Hello everyone from Alabama.

[Normal]

Hello everyone,


I new to your forum,and wished I joined earlier. I've been a tech for some years, but have no experience
in solar. I live in Alabama and pay high rates for power.The local utility company won't buy your excesspower and charge you extra if you have solar panels on your roof.(Forbackup they claim.)
I've started a project to provide backup power to my laundry room.
My ambitions have grown since then. Being inexperience on panel installation I won't install panels on myresidence. However a prior project provided a detached enclosure withsome roof space and a $400 power bill convince me that I had anopportunity. I'm belittled by most of the solar systems posted here.
and can't afford the price tag. This forum is above and beyond any I've seen. I look forward to reading thru your postings.


Thanks Y'all!

 

[Daddy Tanuki]

start small, and take one or two circuits off of the house and power them via a small system.

Have a generator plug installed on the outer wall that that can selectively feed circuits.... you know cause generators are for backup. (hurricanes anybody?)

get yourself a small box trailer. make a fold out section for the panels four flat across the roof, and then four on wings that fold down four to the side = 12 panels depending upon panel physical size. Put your batteries and inverters inside the trailer park it next to the house and get a matching plug.

Set your transfer switch up so that it only powers critical loads to only power a few circuits something that is steady in its use like a split pack or two. Shazam! no permits needed (other than the generator plug and transfer switch setup... get it installed before you start playing with the solar trailer...) once again have it power something that is a fairly constant draw. you can't backfeed due to the transfer switch and it is a plug so its a temporary setup and then they can all go off outside around the corner and fornicate with themselves.

 

[Flunkyboi]

start small, and take one or two circuits off of the house and power them via a small system.

Have a generator plug installed on the outer wall that that can selectively feed circuits.... you know cause generators are for backup. (hurricanes anybody?)

get yourself a small box trailer. make a fold out section for the panels four flat across the roof, and then four on wings that fold down four to the side = 12 panels depending upon panel physical size. Put your batteries and inverters inside the trailer park it next to the house and get a matching plug.

Set your transfer switch up so that it only powers critical loads to only power a few circuits something that is steady in its use like a split pack or two. Shazam! no permits needed (other than the generator plug and transfer switch setup... get it installed before you start playing with the solar trailer...) once again have it power something that is a fairly constant draw. you can't backfeed due to the transfer switch and it is a plug so its a temporary setup and then they can all go off outside around the corner and fornicate with themselves.

I'm brand new here, too and I live in Bama, too. Howdy!

 

[k490]

Welcome to the forum I suggest that you don't buy anything until you have a plan written out. Decided if you want to get it permitted or not I would think about this decision I went off grid non permitted with mine, but after spending lot of money on the system I would have been better off just going with a permitted interconnected system. Sounds like you want to go off-grid non permitted which is fine many here do that.

You have to decide what loads you want the solar system to run I would target loads that run 24/7 you want to use as much of the solar everyday as possible or it's wasted. It's like paying for a gym membership you don't use want to avoid that much as possible if you want to do off-grid. Figure out what loads you want on the solar then have to figure out inverter, batteries, and panels. There is a lot of little things that goes into all that can drive the costs up. There is a way to grid connect and add sensors to the incoming wires that tells the inverter not to backfeed to the grid, but it's not 100% if utility is using a smart meter they likely will detect it.

Do you have any idea what batteries, and inverter you want to buy? AIO inverter probably the best way to go. I went with the EG-4 6000 XP.

 

[supersignman]

I'm from Alabama too and I know what you mean about Ala Power. I know a guy really well who has a nice stealth setup in his backyard. Daddy Tanuki has some good advice above. That's how the system evolved with that guy I know really well. Solar is a great skillset to have but it requires dedication and there is definitely a learning curve. It kind of needs to become your hobby. The current prices of solar panels and LiFePO4 batteries is so low right now that I don't see how they could go much lower - so it's a great time to buy in.

There are two approaches to overall system design. One approach is to get a typical all-in-one (AIO) unit. The other approach is to buy individual components (solar charge controller, inverter, grid charger). Both approaches have pros and cons which you need to research thoroughly. I started out as a typical AIO rookie but I've evolved into a component guy. Part of that evolution stems from the fact that I'm building out my system to be used if we have a true grid-down/social collapse scenario someday. If that's your goal, you'll soon realize that being your own power company requires multiple backup components and a thorough knowledge of how your system works. An AIO is cheaper and easier to install initially but when something goes wrong with it, you're at the mercy of the manufacturer (who may or may not be in business in the above scenarios).

I also started out buying the typical consumer grade components but realized after a year or so that there's a reason some of these brands cost more than others. I've ended up with mostly Victron equipment now and I've been well pleased with it. Sure, it may cost 50% more than the typical consumer grade stuff but you can get support for it (although I've never needed any) and they use very high quality components inside. The company has been around for many, many years and they've designed their equipment to work in one the harshest environments out there (ocean going ships). Look up some of the videos Will Prowse did on Victron equipment and you'll understand what I'm saying.

 

[Danke]

One, two, three. Three of ya.

Could form a Trio banjo band!

 

[Daddy Tanuki]

One, two, three. Three of ya.

Could form a Trio banjo band!

Guarantee you they got good food though

 

[Flunkyboi]

One, two, three. Three of ya.

Could form a Trio banjo band!

And God bless James Dickey. He authored the greatest literary scare crow piece, ever!

We have some nice canoeing here.

 

[Daddy Tanuki]

And God bless James Dickey. He authored the greatest literary scare crow piece, ever!

We have some nice canoeing here.

I was like WTF is James Dickey, then I saw the canoeing reference and it clicked...