This is a very basic,cheap setup in our Barn.Nothing here is fancy but it does work real well for a few lights and to charge backup batteries. I wound up with 3 panels just lying on a porch roof (no wind issues here at all).Could use a grounding wire from panels to ground.

Super simple,wires from panel to charge controller,from there to battery.From battery to the 120 volt inverter.A fuse in each line.

From that point its just a matter how big and how robust the equipment is,all still remains simple.

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First thing to do is hook the 2 panels together.Wire the positive to the positive of each panel together and add a pigtail wire to go to the charge controller.Same story with the negative wires.Im using 12 ga wire because its such a short run to controller

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Flip the panels over....We are using the 2 panels on the left (180 watts total of 12 volt panels),the 3 on the right and above will be used on a different system to charge the battery bank that powers the house during power outages (wound up giving away 2 panels on right to Bud who needed them)






Run wires through wall...




And mount the Charge Controller.This doodad controls panel output to get maximum charge rate from panels while avoiding overcharging battery




Now make wires to run from battery to charge controller




Oops,forgot to wire inverter to battery.This device changes the 12 volt DC battery power to 120 volt AC household power




Connect those battery wires then run them up to the Charge Controller




Now Connect the wires from the panels to the Charge controller.One should be ideally black (The 2 wires on left) But I have a lot more red wire so red it is.I did mark the end of the negative wire with black zip ties to tell it apart.Also note there should be a fuse in both the panel and battery circuit,I will add later as I didnt have handy.Regular 20 amp automobile type fuse is fine.




There we have it,all hooked up and devices plugged into the inverter receiving 120 volt AC power






Edited by spuds (08/01/12 06:39 PM)