Harbor Freight 45 Watt Solar Panel Kit Community Forum
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Dale Marshall replied to Craig J's discussion HEADLINE: Owner of Solar Powered Home Fights Neighbor's Trees, Gains Little Ground..."I have 2 tree's right along my fence line on my property side, The neighbors grumped and said but we like the shade. Then said they wanted to check property line. They found out, Tree's were on my side and I told them prepare for sunshine.…"
Big Moe replied to Craig J's discussion HEADLINE: Owner of Solar Powered Home Fights Neighbor's Trees, Gains Little Ground..."I'm on the tree's side. I think the property rights do trump the panels. The panels just need to move a bit. It sucks for the panel guy, but I agree with Ray.
Moe"
Renewable Ray replied to Craig J's discussion HEADLINE: Owner of Solar Powered Home Fights Neighbor's Trees, Gains Little Ground..."Hmmm.....Being the hard core solar advocate that I am, and still....Personal property rights trumps all, trees need to stay. Zwalley need to move the panels to another side of the property.
Curious what the rest of you think."
Craig J posted a discussionHEADLINE: Owner of solar-powered home fights neighbor's trees, gains little ground...
Last summer, Mike Zwalley put a $65,000 solar energy system on his roof. The system — a 30-gallon solar water heater and 44 black panels that convert sunlight into electricity — cut Zwalley's electric bill from $300 to $400 per month to $10 to $20.About two months after Zwalley installed the system at his waterfront home off Indian…See More
Raymond Dias left a comment for W.R. Wahlquist"yes I do have more panels. Here is what I have now. The larger panels I added towards the end of last year and beginning of this year. In my testing and readjusting the panels are offline from time to time. I do plan on putting a full 4kwh setup on…"
W.R. Wahlquist left a comment for Raymond Dias"Mr. Ray
Bill from the woods of Minnesota here. I looked at a few of your graphs, looks like your doing well. I'm basically trying for the same here, and playing! I was wondering, I see 2 - 85 watt panels and talk of a few "H F's…"
W.R. Wahlquist replied to don's discussion Rough Drawning of my Plans for 4 sets of Harbor Freight Panels" Mr. Frank
Bill here, I have some Harbor Freight panels, then went bigger. I found grounding actually not a big deal. On the big panels the ground is just a wire from the panels frame to a ground rod. however, here in Minnesota we…"
Frank Shaffer replied to don's discussion Rough Drawning of my Plans for 4 sets of Harbor Freight Panels"Perfect! Nice work. I did not know that you have a metal roof. I bought two HF 45W kits and put them on my roof (not a metal roof). Then it occurred to me that I was providing a perfect path for lightning to enter my home.…"
don replied to don's discussion Rough Drawning of my Plans for 4 sets of Harbor Freight Panels" Yes i do have a ground rod in place 7" copper rod ,in which i use for metel roof and weather vane also , see attachment"
Frank Shaffer replied to don's discussion Rough Drawning of my Plans for 4 sets of Harbor Freight Panels"You seem to be planning to put solar panels on your roof. How are you protecting from lightning strikes? You are putting a metal structure on your roof, then connecting a heavy gauge wire to it, then running the wire into your home.…"
Frank Shaffer commented on Tom95076's video
Harbor freight 45w solar panel " basic setup." part 1
"I see that your solar panels are on your roof. How are you grounding them to protect from lightning strikes?"
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HEADLINE: Owner of Solar Powered Home Fights Neighbor's Trees, Gains Little Ground...
