Hello, newbie from Kentucky

[Subdood]

Hey all, solar newbie here from Kentucky. I have 30 years experience in electronics, mostly power supplies, and server rack systems. Anyway, a few months ago we purchased a solar generator (Ecoflow River Pro), mostly to help out when we have frequent power outages during spring and summer storms. It's not a big genny, only 720wh, but would be sufficient to power some low power devices like our modem, small TV, CPAP, some lights, etc. It can be charged via AC, or solar, at 200W and 12V input. So, I purchased a 200W Newpowa panel to use to recharge it.

Well, now I've got the solar bug and have dived into solar technology articles and videos. I've particularly have watched quite a few of Will Prowse's vids, and find them very helpful. It's only been a month or two, but I've learned a lot already. I am seriously considering a more powerful system for our small home to be less reliant on the grid and reduce our power bills. For now, I'd like to set up a system to power our 120V devices in our home, and leave the 240V stuff on grid power. Maybe later, we could move some of the 240V stuff onto the system.

For the last month, I have sketched out various configurations, and have come up with this setup-

MPP (or Sungoldpower) 6548 inverter,
Signature Solar 5.12kwh 48V battery rack,
8 x 460W Bluesun bifacial panels, or
9 x 390W Canadian Solar bifacial panels

Of course this will probably change or be added to. I'd like to max out the inverter's dual 4kw PV inputs, so as to get about 8kw total. Also would like to maybe add another 5.12kwh battery. But, for now, this is a good start.

Still working on the array setup, I'd like it to be a single axis mount, maybe have two of them, one oriented SE, the other S. We are on a slightly south of east facing hillside, so we get good sun exposure most of the day.

Anyway, look forward to learning more about this very interesting subject.

 

[MisterSandals]

You REALLY need to do an energy audit (there are a couple tools in my signature) to get a good understanding of what your system needs to produce BEFORE you start picking out equipment/solutions.

 

[Kornbread]

Why two different solar panels? Only one battery? Grid or off grid? Selling back to the grid?

 

[Subdood]

You REALLY need to do an energy audit (there are a couple tools in my signature) to get a good understanding of what your system needs to produce BEFORE you start picking out equipment/solutions.

Thanks. I went on the alt-e site, and did a rough approximentation of our daily power needs. We use on an average day, about 33kwh. Of course in the depth of summer and winter, that would go up 2-3x. So I roughly based my 8kw solar panel setup on that average. We would need more battery backup than my original 5kwh wish, but like I said there's room for expanding.

 

[Subdood]

Why two different solar panels? Only one battery? Grid or off grid? Selling back to the grid?

I'm still working on the details, so I'm undecided on the particular panels, but these two are the ones I'm interested in. I'll pick one if the two. I'm looking to buy them in bulk from signature solar, so I have to buy a minimum of ten panels.

Not selling back to grid, but more of a grid-assist type system. I'd like to use the grid for our bigger power draw 240V devices, like HVAC, dryer, stove, etc, but move most, if not all the 120V stuff off grid. But, maybe expand our battery backup and panels and get some of the 240v stuff off grid.

 

[Kornbread]

Batteries are expensive. When do you use the most electricity; morning, noon'ish, afternoon?
I ordered some used Trina panels off ebay, excellent seller by the way clr_solutions_llc, shipping on a pallet of 29 panels was over $200 and the trucking company loaded them onto my truck at the shipping terminal. Probably about the same shipping for ten or thirty panels.

 

[Subdood]

Batteries are expensive. When do you use the most electricity; morning, noon'ish, afternoon?
I ordered some used Trina panels off ebay, excellent seller by the way clr_solutions_llc, shipping on a pallet of 29 panels was over $200 and the trucking company loaded them onto my truck at the shipping terminal. Probably about the same shipping for ten or thirty panels.

Power usage depends. Probably night time would be the highest consumption, mostly because we are both home doing chores, want to be comfortable, so hvac comes more into play. Mid morning to mid afternoon prob the least power usage.

So, how many watts per panel? Are you building a new system or adding on? I wish we were still in north Texas, we could just drive to the Signature Solar location and pick everything up in about 2 hours. But, being in Kentucky, we'd have to have them shipped, not cheap. I filled up a shopping cart on their site for one of their rack batteries and 10 panels, and I think shipping came out to about $400. Yikes.

