Thank you very much for these very informative tutorials. They are the best I have found yet. I hope all is well with you and Molly and things have quieted down. My best regards to you and Molly.
I used to put 2- 6 volt batteries in parallel in my old VW in the early 60's to get more starting power on those winter mornings. It worked like a charm. Anyone old enough to own a 6 volt VW will remember what I mean.
Hi Jeff. As I said in my first post I'm new to solar power and wind turbine power. I live in Florida now and my house faces East and West. My garage hooked to the house faces south, so I have a lot of good roof lines for solar power. Really enjoyed your Solar panels for beginners. Thanks keep up the good vidios.
Your right about that Derek. People complicate it for themselves. They do to much research and just get to much information. Don't over think it , get a small solar panel and hook it up to a battery. They are looking at huge complex systems and talking themselves out of wind and solar. Start small , get that figured out and the rest is easy to understand.
Very informative. Excellent speaker. Been finding the whole subject of solar PV confusing but these videos are extremely informative. Keep up the great work Jeff. Thank you.
Hey Jeff. You have made it useable for me as I am just now starting to get serious about installing a complimentary system for my house. I like your easy and pleasant delivery. I will keep watching and progress. Thanks Dutch
Thanks sir !! You explain every thing very well and I am learning so much more since I started watching your videos !! You have a lot of knowledge sir !
quality of the video the guy, seems like this video cudb been made in the 80s lol.. its awsome i love it. most helpful video iv found but everytime i watch i gotta remind myself its not an old video lol
haters gonna hate..lol..they are nobody...what they say or do is meaningless..i have learned more from your videos than any of the rest..i finally understand what im doing now..thanks a lot!
The batteries are hooked in series, the charge controller negative is hooked to one end of the bank and the positive is hooked to the other end. The bank will charge evenly that way. You do the same with your dc to ac inverter.
Thanks Jeff. I just stubbled across your videos, but I'm learning a lot. I see uses for my aquaponics projects I'm getting into now. Thanks. I look forward to your other video series.
Hi, I've just started watching your solar panels for beginners and I am learning a lot. I am a true beginner. ON you part 2 on the end of the video where you hooked the fan and the pump on the load, are they on the same place? and can they run together? and what and how would you put a fan in the cooler for the batteries and pump? Could you give more details. Yes I am very new at this and these may seem like dumb questions, but I really want to do this right and you are a very good teacher. Thank
glad to see somebody finally showing what can be done with solar. one day I may get enough never to put a video of what I have up on here. for me there are to many prying eyes at the moment for me to put up a video of my system. solar and wind really isn't rocket science. if you can hook up a car battery you have the basic steps down already. it is understanding the type of charge controller you want or need and sizing the system that gets people in trouble.
thank you for all you do here . I have been going thou the videos that you made and putting it on my 5th wheel i live in all year around and the snow comes i get loads of wind from the south and for now i have two solar painelsthat make 200 watts and a 12 votl wind turbmine and adding more on and the 12 volt 500 watt i got coming from you will soon be here and i will be adding it on the 5th wheel BUT i will be having a very good spot to put it up and my work has just started i am at 75% power . Thanks for your help here i will as alawys be looking for more from you ..I live in PA and some times i get snow storms and no sun for days keep the videos coming and some time see you out here for one lord willing god bless
Yes you can do that. A lot of people use a plug in grid tie inverter to the dump switch and feed back to the grid rather then dump it into a bank of resisters. 6 volt batteries are definitely better to use then 12 volt. They will last longer and have less caps to check for water. It gets a little complicated and kinda hard to answer but I can tell you that most off grid people use 6 volt batteries. They can be discharged more then 12 volt batteries can. 2 volt batteries are the best .
Bubbles are nice Alan. Have you ever made bubbles in your tub when you were a kid ? I want to make them commercially. I think there's a market for them. Ian would know, I'll ask him.
jeff, you ever seen the glass break on a panel? mine have made it through hale storms and everything, but today my 2 year old daughter managed to brake the glass on one with a screw driver. she threw it up in the air and the tip hit the in the bottom right hand corner. it got ugly really fast. it is still laying out there popping and cracking and new brakes forming from top to bottom!!! amazing to watch!!
Thats a great video lots of usefull information especially around air gaps between batteries and looking out for dodgy retailers who resetting things that they shouldn't. I guess if its too cheap then its cheap for a reason and thats because its either not what it says on the box or its junk
I really wanted to stay with 3 point guy wires but I think for the sake of safety and stress I'm going to go with 4 point guy wires. This video makes it look worth while.
