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diy solar

Building my first off grid system

I guess I never really mentioned what I got, as far as batteries. They are Some off brand amazonian 12.8v 100ah, got 4 and wired them in series for a 48v system, got the powMr 60 amp charge controller, and some kind of 48v-110 inverter, cheapest possible from amazon as well. I drove out to Gilbert az to SanTan solar to pick up the panels. They are the “cracked vinyl” 240watters. I painted the backs with some henry brand elastomeric roof coating, hopefully that was a good idea, who knows. We will find out tomorrow.

I got 9 20’ sticks of 2” x 1/8” angle iron for the racks.

So far I have spent 2500$ on this project including 225$ in fuel to drive 800 miles round trip to pick up the panels. I got 14 because I figured I might drop one of the roof or who knows, so I wanted 2 spares.

I will mention that I had a pleasant expirence at San Tan solar, I dealt with David, he answered all my questions, and within 45 min, I had the panels loaded and a box full of custom made wires/connectors. The gal that built the wires was quite attractive.
 
Hauls Assington said:
I guess I never really mentioned what I got, as far as batteries. They are Some off brand amazonian 12.8v 100ah, got 4 and wired them in series for a 48v system, got the powMr 60 amp charge controller, and some kind of 48v-110 inverter, cheapest possible from amazon as well. I drove out to Gilbert az to SanTan solar to pick up the panels. They are the “cracked vinyl” 240watters. I painted the backs with some henry brand elastomeric roof coating, hopefully that was a good idea, who knows. We will find out tomorrow.

I got 9 20’ sticks of 2” x 1/8” angle iron for the racks.

So far I have spent 2500$ on this project including 225$ in fuel to drive 800 miles round trip to pick up the panels. I got 14 because I figured I might drop one of the roof or who knows, so I wanted 2 spares.

I will mention that I had a pleasant expirence at San Tan solar, I dealt with David, he answered all my questions, and within 45 min, I had the panels loaded and a box full of custom made wires/connectors. The gal that built the wires was quite attractive.
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Very cool. I use dap painters caulk on my panels. I have 14 of the same. I live 2 hrs away. I've been out there 9 times haha. At 14mpg truck I've still come out less than $1 a watt. Expect about 180w real world watts( this is great) for 2550w with those panels. I like them. Hard to beat.
I run mine usually 2 series 3 parallel to one EPever 40amp tracer 4210an charge controller . I have 3 cc . I get 40 amps out of the 2. I run 2 ac units daily.
You need another inverter possibly but your good otherwise.
How much was all the steel? I want to weld something up but metal costs are up. Maybe tig some aluminum instead. I haven't bought any metal in a few years. I'm sure I would not like the prices.
Don't mind the wankers on here. There far more great people on here ready to help.
Welcome from Northern Arizona.
 
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Hauls Assington said:
They are 3 awg thhn. Hopefully that will do her.
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Didn't look that heavy in the picture for some reason. That should be good for your current setup. 3awg will carry 100amps. You'll wanna go bigger if you add batteries, but looks good.
 
73powerstroke said:
Very cool. I use dap painters caulk on my panels. I have 14 of the same. I live 2 hrs away. I've been out there 9 times haha. At 14mpg truck I've still come out less than $1 a watt. Expect about 180w real world watts( this is great) for 2550w with those panels. I like them. Hard to beat.
I run mine usually 2 series 3 parallel to one EPever 40amp tracer 4210an charge controller . I have 3 cc . I get 40 amps out of the 2. I run 2 ac units daily.
You need another inverter possibly but your good otherwise.
How much was all the steel? I want to weld something up but metal costs are up. Maybe tig some aluminum instead. I haven't bought any metal in a few years. I'm sure I would not like the prices.
Don't mind the wankers on here. There far more great people on here ready to help.
Welcome from Northern Arizona.
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What kind of AC’s are you running with that set up? And
 
Are those shadows on your panels?
 