 

[Kornbread]

Once you figure out how much power you're going to need, it will give you an idea on how much battery will be required, because most of your power usage will be at night. If you plan on supplementing the batteries from grid at night, and $ is an issue, I wonder about adding a few batteries at first, then later, as the budget allows, add more. Don't forget, in this area in the middle of the US, when it rains, it's not uncommon for it to be cloudy for three or more days. Solar suks when the sun don't shine and with watts going out, something has to replace them.

*Batteries are expensive.* When you start figuring batteries into the equation, I don't think you will even be in the $/watt ball park of what the power company charges. The only way I can justify batteries is as a backup as we often have power outages.

Does your utility have net metering and some kind of solar plan? I know you are not really wanting to do this, but it might be worth it to consider feeding the grid to offset your monthly bill and this would not rule out having battery backup for power outages. The utility's regulations can be a major time and $ hassle. Our utility has a krappy solar plan, and be careful of some of the utility's 'sunshine' plans.

Currently, the shop is part solar, part on grid. When the price of lumber ... IF ... the price of lumber ever comes down, I plan on building a pavilion/outdoor cooking/picnic kind of screened in building and using 5k watts worth of solar panels for the roof. Then the shop can go total solar. Generally, the shop might use ~$25 a month. By then, I hope to have at least 20kwh of battery storage which, with conservation, should help get us through the power outages. The panels I purchased were 255watt Trina. With six on temporary ground mounts, they were holding 1.5k for over an hour on good days. With nine on temporary ground mounts, they hit ~2.15k on good days. So, ~240watts per $65 panel comes out around $.27 watt. I'm ok with that.

 

[Subdood]

Once you figure out how much power you're going to need, it will give you an idea on how much battery will be required, because most of your power usage will be at night. If you plan on supplementing the batteries from grid at night, and $ is an issue, I wonder about adding a few batteries at first, then later, as the budget allows, add more. Don't forget, in this area in the middle of the US, when it rains, it's not uncommon for it to be cloudy for three or more days. Solar suks when the sun don't shine and with watts going out, something has to replace them.

*Batteries are expensive.* When you start figuring batteries into the equation, I don't think you will even be in the $/watt ball park of what the power company charges. The only way I can justify batteries is as a backup as we often have power outages.

Does your utility have net metering and some kind of solar plan? I know you are not really wanting to do this, but it might be worth it to consider feeding the grid to offset your monthly bill and this would not rule out having battery backup for power outages. The utility's regulations can be a major time and $ hassle. Our utility has a krappy solar plan, and be careful of some of the utility's 'sunshine' plans.

Currently, the shop is part solar, part on grid. When the price of lumber ... IF ... the price of lumber ever comes down, I plan on building a pavilion/outdoor cooking/picnic kind of screened in building and using 5k watts worth of solar panels for the roof. Then the shop can go total solar. Generally, the shop might use ~$25 a month. By then, I hope to have at least 20kwh of battery storage which, with conservation, should help get us through the power outages. The panels I purchased were 255watt Trina. With six on temporary ground mounts, they were holding 1.5k for over an hour on good days. With nine on temporary ground mounts, they hit ~2.15k on good days. So, ~240watts per $65 panel comes out around $.27 watt. I'm ok with that.

Where are you that you get frequent outages? You said in this area of the US, so was just curious, we're in NE Kentucky. Most of our outages are in the spring/summer during storms, we're in a heavily forested and hilly area and trees frequently fall on the lines. Yes, the weather here over the last month has been dreary, lots of clouds and rain. So, we would definitely need more battery backup than my initial plans of 5kwh.

Our electric cooperative is pretty friendly in regards to solar, don't know if they do the electric credits tho. Our rates are pretty decent. we're on a set rate of about 8c/kwh, so even if we were grid-tie, it would take a while to make our money back. But, for me, it's more about being less reliant on the grid, especially during these times. I think the initial system would be a good start- 4kw solar, 6.5kw inverter, 5kwh battery.

Your plan of building a pavilion to hold your solar panels is similar to what I was thinking. I'd like to build a small carport, and maybe put a few panels on it.