I have been in awe of how solar power tends to add up. A LOT more than I had imagined it would.
I know I have mentioned it before but I just gotta say it again..
This site runs on 100% solar power these days.
I have it setup so if the batteries were to get to low, a charge circuit comes on to keep the batteries alive until the sun comes out again. So far that charging system only has a couple hours racked up and that was only on the first few days or so before I sorted some battery issues.
For 24/7 loads
I now have a couple 8 port switches, the system that runs this web site (it does a lot of other things too), a muti-dish dish network switch ( and LNBFs),
a laptop (which I am on now), a small fridge, an incubator, and the computer interfaces and controls for the climate control and home automation
The garage lighting, along with our entire master bedroom, which has very little as far as power consuming devices, just a 32 inch LCD tv that gets maybe 30 min a night but adds some phantom load if I forget to shut off the power strip.
I also have been running most every power tool in the shop off this setup in the daytime. As of today our well also is powered from this system. I will have to keep an eye on this to see how that goes as the well serves a second house as well as ours. My feeling is this will be to much for the system, particularily on days like today where it was all overcast and rainy.
As long as I keep my heavy loads to sunny daytime hours it seems I have more than enough power to play with.
From what I have seen, these panels quite often put out near 900 watt when there is enough demand and sun to make it happen.
I know I am lacking a LOT of battery capacity yet but I am more and more impressed with this little setup every day, glad I am in good company with
birdhouse and
strider