diy solar

diy solar

14.4KWH !! What does it all mean?

A panel is just made of circuit breakers, right? Choose your breakers according to the loads connected to them - if you want to be able to disconnect/trip them separately - plus a "master" one to, say, 125-150% of the total.

Maybe also have a separate one for DC loads. Something like
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I have a 12kw array and it will produce 80kwh a day currently on perfectly sunny days. I know location and time of year etc will change that but it is producing way over any estimate I've ever got. It's also clipping my inverter during the day for about 2-3 hours after my batteries are charged so there is even more potential there, just don't have the inverter power to use it.
Yes… you have a 12kW array… his proposal has him getting a 2.5kW array… it produces a MAXIMUM of 14.4kWh.

No where close to what you have.
 
Yes… you have a 12kW array… his proposal has him getting a 2.5kW array… it produces a MAXIMUM of 14.4kWh.

No where close to what you have.
Grrr! Just when I think I understand what they are trying to sell me....

So 480 watt panels x6 is 2880 watts (2.8 kW ) Where do they get the 14.4kWh max production number?
 
By multiplying 2.8kW x effective number of (100% max) sun hours in a day.

For my San Jose, CA location, this calculator shows 2.14 hours effective sun in December, 7.82 hours in June.


2.14 x 2.8kW = 6.0 kWh
7.82 x 2.8kW = 21.9 kWh
 
I wouldn't worry about it. Not until you give it a(n actual) try and work out
a) How much power you're actually going to need and
b) How to go about cleverly reducing the need :·)
As I said, you heat with wood *. Very good starting point.
If you cook and heat water with gas, use LED lights, and so on, a 3kW array and some 15kW of batteries could be plenty.

* Joel Garreau's excellent book, The Nine Nations of North America (1981) puts Nova Scotia (culturally) in New England :·)
The symbol for which is... a wood stove.
Obviously, just looking at the cover will give you the general idea (quite clever, hey :·) but it's quite well written and worth reading.

Screenshot_0416_174032.png
 
By multiplying 2.8kW x effective number of (100% max) sun hours in a day.

For my San Jose, CA location, this calculator shows 2.14 hours effective sun in December, 7.82 hours in June.


2.14 x 2.8kW = 6.0 kWh
7.82 x 2.8kW = 21.9 kWh

Okay... so if face any direction southward, and adjust angle for optimum...

Dec: 2.8 x 2.3 = 6.4 kWh per day - I guess the 14.4 is the optimum from the store's location. I get 15.4 being farther south. And this is the max that I can hope to get out of this system. Hmmm...
So if I double the panels, I double the possible kWh?
 
I wouldn't worry about it. Not until you give it a(n actual) try and work out
a) How much power you're actually going to need and
b) How to go about cleverly reducing the need :·)
As I said, you heat with wood *. Very good starting point.
If you cook and heat water with gas, use LED lights, and so on, a 3kW array and some 15kW of batteries could be plenty.

* Joel Garreau's excellent book, The Nine Nations of North America (1981) puts Nova Scotia (culturally) in New England :·)
The symbol for which is... a wood stove.
Obviously, just looking at the cover will give you the general idea (quite clever, hey :·) but it's quite well written and worth reading.

We are perfectly happy with what we are using in our two joined trailers at the moment, we use very little power during the day because we are trying to keep the gasoline generator use to nighttime. This has been a wonderful thing, because it forces us off our the chairs and out into the fresh air. We are also planning to incorporate the same once the log cabin is built. I think our main draw in our old home (the one we are leaving in Ontario) is a jet pump, space heaters, electric water heater, and dryer; all of which we will not be using. Our propane fridge is adequate but always full in our current situation, I would like to eventually get a freezer and go off the propane fridge.
 
So if I double the panels, I double the possible kWh?

Yes, will need enough SCC to process double and a battery which can accept that.
Orienting half SE and half SW, connecting those arrays in parallel, peak current will be maybe 0.7x as much but kWh/day will only be a bit under 1.0x
That delays having production stop for battery full, and keeps battery full later in the day, so less drawdown of battery at night.

Of course, pick tilt according to which months you need the most power. Illumination in winter, or A/C in summer?
While tilt and orientation adjustment theoretically increase output, cost of motorized tilt (and shorter life of electromechanical) mean just buying even more PV is better.
For a moderate size system, manual tilt for season could make sense.

We were seeing top brand second hand panels around $0.35/watt a while ago, but I've seen prices as high as $0.70 recently. Looks like SanTan does have some quantity new REC for $0.50


You can probably start smaller and expand your system when bargains are available.
 
Well, if you don't use the electric space heaters or water heater, with that basic setup you can have any number of electric fridges, and freezers.
I have 5kWh of batteries, <1kW of panels, I have a full-size fridge, washing machine (I run "assisted cold cycles"), stereo equipment, power tools, computers, electronics lab, the lot. My batteries never get close to 50% DOD (depth of discharge).

Propane fridges are OK, but they use a lot of gas. I have one. In a shed, unused.
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