diy solar

diy solar

Very new to solar but started purchasing items, not sure of the final specs of the whole system.

Started at page 1 thinking this would be a nightmare build.

Now on page 41 and wanted to say thank you for documenting everything you are doing. It's been incredibly valuable!

Keep up the great work!
 
Started at page 1 thinking this would be a nightmare build.

Now on page 41 and wanted to say thank you for documenting everything you are doing. It's been incredibly valuable!

Keep up the great work!
Thank you for the appreciation, it has been a steep incline of learning since the start.
 
SCC's are in and just finished number 7, I'm doing them all with parallel connections. Going to start on #8 and get that done after that hopefully #9 will be the last. I'm still debating on how to add a 3rd inveter to handle charging duties for the car and electric equiptment. I have been researching and there are many chargers that can do 32/16/8 etc on charging. But 32 amps would be best but would cause issues with running the hvac etc.
 

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Each inverter is additional no-load current draw. But they are redundancy.
Can you manage loads to avoid too much, but still have a higher percentage utilization?
 
Each inverter is additional no-load current draw. But they are redundancy.
Can you manage loads to avoid too much, but still have a higher percentage utilization?
At the moment I have everything very balanced between the two panels. I would like to put the car charging on the larger bank that handles only the hvac, mini split and water heater. But when I look at adding an electric car even at the smallest charge current its a big increase. It would be great if I could add a 3rd inverter that runs on the larger bank but is connected to a secondary load panel. I would need to run this by signature to see if this would be possible.
 
SCC #8 is now partially online, means now have 99 500w bifacials online. Spoke with santan and the replacemens are on the way.
 

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It's in float but staying postive with close to 4000w load.
 

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We have heavy cloud cover but staying postive even in float.
 

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This is what 99 500w panels can produce in heavy clouds and rain. I'm happy though since its all positive.
 

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50 kW of panels? :ROFLMAO:

5kW, 10% on a cloudy day.

I forget - does any of this backfeed the grid for net metering? Or do you just charge batteries and curtail production if no loads need it?
 
50 kW of panels? :ROFLMAO:

5kW, 10% on a cloudy day.

I forget - does any of this backfeed the grid for net metering? Or do you just charge batteries and curtail production if no loads need it?
IIt's crazy how much clouds/rain affect output, I only charge the batteries no grid connection. Full sun bank 1 can do over 400amps, bank 2 can do around 180amps.

Last 15 minues production is down even further, really heavy dark clouds.
 

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Lol here's what happens when you have very dark clouds, rain and it looks like where getting ready to start shooting the fog 2 movie.
 

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It’s taken way more panels than I thought it would. But it’s been a solid two days of dense clouds and heavy rain. Considering the time and the current bad weather we are finally staying positive and running the loads. But based on charge rate and shorter days in the winter I wonder though. Inverter 2 is running everything except hvac, mini, water heaters. inverter 2 has two fridges, two freezers, plus the computers, tvs for clients, so it has a very consistent load.
 

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Still cloudy but not near as dense today but abnormally cold for this time, heat has been running. I was really surprised to see it was postive plus some.
 

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3 days of not getting to a full charge, panels are not in full direct sunlight yet they are almost done with the heat running.
Managed to get an ev but still wondering about charging it, certainly have plenty of capacity on sunny days but 38amps takes up
a fair amount of the inverters capacity. Second screen shot was taken at 10:20.
 

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Should have heeded the growatt food warnings, little after midnight and spilt some of my snack on the inverter and scc. Wiped it off and went to bed thinking it would not hurt anything. The next morning it appears they have multiplied.
 

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All of the panels are online, got the replacements after the second try. I took the time to make sure the appropriate amount of solar carbon enhancement dust if properly applied to all the panels. The hill is very steep but the bottom panels start to shade after 7:15 in the summer which was better than I had hoped.
 

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This is what I really enjoy, ac on upstairs 73f, downstairs two mini splits running 64f, 87 out and its sitting positive in float the whole day.
 

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