Your Questions About Solar Generators For Sale

admin answers:

4 ceiling fans 400 watts. 7 CFL lights 150 watts. 2 motor pumps 746 watts. One TV 150 watts. Total 1446 watts. 3000 watt gasoline powered generators sell for about $320 USA including tax if you can find a sale. Smaller may cost more and likely cannot supply the starting surge for the pumps. If you need to start both pumps simultaneously, you need 5500 watts or a bit more which will cost about $530, perhaps as much as $1000. 2 kw = 2000 watts likely won’t start either pump even with everything else turned off.
Possibly 3000 watts won’t start the second pump if the first one is running. If you have pump starting problems a possible solution is a 2000 watt (or there abouts) grid tie inverter powered by a battery which you trickle charge from the generator possibly supplemented by a PV solar panel and/or small wind turbine. With the generator running the inverter will think it is connected to the grid, and phase lock with your generator. That will give you 2000 + 3000 = 5000 watts. If you cut the power to one or both pumps, you can turn off the inverter to improve the life expectancy of the battery. Grid tie inverters have an input voltage range, such as 24 to 52 volts, The lower number should be the battery voltage as the actual battery voltage is about 10% more than the battery rated voltage = two 12 volt batteries in series supply about 27 volts to your inverter.
Possibly sme of that is not correct and you should buy about a 2500 watt inverter (not grid tie) with a 5000 watt surge rating. You will need two 6 volt 250 amphour batteries to power it to 5000 watts, and an 800 watt (or there abouts) generator, to charge the batteries when the voltage drops below 6.5 volts on either battery. That may happen frequently unless your wind turbine and/or PV solar panels are rated 1000 watts or more. What is an st generator? Neil

admin answers:

I’m a permaculture farmer, on a 40 acre farm. We are slowly moving our entire farm to becoming off grid. So far the water and the heat are off grid. Next is the power.

We’ll be using both wind and solar, because on days the sun doesn’t shine, it’s usually windy. If you go with a grid tied solar system as another person suggested, it will save you more than 1/2 the cost. However when the grid power goes down, so does yours. If you have no batteries and no inverter, you have no power.

I really like the solar systems that Costco has been offering for sale. The nice thing about them is you can start small, and ad more as your budget allows. For your batteries, you want to look at marine batteries (for boats), or golf cart batteries. This next part is really important, so pay attention; BATTERIES GIVE OFF TOXIC GAS, AND MUST BE VENTED TO THE OUTSIDE! So no batteries in your house. Plan on building your batteries a protective box OUTSIDE. Also realize that you should not talk to ANYONE about your batteries and off grid home. Why? Because it’s valuable, and has immediate resale value for those who steal and turn items in for scrap and recycling. You could come home and find your entire system, including the valuable and expensive batteries gone.

Since the batteries have to be vented to the outside, theft is a real possibility. What do you plan to run, in terms of appliances? A laptop takes little power. A desk top computer is a power hog. A refrigerator from an RV can be run off propane, and will use no electricity. CFL or LED lights take very little power. You can install a gas powered stove, so again you need no power for it. We are going to use an on demand water heater, so no power needed for the water. We are currently building a 600 sg ft house, with propane powered fridge, stove, and water heater. The actual power needs of the house are very minimal. We’ll be heating with a wood stove.

You might actually find you don’t need 2000 watts if you choose the right appliances. Of course if you go for full electric everything, you’ll need a lot more than 2000 watts. If you live someplace where you have to run A/C you’ll probably need more than 2000 watts. In our climate, a ceiling fan is more than sufficient.

So sit down, plan your house, and what your ACTUAL electrical appliances will be. Go to YouTube, there are lots of great videos on there about people living in little solar powered houses.

~Garnet
Permaculture homesteading/farming over 20 years