47 Our own alternative energy systems

47 Our own alternative energy systems

Please note:

These pictures are from our old place in Long Beach,

California (we were there from May, 1984 until June, 2016).

We moved to Kingman, Arizona in July, 2016.

I will be putting some photovoltaics in our new place. Time, back and

wallet permitting.

One of our systems was a grid intertie, the rest are

stand alone systems.

At our old location we use 12 and 24 volt d.c. fluorescent and

led lighting.

896 watt / 12 volt system consisting of 23 modules.

The nine modules with the brown backing are Arco Solar M-51

40 watt modules which were removed from a grid-intertie

system operated by a utitlity plant in Northern California.

The other modules are:

one Solec 32 watt mod. 4132

four Solec 34 watt mod. 4134

and

four Solarex 33.5 watt mod. 4330EG

We added two Siemens mod. SP-75 modules, on the left,

to the system on 7/31/05.

We added two Shell SR-90 and one Shell SM-55 modules

to the system in October 2008 as shown below.

stand alone photovoltaic system controls

off-roof array controllers

The systems output is less than the name plate rating of the modules.

I purchased the modules in the three on-roof arrays from 1978 to around

1985 and installed the system in 1986.

We had to custom build the module racks from stainless steel

due to the different sizes of modules.

The output from the three arrays on the roof go through a Morningstar

TriStar 60 charge controller and into a Class T fuse and disconnect

before going to a 900 amp hour battery bank (eight T-105 six volt batteries in

series and parallel).

This system also has a secondary battery bank which is composed of six

6 volt / 180 amp hour gel cells.

They tap off the main system before the Class T fuse.

These batteries have their own charge controller.

It is a Flexcharge NC25A/12 with an external 100 amp charging contactor.

The NC25A charging voltage is set up for gel cells and will cut-out

when the gel batteries are charged and before the flooded batteries are charged.

This allows both banks to reach full charge.

The charging contactor draws about 2.7 watts from the system when

it disconnects the gel batteries.

The output from the contactor goes through a d.c. disconnect before

going to a Class T fuse which is dedicated to the gel batteries.

The off-roof arrays go through a separate Morningstar TriStar 60 charge controller

before going into the same fuse and disconnect.

Each TriStar has a remote mounted meter to monitor the charging system.

The flooded battery bank has a remote mounted Tri-Metric 2020 to monitor

its status.

This system powers up an Exeltech 1100 watt true sine wave inverter

as well as providing power for interior and exterior fluorescent and

led lighting in our stock buildings.

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400 watt grid-intertie array consisting of eight Evergreen Solar

modules.

Each pair of modules is wired in series for 24 volts and has

a Trace Micro-Sine grid inter-tie inverter.

The a.c. output is combined and fed through a weather-tite

disconnect before going through a GFCI circuit breaker in the

main service panel.

The racks are fabricated from stainless steel rectangular tubing.

The mounting feet are stainless angle.

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flexcharge pv7d photovoltaic charge controller in one of our systems

This 70 watt array is mounted on a 3-1/2" by 3-1/2" by 1/4"

square tube which is 20 feet long (a plate is welded to

the top to keep out water) and extends app. 15' from the

ground.

It is imbedded in about 1-1/2 yards of re-inforced concrete.

The two larger modules are Arco Solar pull-outs like the

ones in our first system.

The smaller module is a 10 watt semi-crystalline Solarex.

The racking is stainless steel angle.

The output is fed through a 7 amp Flexcharge PV-7D charge controller and

into two 35 amp hour AGM batteries.

As you can see, the yellow wire from the controller is not connected - it connects to a second

battery for a dual battery setup.

This system provides outdoor work and area lighting.

It also powers up a waterfall, on the rare occasions where

there is time to use it.

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This 237 watt array is composed of the following modules:

one Evergreen mod. EC64, one Arco Solar mod. M25,

one Uni-Solar mod. US-32, one Solarex MSX56 and one

MSX60.

Their output goes through a fuse and into a

Morningstar Sunsaver 20 charge controller.

The output from the controller is fused and charges two

Trojan T-105 batteries wired in series for 12 volts / 225 amp hours.

This system powers up d.c. fluorescent lighting in our office

as well as in one of our stock rooms and a waterpump.

The Arco M25 originally powered a gable vent fan until

we had it re-roofed.

The Arco and Evergreen modules were mounted on the

stainless steel structure mid-2001.

Please look at the way the rack is mounted on the roof.

I would never recommend mounting this way because of the potential

of creating a water dam.

I mounted these this way due to the type of roof decking along with the

weight and height of the array.

The Uni-Solar module was installed on 7/31/05.

The two Solarex modules were installed on 12/25/05.

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photowatt stand alone system - 180 watts

This 260 watt stand-alone system consists of two Photowatt

(Matrix Solar) PW-1000 modules (90 watts each) and one

Sharp 80 watt NE-80EJE module.

The top Photowatt module is wired in parallel into the bottom

Photowatt module using 10 ga. tray cable.

The output is fed through 8 ga. tray cable through a fuse and blocking

diodes and into a Flexcharge mod. NC30-12L charge controller with night-time function.

