UPSguy
WWII enthusiast
Beer and ammo my friends… now I wait..
Added 50 Magpul 30rd mags MOE Gen2 , from Palmeto State Armory's early Black Friday sale with there promotion code got them for 8.99 each and over 5 you get free shipping. I know that a lot of you can't take advantage of it but see if they will ship to a address out of MD. The price is just too sweet to pass up throwing a few more in the box
I guess not really prepping so much, but an “off grid” project. I didn’t really want to run an extension cord 150-200ft to my chicken coop and I am tired of needing to bring their water in to my garage most evenings in the winter or run hot water out to them once or twice a day to melt the ice.
So I built a solar chicken water heater. I designed it to expand the solar panel capacity if needed.
Two 25w panels to be mounted on the roof of the coop. 35ah AGM battery. Renogy 10a charge controller. 150w 12v inverter. 12v timer to control when the inverter gets power.
I am looking to run the 80w heater an hour a day. Trying to figure out if I should run it for an hour at 11am. Or how I have it setup now which is 30 minutes at 11 and 15 minutes at 1 and 3pm to help it stay ice free through more of the day. I am guessing an hour at 11 is probably the better approach, but I’ll test it.
I designed the system. So I can add solar panels if I need to. But I am hoping if I am looking at maybe 90wh or draw per day (inverter isn’t 100% efficient, the charge controller only pulls like .1w, but that is still 2.4wh a day and the timer pulls a little juice when it turns the relay on). The coop is at the edge of the woods, but this time of year, assuming a sunny day, it gets filtered sunlight through the woods until about noon. Then it is direct sunlight until around 3:30 or 4 when the sun hits some cedars and then is pretty heavily shaded until sunset. Low sun this time of year, even with the panels aligned at their best I am assuming maybe 2-5w of power till noon on a sunny day and 20-30w noon to 3:30.
So maybe 110-130wh per sunny day. Depending on just how dark an overcast day is, maybe 5-15wh on overcast days. I am hoping that’ll average out enough to work well.
One other factor is the chicken water heater has a thermal cutout switch. So after awhile it’ll cycle. Just throwing a block of ice on it and plugging it in to an outdoor outlet it seems to burn around 60wh an hour with ice on it. If it was all melted I assume it’ll use less as it’ll be warmer and cycle more. But I don’t want to count on that.
Anyway, I can easily add another one or two 25w panels or I have my eye on a 60w panel that is basically the same price as two 25w panels I am using. And it is voltage matched close enough mixing it in should only reduce overall array efficiency 2-3%. Making 2x25 + 60w better than 4x25w panels by at least a bit. Unsure what I’ll do if I expand power producing. 3x25 or 4x25 gives me more flexibility.
In a year or two I’ll be building a shed/workshop that’ll be powered by solar within about 20-30ft from the coop. I’ll just run an extension cord then. I’ll probably repurpose the panels or the whole thing as a charge maintainer for my tear drop trailer that I am building. The trailer I am shooting for a pair of 100w flexible panels on the roof and a 100ah lithium iron phosphate battery. But where it’ll be parked the panels are basically going to be pointed north west…and the setting sun will be going through the trees in the summer. Winter, I doubt it’ll get even high angle direct light. I am designing the trailer so I can plug in a portable solar panel if I am camping somewhere in the shade, so I can setup a 60-120w folding panel maybe 10-20ft away in the sun. Or if I need extra panel while camping.
And then when home and parked I can have one or more of the 25w panels on a small post next to the park pad oriented south and plug it in to the camper to keep the battery charged. Especially since lithium batteries means I’ll need to have a battery heater to keep it from freezing. I don’t expect that’ll use much power with an insulated battery box, but a 12w, 12v heating pad with a thermal switch might still pull 20-40wh of power a day if really cold out. Maybe more.
And I could add some landscape lights run off 12v around there.
Anyway, it’s been an interesting project. I’ve been learning a lot putting solar power in to practice. Not just knowing the theory. A lot better than dropping $2000-3000 on the power systems for this workshop and finding out I didn’t size or do things right. In some ways worse, the $1000-1500 on the camper for electrical power and finding out I have to take it apart because I didn’t do something right.
I just went through the same project in very similar circumstances. My advice is that you will need far more panel watts that you think you need. They put out less than rated and there is much loss in conversion.
In my case even a 100 watt panel was not sufficient to run a 50 watt 'bird bath heater' to keep my chickens' water warm around the clock.
Best of luck to you, if nothing else as you say it's an interesting project and you will learn a lot.
My wife bought me a pressure cooker for my B-day coming next week. Now I will be able to can lots of meats, soups, chili, and other things that need high temps.
According to CNN you are now a Domestic Violent Extremist
What is the half life of Spam?
Long enough it can be passed on as an heirloom.
