Will a 2000w 12v inverter work in a 24v system? Is Renogy a reliable product and easy to use like the Rover 40a mppt controller? Thinking about buying Battle Born 100ah 12v batteries, two in series, is there any setup before installing? Sorry for all the question, very new to this solar thing.
Another Newbie
- Thread starter Ols
- Start date
MichaelK
Solar Wizard
NOPE! I don't know though exactly what color of smoke would be produced if you tried to hook it up.
I started with Renogy products, but now I'm starting to move away from them. Look at other brands like Epever. BTW, I think the Epever 50A controller is a better choice than their cheaper 40A. Their 40A unit has a max Voc of only 100V. Their 50A is 150V. That will give you more flexibility when it comes to wiring up panels.
Don't buy 12V panels. You get far better deals buying local higher voltage grid-tie panels.
I started with Renogy products, but now I'm starting to move away from them. Look at other brands like Epever. BTW, I think the Epever 50A controller is a better choice than their cheaper 40A. Their 40A unit has a max Voc of only 100V. Their 50A is 150V. That will give you more flexibility when it comes to wiring up panels.
Don't buy 12V panels. You get far better deals buying local higher voltage grid-tie panels.
Michael K, not looking into a whole house system. Want a portable system for power outages and to use inside house to run a few things.
The inverter voltage MUST match the battery bank. There are step up/down converters (24v to 12v, 12v to 24v) but you would never want to use a device like that with an inverter because of the huge number of amps that the inverter can draw.
That's what I thought, match all your components 12v with 12v /24v with 24v. What I am trying to do is have a portable system to bring in the house to run the refrigerator and few things in power outages say for 4hrs or use to run a few things even if there's power. With a 12v system and a 2000w 12v inverter be okay to run in this situation? Thanks
You need to start with the amount of energy the appliances will consume. Add all that up and you'll know how many watts the inverter has to produce and how large the battery bank has to be to run that load for four hours.
Inverters are not 100% efficient. Figure 85% efficient. If your appliances need 1000 watts then it will take 1150 watts of battery (1000 * 1.15). That has to be taken into account.
If you're willing to dig in and learn, you can build a portable system yourself, including the battery, for less than an off the shelf single unit. The batteries are usually the biggest cost. To get to 24v, you need 8 cells, 12v needs 4 cells. Battleborn batteries are expensive. For the price of one 100Ah Battleborn battery, you can make your own set of batteries for a little more and get five times the Ah capacity.
MichaelK
Solar Wizard
A refrigerator is considered a fairly large load for a solar system, because it has a compressor motor that has to start under load and has a significant surging draw. Once running though, the watts drawn drops down to 200W or so. With a 12V inverter, it's iffy below 1000W. Some have reported it working, others reporting it forcing the inverter into fault-mode? I think it will depend a lot on the brand of inverter.
I would recommend a 24V Sine-wave inverter that can put out 1500W.
I would recommend a 24V Sine-wave inverter that can put out 1500W.
Modified or Pure sine wave? I've heard of some devices getting smoked on a MSW. My 1000 watt inverter is MSW, but it's usage is quite limited.
Q-Dog
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
It really depends on what you want to run. Not all refrigerators are the same. Get a "Kill-A-Watt" device, plug your fridge into it for about a week, then you will know how much power you need to run it.