solar panel shed
Discussion
A set up can do whatever you want, depends how much money you want to throw at it.
You need a panel, a charger controller and a battery. That will at least get you 12v in your shed. In the summer, you might be able to do something with it, but in the winter you will get naff all power. The key question is what you want to power with it. Mains change over tends to get expensive.
As an example, I have a camera in an Owl box that is up my field, so no power. I need to run the camera and a WiFi access point. A 300W panel will keep this running 24x7 in July. It will run it for perhaps 30 minutes a day in December.
You need a panel, a charger controller and a battery. That will at least get you 12v in your shed. In the summer, you might be able to do something with it, but in the winter you will get naff all power. The key question is what you want to power with it. Mains change over tends to get expensive.
As an example, I have a camera in an Owl box that is up my field, so no power. I need to run the camera and a WiFi access point. A 300W panel will keep this running 24x7 in July. It will run it for perhaps 30 minutes a day in December.
Just having a look on amazon - what are these and do they do anything different to say using a car battery?
https://www.amazon.co.uk/POWEROAK-Generator-220V-2...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/POWEROAK-Generator-220V-2...
I just put together a solar powered watering system for a remote greenhouse. Beware the Chinese watt ratings!
I got a 33x33cm panel, sold as 50w which was clearly never going to be the case.
It puts out about 20v in full sun and can supply about 0.5 - 0.7 amps to the battery charger, so 10w is probably closer to the mark.
This charges an old car battery through a cheap pwm solar charger, this really just reduces the voltage so it doesnt kill the battery, not as efficient as a proper mppt charger, but for this purpose doesn't matter. Plus proper mppt chargers are at least 3x the price. (Again beware the Chinese marketing descriptions, anything sold as mppt that's too cheap is not mppt)
At the moment it seems like about 8hr of good charging, so 80wh potential from the panel
The battery is, say 50ah, so 600wh
The devices running only need 3.6wh (150ma all the time)
So should have loads of capacity even in the most typical British summer
I got a 33x33cm panel, sold as 50w which was clearly never going to be the case.
It puts out about 20v in full sun and can supply about 0.5 - 0.7 amps to the battery charger, so 10w is probably closer to the mark.
This charges an old car battery through a cheap pwm solar charger, this really just reduces the voltage so it doesnt kill the battery, not as efficient as a proper mppt charger, but for this purpose doesn't matter. Plus proper mppt chargers are at least 3x the price. (Again beware the Chinese marketing descriptions, anything sold as mppt that's too cheap is not mppt)
At the moment it seems like about 8hr of good charging, so 80wh potential from the panel
The battery is, say 50ah, so 600wh
The devices running only need 3.6wh (150ma all the time)
So should have loads of capacity even in the most typical British summer
I've just put a 360w panel on my camper roof. It goes through an MPPT charge controller and into 220ah AGM batteries. With the calculations I've done I'm confident that'll give me enough power to cover my needs even in Scotland in Autumn.
It's pretty simple to calculate how much power you need and how you'll use it. For example it'll be far more efficient if you can use 12v DC appliances as that's how you'll store the power (probably) and if you then needed an inverter to give you 230v AC you'll incur losses of around 30% in the process. Once you've calculated how big a battery bank you need then it's another simple calculation to see how big a solar array you'll need to keep your batteries topped up for the anticipated average amount of sunlight you'll expect to see. There are lots of examples online on how to do all the calculations and even sites where you can work out the average sunlight for your latitude so you can spec your system.
It's pretty simple to calculate how much power you need and how you'll use it. For example it'll be far more efficient if you can use 12v DC appliances as that's how you'll store the power (probably) and if you then needed an inverter to give you 230v AC you'll incur losses of around 30% in the process. Once you've calculated how big a battery bank you need then it's another simple calculation to see how big a solar array you'll need to keep your batteries topped up for the anticipated average amount of sunlight you'll expect to see. There are lots of examples online on how to do all the calculations and even sites where you can work out the average sunlight for your latitude so you can spec your system.
wjwren said:
Just having a look on amazon - what are these and do they do anything different to say using a car battery?
https://www.amazon.co.uk/POWEROAK-Generator-220V-2...
Those are quite popular as a do it all system to save having each system independently. The other make to look for is jackary which get good reviews. https://www.amazon.co.uk/POWEROAK-Generator-220V-2...
That system says you get 500wh battery which at 12v is 41.67ah. But as the battery is lithium you can use almost all of the battery without fear of it damaging the cells, AGM is only recommended to use around 50% of the capacity to prevent damage and increase life span so that lithium battery is the equivalent of an 80ah AGM. It has the added benefit of a pure sine wave inverter albeit only 300w.
It all comes down to what your use for it is as to its suitability. If you post up what you'll power we can do the calcs.
I have one of these running 12v lighting, LCD TV rated at 130W and a Sonos 1.
Runs for about 5 hours at night before the leisure battery reaches 50%.
On a sunny day it will run the TV without depleting hardly any capacity.
https://www.sunshinesolar.co.uk/Item/PK100312
Runs for about 5 hours at night before the leisure battery reaches 50%.
On a sunny day it will run the TV without depleting hardly any capacity.
https://www.sunshinesolar.co.uk/Item/PK100312
Meprobamate chic said:
For the price of some of these solutions it would be cheaper to run a cable from the house.
