I have always been fascinated with using alternate methods to generate power to run day-to-day machines. There is nothing better than using the sun’s power to generate electricity, which gives you the feeling of being able to use power for free. Although technically, not really free. I bet it will take years to get a positive ROI on this investment. 🙂 — In the meantime, let us enjoy this craft that makes us feel a bit of freedom off the grid.
For this specific DIY build, I decided to go with 200w bifacial 10bb solar panels. They works great in producing over 200W at times and for the price it seemed the best option for me. For the wood structure I used 2x4x8 standard wood bars. For that wood bar size I could only fit x3 solar panels.
Heavy-Duty Caster Wheels
In order to move this stand which probably weight over 100lbs, I used heavy-duty 5-inch caster wheels. These help me easily move the solar stand to various locations in my backyard, where sun is at prime angles.
Strong Hinges
Loaded 3 solar panels + wood frame became quite heavy, and to hold it at an angle for a long time, I used really strong hinges.
The Wood Stand
For the moment I have been using 2×2 wood bars to hold the panel stand at certain angles. Which works great, I may create other adjustable bars later down the road.
MC4 Pass-through to House
This RV MC4 pass-through is the best option I could find to pass the solar cables through to the house, through the drywall, which also looks decent and clean from inside the house. It works great and it is weatherproof. On the exterior wall, I used this black cover.
LIFEPO4 Battery
At the moment I use the solar current to charge the main Ecoflow Delta Pro battery. Which has 3.6KW capacity and 1600w solar input capacity. This is about 3 hours of space heater at high or fridge for 24 hours – in case of no power situation. At the moment I use this battery to recharge various other batteries and also recharge my EV which gives about 12 miles of driving range. As far as solar charging, on sunny days I have seen as high as 650w recharge rate out of those 600w solar panels.
This was an enjoyable build, that gave me a sense of freedom off the grid and joy of harnessing power from the sun to run daily machines from free energy.