Renewable Energy Tips, Projects and DIY Advice

08 March, 2009

This system provides all the benefits of a combined Direct Current (DC) and Alternating Current (AC) system with the added benefit of a standby generator. This is perfect if you have some high demand appliances or your demand exceeds your solar generation ability. It also provides very good resilience for those cloudy winter days when the solar generation will be reduced.

1 - Battery

2 - Solar (PV) panel

3 - Solar Charge Controller

4 - Wind generator

5 - Wind Charge Controller

6 - Inverter - charger

7 - Generator

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Renewable Energy UK | Visit Our Home Brew Power Website

Wind | Domestic Wind Turbines - Good Or Bad?

Solar | Solar Panels For Your Shed Or Summerhouse?

Carbon Neutral | Recent Posts Relating To 'Carbon Neutral'

Babington Burner | Purchase Our Hand Made WVO Burning Babington Nozzles

HomeBrewPower Yahoo Group On Carbon Neutral Power Generation

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Labels: Backup Generator, DC AC Backup Generator, Off Grid, Off-Grid, off-grid electricity, Off-Grid Power, Standby Generator, Wind Turbine

Written at Sunday, March 08, 2009 by Andy Mahoney.

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12V / 220V DC/AC System

This system provides both Direct Current (DC) and Alternating Current (AC) electricity. This has several advantages in the DC lighting is more efficient, in the scenario you could power your lighting and water pump from the DC side and also run 220V appliances such as televisions and computers.

1 - Battery
2 - Solar (PV) panel
3 - Solar Charge Controller
4 - Wind generator
5 - Wind Charge Controller
6 - Inverter

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Renewable Energy UK | Visit Our Home Brew Power Website

Wind | Domestic Wind Turbines - Good Or Bad?

Solar | Solar Panels For Your Shed Or Summerhouse?

Carbon Neutral | Recent Posts Relating To 'Carbon Neutral'

Babington Burner | Purchase Our Hand Made WVO Burning Babington Nozzles

HomeBrewPower Yahoo Group On Carbon Neutral Power Generation

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Labels: DC To AC Off-Grid, Off Grid, Off Grid Installer, Off-Grid, off-grid electricity, Off-Grid Power, Wind Turbine

Written at Sunday, March 08, 2009 by Andy Mahoney.

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12/24V Direct Current (DC) System

The first system is a Direct Current (DC) system that generates 12 or 24 volts only. This type of system is perfect for high efficiency lighting and a surprising number of 12v appliances. Traditionally all mobile homes and caravans operate on 12v electricity. A visit to any caravan outlet will reveal an amazing number of low voltage appliances from televisions to microwave ovens.

1 - Battery
2 - Solar (PV) panel
3 - Solar Charge Controller
4 - Wind generator
5 - Wind Charge Controller

**************************************************************

Renewable Energy UK | Visit Our Home Brew Power Website

Wind | Domestic Wind Turbines - Good Or Bad?

Solar | Solar Panels For Your Shed Or Summerhouse?

Carbon Neutral | Recent Posts Relating To 'Carbon Neutral'

Babington Burner | Purchase Our Hand Made WVO Burning Babington Nozzles

HomeBrewPower Yahoo Group On Carbon Neutral Power Generation

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Labels: 12V DC System, 24V DC System, Off-Grid, off-grid electricity, Off-Grid Power, Renewable Energy, Wind Turbine

Written at Sunday, March 08, 2009 by Andy Mahoney.

0 comments

10 September, 2008

Installing a backup generator with a solar pv system (Off-Grid)

Backup Generator AKA: The gas guzzler

Off-grid solar-electric systems can be sized to provide electricity during cloudy periods when the sun doesn’t shine. But sizing a system to cover a worst-case scenario, like several cloudy weeks during the winter, can result in a very large, expensive system that will rarely get used to its capacity. To spare your pocket, size the system moderately but include a backup generator to get through those occasional sunless stretches.Engine generators can be fueled with bio diesel, waste oils (Including WVO, WMO, Gear Oil) petroleum diesel,gasoline, or propane, depending on the design. These generators produce AC electricity that a battery charger (either stand-alone or incorporated into an inverter) converts to DC energy, which is combustion engines, generators tend to be loud and stinky but a well-designed solar-electric system will require running them only 20 to 100 hours a year.

