I'm taking the plunge - new to solar.

[WerkSpace]

The government of Canada gave me $636.90 for climate change. I'm not sure why?
So, I went on Amazon.ca and bought ten 100W Renogy solar panels for $997.46

Several years ago, I bought two APC Matrix 5000 UPS units with 48V smart cells for $10 each at the metal recycler.
I powered them up in the snow bank and discovered that they worked fine and were only three years old at the time.
I'm not sure why they were scrapped but for the price, I took them home to experiment with. Over time the batteries died.

APC Matrix-UPS 5kVA 208V/240V In 120/208/240V Out - MX5000 | APC USA

MX5000 - APC Matrix-UPS 5kVA 208V/240V In 120/208/240V Out | APC USA

www.apc.com

I was looking at my home power bill last week. It said that I paid $40 for the power and $60 to deliver the power to my house.
I watched a YouTube video from Elon Musk, stating that more people should generate their own power on site.
So, I decided to take the plunge and give solar a try. I live outside of Calgary, Alberta and we get a lot of sun.
I bought my solar panels at $1 per watt. I haven't decided on the batteries or the controller system yet.

I'm new to solar, so I'm taking it slow. I want to start small and scale up accordingly.
I plan to use solar power to operate my gas furnace in the winter months.
I would also like to setup an LED grow light system for herbs at first.
I like cooking and having fresh ingredients onsite would be great.

Later on, when I fully understand solar, I will scale up, to operate more things in my home.
I have a large aluminum step van and a small Mercedes Sprinter van that could use some solar power.
My garage is as big as my house, so it could use some solar power too. One step at a time.

 

[sunshine_eggo]

Before you spend another penny, I recommend you tap the brakes for perspective:

Calgary may be sunny, but your winters kinda stink. 1kW array @ 51° tilt facing due South:



Divide the "AC energy" kWh column by the number of days in that month, and that's your available daily kWh.

Let's look at the annual production of your 1kW array. That's 1280 kWh of energy for the entire year. Not sure what your power prices are, but this would cost me about $192 @ $0.15/kWh. On the panels alone, you won't save a penny for at least 5 years assuming you put every PV kWh to good use... and that's tough to balance.

Factor in new batteries (5kWh +) and controller (20-30A), and your breakeven period doubles or triples.

I'm talking dollars because it seems it's your primary motivation. You're about 5 years in the hole already, so I want you to look at it from that perspective.

Solar's great, and there's more than one reason to do it, but saving money usually isn't on the list in most cases.

 

[Rednecktek]

Sigh, still better than my last house... by a lot...

Welcome to the adventure!

 

[WerkSpace]

Before you spend another penny, I recommend you tap the brakes for perspective:

Calgary may be sunny, but your winters kinda stink. 1kW array @ 51° tilt facing due South:

View attachment 178795

Divide the "AC energy" kWh column by the number of days in that month, and that's your available daily kWh.

Let's look at the annual production of your 1kW array. That's 1280 kWh of energy for the entire year. Not sure what your power prices are, but this would cost me about $192 @ $0.15/kWh. On the panels alone, you won't save a penny for at least 5 years assuming you put every PV kWh to good use... and that's tough to balance.

Factor in new batteries (5kWh +) and controller (20-30A), and your breakeven period doubles or triples.

I'm talking dollars because it seems it's your primary motivation. You're about 5 years in the hole already, so I want you to look at it from that perspective.

Solar's great, and there's more than one reason to do it, but saving money usually isn't on the list in most cases.

That's certainly something to think about. As per my calculations, I've invested $360 of my own money for the 1000W of solar panels and $20 for the two 5000VA inverters. I've heard of people who don't use batteries. They run DC-DC buck converters inline with the inverters. This allows them to use power as long as the sun shines. Batteries and converters are expensive. This is why I haven't invested in them yet.

I've also collected ultracapacitors/supercapacitors from large electric vehicles such as transit systems. They have very low internal resistance and can be charged and discharged very quickly. I experiment with what society throws away. Usually at low cost.

Supercapacitor - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

In the past, I have purchased batteries from the recycler. I test them with a load tester in the yard. I was paying $10 per battery and then selling them back at $8 per battery when I couldn't get any use out of them. Effectively, it was costing me $2 per battery for the time that I was using them. The large companies in Calgary are forced by the insurance companies to replace their UPS batteries when the expiration date arrives. There's still lots of life left in those batteries. On average, I was able to get another two years out of them before they didn't work any longer. This was all done on an experimental basis.

I've purchased a lot of great things from recycle yards. It's profitable to scout out these yards once a week. You get to know the owners and many times, they will let you know what comes in the yard. The yards are only licensed to buy and sell metal at whatever the going rate. They are willing to sell items for the value of the metal.

 

[sunshine_eggo]

Yer in Canada! I can't believe you didn't pay your $636.90 in taxes!

 

[WerkSpace]

Yer in Canada! I can't believe you didn't pay your $636.90 in taxes!

They have this 'carbon tax' on just about everything.
They can call it whatever they want, it's just another way of taxing people.
The carbon tax is added to the fuel cost. Fuel is used to move around goods and services.
This 'carbon tax' is what is killing the country.

The Canadian government has been giving money away like candy at Halloween.
They don't physically have this money. Our debt has grown to 1.4 trillion dollars.
The people who voted for this government will pay for this debt.
I'm old and on disability, so my contributions will be limited compared to the younger generation.