Started by Craig J in General Discussion. Last reply by Dale Marshall 1 hour ago. 3 Replies 0 Likes
Last summer, Mike Zwalley put a $65,000 solar energy system on his roof. The system — a…Continue
Rough Drawning of my Plans for 4 sets of Harbor Freight Panels
Started by don in General Discussion. Last reply by W.R. Wahlquist 17 hours ago. 13 Replies 0 Likes
I have a rough drawning of my plans for my 4 sets of Harbor Freight panels for a total of 180 watts.I'm looking for input if I should change or modify my plans. Here is a copy of them.Please and ThanksDon in Central NY…Continue
All my questions in one spot!-Brian Dessauer- Alternative Power
Started by Brian Dessauer in General Discussion. Last reply by Brian Dessauer yesterday. 24 Replies 0 Likes
So, I have like a ton of questions scattered all over the forums, a pain to try to follow and understand with everything else mingled in. So, if ya all don't mind I thought I would just start this one page that I can post to and do be able to find…Continue
I'm Installing Two 45 Watt Harbor Freight Solar Panel Kits
Started by H A Jones in Harbor Freight Solar Panels. Last reply by Hillbilly Gene on Thursday. 6 Replies 0 Likes
Can I use the controllers that come with the HF 45 watt kits? Should I use just one and wire the panels in parallel to it or use both controllers and wire in panels to each and wire in batteries to both in parallelContinue
Order Information for Harbor Freight Solar Controller
Started by kaimusailing in Harbor Freight Charge Controller on Wednesday. 0 Replies 0 Likes
I've been using Sunsei pwm charge controllers on my 4 kits purchased a few years ago, because the charge controllers that came with the kits were so bad. The…Continue
Breaker Per Panel - Wire Question
Started by Brian Dessauer in General Discussion. Last reply by Brian Dessauer on Wednesday. 13 Replies 0 Likes
check this out for plans on my combiner / breakerLove the plan to breaker each panel and combining at same time! I will be building this next...however I do have a few questions…Continue
How Long and What Gauge Should My Wiring Be?
Started by Renewable Ray in General Discussion. Last reply by Renewable Ray on Tuesday. 59 Replies 4 Likes
The question seems to always come up and it is so important that we get it right. So let's try to keep this great chart near the top at all times so that it is easy to find for anyone just getting starting. For example: If you have 3 solar panels…Continue
BZ products mppt controller
Started by Bill Ewing in General Discussion. Last reply by Bill Ewing on Monday. 7 Replies 0 Likes
Read while searching about the praise given to the EZ products MPPT250 and was wondering if all are still satisfied? Getting ready to add my 3rd HF kit so I should have the needed 68 watts min. with no problem and just wanted to make sure it would…Continue
Do I need to ground the neg side of my battery bank?
Started by Frank Shaffer in General Discussion. Last reply by Frank Shaffer May 13. 6 Replies 0 Likes
I am installing two HF 45W systems with a battery bank. Do I need to connect the negative side of my battery bank to an earth ground? If I do, can I use the ground line for the AC power in my house?Thank you!FrankPittsburgh, PAContinue
Possible Missing Materials
Started by don in General Discussion. Last reply by Hillbilly Gene May 13. 9 Replies 0 Likes
I have 1 Harbor Freight kit in place, brought a additional 3 set's. I plan on installing all this weekend. Here is what I have to install 30 amp Sunforce charge…Continue
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Electricity usage trend - 4 years
Posted by Raymond Dias on May 18, 2012 at 3:12pm 0 Comments 1 Like
I have been working on reducing my consumption for about 2 years now and in the last year have added solar to the mix. Below you will see the usage trends for my PG&E electric bill. Starting with the most recent and I highlight the highest month of that year.
From a high in Jun-July2009 of 1252kwh to a high in Jun-July2011 of 855 kwh. That's a reduction of 397 kwh. Lowest usage was the last bill Apr-May 2012 389 kwh
Conservation achieved most of the saving…
Continue Solar n00b - my experience with solar - PG&E bill Update
Posted by Raymond Dias on May 17, 2012 at 3:00pm 2 Comments 3 Likes
How it Started:
I started down the solar road looking for a way to have power while camping. I didn't want to use a generator due to noise so I began looking at various portable solar projects out there. There where lots of already packaged systems some small others more ambitious but they all had a high cost. I also didn't know a lot about solar itself other than the obvious 'sun shines on us during the day". I began reading blogs, doing searches and collecting links that held my…
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