diy solar

diy solar

1st ever New installation

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Lashram2017

New Member
Joined
Feb 15, 2023
Messages
6
Location
Northeast Uk (Sunderland Tyne and wear)
Hi Guys n Dolls, john here from N.E. Uk. In short I'm looking to install a complete off grid Solar array system on my large shed and possibly ground array to the left on attachment photo to power our home 4 bed det /2 adults.
I've trolled youtube online for months now and found Will Prowse to be amazing.
Having said that im still overwhelmed and a tad unsure of my overall plan and costings,
Im hoping the forum team can (shed some light) excusing the phun hee hee ).
One of my main concerns is there's a 8 to 10 mtrs distance from Shed to house .so guys looking at my attachments and peer consumption readings ,any suggestions on how many panels @410 w will I need/ Size of controller/ baterry bank bla bla. Oh and 2nd photo on a winters day. Sun rising 7.30 am to 8 am 15/02/2023. And covers shed and the rear decking virtually all day.
Anyway yall that's it in a nut shell ,pps I'm not an electrican but very experienced in the construction arena and could handle this .pps 240 volt utility supply her in UK and very very rare power outages.
So sorry for long winded ask but gona need this right 1st time. Warm regards to all and hello to all newbies . John.
 

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Hi John,

1st thing everyone is going to ask, is how much is your peak usage during the day. For example, when the washing machine is on, Tv is on, then you make a cuppa, how much is ALL that using? Kw wise.

Are you planning on running the whole house off solar? Not sure you'll have the space on the ground for multiple panels there. I can see in your 2nd photo that your neighbours behind you have solar on their roof. Looks a good set up too.

As an example, I'm running 4 panels through a 3kw all in one charger inverter. When I put the washing machine on a 30C wash, it uses 1.7-1.8kw just heating up the water. I always make sure I've made my coffee from the tassimo machine before putting on the washing machine otherwise it'll trip the inverter as it uses too much electricity. I can however watch TV when the washing machine is on, as it'll be below the 3kw max the inverter can handle.

If youre just going to build to work from home, then a small inverter etc would be fine. But you do need to find out how much electricity you use at peak usage if you want to run your house off solar.

Oh, and come winter, you wont be able to run off solar, not with our weather! ??
 
total off grid with the space you have is not possible unless you use next to nothing in the winter.
As above - what's u peak power requirements / daily kwh usage ect.
The shed in image doesn't look anywhere near big enough for the kw of panels for off grid.
Best you could achieve is pv panels / inverter / battery to reduce your current electricity import usage.
I'm UK and even this time of year my electrical production can vary from 0.5kwh or less to over 10kwh @ day due to weather.
 
Aw cheers guys, that's ticked a few of my boxes, very much appreciate the swift and honest response. I was actually thinking too that the shed twasnt large enough.
I'm gona mull it over with my partner to gauge her reaction. Thks team just saved me a few grand. Polite regards john
 
You could still build a system to cover your summer usage tho ? Thats kinda what I've done.

I've run exentsions through the house, discretley tho, so got a few double sockets in the kitchen, upstairs in the office and in the living room. When the suns out and battery is charged, I plug the items in the solar plugs. When the weather is rubbish, I just plug them back in to the mains sockets.

Over last summer, from May onwards, I was using over half my usage on solar alone. This year, I've got more solar and more battery, so our usage will be even greater on solar ? (I did only start with a 1kw all in one, but then upgraded to a 3kw in July 22).

It's all fun and exciting when you look at your smart monitor and see less than 1kw use on mains electricity during the summer, then look at your electricity monitor for your solar system to see youve used 5kw+ on solar in one day ?
 
I can see solar panels on a roof behind the shed.. which direction is that roof facing

If south then you could put panels on both sides of the shed (2 strings) am sun one side, pm sun other side.
I managed to get 2700 w of panels on my shed roof( one side.. 2m x 6m long)
Strengthen shed roof to allow for extra weight + snow + lifting forces from wind etc.
Clamps, tracking etc from china. box section x 3 lengths each side through roof.
Are there any obstructions between the shed roof and sun... consider sun at 20 degrees winter. 50 degrees summer.

I have houses partly obstructing my shed from the sun before 10am and after 2pm now feb22. but by march sun will be high enough with minimal obstruction.

i bought panels 2nd hand 520w £50 each, New hybrid inverter and battery direct from china, DIY self installation "off grid" I don't see the point in selling to the grid for about 7p then buying it back again for 34p/kw. I picked certain circuits from my consumer unit(low energy... not kitchen) installed sub panel and moved 3 circuits. 15a fused rcbo. You need a electrician for in house consumer wiring and checks (about 3hrs) Check housing supply type for earthing requirements.

Rewards up to now (February) up to 1000w power supplied at 240dc to battery and inverter.. from 100w 8am to1000w noon, 100w 4pm.

Costs (<£1700)


My base load 200w /hr, 6-8kw day. At the moment I am achieving about 2 -3kwh reduction. with zero grid consumption between 10am and 3pm..
I have to manage my high load consumers to 1 at a time during peak sun hrs. Then in evening battery supports for 4 or 5 hrs before reverting to grid overnight. \i need another 100ah 24v battery to extend usage through non sun hrs..

So not expensive option and very rewarding...
 
To give you an idea of what to expect yield to be dec/Jan Screenshot_20230218-090436_Chrome.jpgScreenshot_20230218-090422_Chrome.jpgthis is my 4kw of panels - 2kw facing east and 2kw facing west UK norfolk - no shading.
Do some maths and see what you could likely achieve.
Try https://energysavingtrust.org.uk/tool/solar-energy-calculator/ good to give an indication of yield for your location.
keep us informed of your plans / ask questions on here - lots of knoledge on here??
 