Kind regards

Andy Mahoney
Home Brew Power
Off-Grid Power Installer - UK)
http://www.homebrewpower.co.uk/

Mobile: 07504 50 50 89

HomeBrewPower Yahoo Group On Carbon Neutral Power
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/homebrewpower/

Labels: Backup Generator, DIY Solar, electrical solar panels, Generate Electricity For Free, Off Grid, off-grid electricity, Off-Grid Power, Solar Power, SVO, Wind Turbine, WMO, WVO

Written at Wednesday, September 10, 2008 by Andy Mahoney.

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17 July, 2008

Wood Forge Project Going Ahead In Next Couple Of Weeks

Previously I have mentioned a wonderful little project to supply off grid power to a Metal Casting Wood Forge Down the far south of England.

The new 140W Panel arrived today from the manufacturers. I am extremely impressed with the Solar PV Panels construction. Open circuit is 21.8V and will charge 2 x deep cycle SLA batteries at 12V. The Pure Sine Wave Inverter arrived late last week so I am currently contstructing the sub frame for the panel to be mounted on.

I'll be posting some pictures of the setup once it is installed at the forge some time soon.

Kind regards

Andy Mahoney

Home Brew Power

Off-Grid Power Installer - UK)

www.homebrewpower.co.uk

Mobile: 07504 50 50 89

HomeBrewPower Yahoo Group On Carbon Neutral Power

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/homebrewpower/

Labels: electrical solar panels, Iron Work, Ironwork, Off Grid, Off Grid Installer, off-grid electricity, Off-Grid Power, Solar Panels, Solar Power, Solar PV, Wind Turbine, Wood Forge

Written at Thursday, July 17, 2008 by Andy Mahoney.

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19 February, 2008

Domestic Off-Grid Setup For Power & Heating

Above is the current schematic of the Off-Grid systems I designed and installed at HomeBrewPower.

At the heart of the installation is a Lister CS 5/1 (Not 3/1) as shown on the diagram that provides the bulk of power and heating, coupled with a large battery cubicle for energy storage. The batteries provide power to the 5KW MSW Inverter that produces 230VAC electricity back to our consumer unit.

Some of the waste heat from the Lister CS coolant circuit is recovered a water to water heat exchanger and then heat from the exhaust is also recovered via a air to water heat exchanger. The hot water is then pumped through insulated underground pipes to our central heating loop to provide heating via radiators.

Our PMDC custom built wind machine provides DC to the battery banks to constantly trickle charge the battery cubicle. We have seen it producing anything from 20W right through to 1200W on a very stormy evening in the UK.

Everything has been built from the ground up and custom made to suit our purposes, including the control installation, battery cubicle, metering, wind turbine & pipework.

Kind regards

Andy Mahoney
Home Brew Power
Off-Grid Power Installer - UK)
www.homebrewpower.co.uk
Mobile: 07504 50 50 89
HomeBrewPower Yahoo Group On Carbon Neutral Power
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/homebrewpower/

Labels: DCH, Homebrewpower, Lister CS, off-grid electricity, Schematic, Solar PV, Wind Turbine, WVO

Written at Tuesday, February 19, 2008 by Andy Mahoney.

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30 December, 2007

Upcoming Project To Look Forwards To In 2008

Project;Wood Forge Off-Grid Power To Remote Forge.

Home Brew Power comes across many bespoke projects in the alternative / renewable power generation business. Odian Wood Forge in Kent is a fine example worth a mention.

We are providing a solar setup to supply the forge with single phase 230VAC power to feed the extractor fan and forge fan motor. the Solar PV panel will charge a bank of SLA batteries via a charge controller which in turn powers a PSW (Pure Sine Wave) inverter. The system has been designed to allow additional sources of power to be added, if required, in the future.

The forge will be in use approximately 4 hours per week. The remainder of the time the autonomous RE (Renewable Energy) system will replenish the batteries.

Labels: electrical solar panels, off-grid electricity, Project 2008

Written at Sunday, December 30, 2007 by Andy Mahoney.

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