In our store we have seen a lot of people that want to switch over to alternative energy, such as the camp system provides , but they get overwhelmed with all the technical mumbo-jumbo. Please, stop by and let us explain everything to you while looking at the camp system in our store. Ask anything you want to know, there is no such thing as a silly question.
If our store is too far away, or you do not have time to stop by, you could try and find the answer on this page. It is a compilation of al the questions we have had so far, and it also has a little explanation about electricity and solar power.
If you still have questions left, please email us (sales@windandsolarnow.com) or give us a call: (516) 665 8012.
2) What are all these parts I see? What do they do?
3) Can I run my (choose your device here) on this system?
5) Can I increase the size of this system?
7) Why are the batteries so heavy?
8) What is the maintenance on this system?
13) The inverter says : sinewave inverter. What does that mean?
15) Are there any incentives (tax-credits, rebates) on this system?
It is, in essence, a solar powered generator. Created to be a small, affordable solar electric system for camps, backwoods or shanty, it basically does exactly what a regular gas-powered generator does: Give you electricity to run things.
Look at the two pictures above and let's introduce the parts one by one...
First, the solar panel. That is that big thing on the right, it looks like a posterframe, or a standing mirror. This particular one is 27 inches wide and 57 inches high. You can either hang the frame, or just put it on the ground. Important is that is gets full sunlight, because this is the part that PRODUCES electrical energy from the sun.
The panel is attached via a wire ( not shown here) to that little black box, above the yellow box, in the picture on the left. This black box is called a CONTROLLER or REGULATOR. It takes the electrical energy from the solar panel and gives it to the batteries for storage. It is called a regulator because it regulates the energyflow. If the batteries are full, it blocks the flow so that your batteries do not explode. If it is night and the solar panel does not produce electricity, it shuts down the flow alltogether. This is done so that you do not lose power to the solar panel if that pannel is not working. It is by far the most interesting part of the system, because it has cute lights on it, telling you how full your battteries are, and shows you what the current voltage and amperage is.
The next parts are the batteries. There are four of them, standing on the floor with all these wires atttached to them. They STORE the energy, so that you can use it whenever you need it. Do not get impressed by al these wires, they just connect all the batteries together so that they are basically just one gigantic battery.
Next is the INVERTER. That is that big yellow box you see on the picture. It transforms the DC power from the batteries into AC power that your regular household devices use. This particular inverter takes 12 Volts DC from the batteries and converts it to 110 V AC . It has two outlets on the side, so you can plug in up to two power cords and power whatever you like.
You see that little weird thing to the right on the inverter? It is slightly below and to the right of the controller. That is a FUSE. The fuse will blow if too much energy is drawn from the system. This protects the inverter and the batteries from being damaged, not to mention protecting YOU from any shorts.
The last part you see is on the far left. It is a standard breaker you can find in the breakerbox inside your house. You can either plug in a powercord directly to the inverter, or wire the inverter, via a breaker box, to run a (ONE !!) circuit in your house. Provided you do not use more than 1000 Watts , or 10 Amps, on that circuit, because that is the maximum power the inverter can provide.
In most cases, we can answer this question with : Yes, as long as you stay UNDER 1000 W (10 amps). Yes, you can run a TV on it. Yes, you can run your light on it. Yes, you can run your fan on it. No, you can not run your central AC on it. No, you can not run your electric stove on it. And no, you can not run 3 TV's, 10 lights, a refrigerator and 5 fans all at once :-).
Not on THIS system anyway. We are capable of upgrading your system, of course. A larger inverter will increase the amount and types of devices you can run. The inverter is the part that determines how much you can use at once.
That depends on how much you are using and how much sun your solar panel gets. It also depends on how your batteries are doing (old batteries drain faster). Roughly, if your solar panel is not working at all, and you start with your new batteries fully charged and you use the full 1000W all the time you should be able to run things for up to 48 hours. In Florida terms: When the power fails you will be able to wait out the storm with power available, even if it takes more than the roughly 8 hrs a portable gas generator can run before the storm is done. The nice part of this system is it can be recharged without having to go to a gas station. Even if the power is out for days, this generator recharges itself as long as the solar panel is in the sun. With careful use you'll never run out of power.
