Forum Member Big Moe on the Harbor Freight Company Blog

Everybody here at Do it yourself solar energy [a division of New World Solar] are so happy for one of our forum members Big Moe. He is being featured on the Harbor Freight company blog. Why you ask? Because Big Moe has the largest array of Harbor Freight solar panels in the world. Big Moe [aka Michael Jordan] is also one of the leading educators in the DIY solar energy field. No matter how big his system gets he also takes pride in taking time to answer the most basic question and helping someone get started making their own solar energy.

Here's the article on the Harbor Freight blog.......

Great Caesar's ghost-- what IS that?!

It all started when Michael Jordan a.k.a. "Big Moe" decided to power his barn. He'd been using it as a workshop for his cars and other projects, and he wanted to get juice over there without having it tied to the grid. The barn did, in fact, have its own meter, but Big Moe opted to keep it turned off. Instead, he started clipping Harbor Freight coupons and bought 45 Watt Solar Panel Kits. After a year, he had purchased 45 kits-- that's 135 solar panels!

"I could have purchased larger panels from other sources, but I felt that the affordability and flexibility of buying from HF was better for my budget."

Big Moe then created an on-roof rack system and installed all of the solar panels to it. Once the system was built and all the bugs were worked out of the inverters and battery banks, he found he had a lot more power than he needed in the barn. But, he made sure none of it went to waste.

"At that point I decided to also power my house. I now power my home and my barn from the HF panels. To be fair, I do not power the home 100%. I still run all of the 220v appliances from the grid, but all other aspects are run from my solar arrays."

How Big Moe Did It

• The solar system consists of two arrays with a total of 135 HF 15w panels (75 panels on array #1, 60 panels on array #2).
• 2 @ 80 amp solar charge controllers
• 12 @ 2v batteries in a single battery bank that holds 2220 AH of power.
• 1 @ 5000w pure sine inverter for the barn.
• 2 @ 3000w pure sine inverters for the house.
• 1 @ Chicago Electric 400W Continuous Power Inverter for an outside security light
• The panels are wired in series/parallel in sets of 3. This allows for a 43v input at load and 62v open circuit voltage. The controllers drop the voltage and up the amperage for the 12v battery bank.
• 2/0 welding cable for wiring and the battery bank is connected to each other using copper bus bars.
• 2 @ wind generators to help diversify for wind and solar. They are a 600w and a 800w wind & solar unit.
• The wind generators are connected to one wind and solar charge controller.
• The power to the home is fed through service wire to a breaker box that is located in the home, but is separate from the standard breaker box.

He can feed any circuit in the home with either grid power or his own alternative power. So if the battery bank is running lower he is able to selectively change circuits from alternative to grid power.
Been thinking about adding a power source to your property, campsite or other location? Consider Harbor Freight's solar panel kits, individual 15 Watt Solar Panels and other Chicago Electric solar power equipment for your project!

You can visit Big Moe's page on the DIY Solar Energy Forum for more information, or if you have questions.


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