Dave KA5CRL

As I've explained to some of you on the various nets, I've been working on getting my entire shack on battery power charged with solar panels. I've been running my packet station and two digital weather stations on a single battery and my old solar panel from the sailboat for most of the winter. I now have the HF radio(s), my desk lamp and a laptop computer running off the batteries as well.

I built a box from some old lumber and fence materials that have been in the back yard for about 15 years.

I made the box plenty big so I can store extra stuff in there as well as expand the system if needs be

I found three 15 watt solar panels complete with a frame, the charge controller and and a couple of 5 watt, 12 volt lights on sale at Harbor Freight for $180.00. I built a wooden frame in a sunny part of the back yard large enough to hold two of the kits.

The wiring from the solar panels runs underground to the radio shack and to the charge controller. The controller connects to the terminal strips on the wall which are connected to the battery bank and the stuff being powered in the shack.

I've been running the HF radio three to four hours a day, and the packet and weather stations are on continuously. The voltage has not dropped below 12.5 volts, even on cloudy days. The unloaded voltage from the solar panels runs about 19 volts on a sunny day.

As long as the sun keeps coming up in the morning, I won't have to rely on Oncor for commercial power anymore. Now to add to the system so I can eliminate the commercial power for heating and air conditioning!

73, Dave KA5CRL