Thursday, May 2, 2024

May 2 - The Campfire Trail - A Solar Plant "Nutshell" Lesson

May 2, 2024

Day 944 of the Adventure

The whole "Solar Plant" operation here hinges upon three basic components. Panels, Inverter/Controller and Batteries. The process begins at the collector panels where sunlight is captured and converted into electrical energy. It is not very usable at this point simply because the amount of light and it's intensity is constantly changing throughout the day depending on shadows, cloud cover and the changing angle of the sun through the day. That fluctuating energy is routed to the Inverter which contains an on board "Charge Controller". This controller converts the incoming electrical energy into 12 volt DC current which is routed into a series of 12 volt batteries. (or sometimes into 6 volt batteries) The batteries are where the electrical energy is stored for later use. Batteries can be wired into higher voltage strings or banks which can make the conversion from DC "battery" voltage over to 110 and 220 AC voltage more efficient. In our case, we have the 12 volt batteries wired up 4 to a set producing a 48 volt source. We currently have 2 - 48 volt strings with a total of 8 batteries wired together. As the cabin requires electricity, power is drawn from the batteries and pulled through an Inverter which turns the DC voltage into AC voltage suitable for household use. It's a rather simple process with some sophisticated components. We began our education and use of solar two years ago with a smaller system. Last year, we upgraded the inverter to a 15 Kilowatt system capable of running everything we have on the property. Last week, we picked up 12 - 405 watt solar panels which almost quadruples our current solar production capabilities. As of now, we have secured some new batteries that will replace the lead acid batteries we started with. The new ones are twice as many and about twice as powerful in terms of storage capacity. It's just a matter of getting all of it installed at this point. 

This is an overly simplified explanation but covers the basics fairly well. I can't say that it's necessarily a cost saving way of doing things. The payback for the equipment in cost savings is quite a long time. Perhaps as much as ten to fifteen years, The benefit comes in the alternative reliability of having a self contained system completely independent from any outside supplier or disruptions. Of course the exact set of weather circumstances could potentially destroy our system, but then, electrical power would probably be the least of our concerns in the event of that. Our wiring and cables are all buried in conduit protecting that from falling tree limbs. So for the most part, barring a catastrophic event right on the property, we're pretty confident we have things under control. In the three power outages our area has experienced since our first system was installed, we felt an interesting sense of self-sufficiency which has been our goal of the move to the backwoods in the first place. So far, Mission accomplished. 

Carry On

Adventure Quote:  “I don't want to rely on something that could be taken away at some point.” ― Dorothy Koomson

Base Camp Coffee of the Day: Lost in the Dark (Colombia Dark French Roast)

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