Installing More Solar Panels At The Off Grid Homestead

I finally got all the materials I needed to set up some more solar panels for my off grid tiny house on wheels. I have been collecting the wires and connectors as my budget allows leading up to this day.

I finally had everything I needed to set up the other solar panels for my off grid homestead. I have had four 200 watt solar panels connected in series to give me 130 volts DC at 8 amps. These solar panels are connected to my Tristar MPPT solar charge controller which converts the volts and amps to match what my solar forklift battery needs.

I first had to dig out some pallets that I had saved for this project. These were buried under snow since the beginning of winter. Everything is under snow out here right now.

I sat these up against the old off grid RV to dry off in the sun. It was relatively warm - around 40 degrees F which is a heat wave for this time of year.

Next I ran a 100 foot AC extension cord from the tiny house to the back of the RV where the new solar panels will be installed. Behind the RV is the best place in winter for solar power production. This area gets the most morning to mid day solar radiation in winter. In summer I will have to move my solar panels again but I plan to build an overhang on front of the tiny house and put my solar panels up there by summer.

Inside my tiny home I used some off the shelf AC plug ends to make connectors between my solar panels and the AC extension cord which will be used between the solar panels and the off grid tiny house.

I carefully stood the solar panels up on the pallets and fastened them to the pallets for safety.

Next I connected the new adapters I just made onto the solar panels out by the off grid RV.

Next I tested the other end of the extension cord for voltage to make sure my connections were good. I was getting 130 volts DC so the connections were working so far.

The next step was to put together an AC plug for the other end of the extension cord and run the wires into my tiny house.

This plug end simply had two doubled up 12 gauge wires which run into the tiny home.

Inside I checked voltage again and had good connections so I wired the new solar panels up to my solar charge controller.

Now my tiny house should be getting at least double the solar power.

I checked out the MPPT solar charge controller on my laptop to see what the previous performance of the other 4 solar panels were for comparison before the new solar panels start producing power. This gives me an idea how much improvement I will get from the new solar panels.

Follow my daily progress on the path to self sufficiency on my off grid solar homestead.
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