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03-02-2013, 07:24 AM
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#21
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Montana Master
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Wheatland
Posts: 675
M.O.C. #10623
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Greg, where did you get your breakers and box from? I'm having trouble locating anything down here in the Texas RGV.
EDIT; never mind, I blew up your picture so I could read the name and looked it up on the net.
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03-02-2013, 08:20 AM
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#22
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Montana Master
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Beaufort
Posts: 545
M.O.C. #12221
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I got it from Northern Arizona wind and sun.
I got the bigger box - they make 2 of them with 4 breaker positions and I went with the bigger so that I had more room for my fingers to work with.
Make sure that you use DC Breakers. Not AC breakers.
I have 3 10's and then an 80 amp on the side to the battery from the controller
Where in the RGV are you? After we leave here we are headed to the Matagorda Bay Nature Park on the Texas Coast just north of Corpus Christi. We have reservations there from the 16th for 6 or 7 days.
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03-02-2013, 08:28 AM
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#23
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Montana Master
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Wheatland
Posts: 675
M.O.C. #10623
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I found the boxes on Northern Arizona Wind and Sun's web site. I'm looking for the breakers now. We are in Donna, TX.
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03-02-2013, 10:31 AM
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#24
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Montana Master
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Wheatland
Posts: 675
M.O.C. #10623
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More money spent. This is why I said my system was finished, "maybe". I'm now officially in the poor house and the dog house with my wife cause I told her I was finished spending money with the addition of the last 2 panels. Oh well, after 29 years of marriage and 2 years together before that, you'd think she would be used to it by now.
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03-02-2013, 11:57 AM
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#25
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Montana Master
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Beaufort
Posts: 545
M.O.C. #12221
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I Purchased my breakers from them as well
When cocktail hour is over and I go back to the camper I will look up the part numbers for you
It's not that expensive, the work involved might be more Of a pain in the butt depending upon how you did everything up to this point.
If you brought all of your positive leads down into the camper that it's not a big deal at all
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03-02-2013, 12:59 PM
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#26
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Montana Master
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Beaufort
Posts: 545
M.O.C. #12221
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Alan,
My box was: MNEDC-Quad
The 10amp breakers: MNEDC10
The 80amp MNEDC80
The box was about $40 and the breaker about $14 each.
Got them all from Northern Arizona Wind and Sun.
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03-03-2013, 04:22 AM
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#27
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Montana Master
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Wheatland
Posts: 675
M.O.C. #10623
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I think those are the ones I ordered yesterday. Thanks again for all you guys help. This has been quite the fun, interesting, and very expensive project. Sure is nice to take advantage of the Sun's free energy. It's also nice when it comes to paying our electric bill here in the park, all we pay for is the air conditioner use and a few things we don't want to run on solar like our freezer.
We may not live long enough for this project to pay for itself, but it's good to know that if everything in this economy/country goes south, we'll at least have electricity and some semblance of normalcy. An older gentleman told me this saying a few years ago and I can't get it out of my head lately,
"If you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail."
We're not "preppers" like you see on TV, but we don't plan to fail either. We don't travel with our water tank full, but we sure fill it up when we get setup as we stay at least 3 months at a time where ever we end up. Because of weight, we are limited on food stores, but you can't believe how many cubby holes these Montana's have that you can store freeze dried food in.
I'll let you all know what the finished project looks like. That is, if it ever gets finished.
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03-03-2013, 05:37 AM
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#28
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Montana Master
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Wheatland
Posts: 675
M.O.C. #10623
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Just thought I would share a web site I found for finding Solar Noon in your area. If you play with the settings, you can see the sun's orientation over you at all times of the day. If it shows up zoomed in on our location, just zoom out and drag the cross hairs over your location. http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/grad/solcalc/ It uses Google Earth so that is not our Montana just the spot we're in at the moment.
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03-03-2013, 06:52 AM
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#29
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Montana Master
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Wheatland
Posts: 675
M.O.C. #10623
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Here is what I got at Solar Noon today, 12:43:59. I just hope nothing changes when I rewire next week or if it does, changes for the good. I know this is probably boring to a lot of you, but I'm fascinated. My wife says, I would enjoy watching paint dry. My life is so exciting. I didn't reset the AH counters, but so far today from yesterdays 193AH I've harvested a little over 100AH's.
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03-03-2013, 11:17 AM
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#30
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Montana Master
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Beaufort
Posts: 545
M.O.C. #12221
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You are getting some good output. Looks like you have a great system. Congratulations! Well done!
For me the solar is not a question of saving money. Its a question of comfort and convenience.
Since we prefer to boondock and stay away from RV Parks, the solar gives us the freedom to do that and not have to listen to a noisy generator. Not have to drag it out, hook up the cables, - look for gas etc etc
Yet we can still have all the comforts of home. Satellite TV, fully functioning office (I still work full time from the camper) etc.
To me the real payback is in the beautiful spots we can spend our time in peace and quiet. That's currency you can't buy!
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03-03-2013, 11:44 AM
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#31
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Montana Master
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Wheatland
Posts: 675
M.O.C. #10623
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Quote:
quote:Originally posted by Gkerlin
You are getting some good output. Looks like you have a great system. Congratulations! Well done!
For me the solar is not a question of saving money. Its a question of comfort and convenience.
Since we prefer to boondock and stay away from RV Parks, the solar gives us the freedom to do that and not have to listen to a noisy generator. Not have to drag it out, hook up the cables, - look for gas etc etc
Yet we can still have all the comforts of home. Satellite TV, fully functioning office (I still work full time from the camper) etc.
To me the real payback is in the beautiful spots we can spend our time in peace and quiet. That's currency you can't buy!
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Thanks for the great complement. I couldn't have done any of this without you and John. Others have given advice, of which I am very grateful, but you 2 seemed to take me under your wing and mentor me. Thanks again guys for your patience with some of my not so intelligent questions.
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03-12-2013, 08:58 AM
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#32
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Montana Master
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Wheatland
Posts: 675
M.O.C. #10623
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We are happy, happy campers. Everything is almost finished, just a little more touch up on the roof. Sorry if I'm bragging, but our numbers are impressive. My Sweep Pmax was 550 and somehow I lost that picture. Here are our numbers as of 10 mins. ago.
These are positive amps going into the batteries.
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03-12-2013, 09:00 AM
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#33
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Montana Master
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Wheatland
Posts: 675
M.O.C. #10623
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Forgot to mention, today is overcast. Can't wait till we have a strong sunny day.
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03-12-2013, 09:27 AM
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#34
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Montana Master
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Beaufort
Posts: 545
M.O.C. #12221
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Yep... There's something beautiful about sitting out in the middle of nowhere and getting that free quiet, clean power from the sun. Day in and day out.
Being free from the generator... its a beautiful thing.
In three months this winter we ran the genie 3 times - about a total of 5 hours or so. Haven't even used 1 tank of gas in it.
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03-15-2013, 09:19 AM
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#35
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Montana Master
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Wheatland
Posts: 675
M.O.C. #10623
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I'm so happy right now, I'm like a giddy little school girl. At this moment we are getting 20amps from the solar panels. We are getting 10.5 amps positive into the batteries to keep the batteries in Absorption. Which means I am powering my laptop, modem, external HD, and our Fantastic Fan, all free from the sun and have been for approx. 1 1/2 hours. Don't get too critical as the numbers changed a little between my taking the pics.
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