Need some good info

[piperpilot3tk]

Been reading about solar/battery systems for five years now and still can't find any solid information about system design, integration and installation.  Found several web sites that offer an online "certification" course for designers and installers.  Anyone know of any good books or websites that I can read and get an edjumication about all dis here new fangled stuff?

[squarebob]

Here is a good place to start

http://www.wind-sun.com/ForumVB/

Bob

[Tom Reed]

Or start small. Buy a marine deep cycle batt a 75 watt solar panel, 8 amp charge controller and you're all set to run 12v dc loads. Add a small sine wave inverter and you can power 120v AC loads. With some careful shopping this can be assembled for around $300 with an inverter.

I learned a LOT reading Home Power Magazine. It used to be much more hands on, but has now become more of an industry mag with articles on how to higher the right contractor and such. The older copies, which are still available, come with schematics that you can use to design your own system from.

I designed and built our off-grid solar home based largely on what I learned there and by building a mid size system for outages. Fortunately prices have come down a lot.

[mike90045]

Been reading about solar/battery systems for five years now and still can't find any solid information about system design, integration and installation.  Found several web sites that offer an online "certification" course for designers and installers.  Anyone know of any good books or websites that I can read and get an edjumication about all dis here new fangled stuff?

BATTERY SYSTEM
Define your loads (into watt hours)
Decide if you want 1, 2, 3 or 4 days of solar independence (Si) before you fire up the genset (the size of the battery bank)  I chose 2.
Loads x 5 x Si = battery watt hours (BWH)
BWH / 48 = ah size of a 48V battery bank.  (believe me, if you are not building this for a garden shed, you want a 48V bank of series batteries, 2, 4, or 6 volt cases.)
Inverter, needs to be 1.5 x the size of the largest continuous load you expect it to see. This will generally allow for motor starting.
No electric heat sources - use gas or wood

CHARGING SYSTEM
Must be sized to recharge batteries at 5- 15% of their capacity (follow individual mfg instructions) -  a 600AH bank needs 60 (10%) amp charge (higher rates needed to "stir" the electrolyte in batteries, taller batteries need higher rates to de-stratify).  Any source you want, hydro, solar, diesel, hamster wheels. must have a backup to prevent battery death from undercharge.  Must be able to sustain this rate till batteries are charged (solar in winter has 2 hours to recharge, so you need a 2nd source)

[WGB]

Hi check out this link.
In the catalog is about  4 pages of fill in the blank work sheet.
You start with loads, location, battery bank or grid, then calculates panels needed.
Bad thing is you can't print anything, but gives you all the info needed also great for checking all product info.
http://aeesolar.com/products

[mbryner]

If you're looking for general book, I read this several times.  It was easy reading.

http://www.amazon.com/Renewable-Energy-Handbook-Revised-Comprehensive/dp/098101321X/ref=pd_sim_b_11

[piperpilot3tk]

Thanks guys!  I will get to reading.