More on the Pilot Solar Power Setup

The panels are not secured and simply  laid down flat on top of the roof.  Good thing that the roof inclination is not very steep and no chance for the panels to slide down.  I hope to attach them to railings before the typhoon season.  I don't like the idea of putting them on the roof to be honest.  I think I'm putting some stress on the roof and wood trusses underneath when I am up there working on the panels.

I was not using MC4 connectors in the pilot setup.  What I did was to bend some of the strands of the #12 AWG wire enough to make contact with connectors that came with the panels.  To secure the connection and as crude weather seal, I wrapped them with electrical tape. One pair of wire for each panel, therefore I've got 4 wires going down from the roof.

The PWM charge controller has three pair of terminals.  One pair each for the PV, battery and load.  Wires or cables are inserted on slots on one side of the controller.  Inside the slots are metals to clamp to wires when the screws on top of the controller are tightened.  The two #12awg from the PV fits nicely on those slots but making it three could be a challenge.  As for the battery connection I used the common automotive two terminal connector as in the picture.  I defined the terminal near the lock tab as the positive and used female one for all my batteries.  This means the connector from the controller is a male.  Nothing is connected on the load terminal of the controller on my initial setup.

The inverter is directly connected to the battery using the  thick wires that came with it.  Just plug and play as the wires has eye terminals on both ends and colored red and black.  On the AC side, I made an extension with plugs on both ends.  One side plugs into the AC output of the inverter while the other end plugs into one of those wall sockets inside the house.  The next step is to open the breaker box to turn ON the house circuits the I want to be powered up.

Parts List
     2x     100W solar panels
     1x     30A PWM charge controller
     1x     100Ah deep cycle battery
     1x     1000W pure sine wave inverter
     4x     5m #12 awg

Calculated (sunny day) capacity = 200 * 0.5 * 6hrs = 600Whr
Calculated battery capacity = 100 * 50%DOD = 50Ah or 600Whr @ 12V


Total cost ~ 18,000 Php