Do-it-yourselfers that want to learn the basics of setting up small solar systems should watch this video by the Tin Hat Ranch. It’s a 47 minute video but worth every minute.
White the Tin Hat Ranch YouTube Channel is geared toward disaster preparedness, a small off-grid systems a tiny house system and a backup system for essentials are not dissimilar. In fact, depending on your power needs and location, the size solar system shown in this tutorial might be the ideal size for a tiny house.
The system shown here uses 4 100 watt solar panels, 4 golf cart batteries, a charge controller, a 1000 watt pure sine wave inverter, and the necessary wiring and hardware. It wouldn’t run a ‘normal’ sized house but for a frugal tiny house owner, it might be perfect.
There’s a ton of information in this video, really too much to absorb in 47 minutes… so be sure to bookmark the full article for reference later. The full Guide to DIY Off Grid Solar Power is a free resource and includes some handy schematics, a worksheet, and videos of course.
Very good… Efficient use of my time… Value$ Thanks!
Learning a lot about solar units. Thanx for the patient teaching. A lady into prepping and setting up a home for safety and necessary power demands. Also I welcome your info re costs. v orru
Hello sir: My name is James Wingard. And I need some help with my small solar panel system. I have 4 100
watt solar panels and (8) regular auto batteries hooked up to a 30 amp charge controller. P30L. , I added a
1500 watt Tiger Claw inverter that has 3,000 watts of surge power. But, it won’t start my refregerator
which requires 667 watts of running power (5.58 amps x 115 volts). I am using #10 jumper cables to hook
up my batteries which i have hooked up in parallel. I think I need bigger cables. I am using #4 wire from the
batteries to the charge controller and from the charge controller to the inverter. I bought the inverter from
amazon and they don’t have anybody to help me. I called the third party who sold the Tiger Clar to me and
they can’t help. Can you help me. I think I need a 40 or 60 amp mppt charge controller. My e-mail address is
Jamesrwingard@bellsouth.net. I would like to hear from you. I am also a ham operator General Class
WA4OWA. I’ve a ham for many years.