Solar Online Solar Sound System Power Trailer

This mobile solar power system was developed to provide practical and renewable operating power to a portable 2700W sound system. The sound system output has now grown to around 7000W and the power system still manages to keep up in most scenarios. It comprises of the following components:

• 6 x Sharp 123W solar panels
• 1 x Outback MX-60 maximum power point tracker (MPPT)
• 6 x Hoppecke 2V 1600Ah deep cycle batteries
• 1 x Xantrex (Trace) SW2612E 12V 2600W pure sine inverter charger
• 1 x Plasmatronics PL20 regulator with 200A shunt kit for power metering
• 1 x Fusing and protection equipment

All components (bar panels) were mounted onto a trolley for compactness and portability.

The trailer has enough capacity to run the 2700W sound system for approximately 40 hours and the 7000kW system (run at slightly below full power) for about 15 hours.

One of the interesting features of this type of power system is that it has no problem with operating sound systems of up to 8000W. This is due to the high surge capabilities built into the Xantrex SW inverter (ie. current draw exceeding the rating of the inverter by many times over a short period of time) and the fact that audio amplifiers only draw full power for a comparitively short period of each musical bar.....mainly on the loud kickdrums, but much less for the higher frequency sounds in between.

Basically, the sound system draws power only when it needs it, which is in contrast to the approach needed with generator operation where the total maximum power the sound system is likely to draw must be provided (in fact exceeded) at all times. Thus, while our 2600W power system will happily operate a 8000kW sound system, to do the same with a generator would require at least a 12000VA unit.

Pictured below is a slightly larger power pack built for the Rejenr8 mobile sound cafe. The Rejenr8 crew operate a 5000W+ sound system, lighting and other equipment in a large geodesic dome at various festivals and music events. Their power pack comprises of the following components:

• 2 x Sharp 175W solar panels (currently portable)
• 1 x Outback MX-60 maximum power point tracker (MPPT)
• 12 x Traxion 2V 1700Ah deep cycle batteries
• 1 x Xantrex (Trace) SW3024E 24V 3300W pure sine inverter charger
• 1 x Plasmatronics PL20 regulator with 200A shunt kit for power metering
• 1 x Fusing and protection equipment

The higher rated inverter charger and larger battery pack allows larger loads to run for longer!