I love um. 24 volts and very little use in the way of watts. We have them in the store for about a year, still running good straight off a 24 volt battery bank. One solar panel keeps up 2 12 volt batteries, never had to charge them up at all.
the legal here in Kentucky grid ties I have really help off set what little the electric company is running(been just paying the $20 connection fee since rewiring to run 80% of the house off the battery bank. can't wait to start on my next home!!! it will be totally off grid. can't wait for the snow this winter!! when the power goes out and we are still lit up, and warm while other are saying I wasn't so crazy after all!!
I gave away the 10 harbor freight kits to friends who were interested in try solar. then I set up my friends entire home off grid. after awhile it starts getting easier. not cheaper but easier. I think I have a video of when I switched over to the 6 volt golf cart batteries. I started out with eight of them. I now have 20 and six 2 volt Trojans as my back up system!!! three 80amp flex max 80's with 1200 watts run to each, another 20 amp mppt charge controller and 4 of your wind turbines.
jeff, did you get that ring down? closer to the bottom of the pond. get some cinder-blocks and run the hose thru the cinder-blocks. wieght down the ring so its close to the bottom. It will work better from the bottom. love the video and would love to talk with you about a small farm i have and bring some power to heat water and for lighting needs. I'm sure we will talk soon. thanks again for the video and all the information. Thomas
I remember a comment on the 24 vdc cooling fan saying if you connect with out a battery it will burn out. what kind of devices need batteries and what devices don't? thanks for what you are doing. john
Hi Jeff. thanks for the video's.. answered a few very rookie questions I was unsure about so many thanks... How is your pond doing now seeing as its been over a year?
Just curious why you used two connecting leads when putting your batteries in series. Shouldn't it only require one lead going from your positive of one battery to the negative of the other? Then you go from your two remaining posts out to your load?
That is some cool stuff. Hope to be heating my house water soon from my wind turbine. Even if you can keep the water temp above 40. 0 to 40 is when the immersion heater is pulling all the power. Nice gazebo and pound do you have alligators in Missouri?
I would love to live there, I would have a small waterfall effect instead of the pump thing for aesthetics and when its clean that is. It will be beautiful with ducks too. and more bushes around the pond especially ones that clean the water, i.e. reeds.
So basically with heating elements, you don't have to worry about the solar panel voltage as you would have to with an inverter? A buddy of mine said all I have to worry about is not exceeding the wattage of heating element. Is this correct? I really want to use a spare panel to heat water w/o having to purchase a smaller 12v panel.
HI Jeff ...Im just putting together my first system thanks to you .... A few questions for you.....Does the solar panel need to be grounded ? Also IM using your first solar battery charge controler that you showed in the first video, the white one, does that have the low battery voltage feature in it where it will turn everything off if the voltage goes to low in the battery ? If not Ill buy the one you showed in this video .... Thank You Jeff for all your videos .............Oh would those heater elements work in 5000 gallon pool in Phx AZ where the night temps avg in the low 50s .... Pool heaters cost around $2000 ;-)
So Jeff, thanks for the video... My question is: If one want to use battery bank and a Grid Tie inverter, can you hook the Grid Tie Inverter to the Load part of the charge controller, so that it turns off the Grid Tie Inverter before it kills the batteries? Also, what is the advantages/disadvantages from using 6v batteries vs 12v? Is 4 6v batteries better than 2 12v? Visa Versa? or does it matter? Thanks, bro.
I find that using a water pump with a venturi is much more durable than the air pump. Using a venturi nozzle, if made properly, will produce micro bubbles making it more effective than a ring. If the nozzle is installed properly it will free range and clean the bottom of the pond.
Once I was even trying to use a coffee brewing machine to make circulate the water to heat it up it was a fine idea but they didn't finish it , but it's doable
I bet this series is gettin a lot of views now days. Best I've seen yet, simple. Love it!
Thank you, please don't stop your experiments
Thank you very much for these very informative tutorials. They are the best I have found yet. I hope all is well with you and Molly and things have quieted down. My best regards to you and Molly.
finally found someone who can teach me this stuff. Thank you Jeff from Australia
I used to put 2- 6 volt batteries in parallel in my old VW in the early 60's to get more starting power on those winter mornings. It worked like a charm. Anyone old enough to own a 6 volt VW will remember what I mean.
