Solar Experts

[Machias]

So the wife and I have been living completely off the grid for 22 months now.  In that time we get all of our power from 2 generators, a champion 4000 and a Honda 1000.  We both get home from work at 1700ish and run the big generator from 1700 to 2200ish.  Then we switch over to the Honda 1000 from 2200 to 0600.  I have to run the small generator at night for my CPAP.  I'd really like to get a solar system that can at least run my CPAP at night, if not everything during the 5 hours at night, except for the microwave and or the coffee maker, which we run for just a few minutes.  My plan is to buy a true deep cycle battery.  Will a 300w solar panel recharge the battery on most sunny days?  Any equipment recommendations?  Thanks

[Hilltop123]

Lets see?
Solar panels
charge controller
inverter
associated wiring and junction boxes
batteries

Fred, what are you bugeting for this?  Can you take a pic of any information on the cpap, that my hint to power consumtion?

[kselkhunter]

If you are handy, and know a local electrician willing to do final hookups, this company out of Mount Shasta, CA has very good pricing on wholesale kits.  And can scale a kit to your needs, although some of the pre-configured kits may work just fine.
http://www.wholesalesolar.com/

With instructions, etc. 

[Machias]

With the heated humidifier it's 90ish watts.  Budget, whatever I need, I know the lithium batteries are more costly up front, but a better option long term.

[Machias]

If you are handy, and know a local electrician willing to do final hookups, this company out of Mount Shasta, CA has very good pricing on wholesale kits.  And can scale a kit to your needs:
http://www.wholesalesolar.com/

With instructions, etc. 

I'll do the wiring, wired my own cabin.

[kselkhunter]

With the heated humidifier it's 90ish watts.  Budget, whatever I need, I know the lithium batteries are more costly up front, but a better option long term.

For lithium batteries, Battle Born is US based (manufactured in Reno, NV) and well respected.  https://battlebornbatteries.com/applications/off-grid/

[Hilltop123]

https://www.backwoodssolar.com/learning-center/system-example-1-starter-solar-power-system


About 95% of my current system I have purchased through Backwoods, thay have treated me and the neighbors great. What maybe great news to you is, they are in Sandpoint. Not sure how close that is to you. The link is to there basic starter kit, great place to start.

[Machias]

About an hour north of me.

[Cougartail]

If you are handy, and know a local electrician willing to do final hookups, this company out of Mount Shasta, CA has very good pricing on wholesale kits.  And can scale a kit to your needs:
http://www.wholesalesolar.com/

With instructions, etc. 

I'll do the wiring, wired my own cabin.

After you do the math on solar panels and storage.. double it. Trust me on this!

[Machias]

 

[scotsman]

Call Windy Nation Solar. They have a very good tech section. I have installed a Windy Nation system of every RV we have owned, and thats a lot. Reasonable prices with great customer service.

[b0bbyg]

Tagging along just to gather more info and links to companies.   I bought a 100Z kit from Renogy for the barn/greenhouse still need to get it hooked up.

[Rainier10]

I just took my old system (trace) out of my place and installed a new 8KW system from outback.

There was nothing wrong with my old system just that it was not big enough for my usage.  I will be putting the whole thing up for sale here but I can send you the information on it before I put it up here. Inverter, charge controller, switch to turn the generator on when battery level is too low. I would recommend getting new panels, mine are 15 years old and the newer panels put out more watts but there is technically nothing wrong with my panels either.

[Russ McDonald]

I just took my old system (trace) out of my place and installed a new 8KW system from outback.

There was nothing wrong with my old system just that it was not big enough for my usage.  I will be putting the whole thing up for sale here but I can send you the information on it before I put it up here. Inverter, charge controller, switch to turn the generator on when battery level is too low. I would recommend getting new panels, mine are 15 years old and the newer panels put out more watts but there is technically nothing wrong with my panels either.

Outback has some good systems.  They are out of Arlington, WA.

[Hilltop123]

 Beware, Inverters come in two flavors. True sine wave and modified sine wave. I will leave it to the electrians to explain the difference.
But for me it was a learning curve of smoking curcuit boards, with the modified sine wave. You cannot believe how many things these days have them.  Get the true sine wave inverter and dont look back.