First build 3kw panels 3kw inv 14.4kw storage

[Ucatchmydrift]

Hi, love this forum, it has/you guys have helped me alot over the last 6 months when i started thinking about building my own diy solar setup here in cloudy sunless england.

Nearly finished it all now (although, i think its gunna be one of those projects that i keep adding to or modifying), so i thought id share what i have done as tbh im really pleased with myself ? seeing as only 6 months ago i knew nothing about solar.

To many of you this will look like a small project, but, i live on my own in a 2 bedroom bungalow and dont have alot of space for solar panels, and would be tricky to put them on the roof without needing a bunch of help.

Energy prices have sky rocketed here in the uk (although the government has helped a bit by paying everyone £400 towards elec and gas - which we will obviously have to pay back with interest in the future!), so has been the perfect time to do this.

I found 12 x 240w jinko panels second had from a solar farm in germany from a local seller for £700, put them on my workshop roof, and the shed roof that i built last year:







As you can see, a lovely day here in east england! Blowing a gale and raining!
The panels are in series and two parallel. And get a bit of shading first thing in the morning.

Inside the metal shed is where i keep the inverter and battery storage. Its an all in one epever 3kw:



Inside the workshop?



Pv fuses, isolator and breaker?


200amp dc breaker and 300amp isolator ?

Please ignore the exposed wiring above, im in the middle of experimenting with using a relay, controlled by a junctek shunt to switch on grid supply when the battery gets low, as having permanent grid supply to the inverter means it draws a continuous 10w from the grid! - cant have that! Atm grid supply is controlled via a wifi smart plug shown above, which switches on a contactor which allows the inverter to then charge the batteries at cheap rate times only, which i shedule via the smartplug app. The shunt grid control will be for if the smartplug fails. All seems to work (well - it did until i fried the relay side of the shunt control box!) - got another on the way for my second battery bank anyway so will use that one instead.


Now getting the busbars ready to attach the current battery bank, and the new one that im now top balancing in parallel ?



First battery bank made from eve grade a 280ah cells from fogstar uk, compressed, top balanced etc, using a 200amp jk bms at 8s (24v), and the junctek smart shunt.
Below the battery is a heating mat controlled by a thermostat shown in the previous picture, and has been needed recently - hence the blanket around the battery - this will be changed soon to some pir insulation stuff.

Second battery bank getting ready ?

 

[Ucatchmydrift]

Battery bank heating mat prep?



Battery box for new bank?



Class t fuse and diy holder?



How do i do my cooking with just a 3kw inverter?
(thanks santa!)
Total watts 1600w!?


I have a armoured cable going into the house, into a consumer unit with mains switch and 30ma rcbo.
Then to a ring main with double sockets in each room:?



Running everything in the house whilst doing the cooking comes to under 2kw! (fridge, freezer, tv, amplifier, air fryer, multi oven, routers, phones, charging new bank at 5 amps, etc) ?




Now, just the power shower to replace, will change the 3kw immersion heater element to a 2kw, and use a shower that attaches to the bath taps. Then everything will be powered via the inverter!

Total max cost a month based on me using about 8kw a day is £12 (5p kw/h night rate, 60p kw/h day rate - which i never use!! - and no standing charge - company is utilita). - and thats without any solar production! Amazing. Total cost: under £4000.

 

[SeaGal]

as tbh im really pleased with myself ? seeing as only 6 months ago i knew nothing about solar.

And so you should be - very professional looking. In fact, more professional than some so-called professional installs

 

[SeaGal]

How do i do my cooking with just a 3kw inverter?
(thanks santa!)
Total watts 1600w!?
View attachment 126975

But you can save more electricity by not pre-heating your air-fryer and slow-cooker on the hob! ??

 

[Ucatchmydrift]

But you can save more electricity by not pre-heating your air-fryer and slow-cooker on the hob! ??

I wondered why my food was coming out overcooked! ??

(iv got it turned off at the breaker on the fuse board, and the main cooker switch ?)

 

[Ucatchmydrift]

Looks a bit better in black with gold trim ?

Good use of an old wardrobe, thanks dad ?