The output from the Sharp module is fed into the fuse block using

two 10 ga. 2 conductor tray cables.

The controller outputs through a fuse into four 6 volt 225 amp hour Trojan T-105

golf cart batteries wired in series/parallel for a 450 amp hour system capacity.

At dusk, when the voltage drops on the array, the controller sends

12 volt d.c. to several perimeter led lights to provide energy-efficient

security lighting.

A fused output from the batteries provides power for an outdoor

fluoresent floodlight as well as for the packing/shipping area.

The packing/shipping area has fluorescent and led lighting as well

as a small inexpensive inverter to power up a hot glue gun.

This system has a remote mounted Bogart Engineering TriMetric 2020 to monitor

the battery bank state of charge as well as to keep track of load

consumption and pv array power production.

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solar converters maximum power point tracking controller

This 172 watt stand-alone system consists of four Solarex MST

Millenium series thin-film modules with an open circuit voltage of

103 volts d.c. out-of-the-box.

The short circuit current of each module is app. 0.8 amp.

The modules have since settled down (as thin fim modules do) and

are running at about 87 volts d.c. in full sun.

The rack is made of stainless steel square and rectangular

tubing welded and bolted in place.

Due to the weight of these modules the rack was assembled

in place.

The sloped mounting surfaces have stainless steel bolts

face-welded so the modules only needed to be set in place

before attaching washers and nuts.

Each module has its own output through 10 ga. tray cable which

is combined in a fuse block and then into a disconnect switch.

From the disconnect switch the output runs through a little over

100 feet of 8 ga. tray cable.

Considering the output voltage of the array, the 8 ga. cable is

more than big enough for the wire run distance.

The tray cable is fed into a 250 v.d.c. outdoor rated

disconnect switch.

I removed the original fuse blocks in the housing to make

room for a Solar Converters mod. PT-48-8-12/24B

maximum power point charge controller.

You can see that the controller is held in place using

stainless steel 1/4"-20 threaded rod for stand-offs.

The charge controller steps down the voltage to a

nominal 24 volt charging rate (app. 28.2 volts).

Both the input and output of the charge controller run

through the disconnect switch (one pole for input and

one pole for output) for safety.

The output goes into a battery box which has four Trojan T-105

six volt batteries wired in series for a 24 volt system.

The power from the charge controller goes through

a fuse in the battery box.

The fused output from the batteries uses 2 ga. portable

power cable to an interior splicer block.

The block feeds a Samlex 600 watt / 24 volt true sine

wave inverter which powers up office equipment.

The block also supplies power to indoor fluorescent

lighting and a portable 24 volt d.c. fan.

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85 watt system consisting of one Solarex MX65 module and two Solarex M10U

modules which are controlled by a Morningstar SunSaver 20L-12V controller.

The 12 volt battery bank consists of two Trojan t-105 six volt batteries wired in

series.

The controls are mounted in a outdoor telephone equipment box.

This system powers, through the low voltage disconnect on the charge controller,

all of our ventilation which consists of a ceiling fan and a 16" venturi fan which is

mounted above a spring loaded louvere in the attic access hatch.

The fan acts as a whole house fan.

It also powers up two 12 volt d.c. water pumps for watering the landscaping in

the front and back yard with used laundry water.

Solar input, controller to battery and controller to load circuits are protected

by Class R fuses.

Each fuse has a wire tie hanging from it for use as a disconnect.

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This system is a work in progress.

It is a 48 volt system that will power up two Exeltech inverters (1100 and 600 watt) as

well as provide 48 volt d.c. fluorescent lighting.

Currently the system is powering up an Exeltech 125 watt sine wave inverter.

As the system progresses we will show updated pictures and information.

Four Evergreen EC-115 modules (internally wired for 12 volt) -

115 watts each and wired in series through a roof-top NEMA 4 box.

The output cable (app. 85 feet) to the control cabinet is 6/3 tray cable.

This NEMA 4 telephone cabinet contains the following:

Three CF-125 / 15 amp circuit breakers.

One Trace Photovoltaic Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter.

Three Eaton Heinamann / Lucent 10 amp - 65 vdc rated circuit breakers.

Three Morningstar ProStar 48 - 15M charge controllers.

Because of shading problems, each array has its own charge controller.

Numerous distribution and splicer blocks.

Class R fuse blocks to protect the lighting circuits.

Class T fuse blocks to protect the inverters.

Six Trojan T-105 six volt batteries wired in series for 48 volts.

Please note the Class T fuse and shunt for the Tri-Metric 2020 battery

system monitor.

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This 10 watt BP Solar module is use to maintain the

battery on a motorcycle.

Its output is fed through a 4 amp Steca charge controller.

The rack is aluminum square tubing and angle.

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10)

We have two of these solar powered attic fans.

I installed them back around 1985 and they still operate

fine today.

Current production fans are much more efficient and cost

less than these early models.

Two of our stock buildings have small muffin fans attached

to weather-tite vent stacks.

These are powered by Arco Solar Genesis G-100 (5 watt)

thin-film modules.

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