Help! small off grid aquaponics greenhouse

[Az40ss]

Hello! With a decent amount of time on my hands I decided to build a small 10x10 aquaponics greenhouse. Since I don't have access to electricity in that area of the yard I decided to go solar. I am trying to power roughly 750 watts of equipment (3 water pumps, air pump, 2 fans, and a shop light that is rarely used) for 24 hours a day. At night, the power consumption should drop by a little less than half. I completed the build and everything works great but I can't get through a 24hr period without my batteries draining. I'm in San Diego so I believe I should be getting adequate sunlight. I'm not sure if my configuration is wrong or if I'm just not setting the charge controller correctly. This is my first build so I'm sure I did almost everything wrong so please don't be to brutal. Any suggestions, corrections or recommendation would be greatly appreciated!

- 1 Longi 310w 24v solar panel (LR56-60HPB-310M)
- 1 800w pure sine inverter (I would eventually like to go to a higher watt inverter if possible)
- 1 Epever - tracer 30 amp charge controller
- 2 Alphacell 150 XTV batteries - 12v 80Ah (wired in parallel)
*charger controller shows full charge by the end of the day but drops from 3/4 to 1/2 charge quickly once I have the system running.

I know I should have done more research before I started but I got eager to get my first build started....

 

[Picasso]

Your solar and battery are undersized. http://www.batterysizingcalculator.com/

 

[snoobler]

Since you've only given me approximations, I'm assuming 750W for 12 hours and 375W for 12 hours. I suspect that's optimistic.

750W * 12h = 9000Wh
375W * 12h = 4500Wh

Total = 13,500Wh, 15,880Wh accounting for inefficiencies

You have 2 * 80Ah * 12V = 1,920Wh of batteries

You essentially need 15,880Wh of batteries vs. the 1,920Wh you have (you need 8X more batteries)

To replenish 15,800Wh of energy used per day, you'd likely need 3000-4000W of solar - about 10X of what you have.

I'd get an extension cord and a kill-a-watt meter to find how much you're actually using. As it is, you have about 10% of what you need if your consumption estimates are correct.

 

[Az40ss]

Ouch. So if I add 8 more batteries I should make it through a 24hr period. I should have done a lot more research before trying to go solar. 8 more batteries would be way out of my budget. I should have a kill a watt meter in the next day or so to get accurate readings.

 

[snoobler]

No. You'll need 8X more batteries - 16 total batteries and 10X the solar.

Unless the kill-a-watt tells a different story, I think you should cut your losses and stick with the extension cord.