For me.... my interest in solar started back in the late 70's... when the OPEC nations decided to embargo oil and gas shipments, to the US... since there were already long lines at the gas stations, I worried about heating my house during the coming winter months.

These five Thermal (Heat) Panels could heat my house, even in freezing temperatures A small, 6 volt radio, powered from a Radio Shack PV PanelSo I bought a cast iron wood burning heater, and some Thermal (Heat) panels. I also bought a small PV panel to operate my radio... The wood heater and the Thermal Heat panels did provide my house with adequate heat, and if the sun was shining, the small Radio Shack PV panel provided enough power to keep my small, 6 volt radio working, and by the way, after 22 years, that small PV panel still works OK. I was always curious how that 6 volt panel could power a radio.

A 10 watt PV panel and battery pack from an ocean buoy Powering a 12 volt 8 watt florescent shop lightThen... in the middle of 1999, I was concerned again about another crisis, one that seem to be coming down the pipeline... it was Y2k. Like others, I had heard all those horror stories about the coming Y2k disaster, when phones would quit working, and airplanes would fall out of the sky, and so on. We all know nothing happened on New Years Eve, but back in the Summer of 1999... it was a hot topic on many of the news media. So just in case, I decided to make a simple home power system, to provide a small bit of emergency power if the lights went out. I bought two small, 10 watt Solar Cell (PV) Panels that were formerly used as a power source for ocean buoys. Solar Cell panels are sometimes called Photo Voltaics or PV's, because they convert sunlight into electricity.

The lamp in the center is an ordinary incandescent (hot) light, and the other two are Compact Florescent (CF) lights Fueled by the fears of Y2k, I wanted to make some more preparations... so I replaced my house lights with the new (and excellent) Compact Florescent Lights... they use only 13 to 16 watts of power and deliver the same light as an ordinary incandescent (hot) bulb... and, I might add, that using these CF lights did lower my electric bill enough to pay for one light every month.

The light on the left is an Earthlight, from Phillips, and the light on the right is from Lights of America... the middle light is an ordinary incandescent (hot) light bulb.

Four Golf Cart Batteries producing 400 Amp HoursI also bought four Golf Cart Batteries and a 250 watt StatPower Inverter... the batteries provide about 400 Amp Hours of energy storage... which is enough power to operate a CF lamp, my 14 inch TV set, and a small fan for 50 hours, (five, 10 hour days), without recharging the batteries. I actually tested out the system for the full 50 hours, and everything worked... but... the batteries were discharged down to 11.30 volts... so... to preserve the life of the batteries, I did this 50 hour endurance test, only once.
Small 250 watt StatPower InverterThe StatPower Pro 250 Inverter produces a 120 volt AC Modified Sine Wave, which is good enough for 99% of all household applications... but, It is limited to 250 watts of power. I only wanted it for emergency power and was able to buy a refurbished unit for $61 from Arizona Wind and Sun. It has worked perfectly for about a year, now, and I am off the grid in parts of my house using only this one, 250 watt, inverter.

A 12 or 24 volt 10 amp, battery ChargerI needed only one more thing to make my system Y2k ready... and that was a good battery charger. I found a 10 amp charger that could charge both 12 volt and 24 volt systems (later I am going to switch to 24 volts, to lower power cable losses). It was late in December when I got the Charger, Inverter, and Batteries all hooked together. Then I attached a 6 outlet power strip to my inverter, and plugged in my bedroom lamp, small fan, and my TV set... and they all worked flawlessly. I knew my home power would not be interrupted by a storm or any power outage, ever again.

My small 7 inch fan stays on all night, with little power drainAs you all know, Y2k came and went, and nothing happened... so... you might ask, does the story end there? Actually no... I still had the batteries and the the inverter, and in January of this year, I had visions of even greater things...(sounds dramatic, doesn't it?)

You have to understand that the Y2k system only costs me about $250 for the Golf Cart Batteries, then there was $61 for the Inverter, and another $67 for the Battery Charger... and this simple, (and cheap) investment provides my home with some power during any storm, or hurricane (I live in Houston), or any future problem that may happen to the grid. In fact, I could provide myself, this limited power for several days if there was a prolonged power interuption.

But... after five days or so, the batteries would have to be recharged by the battery charger (the grid)... so the system was not independent from the grid, at least, it wasn't then.

Six 90 watt PV's hooked up in
JanuaryIn January, right after Y2k passed, I found a source of high quality 90 watt, PV's for $4 a watt... and purchased 12 panels. I connected six of the PV's to my battery array, which now provides me enough power to discontinue using the battery charger. The system works so well, that even on cloudy days there is sufficient electrical power stored into the batteries, to run the TV, some CF lights, and a fan. Soon, I will have the other six PV's installed, which will probably produce enough power for a solar type refrigerator.

A cheap battery indicator A Trace TC60 Battery ControllerWhen I first set up my PV's, I needed a way to monitor the condition of the batteries. So I bought a automotive cigarette lighter plug-in battery indicator... you can see it at the left. I still have it attached today, but... I also have a Charge Controller, which limits the input voltage to the batteries, so that they will not be overcharged on bright sunny days.

The advantage of the small three LED battery indicator, is that I can always see, at a glance, the voltage level in my batteries. Since the battery indicator only costs me about $5, it was cheap insurance.

A home built dimmer switch for the battery chargerAnd do you remember that 12 volt battery charger I started out with? It turns out that this charger worked fine, with two Golf Cart Batteries (12 volts), but strained a bit when I expanded my battery array to 4 batteries. Now I use 8 Golf Cart Batteries, and when I have several days of cloudy weather, and need to recharge the batteries (from the grid), the charger overloads and trips out from heat overload.

To stop this, I built a inexpensive Dimmer Switch to plug my battery charger into, so that the input current can be controlled by turning the knob on the dimmer box. I can adjust the output amps of the charger, so that it operates under its maximum limit and doesn't trip out from heat overload.

A Statpower ProWatt1500 Inverter I use a Brand Watt Meter to check the loads of all my appliancesBy October of 1991, I had added more PV panels... so that now, 8 panels are on line... With that extra power and the 8 Golf Cart Batteries, I was able to take my old, 75 Mhz pentium computer off the grid. I even went a step further, and bought a refurbished Statpower ProWatt 1500 watt inverter. I needed the bigger inverter to see if it was possible to take my microwave oven off the grid, too.

I also bought a Brand 4-1850 Watt Meter to measure various power loads around the house. It is a handy tool to have for home power work.

In the beginning, I only wanted to have an emergency back-up power during Y2k, or when there was a power outage.... but now, it seems, that part of my house is permanently off-grid.

Anyway... I hope this history of my experiences will serve as a kind of tutorial on how to hook up your own PV system.

Gig