StuartV said:
You could still build a system to cover your summer usage tho ? Thats kinda what I've done.

I've run exentsions through the house, discretley tho, so got a few double sockets in the kitchen, upstairs in the office and in the living room. When the suns out and battery is charged, I plug the items in the solar plugs. When the weather is rubbish, I just plug them back in to the mains sockets.

Over last summer, from May onwards, I was using over half my usage on solar alone. This year, I've got more solar and more battery, so our usage will be even greater on solar ? (I did only start with a 1kw all in one, but then upgraded to a 3kw in July 22).

It's all fun and exciting when you look at your smart monitor and see less than 1kw use on mains electricity during the summer, then look at your electricity monitor for your solar system to see youve used 5kw+ on solar in one day ?
Click to expand...
 
Lashram2017 said:
Wow much appreciate that Stuart, twas kinda giving up on the idea , but that sounds encouraging I'll do some more product search as I've found a co supplying 410 w panels at a good price. Warm regards .
Click to expand...
Hi Stuart , so sorry its silly o'clock, but I'm kinds a early and late bird.
Thks for the return guidance and great advice. but as for now I'm looking to power my pond pump 240v 68 w virtually 24/7 with solar only.
don't suppose u have any pointers for a system that could do the job. cheers john.
 
Hi Guys n Dols ,
Thks for the return guidance and great advice. but as for now ,gona have leave the whole house system ( far too costly at mo ) so I'm looking to power my pond pump 240v 68 w virtually 24/7 with solar only.
don't suppose u have any pointers for a system that could do the job. warm regads yall, john.
 
I'm no expert here, but i'll give some info.

The pump runnming 24-7 would use roughly 1632 watts for 24 hours. Battery wise, you would need enough battery to use that 1632watts, so would need a 200ah battery say at 12V. For solar panels, if you can get one of those 410w panels, i "think" that would be sufficent to charge battery through the day and run the pump.

With the pond pump, you will be spending several hundred pounds on the equipment, just to save 30-40p a day on electricity tho, so is it worth it?

By the time you take in account the inverter (if running the pump on 240v), charge controller, panels, wiring, fuses etc, its all going to add up.

Might as well go big or go home with solar! ??

As an example, all of my stuff, I've spent over £3k on it! Batteries being the most expensive (LiFepo4).
 
Have you considered grid-tied? With that, any gains from solar will reduce your grid consumption / costs... and you won't have concerns about overloading the system if you can only afford a small system to start with. Just a thought.
 
Lashram2017 said:
there's a 8 to 10 mtrs distance from Shed to house
Click to expand...

With just gravel and pavers between them. Trench with a pick and bury conduit, run wires.
PV if you want to, maybe for battery backup to run light and radio when power is out.

A PV panel is cheapest way to power an LED motion-sensor light.
Run of wire from house is cheapest way to power kettle or saw.

Code where I am in the U.S. is steel conduit 12" underground or PVC 18" under.
My redneck way to connect would be UF cable stabled to fence. GFCI (RCB) would provide additional protection (we use 5 mA for human safety, don't know if you have those over there.)
 
Hedges said:
... GFCI (RCB) would provide additional protection (we use 5 mA for human safety, don't know if you have those over there.)
Click to expand...
We sure do... but ours are normally 30mA. Don't know if that's because we have thicker skin or are considered less valuable than our friends over the pond :unsure:⚡
 
Your 30 mA may be because you do not have the grounded neutral we do, or something else about all the different AC connection schemes.
Too small a value, like 5 mA, and capacitive leakage e.g. from EMI filters would cause nuisance trips. It can be a problem due to imbalanced loads in commercial 3-phase systems.

30 mA can be enough that your muscles grab on and you can't let go, continue getting shocked. Current and time both factor into damage.

For wet locations like kitchen, bath, outdoors, we use a 5mA GFCI outlet.

I have done funny things, like putting plug and socket on ends of a 250' UF cable and unrolling it on the ground through the forest.
I recommend violating only one rule/law at a time. Where I've violated several (e.g. many layers of UF coiled up, 30A through 12 AWG) I end up with melted insulation and tripped breakers.
If you run a wire along the fence, exposed to damage, I suggest not hard-wiring to house it but making it a plugged-in extension cord (deniability of violating building codes), have a wet-in-use outlet (rain cover) and GFCI oulet (so anyone cutting into cable does not get shocked.)
Our code says extension cords for temporary use only, so that can be the one violation. Or unplug briefly and plug back in a few seconds later ;)

Conduit would be good and proper. I've been told I can't use PVC conduit for exposed horizontal runs. Thin wall EMT would not be proper for outdoors in the rain. Rigid has become quite expensive. I use UF a lot, is practical, can be moved around, so long as not subject to mechanical damage.
 
Hedges said:
30 mA can be enough that your muscles grab on and you can't let go, continue getting shocked. Current and time both factor into damage.
Click to expand...
IIRC our 30mA RCBs have to release before 28mA (typically around 20-25mA) is reached and within 40ms.

SWA (steel wire armoured) cable is often favoured over here for direct burial (of the cable, not the user, that is!!)
 
We used to have just individual cables in a trench, sand over them to protect against sharp rocks and as warning for anyone trenching. Ribbon on top with warning. Now, conduit more likely required. And it is convenient to pull more wires later.

I'm not sure if your 30 mA is meant for human safety, would be good to have 5 mA for wet-location outlets.

And pay attention to the threads on grounding of PV systems, and AC or DC present on PV terminals of inverter even when PV array not connected. And fusing requirements for battery, and fire risks of some chemistries. Lots of surprises, but things can be done safely.
 
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