Saturday, May 19, 2012

Comments

23 Responses to “Portable Solar-powered Apartment Battery Bank Part 1”
  1. kendalismyname says:

    pack up your pickles, ammo and solar panels and join me in France. I need your genius. :-P

  2. OneSproutAtaTime says:

    Hi, any recommendation on where to find the Xantrex XPower 1500 for a good price? The ones I saw were about $500.

  3. rclark23 says:

    well done mate!!

  4. vention4wh says:

    LOL, funny ending.
    Not a bad start. It’s a great idea to get some kind of backup power supply even if you live in an apartment. I own a condo (LOL I actually own the condo since I paid it off 2 weeks ago) and I have the exact same system. I added 4 extension batteries on top of the unit though, and made a nice little tray to hold them stable.

  5. sirmasterpimp says:

    @GingerBunny82 Sure you can, an sla battery is a sealed, with no free moving acid. Its acid / electrolyte is held in an absorbent glass mat, the acid won’t even come out if you remove the cover and shake it (I have many sla / agm batteries). That is why ups battery backup systems use them, some of mine are mounted sideways and one is upside down. The only battery you have to worry about is flooded lead acid (like a car battery you can add water too).

  6. GingerBunny82 says:

    @BlueHoleScuba – Good point, however Sealed Lead-Acid batteries do not and have the advantage of being stored in any position.

  7. kargaroc386 says:

    just make sure it doesn’t explode, because if it does it would be atleast like a grenade or a block of C4

  8. blsixty9 says:

    Where did you purchase the Xantrex X power 1500 battery on wheels?

  9. testbooster says:

    that same battery is now $500

  10. HmilkshakeP says:

    how much u got ur solar panel for?

  11. rroge5 says:

    if you have a apartment big enough to store all this stuff then you dont have a apartment

  12. PatriotsRepublic says:

    @superchink28 simple electrical math says, 61 amp hour battery would be able to be charged @ 12 VDC @ 1amp in 61 hours. If you are located in Arizona or some similar latitude, you could charge the battery in 10 days @ approximately 6 hours of usable sun per day. At my latitude, it would take nearly a month to charge that battery with that solar panel. A better panel would be a 40 watt 3.33 amp silicon panel (around the same size) that would allow you to charge the battery in around 3 days.

  13. picklesandammo says:

    The battery in the xpower 1500 is a 12-volt battery, with a capacity of 61 amp-hours new. The charge controller used is a 10-amp charge controller, so that’s the maximum load we can pull through the load terminals on the charger. However, the xpower itself can be used to jump start a car – so directly from the battery you can probably get a several dozen amps. Thus my cautionary notes to be careful when working with it!

  14. picklesandammo says:

    That depends on how much sun we’re getting. Since posting this video, we’ve added 2 more 12-watt panels (identical to the one in the video). We run the system for a few hours at night (mostly 2 bedroom lamps), and if the sun is shining the next day, the system is usually charged up before noon. It will definitely sustain us for a few rainy days, though. For battery health, we try not let it drain deeper than 50%.

  15. picklesandammo says:

    True! Fortunately, the xpower 1500 uses a sealed AGM (absorbed glass mat). We’ve had no problems with this system at the nearly 1 year mark.

  16. BlueHoleScuba says:

    Everyone needs to realize, charging a lead-acid battery (liquid filled) gives off hydrogen gases. Always vent or store batteries to the outside!

  17. superchink28 says:

    how long does it take to charge the battery from empty to full?

  18. nin9121 says:

    MOAR!!!!

  19. coondexter says:

    you cheated

  20. btlggr247 says:

    oh, great end, thats how i would do it too.lol

  21. sfaxtu says:

    ahh… j adors la fin lol
    i like the end lol

  22. packagewarren says:

    you didn’t indicate how strong the battery was, how many volts or amps. otherwise, pretty good job. very understandable. what was that little comedy scene with the beer,lol?

  23. tigerclub18 says:

    hey please tell me were you buy your sistem …… what kind of panel you have
    you think a can make my home freezer work… the panel sold separed?.
    thank yuo apreciate you help….

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