Really great info. TY very much from an old guy who knows everything... lol. Peace
Hi Jeff. As I said in my first post I'm new to solar power and wind turbine power. I live in Florida now and my house faces East and West. My garage hooked to the house faces south, so I have a lot of good roof lines for solar power. Really enjoyed your Solar panels for beginners. Thanks keep up the good vidios.
Thanks Greg. I am glad you got something out of it. Your garage is a good place for solar panels.
Jeff
Your right about that Derek. People complicate it for themselves. They do to much research and just get to much information. Don't over think it , get a small solar panel and hook it up to a battery. They are looking at huge complex systems and talking themselves out of wind and solar.
Start small , get that figured out and the rest is easy to understand.
One of the first videos I've watched on the solar how to's. RUclips is awesome.
Very informative. Excellent speaker. Been finding the whole subject of solar PV confusing but these videos are extremely informative. Keep up the great work Jeff. Thank you.
Hey Jeff. You have made it useable for me as I am just now starting to get serious about installing a complimentary system for my house. I like your easy and pleasant delivery. I will keep watching and progress. Thanks Dutch
Thanks sir !! You explain every thing very well and I am learning so much more since I started watching your videos !! You have a lot of knowledge sir !
Gold fish , I will give that a try. What I am trying to do is get the right type of plants in it also.
Missouri Wind and solar team is super awesome!!!
Jeff you are the best. This video series is the best I've seen so far. Keep-up the good work ! ! !
quality of the video the guy, seems like this video cudb been made in the 80s lol.. its awsome i love it. most helpful video iv found but everytime i watch i gotta remind myself its not an old video lol
Lol, i will take that as a compliment.
Jeff
haters gonna hate..lol..they are nobody...what they say or do is meaningless..i have learned more from your videos than any of the rest..i finally understand what im doing now..thanks a lot!
The batteries are hooked in series, the charge controller negative is hooked to one end of the bank and the positive is hooked to the other end. The bank will charge evenly that way. You do the same with your dc to ac inverter.
Really, your videos series are the best, your instructions is very clear . i like it all
Thank you!
Thank you very much for the clear and easy way you taught this - great stuff, subscribing now!
Wow fantastic videos!!!!! Now you break it down and now it makes sense. Thank you
Your welcome Richard.
If you can turn a screw driver you can do it if you really want to.
Jeff
Ahhh!! can someone explain to me why they don't show you these skills in highschool!?!?!?! Thanks Jeff Im off to part 3 =D
Should be taught in schools.
Your welcome Javier
Jeff
great videos easy to understand well presented great teacher . kept up the good work
thanks for sharing Jeff, I not only enjoy but also learn alot from your channel, keep it up
Thanks Jeff. I just stubbled across your videos, but I'm learning a lot. I see uses for my aquaponics projects I'm getting into now. Thanks. I look forward to your other video series.
Thanks Theo. The pump I installed is a noisy one. It's got worse with chattering.
Hi, I've just started watching your solar panels for beginners and I am learning a lot. I am a true beginner. ON you part 2 on the end of the video where you hooked the fan and the pump on the load, are they on the same place? and can they run together? and what and how would you put a fan in the cooler for the batteries and pump? Could you give more details. Yes I am very new at this and these may seem like dumb questions, but I really want to do this right and you are a very good teacher. Thank
Thank you Jeff for doing these videos, I am getting some good ideas.
J
glad to see somebody finally showing what can be done with solar. one day I may get enough never to put a video of what I have up on here. for me there are to many prying eyes at the moment for me to put up a video of my system. solar and wind really isn't rocket science. if you can hook up a car battery you have the basic steps down already. it is understanding the type of charge controller you want or need and sizing the system that gets people in trouble.
You are an awesome teacher! Thank you so much!
Thanks.
Thank you much....I always learn from your videos.....this was very helpful.
Your welcome.
Thanks.
I will be putting up more of them soon.
Looks good and straight forward
Thanks Scott. That'a a good idea.
Thanks Raymond.
Molly and I are fine. Yes things have quieted down. They have been ignored.
Back to making how to videos.
i'm liking that DC ceiling fan.............
Your videos are clear, great info, and well explained, thanks for posting!!
Thank you Jose
Jeff, great videos for us dummies. I leaped before I looked. I have 5 100 watt panels and now I don't know how to use them effectively.
Well you can always get a grid tie inverter and feed the power back into the grid.
