"Steve W." wrote in message
news
David R. Birch wrote:
I've been think about installing this in my garage which has no
electricity running to it. I've googled "Solar Powered Garage Door
Opener" and only found general talk, no one who's actually done it
and no company that makes one.

Has anyone here done this or have more info?

David

Shouldn't be that hard. Solar panels to battery bank. Inverter off
battery bank. Just make sure the inverter can handle the load.

--
Steve W.

For an experimental system that may have to be modified I would
isolate its functions instead of trying to integrate them. For example
my P20L solar panel controller will allow up to 20A load current but
my sine inverter can pull 50A, so I can't use the controller's load
output or low-voltage cutoff and depend on the inverter's battery
protection setting.

There are separate fused heavy load cables and lighter charging wires
attached at the battery terminals and the charging wires double for
remote voltage monitoring. I have ammeters permanently in the charging
side and 4-digit voltmeters on the batteries, to keep an eye on how
well the system is working. The voltage drop in the wire and fuse
between the voltmeter and the battery while charging doesn't matter
because the reading won't indicate state of charge until the battery
has rested for quite a while. The voltmeter will accurately show
battery terminal voltage during discharge as long as there's no
charging current flowing.

Solar panel voltage and load current are useful to check during setup
but I don't think they are worth the cost of dedicated meters unless
you have problems or keep tinkering with it. An ammeter in the load
cable will affect the low voltage cutoff.

My system uses non-gendered Anderson Powerpoles to connect the
components and a meter like this can be temporarily inserted to
measure voltage and current.
https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Batte.../dp/B01HM24MVG
The Amp-Hours total is useful on solar systems. It will preserve the
reading if you add a 9V battery to keep it powered through the JST
connector (from an RC hobby store.) Watt-Hours is less useful because
the battery discharges at a lower voltage than it charges.

It's especially important to be able to isolate the always-live
battery. I like to see the plugs hanging free while working elsewhere
on the wiring.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_wire_gauge
If you are accustomed to 120V wiring the relatively higher resistance
loss at 12V is surprising. 25' of 14 AWG wire pair drops 1.25V at 10A.

In other words you may want the battery very close to the AC inverter.
The 120V wiring to the motor in the center of the ceiling could be
longer and the wiring to the solar panel controller long enough to put
it within reach on the wall. An external port like a weatherproof
trailer connector would let you charge a dead battery to open the
door.

-jsw