diy solar

diy solar

Need directions

D

derk diggla

New Member
Joined
Sep 24, 2023
Messages
10
Location
Ipswich
Hi people, I'm trying to go off grid at home and this is what I have so for,
40 100AMP hour gel batteries
Pl80 solar controler
28 Alao 450w solar panels
3Kw latronics inverter
Solar to grid Automatic changeover switch
what I'm need to no is it going to work and how do I configure it with circuit breakers isolators and fuses to make it as safe as possible
If anyone can help would be much appreciated 20230922_192249.jpg
 

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I need to know what a pi80 is...I didn't find it.

I also need to know why you have 12K watts of solar panels.

I'd like to know why you only have a 3 kW inverter.
 
Zapper77 said:
I need to know what a pi80 is...I didn't find it.

I also need to know why you have 12K watts of solar panels.

I'd like to know why you only have a 3 kW inverter.
Click to expand...
I typed in Ipswich England into PVWatts, 12kW 50-degree angle due South,
April to Sept 1,000 to 1400kWh/month,
March and October about 750kWh/month
Nov-Dec-Jan-Feb are in the 200-400kWh/month.
 
Zapper77 said:
What?
Click to expand...
OP lists Ipswich England as location - that is north of 52 degrees lat. = very low solar for half the year.
I believe UK is kinda famous for their "London Fog" after all, so even summer is not fantastic solar potential.
His only options are lots of panels (compared to the size of the system) or build his solar set up in Spain, collect the tarriff and use that to pay his electric in the UK!
 
Zapper77 said:
I need to know what a pi80 is...I didn't find it.

I also need to know why you have 12K watts of solar panels.

I'd like to know why you only have a 3 kW inverter.
Click to expand...
The pL80 is a solar charge controler from latronics and the inverter is our spare one from Fraser (holiday house) so using It as a tester and as for the panels we upgraded our system to a new one and I'm using the old panels because they all work fine but the inverter is grid tied so no good for this setup
 
OffGridForGood said:
OP lists Ipswich England as location - that is north of 52 degrees lat. = very low solar for half the year.
I believe UK is kinda famous for their "London Fog" after all, so even summer is not fantastic solar potential.
His only options are lots of panels (compared to the size of the system) or build his solar set up in Spain, collect the tarriff and use that to pay his electric in the UK!
Click to expand...
Ipswich QLD AUSTRALIA ??
 
OffGridForGood said:
OP lists Ipswich England as location - that is north of 52 degrees lat. = very low solar for half the year.
I believe UK is kinda famous for their "London Fog" after all, so even summer is not fantastic solar potential.
His only options are lots of panels (compared to the size of the system) or build his solar set up in Spain, collect the tarriff and use that to pay his electric in the UK!
Click to expand...
Ipswich QLD AUSTRALIA
Zapper77 said:
What is you base load and max load.
Click to expand...
I would have no idea about that mate
 
PV Watts for Ipswich Australia:
12kW PV 28 degrees Due North, 1400 - 1800kWh per month (much nicer than North-Eastern UK BTW)! :ROFLMAO:
 
Putting it another way, a 3kW system could run for 18 straight hours at full capacity trying to use those 54kWh each day.
The ESS can effectively store about 24kWh, for night or cloudy next day event. The PV - Inverter - ESS don't seem to be well matched, unless you have another place to send the energy. Since you started the thread with 'going off grid' I assume no grid-feed-in being considered, so EV? other big loads that only run during the sunny part of the day like water pumps or A/C? The 3kW inverter seems very small or the PV very large to me.
 
What voltage is each of the batteries?
What (battery) voltage is the inverter?

Maybe this will be a 48V system with 40, 12V batteries?
In that case, batteries would be connected 4 in series to make 48V, 10 in parallel.
Fully charge each 12V battery individually, so that when connected in series all get full at the same point.

Batteries need to be paralleled in a manner which exactly matches resistance for each, to balance current.
Powers of 2 (2, 4, 8) have some clever wiring to match perfectly.
If yours is 10 strings, need suitable busbar or lugs to connect many cables.

Configure inverter for appropriate low-voltage disconnect.
Configure charge controller for appropriate charge profile.
No equalization?
Boost and float voltage.
Max allowed charge current (can you control that)?
Be sure you are able to deliver sufficient charge current.
Thermocouple for temperature compensation of voltage.
 
Hedges said:
What voltage is each of the batteries?
What (battery) voltage is the inverter?

Maybe this will be a 48V system with 40, 12V batteries?
In that case, batteries would be connected 4 in series to make 48V, 10 in parallel.
Fully charge each 12V battery individually, so that when connected in series all get full at the same point.

Batteries need to be paralleled in a manner which exactly matches resistance for each, to balance current.
Powers of 2 (2, 4, 8) have some clever wiring to match perfectly.
If yours is 10 strings, need suitable busbar or lugs to connect many cables.

Configure inverter for appropriate low-voltage disconnect.
Configure charge controller for appropriate charge profile.
No equalization?
Boost and float voltage.
Max allowed charge current (can you control that)?
Be sure you are able to deliver sufficient charge current.
Thermocouple for temperature compensation of voltage.
Click to expand...
Thanks for that iv got 19×1.6 bus bar and its 24v system and iv silver soldered the bus bar together with terminals at one end should I still charge from both with bus bar
 
Zapper77 said:
That's only 24 kWh of usable storage
Click to expand...

Which is more than enough if you don't use air conditioning and heat and cook with wood/propane. Actually, that's more energy than would be useful in such a case, unless you can sell it to the grid at peak hours. You could run multiple fridges/freezers and all the basic electronic devices you an average homeowner would use (tvs, computers, microwave, lights, phone/tablet/laptop chargers, fans, etc.)
 
Tomthumb62 said:
Which is more than enough if you don't use air conditioning and heat and cook with wood/propane. Actually, that's more energy than would be useful in such a case, unless you can sell it to the grid at peak hours. You could run multiple fridges/freezers and all the basic electronic devices you an average homeowner would use (tvs, computers, microwave, lights, phone/tablet/laptop chargers, fans, etc.)
Click to expand...
What about the 12,000 watts of solar.
 
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