You can also tie 2 in series and that would make them 24 volt.
Jeff
Another great video.It gives me lots of ideas and some inspiration for many d.i.y. solar projects. Thanks Jeff.
Your welcome Joe.
thank you for all you do here . I have been going thou the videos that you made and putting it on my 5th wheel i live in all year around and the snow comes i get loads of wind from the south and for now i have two solar painelsthat make 200 watts and a 12 votl wind turbmine and adding more on and the 12 volt 500 watt i got coming from you will soon be here and i will be adding it on the 5th wheel BUT i will be having a very good spot to put it up and my work has just started i am at 75% power . Thanks for your help here i will as alawys be looking for more from you ..I live in PA and some times i get snow storms and no sun for days keep the videos coming and some time see you out here for one lord willing god bless
Thanks William.
It's the wire size on the inside of the tube .
Not yet on the aerator, we got it done late and it started raining the next day and NO sun.
Yes you can do that. A lot of people use a plug in grid tie inverter to the dump switch and feed back to the grid rather then dump it into a bank of resisters.
6 volt batteries are definitely better to use then 12 volt. They will last longer and have less caps to check for water. It gets a little complicated and kinda hard to answer but I can tell you that most off grid people use 6 volt batteries. They can be discharged more then 12 volt batteries can. 2 volt batteries are the best .
great video jeff , thanks for the info on solar . will deff keep watching ,
Bubbles are nice Alan. Have you ever made bubbles in your tub when you were a kid ? I want to make them commercially. I think there's a market for them. Ian would know, I'll ask him.
That water heater is a great idea it takes a lot of $$$$$$$ and £££££££££££ to heat water. Great video THANK YOU.
Yeah it does. You can do it with dc elements, a lot of guys do.
jeff, you ever seen the glass break on a panel? mine have made it through hale storms and everything, but today my 2 year old daughter managed to brake the glass on one with a screw driver. she threw it up in the air and the tip hit the in the bottom right hand corner. it got ugly really fast. it is still laying out there popping and cracking and new brakes forming from top to bottom!!! amazing to watch!!
It does run them, just at a lower wattage. If I had 2 panels together the water would have come to a boil quickly.
Thats a great video lots of usefull information especially around air gaps between batteries and looking out for dodgy retailers who resetting things that they shouldn't. I guess if its too cheap then its cheap for a reason and thats because its either not what it says on the box or its junk
More great ideas from Missouri, thanks
Great Videos !!! Learned a lot ! Thank you !
so informative! thank you for your time & effort.
I didn't realize shade on a small portion of the panel had so much affect on them. WOW
Glad to hear that. Thanks
Excellent tutorial
Great video 👍❤️🙏🏼
Thank you!
180 degrees, that is awesome
I really wanted to stay with 3 point guy wires but I think for the sake of safety and stress I'm going to go with 4 point guy wires. This video makes it look worth while.
Thank Jeff I got some good ideas.
Great man and thanks from Japan
Very good job and good video...Thank you
+abassin555 abassin555 Your very welcome.
great info It has given me many ideas. Thanks
Your welcome Kevin. I have made some changes since i made this video. I am using a 24 volt pure sign wave inverter . Been working great.
About the water heating element back in a days I use the Iron with the bracket mounted to the tank ,worked fine
another great video thanks a lot.
wish I could of learned this in high school
Great information entering solar panel giveaway
Yes, the ring has weights in it and it sank right to the bottom. Yeah I have to weight the hose.
I love um. 24 volts and very little use in the way of watts. We have them in the store for about a year, still running good straight off a 24 volt battery bank.
One solar panel keeps up 2 12 volt batteries, never had to charge them up at all.
Excellent news and well done to both of you. So whens the next video?
This is exciting stuff. :-O
Thanks
Jeff
HOWdy M-W&S,
Thanks
COOP
...
the legal here in Kentucky grid ties I have really help off set what little the electric company is running(been just paying the $20 connection fee since rewiring to run 80% of the house off the battery bank. can't wait to start on my next home!!! it will be totally off grid.
can't wait for the snow this winter!! when the power goes out and we are still lit up, and warm while other are saying I wasn't so crazy after all!!
Jeff you need to invite Dave and I out for your awesome knowledge but better then that fishing
hey Jeff more good information. Thank You
+phillip staton Your welcome Phillip
Going to try running our pump in the skimmer with solar power.
Deborah Jabara Hope it works for ya.
