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diy solar

Church camp setup

ChiefTom

New Member
Joined
Dec 26, 2024
Messages
2
Location
Missouri
I run a church camp with over 40 buildings on-site.

Our camp is a 100% donation-only camp, meaning every single kid who wants to come gets to come. We do not require a parent to pay a fee if they can't afford it. We host thousands and thousands of kids every year. I'm trying my hardest to keep our costs down as much as possible. Our three major expenses are:

  1. Insurance (nothing I can do about that).
  2. Food (we're working to farm our own cattle and hogs this year so that we can start serving not only great meat but also meat that costs us only the butcher fee).
  3. Electricity.
We have two buildings that are the biggest offenders in terms of power consumption. These are the ones where the kids are in and out all day, food is served, and all kinds of activities happen. They just cost a lot to cool and heat. I've included our numbers for this year for reference. Just one of these buildings has an annual electricity cost of about $10,000, and the other is around the same. Our other buildings have much lower costs but could still benefit from solar. However, these two buildings alone consume nearly $20,000 of our budget annually.

I have two questions for you:

  1. I watched your video titled "My Favorite Off-Grid Solar Panel for 2024!" quite a bit. You mention the Aptos panels in the video but use the word Hyperion in the description. The Aptos panels cost around $160, but the Hyperion panels are about $100. Am I crazy to go with the Hyperion? I can't find many reviews for them, but at almost half the cost ($88 if I buy in bulk), it seems like a good idea.
  2. I want to run my system idea by you to make sure I'm not missing anything. We have an electrician who volunteers for us and will help double-check the numbers to ensure we don't overload or create safety issues. Here are my thoughts:
    • Battery Backup: Not needed right now. We're just trying to lower our power bill.
    • Net Metering: Our power company offers a 1/3 net metering rollover. This means that in the month we produce power, we get 100% credit, but any excess rolls over to the next month at only a 1/3 value.
  • Without Net Metering (Peak Month Needs):
    236 panels to cover July, our highest-usage month.
  • With Net Metering and Rollover (Annual Needs):
    118 panels to achieve a $0 cost over the year.
  • Panel Cost: $88 per panel.
    For 118 panels:
  • Inverter:
    We need a 45.3 kW inverter.
    • A Growatt 60kW three-phase inverter costs $3,399.
    • Why not go for a 70kW inverter for $3,699?
  • Ground Mount:
    We plan to do a ground mount system. While we are considering building our own mounts, we are budgeting an additional $5,000 for mounts and installation.
  • Other Costs:
    This doesn't include the cost of running wires or additional equipment.
For one building, the system will cost about $20,000. With this, I calculate a return on investment (ROI) in about two years.

Am I missing anything?

I can only imagine how crazy busy you must be. You have a great channel, but if you happen to have time, I’d love to get your opinion.

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How are you going to attach a 70kW onverter to your complex and be able to backfeed?
That is nearly 200A output.
That would take like a 600A panel i think to meet feedback rules.
 
While this should be obvious, 2 ways to save $$, more solar OR less load.
Insulation, LED lights, Propane cooking and fridges, mini split AC
 
To @Supervstech's point
- How is the site connected/metered by your local power company (PoCo)?
- is the site on 3-phase power (per the Inverter you mentioned), or multiple meters, or ?? details will help

In part, because depending on how PoCo power feed to your location, and what you do for an inverter, you may be covering all buildings, not just one.. depends. And where you plan for ground mount panels vs the main buildings/main service entrance meter? Why power losses with distance and copper wire costs...

That seems like a generous net meting plan, for modern times (using grid as free battery, even if more short-term (monthly) than annual). Is winter heat also electric, or natural gas/propane, or ?
 
To @Supervstech's point
- How is the site connected/metered by your local power company (PoCo)?
- is the site on 3-phase power (per the Inverter you mentioned), or multiple meters, or ?? details will help

In part, because depending on how PoCo power feed to your location, and what you do for an inverter, you may be covering all buildings, not just one.. depends. And where you plan for ground mount panels vs the main buildings/main service entrance meter? Why power losses with distance and copper wire costs...

That seems like a generous net meting plan, for modern times (using grid as free battery, even if more short-term (monthly) than annual). Is winter heat also electric, or natural gas/propane, or ?
So the connection is a bit of a bummer and a new net metering rule with the power company has impacted our original plan. In general, each building (or sometimes small groups of buidlings) have their own meter. In this case, we are only talking about ONE buidling producing the 9k of year of power. Our total bill is 25k a year.

I am meeting with our volunteer electrician to discuss the connection, but wanted to hear from the form members on the general plan first. The buidling is a 400 amp building so NO it is not 3 phase but does have a large number of pannels (6 i think) but from the reponses by the form members it sounds like I need to do smaller inverters maybe.

Right now winter heat is gas, but we woudl like to get it over to electric at some point. During the hard months the building isn't used a lot right now because it is too hard to get into the camp with groups, but the more and more popular the camp gets the more it is getting booked even during the winter.

My plan is to get our ground mounts pretty close to the building. We have lots and lots of propoerty and space around each buidlings so it shouldn't be a big problem to get htem close.

Our big loss was... up until two months ago our power company did a 100% conversion for the power you produce and let you bank it for future months or apply it to other meters, but staritng two months ago (Before we started a contract) they changed things. You get 100% for the MONTH you use it in and then get to bank only 1/3 of it for future use and can't apply it to any of the other meters on the property. So that changed things a bit for us, but we are working through the plans to try to produce enough, event at the 1/3 duringt the off season when we aren't using a lot of power to get us to a $0 bill.
 
Well, that new 'net metering' plan probably means oversizing your system (cover full electrical needs in winter) won't benefit you much, unless your electricity usage curve matches solar energy / PV production across the course of a year. That could mean that sticking with natural gas (depending on price) may be more cost-effective for winter heating?

Ugh on separate meters...
I would NOT expect to get too close to buildings, as you are bound to be using that space, and needs to be far enough away to not be shade impacted by the building itself (if panels not to direct south of bldg).

This is NOT my area of expertise... so worth less than $0.02 .. .but I'd be curious about combining buildings/meters (ie, reducing meter count) to some extent (but I'm thinking of all, not just the 2 main, buildings). You mentioned 2 buildings consuming close to US$10K/yr in electricity. I'm wondering if the 2nd largest kW consuming building is already run from primary building meter, or if 2nd building has similar 400A (or 200A) service? The reason for asking is that a significant portion of the expense is wiring up the Inverter(s) to load centers. IF one only has to do that once, instead of per large building, all the better... but maybe not feasible. just thinking aloud

Ideally, you'd have a large ground mount array, and then a code-compliant way to distribute the kW to the buildings in need/as appropriate (A/C or D/C?)... but I could envision lots of reasons that wouldn't be cheap (or legal?)

Good luck on getting others input
 

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