Solar · Shopping list

Small off-grid solar starter list

Panels, battery, charge controller, inverter and the wiring bits for a 12 V system that keeps a pump and an air pump running.

This is a 12 V system for small, steady loads: an aquaponics pump and air pump, a hydroponic air pump and timer, or an aquarium's filter through an outage. With 5 hours of good sun a day, the small size keeps about 30 W running around the clock; the larger one roughly doubles that. Run your own numbers through the load, array and battery calculators before buying, since sun hours change everything.

The list

Size 200 W of panel, 1 battery 400 W of panel, 2 batteries

Power

Renogy solar panel, 200 W 24 V-class panel (37 V open circuit). On a 12 V bank it needs an MPPT controller; a PWM one wastes about a third of it.

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LiTime 12 V 100 Ah LiFePO4, 12.8 V nominal, 1,280 Wh Sold by the maker. 100 A BMS, and up to four can be wired in series or parallel.

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Renogy Rover 30 A MPPT, 12/24 V MPPT controller for up to 400 W of panels on a 12 V bank, or 800 W on 24 V.

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Renogy P2 pure sine inverter, 1,000 W, 12 V 12 V input. On a 24 or 48 V bank, buy an inverter made for that voltage instead.

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Wiring

Renogy inline MC4 fuse, 15 A One per panel, between panel and controller.

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BougeRV 10 AWG solar extension cable, 20 ft pair MC4 ends on both sides. 10 AWG keeps voltage drop small on short runs.

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Monitoring

Renogy 500 A battery monitor, with shunt Counts the amps going in and out, so state of charge is measured, not guessed from voltage.

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Not on the list

Battery-to-inverter cables, a battery fuse sized to the inverter, mounting hardware and a box or shelf for the battery aren't here. The cables and fuse depend on the distance and the inverter's current, so size them with the DC wire sizing guide and buy them from a local supplier who can crimp the lugs. Read grounding and safety before connecting anything.