Solar for Internet And Devices

Polymathic

Polymathic

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For the past couple months my area has been having serious faults from Eskom as well as cable theft and it takes several hours for them to bring power back.

What I was thinking about last night is maybe have a solar setup that will allow me to power my LTE Router and maybe even charge our phones.

I'm looking for the cheapest possible way to achieve this.

(I assume because the Router runs and phones can charge on DC power I wouldn't need an inverter)
 
Polymathic said:
For the past couple months my area has been having serious faults from Eskom as well as cable theft and it takes several hours for them to bring power back.

What I was thinking about last night is maybe have a solar setup that will allow me to power my LTE Router and maybe even charge our phones.

I'm looking for the cheapest possible way to achieve this.

(I assume because the Router runs and phones can charge on DC power I wouldn't need an inverter)
Click to expand...
Does everything work on 12V?
 
Polymathic said:
The Router is 12V, I'm assuming phones can charge at 12V based on car chargers.
Click to expand...
Okay. Car chargers are designed to work on 12Vdc, they step down the 12V to 5V for the phones. The regular charger is designed to work at 230Vac.

Back to your question, I would get a 100W solar panel, a solar charger with two USB ports for your phones. You will also need a battery to store some energy so that you are not cut off when there's no sun. Cables for the panel and batteries and you should be good to go.

I have a similar system but with an inverter, both the inverter and the charge controller have USB ports, that's where I charge my phones, it has a 42Ah battery and an AC output for my TV.
 
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Plus cables. The whole thing can be assembled at under R4k.
 
Here's mine, inverter 600W Pure sine wave @R1900, cheap 30A PWM charge controller @ R350, 100W CNBM solar panel @ R750, 42Ah battery @R500 from Cash Converters, toolbox as well as wires were lying around so I paid nothing for them.

Total: R3500 for mine, so yours will be cheaper since you don't need an inverter.

IMG_20210322_184000.jpg
 
Polymathic said:
For the past couple months my area has been having serious faults from Eskom as well as cable theft and it takes several hours for them to bring power back.

What I was thinking about last night is maybe have a solar setup that will allow me to power my LTE Router and maybe even charge our phones.

I'm looking for the cheapest possible way to achieve this.

(I assume because the Router runs and phones can charge on DC power I wouldn't need an inverter)
Click to expand...

Might wanna look at these

When I built my meter box I was tempted to use them my only problem is that I have batteries in series and did not want to unbalance the load. so I went for plain ones

Can work for your solar charge as you wont want an inverter.
 
Speedster said:
How about one of the solar enabled ratels?

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Click to expand...
That looks perfect for just phones and router, all you need is a solar panel.

Are there ones that are bigger than that, I see this is only limited to a 50W panel?
 
TheChamp said:
That looks perfect for just phones and router, all you need is a solar panel.

Are there ones that are bigger than that, I see this is only limited to a 50W panel?
Click to expand...
That unit is limited to 30W output, which is plenty for his needs (10W for the router and 10W for the cell phones), so 50W panel is plenty. There used to be a bigger brother which could handle larger output but I believe that has been discontinued / is out of stock.
 
Speedster said:
That unit is limited to 30W output, which is plenty for his needs (10W for the router and 10W for the cell phones), so 50W panel is plenty. There used to be a bigger brother which could handle larger output but I believe that has been discontinued / is out of stock.
Click to expand...
8.8ah seems a bit on the small side for my needs.
Do you know what capacity the bigger brother had?
 
TheChamp said:
Here's mine, inverter 600W Pure sine wave @R1900, cheap 30A PWM charge controller @ R350, 100W CNBM solar panel @ R750, 42Ah battery @R500 from Cash Converters, toolbox as well as wires were lying around so I paid nothing for them.

Total: R3500 for mine, so yours will be cheaper since you don't need an inverter.

View attachment 1040278
Click to expand...
I'm seeing solar controllers with only USB outlets on then , not sure exactly how I would connect my Router directly to it.

Would I need a step up cable or do I connect with an adaptor that goes where the inverter cables go?
 
Polymathic said:
I'm seeing solar controllers with only USB outlets on then , not sure exactly how I would connect my Router directly to it.

Would I need a step up cable or do I connect with an adaptor that goes where the inverter cables go?
Click to expand...
The solar controller has USB outputs and a 12V output where you connect your 12V loads. That's where the light bulb is connected on the picture.

Screenshot_20210323_102233_com.android.chrome.jpg
 
dont bother with a solar panel, rather spend the money on a bigger battery and charge it from the wall. Then use a buck circuit to power your internet devices and another buck rail 5V for USB charging. Youll save more money that way and itll be far less effort than running cables from the roof to inside
 
TheChamp said:
The solar controller has USB outputs and a 12V output where you connect your 12V loads. That's where the light bulb is connected on the picture.

View attachment 1040484
Click to expand...
Dont touch...

From what I been reading that thing has little to no protection from over V from solar side.

Edit: Then again people on Takealot seems happy with em?
 
AlphaJohn said:
Dont touch...

From what I been reading that thing has little to no protection from over V from solar side.

Edit: Then again people on Takealot seems happy with em?
Click to expand...
I am also happy with mine, my two panels in series can go as high as 40V on a good day, it handles that like a champ and I think it has even more room to handle more, I have shorted terminals a number of times on a battery, it just switches off and comes back on again.

I really have no complaints about it, I bought mine at my local Pakistani electronics shop for R350 and it has been working like a charm ever since. People should install proper protection anyway, relying on in built protection is testing fate.
 
TheChamp said:
I am also happy with mine, my two panels in series can go as high as 40V on a good day, it handles that like a champ and I think it has even more room to handle more, I have shorted terminals a number of times on a battery, it just switches off and comes back on again.

I really have no complaints about it, I bought mine at my local Pakistani electronics shop for R350 and it has been working like a charm ever since. People should install proper protection anyway, relying on in built protection is testing fate.
Click to expand...
What do you mean by proper protection?
 
Polymathic said:
What do you mean by proper protection?
Click to expand...

Well the manuals doe state you should add a DC trip on batteries.

Output: I would add Overload protection on plug side as domestics kinda like using Iron's and Vacuums on plugs that is open instead of dragging an extension with em. Odd housewife/daughter with a hair dryer also happens.

Input: On the input side, all I can say is Eskom.

Edit: Oops wrong thread. Warnings still apply on output. :D
On Input. China quality control is sometimes on par with Eskom.
 
AlphaJohn said:
Well the manuals doe state you should add a DC trip on batteries.

Output: I would add Overload protection on plug side as domestics kinda like using Iron's and Vacuums on plugs that is open instead of dragging an extension with em. Odd housewife/daughter with a hair dryer also happens.

Input: On the input side, all I can say is Eskom.
Click to expand...
If he goes for the DC solution as he suggested in the OP there's no chance for the domestic to ever plug anything but fuses are a must if you work with DC.

It is always a good idea to a have a way to isolate the battery for troubleshooting etc.
 
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