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Couple of options. Looking at the shadows from your loquat at 11:43am, it appears that you have your array facing East, is that correct? Take out the first array, and put in two of mine, that would hold 3000W. I think I could squeeze two in the space you have shown? What is that big bush in...

Took a bit of digging to find out the actual Vmp? Don't understand why they have to make it so hard? Looking at the specs, your string of 5 panels would be putting out 41.65Vmp X 5panels = 208.25Vmp. Keep in mind that these are factory specs determined in a test chamber. You might see the...

The voltage values are rather high, so are you confusing the Voc with the Vmp? The Voc is the voltage of the panels when NO current is flowing. The Vmp is the voltage when the panels power is actually being consumed. That being said, once you are getting the voltage that high, power loss via...

Yes, please post pics. A mount holding only four panels is not very big, so it might be worthwhile to simply remove it. How high off the ground is the top edge of the panels? A higher mount in the back would need to clear the sun in December when the sun is at it's lowest angle. Might be...

This is the wiring diagram I used to connect mine. Hope you will find it helpful

A very important point is the mis-conception that a 12V panel produces 12V. It does not. The designation "12V" means that the panel can be used to charge a 12V battery with only simple electronics. In actuality, most "12V panels" actually output between 17 to 20V. This becomes very important...

During the last partial eclipse here in California, I was pumping irrigation water that day, after watering my orchard trees earlier that morning. Saw the solar input drop from 2200W to 800W. I shut off the pump till at least 4/5 of the sun re-appeared.

You mentioned the RV, so I'll assume that these panels are going to be mounted flat on the roof? In that case, I'd de-rate their output to just 60% of nameplate, especially since you are in a more Northern area. In the real-world, what that means is that what goes into the battery is likely...

Chrissky is making a very important point here. If there's the possibility that both your 1.5kW air-conditioner, and your 1.5kW water heater switch on at the same time, then 3000W of solar is NOT going to be adequate for powering both of them. Just to be clear, 3000W of solar panels is NOT...

48V is definately the way to go. Take a hard look at Outback's Radian, especially the 8048. I think that would be perfect for your needs. If at some point in the future you decide to sink a water well, the 8048 should handle up to at least 1hp without blinking, maybe more. With that, I'd say...

You have been misinformed. High-idle consumption has nothing to do with whether or not the inverter is hybrid or not, it really has to do primarily with the quality of design. Since most of the AiO units out there are of cheap Chinese design/manufacture, it appears that they all have...

Personally, I'd want something a bit higher quality than EG4. Instead of fretting about array orientation, why not build single-pole rotating mounts like I did. With proper spacing, you can have your arrays facing East, South, or West, whenever you feel like it. The array pictured below can...

Shop for MorningStar, Midnight, Outback, Schneider, and Victron products. All are top, tier-1 quality.

RV/automotive accessories like radios, TVs, or cocktail blenders are designed to operate at 12V. If you connected their power terminals to a battery bank that was 48V, you would fry the electronics inside, and potentially start a fire. The converter allows you to safely connect 12V items you...

Hello Clem, I have a niece living next to you in Adelaide, and I love that part of Australia, it sounds like your location is just a pretty as her's. You however are making the classic newbie mistakes of buying stuff before you have a firm understanding of what you want to accomplish, and what...

Let's just throw out a few numbers here and see what we come up with. First, let's assume your air-conditioner is a 5000W unit running on 240VAC. You really need a clamp meter for this, but the starting inrush power is likely to be 3-5X the running power. So, for the first 500 milliseconds or...

I threw the parameters for your panels into Midnight's string calculator and see that for SSE's example of -25F above, your Voc might go as high as 434V, just slightly lower than the table's prediction of ~455V. So, except for some strange freak-weather event, your 10 panel string is likely to...

It really is a apples vs oranges comparision. The kind of inverter you'd put on a hand-truck system is the kind of inverter you can hold in one hand. My XW+6848 hybrid inverter is also as big as a suitcase, and weighs 140lbs. You need a hand-truck just to move it into place, then two adults...

I think it would be very valuable to post again when the results of your research results in some hands-on experience as to what actually works well. Experience is the very best teacher.

Building 6" walls to accomidate thicker insulation is very well established, and I used that in the construction of my own cabin. I would however be concerned more about the fewer nailing sites in 24" spaced studs vs 16" spaced ones. I would think that bowing under stress would be more...

The real issue is flexibility, and how important that is in the application. Almost all AC applications are in walls, where there is no motion whatsoever. So, cheaper to make solid core wire makes perfect sense, because there is little chance for it to receive any damage. In situations where...

Maybe a more important question is whether or not you could generate 1700kWh per month. That's a very large system beyond maybe 95% of the systems we see here. Doable, though rare. First, can you define where the power is actually going? In West Virginia, I'm guessing that 90% of the power...

Yeah, I know, good solar is expensive. One place where you can save real money though is with locally bought solar panels. Here's what I found with a quick search for your local state. Shipping is built into the cost, so if you can do cash and carry panel purchases, you can save a lot of...

OK, here is where an itemized list of your items, and their wattage needs, becomes very important. Lights and a TV are easy, you are working with items that draw dozens of watts at most. Things like the frig or freezer may draw hundreds of watts, and water heating elements and some water pumps...

See pages 34-35.

I disagree. Although there is no code requirement for adding a breaker, I would breaker even just two strings. You never want to disconnect a solar string in the daytime because of the threat of arcing. If you need to troubleshoot a problem string, it's safer to flip a breaker to first cut...

Just to be very clear first, is this your charge controller? I don't want to give you the wrong advice based on the wrong electronics? With a limit of 150V, there is not a very good reason not to put 5 panels in series to make 5A 100V DC panel strings. I would however stop buying 12V panels...

Sorry, somehow I didn't catch the "New" in England? Poor reading comprehension skills? If you really need only 7-8kWh per day, a system the size of my 24V workshop will suffice. Three 8V Rolls Surrette batteries, Midnight200 charge controller, Conext 4024 Sine-Wave inverter, and 2000W of...

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...

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.

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...

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

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...

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...

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...