So - So - Solar! Also known as "I set up the solar system"

For a lot of years - more than I care to say for fear of really giving away my age - I have been dreaming of a solar system.....for the greenhouse.  So I saved and scraped and saved some more, and I took the Intro to Renewable Energy class at UAA-Mat-Su so I could learn how to do this and not be afraid of the math or the electricity! (I really was afraid of both).  I am enrolled in the Renewable Energy Certificate program at the local College (http://matsu.alaska.edu) and although I am only able to take about one class per semester it have been a great learning experience for me and to know that others have the same mind set as well bodes well for the future of the planet!

 

I started with the above items;  a Sunforce (www.sunforceproducts.com)  4 panel, 60 watt system, and two 6 volt deep cycle batteries from Batteries Plus (www.batteriesplus.com).  And a little appliance that we call "the tiny fireplace", on the right in the above picture, which is a small electric fireplace that we got from Fred Meyer (Kroger).  It is designed to heat 420 square feet of space which is perfect for the greenhouse.  My husband wont let me plug it in since it takes a ton of electricity and so produce that was grown using the on-grid tiny fireplace would not be worth it.  So to get to a year around greenhouse situatioin I have to be able to go off-grid with the tiny fireplace.  My total cost including the tiny fireplace is right about $750.00.  I know it wounds like a lot but if I can have a year around greenhouse I will save that much in less gthan one year in produce.

 

The far left corner of the greenhouse is the location I chose for the panels to be placed.  It is proteccted from the wind and gets really early sun most of the year. 

Here are the tools I used to put the panels and the system together.  The coffee was absolutely necessary!

First Panel in position - it was really easy and did not take as long as I was anticipating!

 

 

 

Above - all the panels in place ready for action.  I put the tester on it while it was still in the greenhouse and it siad charging!  Yay!

Here is the panel array ready to be mounted to the greenhouse wall - you can see behind it the cord running through the wall into the greenhouse.  I need some help to hold up the panel array while I put the screws to hold it up.

Here is the magic cord coming through the greenhouse wall.  I pulled one of the pieces of blue board out, ran the cord through and replaced the blud board so there wont be an open hole letting in cold air.

Testing the array - green means go!

Here are the batteries in position.  Later I will put them in a tote of some kind so that I have adequate air circulation and so they can be moved if I should need to.

All hooked up ready to go!  The blue box on the wall is the charge regulator and it has two lights on it that cant be seen no matter how many pictures I take.  One is a charging light and one is "charged".

I know it doesnt look like it but that fan is running totally on solar power! About three hours start to finish, including mounting on the greenhouse wall (which is done now - I just forgot to take a pic of it!).  So far I have tested the fan (works), a drill (works) and the tiny fireplace (doesn't work).  Sadly the heat part of the tiny fireplace does not work with the solar and sets off the alarm of the power inverter.  I think I may have too heavy a load for startup of the heat portion of the fireplace.  The flickering flames work just fine just not the actual heat part.  I will have to do some research on what can be done to correct the situation.  But for now - Happy little fan blowing for free and keeping my plants healthy!