I priced it up and it wasn't for me.It also meant digging a trench across the lawn which I didn't really want.
Not to mention having ugly cable running down the side of the house from the utility room.
wjwren said:
Just having a look on amazon - what are these and do they do anything different to say using a car battery?
https://www.amazon.co.uk/POWEROAK-Generator-220V-2...
There are quite a few similar units to that available.https://www.amazon.co.uk/POWEROAK-Generator-220V-2...
It seems a pretty ideal solution. You can plug the Solar Panel straight into the unit, saving money on MPPT controllers etc. It outputs mains or 12v, saving you the cost of an inverter.
The big advantage seems to me that if you need power in the shed during winter then you can charge the unit from mains in your home and then carry it out to the shed.
This guy reviews a few such units: https://www.youtube.com/c/JulianIlett/videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvglKfR4tjY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wr_FI-0r5s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AY5lSK8x-zE&t=...
nyt said:
There are quite a few similar units to that available.
It seems a pretty ideal solution. You can plug the Solar Panel straight into the unit, saving money on MPPT controllers etc. It outputs mains or 12v, saving you the cost of an inverter.
The big advantage seems to me that if you need power in the shed during winter then you can charge the unit from mains in your home and then carry it out to the shed.
This guy reviews a few such units: https://www.youtube.com/c/JulianIlett/videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvglKfR4tjY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wr_FI-0r5s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AY5lSK8x-zE&t=...
It's £500 for the functional equivalent of a small car battery, a £30 charge controller, and a £30 inverter.It seems a pretty ideal solution. You can plug the Solar Panel straight into the unit, saving money on MPPT controllers etc. It outputs mains or 12v, saving you the cost of an inverter.
The big advantage seems to me that if you need power in the shed during winter then you can charge the unit from mains in your home and then carry it out to the shed.
This guy reviews a few such units: https://www.youtube.com/c/JulianIlett/videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvglKfR4tjY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wr_FI-0r5s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AY5lSK8x-zE&t=...
Oh, and a light.
Reviving an old thread here but I’ve got a solar panel on my shed. I went at it with more of a something to learn view than an actual use case. System comprises of a 100w panel, epever mppt charge controller and a 2nd hand 110ah leisure battery.
This runs my downlighting in the shed, I’ve got spot lights under my fascias (when I say shed, I went to town building it) these are on a timer that come on in the evening. Then inside I also have 2 x USB ports, a standard 12v port. Then a car radio and 2 x 6.5” speakers in the ceiling.
I can have all that running from the spring through autumn on a clear day no issues. The fascias lights ran all winter without issues too. The panel is south facing by the way.
This runs my downlighting in the shed, I’ve got spot lights under my fascias (when I say shed, I went to town building it) these are on a timer that come on in the evening. Then inside I also have 2 x USB ports, a standard 12v port. Then a car radio and 2 x 6.5” speakers in the ceiling.
I can have all that running from the spring through autumn on a clear day no issues. The fascias lights ran all winter without issues too. The panel is south facing by the way.
with solar.... its all about the energy, and getting as much energy harvested and into that battery when ever you can.
You also dont want to be inverting that battery to mains to use, as that is awfully wasteful. the voltages that you have availaible are generally what cars and trucks use so would be limited to either 12v or 24v. Now 12v is more common and 12v items can be a lot cheaper so base your system around 12v. and go for as energy efficient as you can so you can make good use of what you get from the sun.
You also dont want to be inverting that battery to mains to use, as that is awfully wasteful. the voltages that you have availaible are generally what cars and trucks use so would be limited to either 12v or 24v. Now 12v is more common and 12v items can be a lot cheaper so base your system around 12v. and go for as energy efficient as you can so you can make good use of what you get from the sun.
Zoon said:
Meprobamate chic said:
For the price of some of these solutions it would be cheaper to run a cable from the house.
I priced it up and it wasn't for me.It also meant digging a trench across the lawn which I didn't really want.
Not to mention having ugly cable running down the side of the house from the utility room.
Re. solar panels - check Facebook Marketplace/eBay etc, people sell lots of used older panel for very little money, which will be good enough for a DIY (non-grid tied) project. Occasionally there's people selling huge numbers of ex-solar farm panels too.
Edited by Gareth79 on Monday 24th May 12:50
ruggedscotty said:
with solar.... its all about the energy, and getting as much energy harvested and into that battery when ever you can.
You also dont want to be inverting that battery to mains to use, as that is awfully wasteful. the voltages that you have availaible are generally what cars and trucks use so would be limited to either 12v or 24v. Now 12v is more common and 12v items can be a lot cheaper so base your system around 12v. and go for as energy efficient as you can so you can make good use of what you get from the sun.
Inverters will be 95% or so efficient, and that means you can buy 240v stuff for far less than 12v stuff that gets the "boat or caravan" tax applied. It's not wasteful at all.You also dont want to be inverting that battery to mains to use, as that is awfully wasteful. the voltages that you have availaible are generally what cars and trucks use so would be limited to either 12v or 24v. Now 12v is more common and 12v items can be a lot cheaper so base your system around 12v. and go for as energy efficient as you can so you can make good use of what you get from the sun.
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