I don't know why I enjoy watching people eat old food.This guy opens and sometimes tastes ancient can goods. This is his attempt at Spam from 1985.
I don't know why I enjoy watching people eat old food.
I guess not really prepping so much, but an “off grid” project. I didn’t really want to run an extension cord 150-200ft to my chicken coop and I am tired of needing to bring their water in to my garage most evenings in the winter or run hot water out to them once or twice a day to melt the ice.
So I built a solar chicken water heater. I designed it to expand the solar panel capacity if needed.
Two 25w panels to be mounted on the roof of the coop. 35ah AGM battery. Renogy 10a charge controller. 150w 12v inverter. 12v timer to control when the inverter gets power.
I am looking to run the 80w heater an hour a day. Trying to figure out if I should run it for an hour at 11am. Or how I have it setup now which is 30 minutes at 11 and 15 minutes at 1 and 3pm to help it stay ice free through more of the day. I am guessing an hour at 11 is probably the better approach, but I’ll test it.
I designed the system. So I can add solar panels if I need to. But I am hoping if I am looking at maybe 90wh or draw per day (inverter isn’t 100% efficient, the charge controller only pulls like .1w, but that is still 2.4wh a day and the timer pulls a little juice when it turns the relay on). The coop is at the edge of the woods, but this time of year, assuming a sunny day, it gets filtered sunlight through the woods until about noon. Then it is direct sunlight until around 3:30 or 4 when the sun hits some cedars and then is pretty heavily shaded until sunset. Low sun this time of year, even with the panels aligned at their best I am assuming maybe 2-5w of power till noon on a sunny day and 20-30w noon to 3:30.
So maybe 110-130wh per sunny day. Depending on just how dark an overcast day is, maybe 5-15wh on overcast days. I am hoping that’ll average out enough to work well.
One other factor is the chicken water heater has a thermal cutout switch. So after awhile it’ll cycle. Just throwing a block of ice on it and plugging it in to an outdoor outlet it seems to burn around 60wh an hour with ice on it. If it was all melted I assume it’ll use less as it’ll be warmer and cycle more. But I don’t want to count on that.
Anyway, I can easily add another one or two 25w panels or I have my eye on a 60w panel that is basically the same price as two 25w panels I am using. And it is voltage matched close enough mixing it in should only reduce overall array efficiency 2-3%. Making 2x25 + 60w better than 4x25w panels by at least a bit. Unsure what I’ll do if I expand power producing. 3x25 or 4x25 gives me more flexibility.
In a year or two I’ll be building a shed/workshop that’ll be powered by solar within about 20-30ft from the coop. I’ll just run an extension cord then. I’ll probably repurpose the panels or the whole thing as a charge maintainer for my tear drop trailer that I am building. The trailer I am shooting for a pair of 100w flexible panels on the roof and a 100ah lithium iron phosphate battery. But where it’ll be parked the panels are basically going to be pointed north west…and the setting sun will be going through the trees in the summer. Winter, I doubt it’ll get even high angle direct light. I am designing the trailer so I can plug in a portable solar panel if I am camping somewhere in the shade, so I can setup a 60-120w folding panel maybe 10-20ft away in the sun. Or if I need extra panel while camping.
And then when home and parked I can have one or more of the 25w panels on a small post next to the park pad oriented south and plug it in to the camper to keep the battery charged. Especially since lithium batteries means I’ll need to have a battery heater to keep it from freezing. I don’t expect that’ll use much power with an insulated battery box, but a 12w, 12v heating pad with a thermal switch might still pull 20-40wh of power a day if really cold out. Maybe more.
And I could add some landscape lights run off 12v around there.
Anyway, it’s been an interesting project. I’ve been learning a lot putting solar power in to practice. Not just knowing the theory. A lot better than dropping $2000-3000 on the power systems for this workshop and finding out I didn’t size or do things right. In some ways worse, the $1000-1500 on the camper for electrical power and finding out I have to take it apart because I didn’t do something right.
This guy opens and sometimes tastes ancient can goods. This is his attempt at Spam from 1985.
Two 25w panels to be mounted on the roof of the coop. 35ah AGM battery. Renogy 10a charge controller. 150w 12v inverter. 12v timer to control when the inverter gets power.
Here is the setup not on the coop.
I just went through the same project in very similar circumstances. My advice is that you will need far more panel watts that you think you need. They put out less than rated and there is much loss in conversion.
In my case even a 100 watt panel was not sufficient to run a 50 watt 'bird bath heater' to keep my chickens' water warm around the clock.
Best of luck to you, if nothing else as you say it's an interesting project and you will learn a lot.
Why did you not use a setup like the direct solar water heaters?
Instead of solar to electric to water heater.
The only reason I would see your setup would be if you needed the water heated at night.