diy solar

diy solar

Recent content by MichaelK

  1. M

    New to Solar

    A couple of important questions, starting with units. You mention 7-8kW. That's not the unit usually describing a battery bank. You would normally describe it in terms of kilowatt hours, or kWh. Did you actually mean 7-8kWh? Solar arrays typically could be described by their instantaneous...
  2. M

    Building entirely new roof, how to find best angle(s) for solar?

    For my own location, with a shed-roof with only a 5% angle, I built a array frame out of unistrut members at the best angle to the sun. I have metal roofing though, so it was realitively easy to bolt the array frame down on the roof.
  3. M

    Beginner, need assistance

    I think you are making some serious design mistakes. Starting out, the fact that you are buying 10 12V panels suggests that you did not to the amount of research you should have. You pay a price premium for 12V automotive panels, and you would have saved a lot of money if you had gotten larger...
  4. M

    First off grid system questions

    Dude, it would be really, really helpful if you told us what brand/model you were talking about.
  5. M

    overthinking every detail building a system

    Looking at that Newpowa panel, you are getting ~1.2W/$. Just making a quick search in your state, I found this.... You always get the best deals with cash and carry pricing, and I myself have personally found better quality panels than the ones I purchased online. Doing the math, you'd be...
  6. M

    overthinking every detail building a system

    There is a very long legacy of dead solar batteries because they were charged at too low a rate. This is less of an issue with lithium, but I still attempt to admonish people to really attempt to maximize whatever solar they can. How much are you paying for those Newpowa panels? There's a...
  7. M

    Potential system plan

    Biggest mistake here is sticking with 12V. I learned that mistake early on in my own solar journey, and now I try to dissuade anyone else from taking that route. Your reasoning is flawed here. I've never "lost a panel" in a storm, or had a battery go bad. Everything will be cheaper at 24V...
  8. M

    overthinking every detail building a system

    Slow down and first come up with a number of watthours you expect to consume in a day. My gut feeling is that only 600W of solar will be inadequate. Will the panels be mounted flat on the roof of the camper? If yes, I'd de-rate them to only 60% because of the less than optimal angle to the...
  9. M

    Hey everyone, another new idiot to solar mastery

    A quick pen & paper analysis suggests having at least 2X the watts of panels as your load. Since Tier-1 charging is 12A at 120VAC, that works out to 1440W. 2X of that is 2880W of solar. So, you'd need about double of what you have right now to even get started. Where would these panels be...
  10. M

    Checking wire sizes for (2) 6000xp inverters to battery rack.

    Well, lots of snake-oil salesmen in the solar industry. Maybe they know their inverter can't really put out 6000W? Maybe they hope that the users never try to pull 6000W? Or maybe they just throw something together at the lowest price to skim by the safety margins? Bottom line is "you get...
  11. M

    12 V 300 amp hour in series

    Did the manufacturer specifically state that this model of battery can be put in series? You are better off buying a 48V battery that has a BMS designed for 48V. There is no guarranty that four 12V batteries in series can stay balanced. That being said, you need to remember the basic...
  12. M

    Checking wire sizes for (2) 6000xp inverters to battery rack.

    According to the chart I like to refer to, even 1/0 is unacceptable. I myself used 000 for my 4000W inverter, and 0000 for my 6800W model.
  13. M

    First 24 v system

    Getting back to the original question, when you say a continuous 500W heater, you mean a heater that's left on 24/7? That is a quite large load to be running full time. Will the heater shut off when a pre-set temperature is reached? Have you actually calculated how many watt-hours of power...
  14. M

    New solar system /w used JA Solar 315w panels

    Jump on that panel deal!!! Immediately pick up as many as you can carry. First, let me be clear about the numbers? When you say you are using "2k kwh per month", you mean you are consuming 2000 kWh each month? That works out to be ~66-67kWh per day? That is really a lot. No way that can...
  15. M

    Brand new to solar- any suggestions

    Do NOT focus attention on minutia like the gauge of wiring, when the big decisions have not yet been made. You are focusing attention on the wrong details right now. What you need to be focusing on right now is what electronics to buy, the size/type of battery, and how many panels you need...
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