Second one all ready to go:



Heating mat (20watt) and class t 250amp fuse (with a 80,000 amp interrupt ability!) installed: (£10 second hand lol)

 

[SeaGal]

And, as I'm guessing you're into cars, I'd say it looks very...

 

[Ucatchmydrift]

And, as I'm guessing you're into cars, I'd say it looks very...

View attachment 127005

Awsome, yes lol, how did you tell!

(i build the wiring harnesses for those types of cars,, the modern versions i mean!)

 

[Symbioquine]

Nice setup. I like the "everything custom" vibe you've got going with the homemade fuse holder, bus bars, computer "case", etc...

Just curious with the bus bars if you've thought about insulating the bus bar from the wood and fasteners? It seems like it might be bit of a safety trap to have the fasteners be hot to the back side (I'm not sure how close they go to the metal shed wall under) and I'd be curious what the leakage current over the wood would be at different levels of ambient/absorbed humidity around/in the wood.

Maybe this would be interesting: https://diysolarforum.com/threads/d...ow-to-isolate-the-mounting.35652/#post-649177

 

[Ucatchmydrift]

Nice setup. I like the "everything custom" vibe you've got going with the homemade fuse holder, bus bars, computer "case", etc...

Just curious with the bus bars if you've thought about insulating the bus bar from the wood and fasteners? It seems like it might be bit of a safety trap to have the fasteners be hot to the back side (I'm not sure how close they go to the metal shed wall under) and I'd be curious what the leakage current over the wood would be at different levels of ambient/absorbed humidity around/in the wood.

Maybe this would be interesting: https://diysolarforum.com/threads/d...ow-to-isolate-the-mounting.35652/#post-649177

Thank you ?. Yeah i enjoy building things,,, the computer case thing is actually a small cryptocurrency mining rig, which is off atm due to etherium no longer being able to be mined, and the rest of the coins barely make anything, although, we are in a pretty severe bear market at the moment.

But, actually you make a bloody good point that i have stupidly overlooked. The screws that hold the busbars on are probably only an inch or so away from the metal shed wall like you say, and i guess that its possible that an arc could form in extreme circumstances.. Or even not so extreme! Im going to have a read of your link and a think about how i can modify that..

Could have saved me alot of money there ?? or at liest a blown fuse or two!

 

[Ucatchmydrift]

And yes, didnt think of leakage current either, the shed can get damp inside at times.. Going to re think the busbar setup.

 

[SeaGal]

Don't want to be testing out that 80,000 amp fuse !

 

[Ucatchmydrift]

Don't want to be testing out that 80,000 amp fuse !

? Damn right lol ?

 

[Symbioquine]

The screws that hold the busbars on are probably only an inch or so away from the metal shed wall like you say, and i guess that its possible that an arc could form in extreme circumstances.. Or even not so extreme!

I think an inch should be fine for a 24v nominal system, but I'd be worried about how stiff the shed wall is if you - for instance - leaned something against the outside. Also, it might be an issue if there's any wiring running behind that could rub on the points of the fasteners.

 

[Ucatchmydrift]

I think an inch should be fine for a 24v nominal system, but I'd be worried about how stiff the shed wall is if you - for instance - leaned something against the outside. Also, it might be an issue if there's any wiring running behind that could rub on the points of the fasteners.

There are no wires behind, and the walls are surprisingly stiff due to the corregation, But, im going to pull it all away a inch or two from the wall anyway, and use something like electric fence insulators to isolate the busbars, like mentioned in that link you posted above, if i can find any the appropriate size. ?

 

[MisterB1959]

Looks great, very impressed. Where in East UK are you? We're in Clacton on Sea. Interested to know where you got your s/h panels from as I'm looking to build a 'car port' in the future, prob next year now, for our motorhome and am looking at using solar panels for the roof. The roof doesn't need to be watertight and won't be grid connected.
I started off down the route of my making my own battery case etc but the Seplos upright case (also from Fogstar) fits my needs perfectly and only works out a few hundred pounds dearer when you add all the additional costs together and a lot less time spent !!! But as I said, your ability to put everything together like that is impressive!
Best wishes and good luck with the rest of the build.

