4 ms·
In total about £600 (this was 2 years ago); £250 for the panel, £120 for the battery, £150 for the inverter (Ebay, 2nd hand) and the rest on sundries like cable
by jrabone 13y ago
In total about £600 (this was 2 years ago); £250 for the panel, £120 for the battery, £150 for the inverter (Ebay, 2nd hand) and the rest on sundries like cable & connectors (also Ebay in most cases). I used http://www.midsummerenergy.co.uk/ http://www.midsummerenergy.co.uk/ for a lot of the bits.
Note you can now get a 135W panel for £190, which is some indication of the falling cost over the last 24 months - the 50W Kyocera panel is now £80!
- tocomment 13y agoSo what kind of battery is it? I might want to try this. Do you have any other details? A blog post perhaps :-)
- jrabone 13y agoIt was an Elecsol 100Ah leisure battery. The equivalent would be http://midsummerenergy.co.uk/buy/Sealed-Batteries/PM-110.html http://midsummerenergy.co.uk/buy/Sealed-Batteries/PM-110.htm... Other bits were a Morningstar SunSaver solar regulator SS10 and a Nasa Clipper BM1 Battery Monitor (unnecessary extravagence - don't bother!). I also added a couple of 12V fluorescent lights powered from the SS10 so I didn't need the inverter running just for light. It's a pretty simple set up, the hardest part is making up the high current battery cables - the clamps, fuse holder and connector to the inverter are pretty substantial to handle 100A. I mounted the panel on the roof of the Apex shed with simple aluminium brackets. The wiring is pretty simple (more complicated by the battery monitor which has a 100A shunt resistor in the negative lead to monitor the load current). I uploaded a pictorial wiring diagram at http://i.imgur.com/UX4Y29o.jpg?1 http://i.imgur.com/UX4Y29o.jpg?1 for you.
- tocomment 13y agoThat's great thanks! I'll let you know how it goes.