Finally Installing our System (What Have I Done Wrong So Far?)

[AlaskanNoob]

Our two arrays are now connected and charging the batteries. Of course it's early in the day since sunrise is so late, and it's a rainy cloudy day. So while 240 watts is a small number, it's not nothing. And once the sun pops out, these arrays will produce up to 7000 watts. With a large battery bank (which has run down since we just recently hooked up the panels) and a solid solar array, you have lots of room to go through a week of cloudy days off batteries only until you get that day of sun and then it will fill up the batteries quickly.

And of course there is a generator as a last resort. Our system will kick the generator on when the batteries get to 40% state of charge and then turn the generator off when the batteries are charged to 50%.

 

[Kenny_]

Thought about putting this in Beginner's Corner, but I suppose it's more appropriate here. After years, we're finally putting things up on walls. Got our solar shed built this summer, put the 160 pound Quattro 15K on the wall along with one of our MPPTs. Since we could only afford the metal for two of our seven custom ground mounts, we won't need the second MPPT until next year. Got the bus bar set up and I tried to size everything to make for short cables.

Later today I'll bring the generator cable up from under the shed along with two relay wires for the auto start and wire those into the Quattro and the Cerbo GX.

I'm waiting on some hardware to fix one of the battery racks, then I'll be able to add the last Pylontech battery and add insulation around the racks along with thin plywood walls around them. Then I will cut the supplied positive cables for each battery and crimp lugs, and mount t-fuse holders on the side of each rack near each battery and connect to the bus. We've had these batteries for more than a year now and they have never been turned on. Fingers crossed they work here in a few days when I finally power them up.

I still need to order a couple longer negative 1/0 cables for the MPPT to connect to the bus bar. And add a block of wood to relieve some pressure on the 4/0 negative cables from the Quattro to the bus bar.

And I need to mount the DC Isolators, put the solar panels up on our almost completed two solar ground mounts, and run the PV wire through conduit into the shed to the isolators and then to the MPPT. Then install the AutoTransformer at the shed and another Autotransformer at the cabin. Then put the t-fuses in the holders.

Then I'll disconnect the Cerbo and the MPPT from the bus temporarily, use a smaller 48V bank to pre-charge the caps on the Quattro, then turn on all the Pylontech batteries which are all individually wired to the bus. Then flip on the Quattro, turn on the Honda EU7000 generator (which later we hope to replace with a larger propane generator), and hopefully charge up all the Pylontech batteries to 100%.

Will finish the second ground mount and paint both to keep the aluminum on the panels from touching steel. Then trench to the shed to run the wires in.

Then I'll trench the 500 feet or so to the cabin and put the huge triplex aluminum wire connecting the Quattro to the autotransformer in the cabin.

Then the electrician will take it from there to do all the AC stuff, panels, and to ground everything.

Figured I'd post some pictures of our install so that generous folks have an opportunity to keep me from burning this place down with my craptastic skills.

View attachment 165438

Got one mount installed, and just put in the first beam for the second mount yesterday.

View attachment 165439

View attachment 165440

Nice setup!

 

[AlaskanNoob]

Our two arrays are now connected and charging the batteries. Of course it's easy in the day since sunrise is so late, and it's a rainy cloudy day. So while 240 watts is a small number, it's not nothing. And once the sun pops out, these arrays will produce up to 7000 watts. With a large battery bank (which has run down since we just recently hooked up the panels) and a solid solar array, you have lots of room to go through a week of cloudy days off batteries only until you get that day of sun and then it will fill up the batteries quickly.

And of course there is a generator as a last resort. Our system will kick the generator on when the batteries get to 40% state of charge and then turn the generator off when the batteries are charged to 50%.View attachment 175095

I actually meant to post this on a different forum. Posting it here is like me explaining basketball to professional ball players. My bad!

Nice setup!

Thank you, couldn't have done it without all the help we got on this board.

 

[AlaskanNoob]

Finally had a sunny day. I took down some trees but still need to take down some more to try to milk what little we get in winter.

Today our 6KW (front rating of the bifacials) produced just over 11KW of power. Most we saw was 5600W coming in. When we get the rest of the panels up, that should be closer to 40KW. Of course that window of opportunity is going to shrink as we approach December 21st.

Besides cutting down some trees, I think I'm going to scrape this whole southern hill and take it down to dirt, so with the snow it should have a funneling effect to the panels.

 

[mikes68505]

Nice setup!

A time ago since this posting buu I just ran acrossed it. If still on and get this, I'd be interested in 1) did you change the ATS to account for the different uses. 2) and/or did you change the usage of the generator to only that of charging the battery bank?

 

[AlaskanNoob]

A time ago since this posting buu I just ran acrossed it. If still on and get this, I'd be interested in 1) did you change the ATS to account for the different uses. 2) and/or did you change the usage of the generator to only that of charging the battery bank?

Just to confirm, you're asking Kenny about his setup, yes?

 

[mikes68505]

Just to confirm, you're asking Kenny about his setup, yes?

Thought I was replying to you. Do I have incorrect who stated they had their gen set configured to auto start and stop?

 

[AlaskanNoob]

Thought I was replying to you. Do I have incorrect who stated they had their gen set configured to auto start and stop?