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Ok, so the way it is wired I have a PV coming in, 12 240w panels wired 3s4p, voc is 37 per panel so 111v 7.89 amps max per series custer, about 31 amps max coming from the panels. PV panels have 15 amp fues on each 3 pack, goes into 100 amp switch. Inverter and charge controller are both on the 120 breaker switch.

I turned it on, and the scc actually recognized that I indeed have a 48v battery pack.
 
I don't see any class t fuses on your system so far, intentional or deliberate? People around here really like them.
 
Hauls Assington said:
Ok, so the way it is wired I have a PV coming in, 12 240w panels wired 3s4p, voc is 37 per panel so 111v 7.89 amps max per series custer, about 31 amps max coming from the panels. PV panels have 15 amp fues on each 3 pack, goes into 100 amp switch. Inverter and charge controller are both on the 120 breaker switch.

I turned it on, and the scc actually recognized that I indeed have a 48v battery pack.
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I've never used this SCC but seems like a lot of people love it.

Great choice with a Reliable 48v inverter, they are actually pretty good for low idle current, this one should be even less than my 3000W. That's what I buy for less expensive inverters. They don't have great surge capacity, I don't like starting my dryer off the 3000W for example. I bet the 1500W will easily still start your second freezer when the first one is already running though. I'm imagining that you have like 5-7CU FT chest freezers rather than the large industrial designs haha.

I'm completely ignorant about solar racking but that looks really cool and I think it's an awesome job, the rack build. There's lots of dissimilar metals and grounding that goes along with that... And is there a thing about putting remote shutoffs in for roof mounts in some systems? I'm going to do ground mount for those reasons. Used panels and experimental coatings/treatments makes me think the extra safety stuff is more important than less?

The wire runs should be equal distances to each other, I like to use marine lugs that are UL rated and some other weird little nitpicks, it's very impressive for a first run as others have said. Since you're at 48V you aren't throwing the huge currents around where everything has to be perfect like with 12V systems with much larger inverters.

Victron's Wiring Unlimited is a good book for taking it to the next level and a pretty decent reference if you're interested in some of those details.


I think that we don't like to see random batteries that we know nothing about, and then see people sad after the fact IF it doesn't work out. I'm hoping it works out very well! I'm not familiar with the ones you chose.
 
Hauls Assington said:
Ok, so the way it is wired I have a PV coming in, 12 240w panels wired 3s4p, voc is 37 per panel so 111v 7.89 amps max per series custer, about 31 amps max coming from the panels. PV panels have 15 amp fues on each 3 pack, goes into 100 amp switch. Inverter and charge controller are both on the 120 breaker switch.
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That style breaker I don't think is rated anywhere near 111V.

You can find various switches, DIN rail breakers, even 2 poles of QO breakers which could handle it.

Fuse per string of 3 sounds good.

For lithium, recommend a fuse or breaker able to interrupt battery's short circuit current.
 
Hedges said:
That style breaker I don't think is rated anywhere near 111V.
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Hauls Assington said:
PV panels have 15 amp fues on each 3 pack, goes into 100 amp switch. Inverter and charge controller are both on the 120 breaker switch.
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I looked up a littelfuse breaker that looks like the ones you're using, and you might be overvolt'ing both the PV breaker and the Inverter/CC breaker. Do you have a breaker rated for 32V instead of 60V? I won't even use 48V rated fuses on a 48V system because my 48V systems go well over 48V.

Post the correct spec sheet if this isn't correct???
 
Lilikoi_Heavy_Industries said:
I looked up a littelfuse breaker that looks like the ones you're using, and you might be overvolt'ing both the PV breaker and the Inverter/CC breaker. Do you have a breaker rated for 32V instead of 60V? I won't even use 48V rated fuses on a 48V system because my 48V systems go well over 48V.

Post the correct spec sheet if this isn't correct???
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Well, it seems ok, it is not hot
 
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