to time, provides far more than 80 watts and is far cheaper.
See pic:
I think on those solar panels you can can actually break the plastic away and just leave the actual glass solar panel and wires.
That could cut down on the size you needed. You could just drill small holes for the wire and then glue the panel directly on the top of the box sealing the wire holes.. So just basically a box covered with square solar panels.
But again really nice project and I will be using this for a box I want to build.
Thanks.
Breaking the plastic was actually my original plan and I did it to ten of them. The problem I had was the glue was different on some of them and trying to pry the panel away from the plastic and pull the wires back through ended up with some of the wires being pulled completely off the panel. I thought, "well, I can just solder them back on" but then I realized what a pain in the butt that would end up being and I had the epiphany to just leave them in the plastic as I wouldn't have the wiring problem (plus it was not easy to take the panel off the plastic).
I ended up leaving them plastic on, which did result in it taking up more space but in my mind was preferable to the alternative of having to re-wire some (a lot) of them and take the time to get them off the plastic.
Along with that plan I was thinking of putting a plexiglass cover over the panels to protect them but when I decided to leave them in the plastic I figured they didn't need the additional protection.
If you do end up doing just the squares, please let me know how it worked out for you.
Best to you!
I saved the stems (they'd make great conduits or piping for another project), the LED's and the rechargeable batteries.
Seriously, for a buck I got a solar panel, an LED, a rechargeable battery and a small pipe. Talk about a good deal!
I'll look into the shoe goo too.
Very nice instructable for your first one. I was thinking about DIY'ing a solar panel for the roof of my shed to charge my cordless drill batteries and run my landscape lights. Thanks for the helpful info.
You know, I thought about another board but time was of the essence and frankly I was tired of the project by the end and just wanted it done. Now that everything is soldered I don't really want to go un-solder it all. I'll look at the liquid nails too.
When you say "two part adhesive" I'm assuming you mean something that you mix the epoxy? That's what I used and it locked the panels in good... until the off-road adventure coupled with hot sun happened. :)
It is a Sunforce 7 Amp Charge Controller. Manufacturer number 60012.
I hope that helps you.
I didn't anticipate (obviously) what the hot sun would do to my glue. I thought, "Hey, Gorilla Glue is tough. I'm sure it can handle anything."
Oops.
Great instructable!
Let me preface my response by saying I am not an electrician and am VERY new to electricity. Most of what I know (okay, nearly all of it) I learned as I was putting this together.
The battery/inverter combo is what actually produces the power that you use when you plug something in. The inverter is a 410 continuous watt and 800 peak wattage (it will turn off when it gets that high). The battery is a 12V 26AH battery. So, to my understanding, the inverter is capable of delivering more power than the battery is able to produce for one hour (12*26=312 watts). Of course if you were to run a higher powered machine you could get the power you needed but for shorter periods (assuming the inverter could handle it).
I don't know how long it would take to re-charge. I am not sure how to figure that out. I know that each series produces 16-18 volts in full sun and that the charge controller I have connected will allow for 14 volts to the battery (if I understood that right). So the panels have more than enough voltage to meet that. The charge controller also has a 7amp max input so it's not more than that.
I also understand that there are different types of charge controllers and some of the more expensive ones work in cycles to charge the battery. I don't think this one does that as it was among the less expensive ones I could find.
As far as the weight - most of it is in the battery which is about 20 pounds. I'd say it weighs probably no more than 25 pounds. It's not something to take backpacking but toss it (gently) in the back of a truck and it will work well for you on camping trips, etc.
I hope that's helpful...?
Thanks and good luck!
I looked over your project and my first thought was "Holy cow!" You really did a lot of work and obviously understand this type of thing more than I do. It looks really cool! I'm just getting started with all of it but it is fascinating.
(A side note -- a reading of the official rules of the contest told me that the votes people receive are for entertainment value only and don't determine the winner. The winner will be determined by a panel of judges. Good luck to you all the same!)