I do have the generator set to auto start and stop. The generator isn't connected to the inverter though as I had originally planned. It's connected instead to an EG4 chargeverter which is wired into the battery bus.

 

[mikes68505]

I do have the generator set to auto start and stop. The generator isn't connected to the inverter though as I had originally planned. It's connected instead to an EG4 chargeverter which is wired into the battery bus.

May I ask/confirm what do you have performing (which AGS tool) and triggering (connection to battery bus) the auto start?

 

[Dagoth Ur Does Solar]

And of course there is a generator as a last resort. Our system will kick the generator on when the batteries get to 40% state of charge and then turn the generator off when the batteries are charged to 50%.

I was just curious about this part. How long does it take for your batteries to go from 40% to 50% SoC with the generator feeding it?

I only ask because to my uneducated eye that seems pretty aggressive. I'd be more worried about my generator going on/off/on/off constantly if it's a stormy week and the wear and tear associated with that.

 

[AlaskanNoob]

May I ask/confirm what do you have performing (which AGS tool) and triggering (connection to battery bus) the auto start?

Two wire start from a Cerbo GX to a Honda 7000 generator. The Victron Venus software closes the loop on the relay to start the generator.

 

[AlaskanNoob]

I was just curious about this part. How long does it take for your batteries to go from 40% to 50% SoC with the generator feeding it?

I only ask because to my uneducated eye that seems pretty aggressive. I'd be more worried about my generator going on/off/on/off constantly if it's a stormy week and the wear and tear associated with that.

It takes the generator running the 5KW chargeverter about an hour of running to charge that ten percent. Our loads are currently pretty light, so that ten percent buys us about 12 hours of time roughly.

I disabled the auto start for the time being though, until I get my batteries in a warmer position. I had hoped that the batteries discharging plus insulation around them would keep them warm, but Alaska said "oh, hell no." So I'm using a propane heater and just set up a diesel heater and I'm manually warming up the shed and monitoring battery charge limits before I manually turn on the generator to charge. Temps here are getting to single digits F.

But that's why I built the solar shed on a root cellar. So in the spring I'll be building a super insulated rack with 12V heaters down in the cellar and moving the batteries there (I just want to make sure that there is no water intrusion after the spring melt first), plus using Node Red to make sure my generator auto-start factors in battery charge limits before kicking on. And then I'll insulate the shed too.

And I'll be replacing the Honda and the chargeverter with a diesel DC generator if I can find one.

 

[mikes68505]

It takes the generator running the 5KW chargeverter about an hour of running to charge that ten percent. Our loads are currently pretty light, so that ten percent buys us about 12 hours of time roughly.

I disabled the auto start for the time being though, until I get my batteries in a warmer position. I had hoped that the batteries discharging plus insulation around them would keep them warm, but Alaska said "oh, hell no." So I'm using a propane heater and just set up a diesel heater and I'm manually warming up the shed and monitoring battery charge limits before I manually turn on the generator to charge. Temps here are getting to single digits F.

But that's why I built the solar shed on a root cellar. So in the spring I'll be building a super insulated rack with 12V heaters down in the cellar and moving the batteries there (I just want to make sure that there is no water intrusion after the spring melt first), plus using Node Red to make sure my generator auto-start factors in battery charge limits before kicking on. And then I'll insulate the shed too.

And I'll be replacing the Honda and the chargeverter with a diesel DC generator if I can find one.

Asking... with 7k gen what settings did you land on with chargeverter Amps & volts with charging? I was estimating [assuming no solar] my 4K 30A 120V Onan generator will take 3.5 to 6.0 hrs to do 60% charge (25% to 85%) of my 48V battery bank (EG4 Lifepower x2).

 

[AlaskanNoob]

Asking... with 7k gen what settings did you land on with chargeverter Amps & volts with charging? I was estimating [assuming no solar] my 4K 30A 120V Onan generator will take 3.5 to 6.0 hrs to do 60% charge (25% to 85%) of my 48V battery bank (EG4 Lifepower x2).

I have it set to 100A and 52V.

 

[AlaskanNoob]

Back side of one of our two arrays on this nice Alaska morning. We still have them in the vertical position since we're still getting snow. For those considering bifacial panels, they really do give more power than they're rated for. These two arrays consist of 14 x 440W bifacial panels and so far we have seen it produce just over 7300W of power. Even in February our battery bank fills up pretty quickly on a partially sunny day, so we haven't seen just how much power it can produce because we're not using much power to exercise the system yet. Looking forward to dump loads (perhaps a sand battery and various snow melting technologies). But the other day these two arrays produced 14KWh before topping off the batteries.

This spring we're going to install five more arrays except we won't use our custom tilt arrays like this one, we'll just mount those panels fixed straight up and down using aluminum i-beams.

Not bad for 14 panels in February:

 

[AlaskanNoob]

Lots of discussion online about vertical mounted bifacials (at least mounted facing east and west).

Got a good day to test their ability to produce power on overcast days. March 16th was overcast all day, couldn't even see the mountains. But the 14 panels still produced just over 6 KWh. And both arrays produced almost the same (they normally don't due to differences in shading) making me think the diffusion from the clouds led to that.

When we get the rest of our arrays up, that will be about 25KWh of power produced on an overcast day which I think will work out. So far so good.