We've spent the last few years as full-time RVers and are now in the process of buying a plot of land in central Vermont on which we plan to build our own home. We installed a modest-sized solar / battery / inverter setup in our RV back in 2018 and it's been working great the entire time we've been traveling. The system is fully integrated into the home automation system I have built in our RV so we have full monitoring and control of our inverter, batteries, solar etc, as well as automations configured to avoid tripping breakers, use excess solar, etc.
We're keen to take these learnings and apply them to our house build. While I don't have any formal electrical qualifications, I feel confident in my own knowledge and ability to do a safe and effective installation. That said, residential solar introduces some new concepts that I didn't have to contend with in the RV world - e.g. net metering, SRECs, etc. The system will also be significantly larger than our RV (800W solar, 300Ah lithium batteries, Victron MultiPlus 12/3000).
I've been researching the topic and I'm struggling a little to find a way to design a system that fits all our needs. In terms of budget, we don't have a fixed number in our heads, but don't want to needlessly spend more than we have to in order to achieve the capabilities we want.
In short, we intend to be grid-tied on our new property, and have a south-facing orientation in which we can install roof and ground-mounted solar as necessary to achieve our goals. We also plan on building a mechanical shed separate from the main house in which we will terminate all utilities - including grid power and fiber internet. We will be living on-site in our RV once we have utilities installed while we build the house. Our intention is to build the house to passive house standards, and use all electric appliances - e.g. stove, water heater, heating, etc.
Our goals are:
I've been researching the StorEdge approach and I think it can do everything I want with the exception of #4 in my list above. The largest StorEdge inverter can only manage 5,000W sustained when on backup power, and although you can install multiple inverters, each powers a separate backup load panel and they cannot be combined. That would mean two inverters, two expensive batteries and two separate load panels with likely an unequal distribution of load.
I'd be very interested in exploring options using 12V LiFePO4 batteries too. I'm reasonably familiar with the Victron ecosystem, but am struggling to find a way to design a system that would fit our needs. In particular, how to wire a Victron system with an AC revenue grade meter on the solar array to accumulate SRECs. This approach wouldn't qualify for the BYOD rebate, but we'd still consider it.
I would love any input from this group on good approaches to designing this system.
Thanks in advance!
We're keen to take these learnings and apply them to our house build. While I don't have any formal electrical qualifications, I feel confident in my own knowledge and ability to do a safe and effective installation. That said, residential solar introduces some new concepts that I didn't have to contend with in the RV world - e.g. net metering, SRECs, etc. The system will also be significantly larger than our RV (800W solar, 300Ah lithium batteries, Victron MultiPlus 12/3000).
I've been researching the topic and I'm struggling a little to find a way to design a system that fits all our needs. In terms of budget, we don't have a fixed number in our heads, but don't want to needlessly spend more than we have to in order to achieve the capabilities we want.
In short, we intend to be grid-tied on our new property, and have a south-facing orientation in which we can install roof and ground-mounted solar as necessary to achieve our goals. We also plan on building a mechanical shed separate from the main house in which we will terminate all utilities - including grid power and fiber internet. We will be living on-site in our RV once we have utilities installed while we build the house. Our intention is to build the house to passive house standards, and use all electric appliances - e.g. stove, water heater, heating, etc.
Our goals are:
- Build a scalable system that we can expand as we learn more about our energy needs
- Achieve (at least) net-zero electrical consumption over the course of a year - likely a 10-20kW system
- Generate and sell SRECs
- Have backup power for at least critical circuits (including server rack, LED lights, fridge, 230V well pump and septic pump - so ~5-10kW but with some large motors)
- Access the data for monitoring via our home automation system (e.g. modbus, MQTT, serial, etc)
I've been researching the StorEdge approach and I think it can do everything I want with the exception of #4 in my list above. The largest StorEdge inverter can only manage 5,000W sustained when on backup power, and although you can install multiple inverters, each powers a separate backup load panel and they cannot be combined. That would mean two inverters, two expensive batteries and two separate load panels with likely an unequal distribution of load.
I'd be very interested in exploring options using 12V LiFePO4 batteries too. I'm reasonably familiar with the Victron ecosystem, but am struggling to find a way to design a system that would fit our needs. In particular, how to wire a Victron system with an AC revenue grade meter on the solar array to accumulate SRECs. This approach wouldn't qualify for the BYOD rebate, but we'd still consider it.
I would love any input from this group on good approaches to designing this system.
Thanks in advance!