Mobile Solar SolMan
September 21, 2009 · Print This Article
Adding Solar to your tiny house can be a daunting task if you are not up to date on all the latest technology and how it works together.
A couple of weeks ago we had a “Meeting of the Tiny Minds” and Bill Kastrinos of Tortoise Shell Homes told Jay, Stephen, Michael and I about this great solar solution that was out there.
What if there was a simple solution to this and all you had to do was plug and play? SoleMan a company based in Willits, California has come up with just that kind of solution.
They call their system the “one small, easy to move, all in one integrated unit, ready to point towards the sun at your best location, and deliver up to 1200 watts of AC power, and 12 volts DC power, and even charge all your Ni-Mh smaller batteries.”
This little unit is on heavy duty bicycle wheels so you can have your Tumbleweed home in the shade and easily roll your solar unit where it gets the most sun.
The cool thing about the SolMan is that if your needs grow, so can the SoleMan. You can add another solar panel easily and even a third. The second one sits on it’s own stand and can be adjusted as needed. If you chose to get a third panel they have a bracket that attaches all three together that can be folded up for moving.
No need to deal with big panels and connecting them to your roof and knowing you have to park your home in the sun to get the most voltage to your system.
Here are list of the SolMan features:
- Silent Operation: No sound whatsoever. Won’t bother your neighbors or you with gas generator noise.
- Clean Operation: No gas needed, no gas cans to transport, no fumes or exhaust to worry about.
- No additional costs EVER! : Once you buy a Solman, it doesn’t cost anything else to run, as long as you can point it towards the sun.
- No recurring gasoline costs, that are only going to go up, no oil changes, no short life span, as unit is designed to keep working for years. ( 20 year PV panel warranty)
- Completely self contained, integrated unit: Ready to go, plug and play green power. No engineering or electrical skills needed.
- Transportable: With ramps, the Solman can go with you in the back of a small van, SUV or truck. It can be laid horizontal safely.
- Mobility: 26 inch heavy duty aluminum spoke and rubber bike tires and perfect balance allow the unit to be wheeled to any location for the best sun, and can easily be turned thru the day for maximum solar tracking and optimal PV energy input.
- Deep Cycle Batteries: “2 or 3 -100 (200 to 300 amp-hr total) deep cycle sealed gel cell. No acid spills or venting. No maintenance.
- Enclosed battery Container: Optimizes battery life.
- Two 12 Volt Auto Plugs: Plenty of places to plug in your 12 volt accessories, lights, chargers, etc.
- One heavy 30 amp marine trolling motor plug on exterior, for water pumping, external battery charging, or additional external inverter.
- All external plugs have covers and are set up for outdoor use, even in the rain, and all critical components are inside and protected from the weather.
- Array only switch: to route unused, excess PV power during the day to external battery charging or water pumping.
- Blue Sky Solar Boost 2000E MPPT PV Charge Controller: can handle up to 25 amps or 3 PV panels, and Maximum Power Point Tracking gives additional 10% to 20% charging efficiency to PV input.
- 120 Volt Magnum MM-AE 1200 watt Inverter/Charger: this unit has a built in 70 amp charger for when your batteries are down, and you have access to a gas generator, or the grid, you can just plug in the unit and bring your battery bank up to full charge in as little as two hours, also has an AC transfer switch, that automatically senses external power and switches load to that when on.
- Magnum Inverter remote switch and status lights on back of unit.
- Fuse Protected: 150 amp inverter fuse, triplex plug 20 amp and exterior 30 amp plug.
- Heavy 15 amp solar PV-in plug, wired to solar controller for adding an external solar panels.
- Toe piece L on bottom, allows for easy transport of optional external PV panel.
- Solar PV panel hinged for easy access to internal box, and latches and locks if needed.
So if you are looking to take your tiny house off the grid and become independent and want to use solar as your main component this SolMan option is worth looking at.
Of course there other other RV and home options so do your research and choose what is best for you and your situation. I just like the idea of plug and play and having everything put together where you need it and mobile to boot.
Love the name… someone finally seems to have solar power done right for the plug-n-players. Looks like a great investment!
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This system would be a great seller, I would think, in Florida as an alternative to generators for hurricane season. No risk of carbon monoxide poisoning, no running all over the state trying to find an open gas station or one with any fuel left, no endless noise running day and night till the power comes back on. Wonder if they have a distributer here (FL)? If not, I might be interested in doing it for them.
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Excellent! I love it! I wonder how much it weighs…
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[...] panels are getting more and more affordable. I imagine that by the time we are ready to buy, we can get them for $4000, one year’s tax refund. Not to mention, you can make your own solar panels. [...]
Wow, this is amazing. I’ve never seen anything like it. Thanks for introducing this to me – this is the first time I’ve seen one with wheels!
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Great product! How much and who sells this currently by zip code or direct meil?
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This mobile unit is an intriging concept…but $4500 for 120 watts of solar power seems a bit pricey. That’s $37.50 per watt. Looked at differently, in an ideal location, on the day of the summer solstice the unit would only generate 800 to 1000 watt hours and as little as 360 watt hours on the winter solstice or an average of about 700 watt hours per day, assuming 365 days of sunshine per year. Amortized over 20 years and, assuming no maintenance costs, that’s 5100 kilowatt hours or about 88 cents per kilowatt hour over the lifetime of the unit. Pretty expensive power where I live. Now there might be some sort of government or utility company incentive for a permanent installation, but I don’t think they apply to this sort of temporary equipment. A do-it-yourselfer could probably buy the components to build this unit for $1000 or less. At $1000 the price of the power comes to about 20 cents per kilowatt hour. Much better, but still about twice what commercially generated power costs where I live.For a Tiny House actually parked off-grid, this type of approach, combined with wind power and fossil fueled generator back-up is probably the most viable option. I believe a creative and resourceful Tiny House dweller could do a lot better than to pay $4500 for 120 watts of solar power capacity.
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The appeal of Solar / wind power is not about the cheapest way to get power.
It’s about freedom.
Freedom from being tied to the grid or to life within range of the grid.
Freedom from being a slave to a corporation for your power.
It’s about having power during a brownout or when a storm has damaged transmission lines.
It’s about stepping outside the box of current thinking.
It’s about creating positive options for yourself and supporting development of alternatives.
You can roll your own or now you can buy something prepackaged if you are unwilling or unable to make one.
Just like hamburgers.
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That technology will improve, eventually becoming cost-effective roofing along with cost-effective paint, with both supplying solar-power.
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Freedom my lollypops. Prices like this make this kind of teck avalable only to the rich. People who work for a living cutting your hair, serving your food and taking care of your childern and elderly will never be able to aford prices like that. If you add a cronic medical condition onto marginal work conditions and then price “green” teck up like this you have no one but yourself to blame for “overfilled landfills” and “no future for our kids” that I here (and even say myself) . If we cant make living lightly on the earth not only eco friendly but ecconomy/money friendly then our people as a whole wont move forward to living like they and you dream.
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