Last year I powered my camp entirely from the sun (with the exception of our ridiculous lighting on Pipe Dream). I built a solar power station that stored electricity generated from solar panels in two large gel-cell batteries, and provided 2 kW of pure sine wave power. It powered our camp’s Wi-Fi and lighting, as well as our toaster.
Equipment list:
| Panels | 3 72-cell, 230 W, leased from BRS |
|---|---|
| Charge Controller | Morningstar TriStar MPPT 60 |
| Inverter | Samlex 24V 2000W Pure Sine Wave |
| Batteries | 2 SunXtender PVX-2120L 12 V 212 Ah |
| Electrical Panel | MidNite Solar MNE125ALT |
| DC Breakers | MidNite Solar MNEPV-XX |
| AC Breakers | MidNite Solar MNEACXXQZD |
| Surge Protector | MidNite Solar MNSPD-300-DC on PV Input |
| Monitoring | Pentametric PM-5000-U and PM-102-USB, and a BeagleBone Black with LCD display and custom software. |
| Hardware | Custom-designed and built PVC rack, XRS Rails, associated mounting hardware. Also, breakers, outlets, grounding hardware, surge protection on panels. |
