I’ve done quite a bit of reading on solar power for WISP projects. I was wondering if anyone here is running solar, what they’ve got running off of it and how long it lasts.
I think the info I have is based on a completely different climate than we have.
The highest power usage I have today is 27W, it may hit 50W before summer. I was intending on using a pair of Optima yellow top batteries in series with an 85W solar panel.
Just curious how other people are doing this. It is around an $800 test project for a small business, so I’d rather get it right the first time.
Your latitude will determine the battery and panel size. I am at about 30N and 85 watts was not enough for me. It was ok in the summer, but December and January it was not. Now I use two 135w panels.
You’re gonna need about 300+ w of solar power and 500+ AH of deep cycle battery for 27w minimum. That sort of load is a $2000 parts project not a $800 project budget. Double that budget for 50w.
Any 85 watt panel and 2 car batteries is trouble free for about a 3 watt load based on my experience.
50w = about 4 AH or about 100 AH per day. 1000 AH of battery would go for 5 days without going below 50% charge. It’s not uncommon to have 5-10 days or rain/fog/dreary weather unless you live in a desert or something. Going below 50% charge frequently will wear out your batteries fast. You’d also need about 200AH per day to provide 100AH of load and 100AH of charging. In the winter, we get a sum of about 4 hours of charging per day, meaning we’d need 50A of charging current to meet our quota in 4 hours. 50A means about 600W of solar power. In this case, I’d prefer 2000AH of battery for 10 days runtime rather than 5 days.
Best solution is to choose products that have low current draws. ubnt and mikrotik are pretty capable when carefully chosen.
I am in Tyler Texas about 30 degree. I have a 190 foot tower running on solar. I have 2 RB433AH one with 3 radio cards and 1 with only 1 radio card. I have 2 190’ cat5 run down the tower and powered by 24Volt DC.
I do NOT use a POE I power off the plus and minuse of the power regulator.
I have 4 batteries hooked up in seriea and parallel. I have 2 solar panels in series making 24v (28v) charging the batteries. this has been up about 16 months. The only problem I have had is too much power. The Mikrotik boards can’t handle 27volts so I have to put diodes in series with the plus side of the cat5 (blue/bluewhite) to reduce the voltage to less than 24 volts. We had several days in a row last winter and never had a power problem.
There are factor that can help you to determine the right size solar panel that will work effectively to fulfill your requirements.
Solar panels are sized according to their wattage, that is, the number of watts that the panel is capable of outputting. A panel that is rated at 100 watts is capable of generating 100 watts of electricity per hour under peak sunlight conditions when it is 25 degrees Celsius. Solar panels are available in a wide range of different wattages.
I followed this through to conclusion. It is not financially feasible right now. It would actually be cheaper to get a drop from the power company. Rough figures show a little over 4 years before it would pay for itself. By then I’d need new batteries, so the cost goes right back up.
I have a bunch of towers on straight solar and wind - had a few problems until we went straight DC - after that we haven’t had any problems.
Get a good controller regulator - not expensive but good ($35-50+) you want one that will do both 24v and 12v so you can mix input based on environment - best supplier is Missouri Wind and Power - these guys R&D their own tech and build it to spec.
Rod Neal
HTWC.biz
BTW - this completely solves the “lightning issue - most strikes come from the power company not bleeding off the static buildup on top high tensions and feed back through you”. With straight DC you will not need much in the way of solar panels - 120-400watt - and a good mobile wheelchair battery - get those inexpensive. Most towers with 1-2 MT RB and 3-6 UB systems only need this much. The key - secret - is do your math based on 5.6 hours a day pure sunlight and 8 hours of wind turbine. After that it is easy and cheap and never worry about power again!
BTW - this completely solves the “lightning issue - most strikes come from the power company not bleeding off the static buildup on top high tensions and feed back through you”.
I agree. That is what I said a few years ago. Here are a couple pics of a setup that has been in operation for a few years. It is on the roof of a 22 story condo in the “Lightning Capital of the U.S.”. Most on the forum thought I was either lucky or nuts. Just so you know, the same router is still there. The lightning rod is in the red circle, and it is hit several times a year. The router is in the outdoor case just above and to the right of the circle, higher than the lighning rod!
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For solar applications a battery needs to be capable of being discharged hundreds or even thousands of times.Solar power is the conversion of sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics , or indirectly using concentrated solar power.
