Most reacted posts

My husband and I wish to put together a battery bank and solar array. We're not sure where to begin in researching the kit. Being in a remote mountain location, with a 5kW incoming mains supply which would cost a fortune to upgrade, but enjoying a very low unit price for electricity at...

I'm wanting to install a system of maybe 3kW peak panel output, location is northern Spain. We are grid-connected, but the solar system will be off-grid because it will be too expensive and complicated to connect it. In summer, the power will be used to drive the air-con system, which has an...

Spa ordered, jet pump included. I'd thought of running the jet pump from house mains to avoid that big start load and the need for battery capacity, but that would mean two out-of-phase voltages within the spa, with a shock potential of 400V. Not keen. Looking to keep mains and solar circuits...

So you do need to have a big inverter after the battery bank as well as the micros before it?

No

Matt, I wasn't aware of the AIO, although familiar with smaller UPSs. A first look shows them to be quite expensive per kWh, probably because they all contain lithium batteries rather than lead-acid. I'd be nervous of cheaper Chinese imports on risk of battery fire, but otherwise seems to be an...

I still need some of the basics here, too many gaps in my knowledge and I don't know the terms I'm looking for. I want to create a solar system to operate my (wood-fired) spa pool, an island system because I don't want the complications of a grid-tie. In simple terms, when the panel power...

I'm designing an island system to run my spa. It's a panel-led design as I can absorb all the energy produced, I need a roof for my log store and the size I an make it is limited by the property constraints. The panels I'm looking at...

a) I don't know. What can be used to judge the point at which there is sufficient power to run the motor? The crucial point seems to be to match the run hours of motor and heater to the insolation so that the system will work each day. Maybe it should simply switch on at noon each day and run...

On reflection, the crux of the matter is that I have a small load (the pump motor) which I need to run several hours every day, and a large load (the heater) which can run when there is extra power. Maybe I could split out a part of the array and let that drive the motor load, and let the rest...

Erm, the post says the spa is wood-fired. Heat loss is the critical factor to maintaining spa temperature, not water volume. Figures are not easy to come by for heat loss, and it varies according to installation.

I thought I could find my way around a solar system design, but I'm utterly baffled now as to how it would work. I am planning a wood-fired spa pool. I want to provide power for the 80 watt filter circulation pump for several hours a day. I need power on hand to run the 1kW jet pump motor as...

Good to see the figures, thank you. I was planning on only ever having 1.5kW at a time, either one of the water heaters, the summer one or the winter one, and the air-con with neither heater on. I see now that the easiest way to achieve this would be one socket outlet only in service, and three...

I may be getting caught here between American and European terminologies. AIO is googling for me: can you tell me what they are or drop a link or two, please?

I've been kicking around ideas for a pv array, driven largely by the fact I need to roof a log store and pv panels are about as cheap as any other roofing material. But the onward equipment is costly and the complexities considerable. Realising that in the end, the main use I had for the power...

I understand that microinverters allow each panel to be optimised on output, independent of shading of other panels in the array. What I don't see is what happens afterwards. If each panel puts out a bit of 220V AC, do these outputs all need to be bundled back to an AC/DC battery charger and...