Because of her bulbous ‘penthouse’, Madam Plush called for an unusual solar installation, and two years’ later the combination of flat and angled panels has proved a winner.
The setup for Solar Freedom 1:
- 1 x Morningstar PS30M 30A regulator
- 1 x Sinergex 24volt 700W [1400W Surge] pure-sine wave inverter
- 1 x Sinergex 24volt 12A 3-outlet battery charger
- 4 x 12V 100Ah AGM batteries [wired for 24V]
- 2 x Suntech 75W 12V Solar Panels
- 2 x Suntech 135w 12V Solar Panels
What Solar Freedom 1 provides:
- Free electricity to three 240V and six 12V outlets — in the office, kitchen and lounge
- Free power via the 700W inverter which is on most of the time, charging computers, phones, radios, torches and cameras
- Free power for interior lighting which is all converted to LEDs which barely sip power
- On sunny days I often use the electric kettle and rice cooker
- On cloudy days I simply try and cut down charging too many bits and pieces
- After two or more cloudy days in a row, I usually bunker down with the iPad and its excellent 10-hour battery life
- But, even on cloudy and rainy days, the solar panels still gather in enough usable energy to keep things ticking over
- In two years I’ve only run the batteries down to about 60% twice
- The 80-litre Waeco fridge/freezer is connected directly to the 24V battery bank with heavy wiring to minimise current losses. It cycles on about 10-12 minutes each hour [24/7] and is very economical with power use
Some notes:
- The price of the solar panels has dropped 35-45% in those two years.
- The price of household electricity in Hobart alone has increased nearly 30% in two years
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