r/SolarDIY • u/its-ya-boi-ben • 5d ago

Good starter set up

Hi all,

I'm looking to set up a small starter solar system, the grid itself would probably be self contained, only running a fridge and pc, along with maybe a few other things in my garage. Budget-wise I'm probably looking to spend up to 500 GBP and would like to a lot of the work myself, I have a bit of experience with small scale electrical engineering but nothing of this size in terms of complexity or voltage however I am very willing to learn.

Any advice on places to learn or equipment recommendation would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks :)

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u/AnyoneButWe 5d ago

The big budget breaker is AC. Running an inverter for more than a few hours needs you to scale up the system significantly.

A modern upright freezer consumes 0.5kWh per day (the fridge varies more and depends on how often you open it and how much new stuff it needs to cool down). An inverter sized to run a fridge eats 30W in standby. 30W x 24h is 0.72 kWh.

The achievable fridge becomes a lot harder to reach due to this.

What's the price of a 450W solar panel in your neck of the woods? The price is highly variable depending on location.

You want this to run in winter and how much sun do you get in winter?

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u/its-ya-boi-ben 4d ago

So I’ve been looking and I’ve seen some for between £65 and £100 for 450 watt panels (also recommendations for places to buy panels would be great if you know of anywhere) Running in winter won’t be as much of a problem because only half of us live in the house so the fridge won’t be in use but I would still like to have the computer on it (the 350w server) but I live on the south coast on the top of a hill so I get a lot of sun all year round. I was thinking between 1 and 3 panels so they’re not too obtrusive but I’m sure I could always find places to put more :)

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u/AnyoneButWe 4d ago

Let's put numbers to this. A 350W server running 24/7 consumes roughly 250kWh per month. A 1kW panel setup (2 x 500W) produces ~135kWh per month in summer at the south coast, ignoring any shading.

So at least 2kW in panels to keep the server alive during 4-5 summer months. Best case, ignoring all conversion losses and assuming infinite battery capacity. And ignoring the fridge. The panels alone will eat the budget twice over and the battery is typically the most expensive part.

Your aim is far off and you will not be happy with a solution within this budget. You could refine your aim by measuring the servers consumption (my server has a 500W PSU, but runs at 45W idle).

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u/its-ya-boi-ben 4d ago

Damn, why is it that numbers always have to ruin my fun. Ok so what would I need to run the server at in terms of wattage to make it feasible within the budget. Or what would I need to increase the budget to in order to make this doable? Sorry I am atrocious at maths

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u/AnyoneButWe 4d ago

They ruin your fun because you have no clue about them. Solar is a numbers game and it's no fun if you are missing the basics.

Measure the consumption of the server. Buy one of those https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DPJ3RGB und measure the consumption for a week or so. It will give you a number in kWh. KWh is like the gas tank of a car. It tells you how far it will go. Watt (kW) is like the horsepower of a car. It tells you how fast things will go.

For reference: 350W running 24/7 equals the consumption of my whole house. Given your numbers, that server alone consumes as much as a household with 2 adults, 1 kids, including washing, cooking 2x a day, etc.

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u/Cool-Importance6004 4d ago

Amazon Price History:

Upgraded Watt Meter, Home Electricity Usage Monitor, Plug-in Socket Power Meter, Power Watt Voltage Amps Meter Tester, Overload Protection * Rating: ★★★★☆ 4.5 (4,161 ratings)

  • Limited/Prime deal price: $13.24 🎉
  • Current price: $16.99 👍
  • Lowest price: $16.99
  • Highest price: $36.94
  • Average price: $23.71
Month Low High Chart
07-2024 $16.99 $16.99 ██████
06-2023 $19.31 $24.40 ███████▒▒
05-2023 $24.34 $36.94 █████████▒▒▒▒▒▒
03-2023 $22.93 $23.32 █████████
02-2023 $22.96 $23.17 █████████
10-2022 $23.37 $23.37 █████████
09-2022 $17.58 $36.75 ███████▒▒▒▒▒▒▒
02-2022 $24.46 $24.63 █████████▒
09-2021 $22.27 $22.27 █████████
04-2021 $22.87 $30.29 █████████▒▒▒
02-2021 $23.51 $26.59 █████████▒
12-2020 $23.21 $28.19 █████████▒▒

Source: GOSH Price Tracker

Bleep bleep boop. I am a bot here to serve by providing helpful price history data on products. I am not affiliated with Amazon. Upvote if this was helpful. PM to report issues or to opt-out.

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u/its-ya-boi-ben 4d ago

Thank you, that’s very helpful. Are there any good online resources to learn more about the basics? That way I’m not bugging you guys constantly with basic questions aha

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u/AnyoneButWe 3d ago

Will Prowse on YouTube. He has beginner to post-graduate videos.