Thanks , I hope you get something out of them.
Thanks. More videos on there way.
Very cool to see what solar can do with a little work. Witch panel of equal wattage work better 12v, 24V or 48v?
I gave away the 10 harbor freight kits to friends who were interested in try solar. then I set up my friends entire home off grid. after awhile it starts getting easier. not cheaper but easier. I think I have a video of when I switched over to the 6 volt golf cart batteries. I started out with eight of them. I now have 20 and six 2 volt Trojans as my back up system!!! three 80amp flex max 80's with 1200 watts run to each, another 20 amp mppt charge controller and 4 of your wind turbines.
jeff, did you get that ring down? closer to the bottom of the pond. get some cinder-blocks and run the hose thru the cinder-blocks. wieght down the ring so its close to the bottom. It will work better from the bottom. love the video and would love to talk with you about a small farm i have and bring some power to heat water and for lighting needs. I'm sure we will talk soon. thanks again for the video and all the information.
Thomas
I remember a comment on the 24 vdc cooling fan saying if you connect with out a battery it will burn out. what kind of devices need batteries and what devices don't?
thanks for what you are doing.
john
Bears and mountain lions.Alligator turtles. Had no idea Missouri had them.Be careful you could be lunch.
do you have a post of how the pond looks now?
Hi Jeff. thanks for the video's.. answered a few very rookie questions I was unsure about so many thanks... How is your pond doing now seeing as its been over a year?
Just curious why you used two connecting leads when putting your batteries in series. Shouldn't it only require one lead going from your positive of one battery to the negative of the other? Then you go from your two remaining posts out to your load?
Helpful
Really enjoy all the information. We're a company in ohio. Looking forward to doing business with you guys soon.
+RDK Electrical Service That's good to hear.
Thank you.
Great video thank you... what is the difference form a ac water element and a dc water element??? and did that air aerator help/fix your pond?
Jeff ,can you use those solar yard lights, after you dissemble them and solder them together ?
I don't see why not.Jeff
That is some cool stuff. Hope to be heating my house water soon from my wind turbine.
Even if you can keep the water temp above 40. 0 to 40 is when the immersion heater is pulling all the power. Nice gazebo and pound do you have alligators in Missouri?
I would love to live there, I would have a small waterfall effect instead of the pump thing for aesthetics and when its clean that is. It will be beautiful with ducks too. and more bushes around the pond especially ones that clean the water, i.e. reeds.
Yes, i am going to get some reeds and pond plants this spring.
I live in a mobile home would like to power my air cons it takes 220 and I have a separate. Line for it, is it possible to do that?
So basically with heating elements, you don't have to worry about the solar panel voltage as you would have to with an inverter? A buddy of mine said all I have to worry about is not exceeding the wattage of heating element. Is this correct? I really want to use a spare panel to heat water w/o having to purchase a smaller 12v panel.
HI Jeff ...Im just putting together my first system thanks to you .... A few questions for you.....Does the solar panel need to be grounded ? Also IM using your first solar battery charge controler that you showed in the first video, the white one, does that have the low battery voltage feature in it where it will turn everything off if the voltage goes to low in the battery ? If not Ill buy the one you showed in this video .... Thank You Jeff for all your videos .............Oh would those heater elements work in 5000 gallon pool in Phx AZ where the night temps avg in the low 50s .... Pool heaters cost around $2000 ;-)
“wind turbine” and/or “solar panel
I like these videos, but I do want to run my entire house using 55kw monthly off grid, what do I need
So Jeff, thanks for the video... My question is: If one want to use battery bank and a Grid Tie inverter, can you hook the Grid Tie Inverter to the Load part of the charge controller, so that it turns off the Grid Tie Inverter before it kills the batteries?
Also, what is the advantages/disadvantages from using 6v batteries vs 12v? Is 4 6v batteries better than 2 12v? Visa Versa? or does it matter?
Thanks, bro.
I find that using a water pump with a venturi is much more durable than the air pump. Using a venturi nozzle, if made properly, will produce micro bubbles making it more effective than a ring. If the nozzle is installed properly it will free range and clean the bottom of the pond.
is it anyway that you could still use power off the solar panel and charge the batteries too
Can I use the 6000 btu air conditioner with a 340 solar panel without battery only use the sun energy for use in a sunny days.
Once I was even trying to use a coffee brewing machine to make circulate the water to heat it up it was a fine idea but they didn't finish it , but it's doable