iwasforcedtopickausername
New Member
- Joined
- Oct 13, 2022
- Messages
- 41
Hi everyone,
I have some used SanTan 250 watt panels. They have a max VOC of 37V, and max power at 30V.
I want to get the panels up sooner than later as they are taking up space in the crate. I think I want to try mounting them vertically on existing walls because it'll be so much easier than doing a mount. However, there are some challenges beyond merely mounting them.
My shop's south facing wall can hold 6 panels. My shop's southwest facing wall can hold 2. My office's SE facing wall can hold 2, and the SW facing wall can hold 2. The house can hold 8, facing south. These 3 spaces are all separated by what would be 75-150 feet of cable, approximately. I have 12 panels at the moment, so not enough to fill all of those spaces.
So there's many questions here. The first one is that I have the issue of having clusters of 2 panels in distinct zones. I'm not going to want to wire my SE and SW panels in series, of course. So that gives me pairs, worst case. But is a pair of panels in 2S sufficient for 48V? I know on paper it is, at max voltage, but in practice is 3S the lowest I can go for a 48V battery bank? As this appears to eliminate a lot of my panel mounting options. 2S may not even work for me cable size wise, but I want to know if it's practical for 48V if that is not an issue. it almost seems like solar charge controllers with separate inputs would be ideal here, but I think they may be spendy.
Also, do you have any recommendations about how much this should be centralized? I wanted to put inverter and batteries all in one spot, but with so many separate possible panel mounts I wonder if it's worth considering a few smaller systems, powering separate buildings. But it'd be nice to be able to put excess power to use somewhere else, so I don't know what the best option is.
I don't have a high budget, nor a fixed budget, but I want to start making use of these panels. Planning to move towards off grid or maybe grid assisting the batteries at some point. Though not really sure either how I start migrating loads, if I switch them off at the circuit breaker and power them from the inverter as I gain capacity, go for one big inverter (although that tends to have a really high idle) that can run everything, or what. I just have one 48V 100AH SOK battery at the moment.
Thank you!
I have some used SanTan 250 watt panels. They have a max VOC of 37V, and max power at 30V.
I want to get the panels up sooner than later as they are taking up space in the crate. I think I want to try mounting them vertically on existing walls because it'll be so much easier than doing a mount. However, there are some challenges beyond merely mounting them.
My shop's south facing wall can hold 6 panels. My shop's southwest facing wall can hold 2. My office's SE facing wall can hold 2, and the SW facing wall can hold 2. The house can hold 8, facing south. These 3 spaces are all separated by what would be 75-150 feet of cable, approximately. I have 12 panels at the moment, so not enough to fill all of those spaces.
So there's many questions here. The first one is that I have the issue of having clusters of 2 panels in distinct zones. I'm not going to want to wire my SE and SW panels in series, of course. So that gives me pairs, worst case. But is a pair of panels in 2S sufficient for 48V? I know on paper it is, at max voltage, but in practice is 3S the lowest I can go for a 48V battery bank? As this appears to eliminate a lot of my panel mounting options. 2S may not even work for me cable size wise, but I want to know if it's practical for 48V if that is not an issue. it almost seems like solar charge controllers with separate inputs would be ideal here, but I think they may be spendy.
Also, do you have any recommendations about how much this should be centralized? I wanted to put inverter and batteries all in one spot, but with so many separate possible panel mounts I wonder if it's worth considering a few smaller systems, powering separate buildings. But it'd be nice to be able to put excess power to use somewhere else, so I don't know what the best option is.
I don't have a high budget, nor a fixed budget, but I want to start making use of these panels. Planning to move towards off grid or maybe grid assisting the batteries at some point. Though not really sure either how I start migrating loads, if I switch them off at the circuit breaker and power them from the inverter as I gain capacity, go for one big inverter (although that tends to have a really high idle) that can run everything, or what. I just have one 48V 100AH SOK battery at the moment.
Thank you!