Yes. It will cost more, of course. There are different ways to upgrade this system.
a) Upgrade the inverter.
b) Upgrade the batteries.
c) Upgrade the solar panel. More solar panels means more power production and faster recharging of the battteries. We can put up to three panels to the controller, if you want more we have to upgrade the controller as well. Or use two controllers.
Any upgrade will cost more money. The most expensive parts are the panels and the inverter.
No. This system can be used in houses, on patios, in toolsheds, anywhere you like. It is a solar powered generator, really.
The batteries contain acid, a lot of water and (thick) metal plates . The batteries need those components to store the electricity. Just think of them as the regular batteries you use in your flashlight, only much bigger. It would be great if we had a better way to store electricity, unfortunately the technology is not that advanced yet. They are "working on it".
Once in a while (say, every three month or so) you have to check the batteries to see if they have enough water. If not, you need to "refuel" them with DISTILLED water (not tap water!). It's a good idea to clean the solar panel once in a while, wiping it with a cloth should do the trick.
Here is an official answer: A Watt is the unit of power, being the amount of energy expended per second by an unvarying current of one ampere under the pressure of one volt.
Now let's get back to normal English :-). A Watt is a way to measure how much power a device uses. A regular incandescent light bulb uses 60 Watts of power (It says so on the bulb) My TV claims it uses 150 Watts, microwaves use anything between 800 and 1200 Watts, one heating plate on your electric stove easily uses 1500-1800 Watts, an electric water heater usually 3500 Watts. The higher the number, the more power it uses. The number on the inverter (1000 Watts) tells you how much power you can use at any given time.
Official answer:
The unit of electric current flow. If a one ohm resistance is
connected to a one volt source, one ampere will flow.
Back to English... An Ampere is a way to measure how much electricity flows through a device. You may have seen numbers like 15 A, 30 A, 60 A on the breakers in your house. The numbers indicate how much those breakers allow to flow through them before they "shut down". They shut down because if the flow is too high, there is probably a short circuit somewhere. Shutting down will help limit the damage done by the short circuit and can even prevent fire! The more electricity flows, the hotter the wires will be and if they get too hot they can easily start a fire. Breakers and fuses measure the flow and function as an emergency disconnect.
Official answer: The unit of electric pressure. The pressure which will produce a current of one ampere against a resistance of one ohm.
Now back to English... A Volt is a way to measure with how much force the electricity wants to flow. Most household appliance work with 110 V. The 110 indicates a certain force. Sometimes, like with dryers , central AC and electric water heaters, this is just not enough. That is why they work with 220 V, or double the force.
In our system the inverter takes the 12 V force from the batteries and transforms it to the 110 V you need to run things.
DC means Direct Current, AC means Amplitude Current.
All batteries, and the solar panel, generate DC power. The electricity flows from the battery to one wire, through the device you are powering, to the other wire back to the battery. It's like a river flowing downstream.
AC power is different. In stead of flowing, the electricity "does a dance". It goes like : One step forward, one step back. The flow goes "to the left" one instant, then "to the right" the next. It turns out, by providing power this way you have less of a loss in transporting electricity over long distances, which is a problem for your power company. This constant dance generates a nice picture on oscilloscopes, called a sine wave.
Sinewave has to do with AC power (for a more comprehensive explanation, see 12 ). The inverter we deliver with the campsystem takes the DC power from the batteries and transforms it into a "nice" sinewave AC , very much the way you receive it from the power company. This is good for modern technology devices, who count on this "nice" sinewave to work properly.
There are other inverters on the market, called modified sine wave inverters. They also transform the DC electricity from the batteries to AC, but they do not do a very good job in creating the "nice" wave. They create a "sloppy" wave, with jumps and quirks. If you are powering a fan, or a regular light bulb, this will still work. Radios may hum, though, and TV's might have irritating lines going through the picture. Since it is easier for an inverter to create a "sloppy" wave, they are cheaper than the inverters that create "nice" waves.
Yes, we could design a cheaper system upon request. We can downsize the solar panel, switch to a cheaper inverter, go from 4 to 2 batteries. But please keep in mind that this makes your system very limited. Less batteries mean less power storage, so less time before the system shuts down. A cheaper inverter means you can run less devices at once, or that some devices may not work that well (see 13) . Finally, a smaller solar panel will take longer recharging your system