Yikes! It’s been a long time since I’ve updated this website. A lot has happened. The most important step has been the addition of a solar electrical system.
I hit a rough patch when I ran low on funds and time, so nothing got done for a while. I made this first video when I got to a point where I was losing sleep due to the stagnation of this project. I opted to waking up at 6am to pick away at it.
I bought 95% of what I needed to get the electrical system installed. After staring at it for a while, I couldn’t take it anymore, and had to get to work.
First, I had to designate a place to put all of the equipment. My floor plan called for a utility closet. The size of the closet was dictated by the size of my batteries. The batteries have to go in their own vented box that is isolated from the rest of the electrical system because they can potentially vent hydrogen gas, and cause an explosion. So, the size of my closet is dictated by the size of this box, which is dictated by the size of the batteries. You follow? Here’s the video of the build of the utility mounting board and battery box that will be the interior of the utility closet:
After this mounting infrastructure was done, I installed the solar power. I started on the interior, then had many delays due to work and weather before I finally got the panels on the roof. Everything finally got wired together on the first relatively decent day of the year. It still rained a little that day, but the work got done. This next video chronicles the process of installing the solar from nothing to completed system, although I make some minor changes in the next video. I hope it clears up some questions that people have. I tried to show some of the things that were a mystery to me until I jumped in and got hands on. I don’t know why it’s so hard to find videos of people actually mounting solar panels, hardware and all…
Anyway, I learned that doing entire videos on one subject are extremely difficult and time consuming. I know that some of my subscribers were getting annoyed that it was taking so long to get an update. So, I think I will be posting more frequent, shorter videos in the future. You’re still stuck with this one, though.
UPDATE 2017/6/15: After this video was done shooting and the solar was installed, I made a couple of changes, then did some GFCI experimentation. Here is the epilogue of the solar project:
Coming up next, I gloss over the process of framing out the partitions for some walls, the shower, and the toilet. Then I get to start installing the fun stuff!
Thanks for your patience thus-far.
Key Component Links:
Morningstar Charge Controller: https://amzn.to/2Fu7Nl9
Trimetric Battery Monitor: https://amzn.to/2J1fX5t
Trimetric Wiring Kit with Shunt: https://amzn.to/2J3BieH
Morningstar 300W Inverter: https://amzn.to/2IBTzAI
Trojan T-105 Batteries: https://amzn.to/2ICXnSf
Distribution Panel: https://amzn.to/2WZDRbr
Big Red Disconnect Switches: https://amzn.to/2WZseML
Wire Crimper: https://amzn.to/2X3jRor
4AWG Wire: https://amzn.to/2Xstdt7
4AWG Wire Lugs: https://amzn.to/2FvDQkN
14/2 AWG Wire: https://amzn.to/2WZ11dl
10/2 Exterior Wire for Connecting Panels: https://amzn.to/2FubjMF
Roof Fan: https://amzn.to/2X7u3wk