Associate
- Joined
- 18 Mar 2003
- Posts
- 1,129
I have 5KW of solar panels, which I know I am not using to capacity in the day (sometimes). I like the idea of powerwalls where the panels charge up a battery and that is then used to power the house at night. But the costs are silly at the moment and before going that route I would rather wait until the battery prices come down or the unit cost of electricity goes up.
For now, rather than power the whole house I would like to power one room in the evening and night by battery. Again, it would be silly to get a full sized powerwall just for this one room so what can I get that is more small scale?
Specs
1. Charge up a battery / UPS whilst the solar panel is active (timer switch)
2. Outside of timer hours (dusk, evening, night) battery powers the devices (100-400W roughly)
3. If battery level drops to 10% then power devices from the mains and charge the battery. When battery level reaches 50% power devices from the battery again.
This should be ideal for a bog standard UPS but I don't think this is suitable because UPS tend to be smaller and have bells and whistles that are not needed. Really, I don't want the thing chirping away when running off battery; when the timer switches the mains off.
Smaller Scale Example
I am already running a circuit like this on a smaller scale.
I have a phone charger power bank that is plugged into the mains and turns on from 8am to 6pm each day - thus it is charging up (if needed) very possibly via the solar panels. In the evening and overnight various phones are plugged into the power bank and charged up via the powerbank battery. The next morning the powerbank is charged via the solar panels again. The net result is I never have to pay ongoing costs to keep the phones and tablets charged up - once the powerbank has been purchased the devices are all charged up for free.
What I want to do is the same as that but on a bigger scale - to power 1, 2 PCs, a laptop, a TV (but not necessarily all at the same time) via solar in the day, and 'stored solar' at night.
So what's available?
A couple of car batteries, battery charger and then a 12vDC to 240AC invertor? Or does something more integrated already exist?
For now, rather than power the whole house I would like to power one room in the evening and night by battery. Again, it would be silly to get a full sized powerwall just for this one room so what can I get that is more small scale?
Specs
1. Charge up a battery / UPS whilst the solar panel is active (timer switch)
2. Outside of timer hours (dusk, evening, night) battery powers the devices (100-400W roughly)
3. If battery level drops to 10% then power devices from the mains and charge the battery. When battery level reaches 50% power devices from the battery again.
This should be ideal for a bog standard UPS but I don't think this is suitable because UPS tend to be smaller and have bells and whistles that are not needed. Really, I don't want the thing chirping away when running off battery; when the timer switches the mains off.
Smaller Scale Example
I am already running a circuit like this on a smaller scale.
I have a phone charger power bank that is plugged into the mains and turns on from 8am to 6pm each day - thus it is charging up (if needed) very possibly via the solar panels. In the evening and overnight various phones are plugged into the power bank and charged up via the powerbank battery. The next morning the powerbank is charged via the solar panels again. The net result is I never have to pay ongoing costs to keep the phones and tablets charged up - once the powerbank has been purchased the devices are all charged up for free.
What I want to do is the same as that but on a bigger scale - to power 1, 2 PCs, a laptop, a TV (but not necessarily all at the same time) via solar in the day, and 'stored solar' at night.
So what's available?
A couple of car batteries, battery charger and then a 12vDC to 240AC invertor? Or does something more integrated already exist?