DIY Design Worksheet for Your Solar Generator Project

[@LoneRanger.801]

Thank you so much for sharing the spreadsheet. Really appreciate it. Will download it when I get home.

[@LoneRanger.801]

Is this the best KZbin channel or what? THANK YOU. Loved the video. Please post more often. Thanks so much again.

[@hfisk1038]

A few years ago I watched your videos on building a portable power supply. Very helpful. Covid lockdown provided the opportunity to build a backup battery pack in case of the loss of grid power. I completed a 24 volt, 2600 watt portable lithium battery pack with a 2500 watt inverter. One of the most difficult assessments is exactly how much power is needed. I used both AC and DC meters to measure both the loads and the capacity of the battery pack. It is admittedly through luck that what I build does provide the necessary power. Your spreadsheet is a very nice tool to get a good estimation of what is needed. Crunching the numbers prior to the build is necessary but it is also important to actually measure the loads over a period of time including projected the system losses. Appreciate your good work and insight. Thanks for the inspiration!

[@DesertPrep]

I completely concur -- actual measurement will save you either way: keep you from building an under-capacity unit that won't reliably power your load; or waste money and resources on an over-built system that's much more than needed. Thanks for sharing your wisdom.

[@jchiliw]

I am getting into solar this year and you have a gold mine of info. Thanks for putting this up. It looks like it has everything to size my system correctly.

[@DesertPrep]

Glad it was helpful!

[@michaelgnaedinger4637]

Following on from watching your channel, I built a Solar Generator, it works great, thank you for your time and effort in sharing your knowledge and experience, its very much appreciated. Stay safe!

[@rfo056]

Just found your videos and really appreciate the work you have put together to aid me and others in building systems.

[@RRA556]

I just discovered your channel. I'm really enjoying these videos. I want to build a battery backup system for my chest freezer. Your content is going to help.

[@oumarabdul9368]

You are my new best friend,Thank you.

[@michaelhamilton7111]

Thanks for the upload greetings from Costa Rica 😎 . Thanks to you I am now off grid and I will use this knowledge for a work shop. Wishing you all the best for the future.

[@DesertPrep]

Delighted to have another project underway in an exotic place. I hope it serves you well for many years...

[@rickthomas6606]

I like it got to watch more and learn how it all works

[@zwarst]

Just when I was considering getting serious on solar you come along with this god send -thank you!

[@DesertPrep]

😃

[@scottrobinett6071]

excellent presentation, very helpful

[@decrepit9357]

More please...

[@The1KMnO4]

Well done. Thanx.

[@ReversePeople]

Another excellent video. Can you provide a link to the DC power meter you recommend? Thank you kindly.

[@DesertPrep]

Thanks for asking -- I missed the links when I posted. (Oops). The links are in the description and the workbook now. Appreciate the reminder your comment provided. 😀

[@ReversePeople]

@@DesertPrep Thank you again. I truly appreciate your content and the considerable time and effort it must take to make it.

[@danthedrivingman6415]

Great info Thanks 👍 😂

[@rickthomas6606]

I have a 16 feet by 45 long also need to figure what kind of harness to use

[@aor980]

Does anyone have an updated link to the design guide worksheet? Thank you.

[@stevegraves2968]

What refrigerator are you using?

[@LoneRanger.801]

Couldn’t find the links in the description. Could you please share. Thanks 😊

[@DesertPrep]

The links are sometimes filtered by the system. (I shows, but not as an actual link.) www.desertprep.info

[@LoneRanger.801]

@@DesertPrep Thanks 😊

[@thechrisp1800]

Grounding?

[@johnsvideos3694]

The links are not working for me. Can you please verify the links provided?

[@e.stgo.7998]

👍👍😇🇵🇷😇👍👍

[@DivergentDroid]

I don't like these at all. Too much overkill requiring to check the watt hours on each device you have or may plan to get, estimating how much time you use each, plugging the data into the spreadsheet etc. To me, people have a good idea what they use and how often. The major concern should be either 120v house hold appliances or 12 or 24 v systems. I say find your needs assuming half sun and half cloudy days (you will know if you normally have mostly sunny or mostly cloudy days depending on where you live) using a ball park of your daily usage. Instead of watts calculating, simply state a system can run A,B C and D for so much time then give yourself a little more overhead. LED lights use next to nothing. Modern computers and monitors/tv a little more which along with lights you'll use the most. Perhaps you'll use a dishwasher 3 times a week. Perhaps 40 gallons of hot water every 3 days. Perhaps wash clothes 3 times a week. That's not much power for thrifty minded people. Solar should be simple.

[@DesertPrep]

Ahhh - I wish I was as good at estimating as you are. Even with an electrical engineering background, it took four versions of my original solar generator to get it to what I wanted. Like most people, I'd not done all the homework needed to account for losses, battery depth of discharge limits and trade-offs, the impact of controller type, the comparative advantages of serial and parallel panel wiring, and a dozen other factors that WILL prevent your solar project from meeting your needs. At the request of people smart enough to piggy-back on the knowledge I'd accumulated, I built it all into a set of worksheets so others could plug in what they know, and get a properly-designed system. You may not like measuring the devices so you know what you're dealing with, but I simply couldn't find another way to get a system that would, for sure, do its intended job. While I can't argue that you couldn't get a workable result by throwing extra hardware and capacity into the system, this translates into real money, so I provided the mechanism for people to create just what was needed. It trades a little effort for potentially hundreds in cost reductions.