 

[rhovac]

A setup with charm ? clean work, bravo!

 

[Ucatchmydrift]

Looks great, very impressed. Where in East UK are you? We're in Clacton on Sea. Interested to know where you got your s/h panels from as I'm looking to build a 'car port' in the future, prob next year now, for our motorhome and am looking at using solar panels for the roof. The roof doesn't need to be watertight and won't be grid connected.
I started off down the route of my making my own battery case etc but the Seplos upright case (also from Fogstar) fits my needs perfectly and only works out a few hundred pounds dearer when you add all the additional costs together and a lot less time spent !!! But as I said, your ability to put everything together like that is impressive!
Best wishes and good luck with the rest of the build.

Thank you ? im near Diss, north suffolk.. I remember clacton from when i was very young, my mothers parents lived there.. I have vague memories of a small roller-coaster on a pier, that my parents didnt let me go on!
I got the panels from a chap on ebay just south of norwich, i think he still advertises, i can have a look to see if i can find him if you wanted, they were about £60 a panel if i remember correctly.
Thanks for the kind words, and good luck with the motorhome..
Its all been finished quite a while now, ill have to update this thread at some point. All going really well so far, no probs, not used any power from the grid since the end of march! , expect thatll be coming to an end soon though now winters coming..

 

[Ucatchmydrift]

A setup with charm ? clean work, bravo!

Thanks ??

 

[Ucatchmydrift]

Well heres an update now its all finished.

Both battery banks complete:







??Bus bars complete (two terminals still needing to be crimped properly).


?? Doubled up cables all round (70mm) as shown in the breaker/isolator box. Above the multi socket is a box with the solid state relay which when activated supplies power to the inverter from the grid via the contactor in the box to the right of the multi socket. Its activated in an emergency via one of the shunts when the voltage gets too low on one of the banks. It is also activated via the alexa app using a local bytes tasmota smart plug (super reliable local network non cloud device), this allows me to shedule the charging of the banks in winter overnight on cheap rate grid power only.. On the multi socket is a thermostat for the heating pads in the battery banks. The displays are linked to the shunts on each battery bank to give an accurate SOC. The box on the far right contains two tasmota wemos d1 mini micro controllers. With some help from the home assistant forum i managed to capture the data going to the shut displays, this is then forwarded using the wemos d1's to my local wifi network.




?? Outside the shed (to get good reception to my wifi) are three boxes, one contains the tasmota smart plug mentioned above, the other contains a raspberry pi 3b+, and the third contains another tasmota smart plug that powers the raspberry pi! (so i can remotely reset the raspberry pi if need be from anywhere in the world!), and a wifi dongle which is connected to my inverter.
The raspberry pi is connected to and running on an ssd and is running the home assistant operating system. This picks up battery bank SOC and other data from the wemos d1's mentioned above, and also all the data from my inverter.
(if you want to know how i grabbed the data from my epever inverter which doesnt have remote access see here: i made a guide, as its not so straightforward:

Epever upower Hi series remote access (full version!)

So someone very clever over at home assistant forum had figured out how to grab the data from an epever upower hi series inverter and display it all in home assistant (thank you timnis?? (and marcos for the lead pin out) (according to epever themselves, this is not possible! - i think they are...

diysolarforum.com

Home assistant is then viewable on my local network and also forwarded via port forwarding on my router to be able to be viewed on mobile etc from anywhere in the world, which is super handy to see whats going on when im at work etc!.



?? Found an old tablet on ebay for £16 (small crack on screen underneath the surround), so old wouldnt run anything, so flashed a new custom rom, and boom, all good. Slow, but good enough. Installed an app called wallpaper which allows the camera to sense motion, so the screen comes on for 5 mins when you walk into the room! Nice.
Made the tablet surround from wood lol, looks pro ?
It shows home assistant so i can see all the important data. Swipe right to see all the details, bms data, everything basically. Same as viewing it on a phone etc.


?? Oh, and upgraded the air fryer to a bigger one lol, still only 1500w! And fitted a 1.5kw immersion element to heat the water for a shower, on a timer.


All been super reliable so far, nearly one year in. Pretty pleased with it all.
Need a new project now ?