SomethingElse
Rays of sunshine are a terrible thing to waste!
Greetings fellow addicts! I recently built an off grid system to introduce myself to the wonderful world of solar. Ive learned so much from the main page and have been absolutely consumed with my system. I have two 300W panels, Giandel 2200 (1800)w pure sine wave inverter, power queen MPPT 30A with bluetooth, and a power queen 12.8v 100ah lifepo4 battery. I understand I can only use about half of my inverter with this battery (currently saving for another). Ive been on my mppt app more than facebook and love watching my battery charge. unfortunately I only power a few small devices in my garage, and my battery fills up the next day in like 1 hour. So I want to put this free power to good use!
Here is where I humbly request advice. My plan is to run a 12/2 line from my inverter, and shore power to a 50A switch, It has three positions 1/off/2. This will control the flow to a sub panel where I will have three circuits that I want powered in my home in case of an outage. fridge, office computer, and kids TV are all I plan to run, approx 1200W. Where I am a little unsure of is grounding. My inverter has a ground lug that currently gets no love. Do I need Ignore it some more? Bury a separate 8' ground rod, or use the ground from the main panel? The hardline output on my inverter has "G" as well, would that go to my existing main panel or to the ground/neutral lug in my sub panel? My solar panels are on the ground mounted to wood. They reach a solid three feet in the air. Do these also need an additional 8' ground rod? It would be nice to leave my switch locked into Solar power but until the sun shines more/ I get more battery, I am afraid the battery will deplete and ill lose power to those three circuits. Is there an automatic switch I could use that would kick me back to shore power if the battery dies?
Lastly, I plan to run 12v to a few places in the house where I have 12v inverters plugged into the wall. Example Internet modem, roomba, led lighting, and water feature. All of these little heaters take 120ac to 12v dc. My mppt has a 12v out but, it seems to breach 13V (verified with volt meter). Will that fry my devices or will it stay around 12v once i put a load on it?
Thanks people!
-Eric
Here is where I humbly request advice. My plan is to run a 12/2 line from my inverter, and shore power to a 50A switch, It has three positions 1/off/2. This will control the flow to a sub panel where I will have three circuits that I want powered in my home in case of an outage. fridge, office computer, and kids TV are all I plan to run, approx 1200W. Where I am a little unsure of is grounding. My inverter has a ground lug that currently gets no love. Do I need Ignore it some more? Bury a separate 8' ground rod, or use the ground from the main panel? The hardline output on my inverter has "G" as well, would that go to my existing main panel or to the ground/neutral lug in my sub panel? My solar panels are on the ground mounted to wood. They reach a solid three feet in the air. Do these also need an additional 8' ground rod? It would be nice to leave my switch locked into Solar power but until the sun shines more/ I get more battery, I am afraid the battery will deplete and ill lose power to those three circuits. Is there an automatic switch I could use that would kick me back to shore power if the battery dies?
Lastly, I plan to run 12v to a few places in the house where I have 12v inverters plugged into the wall. Example Internet modem, roomba, led lighting, and water feature. All of these little heaters take 120ac to 12v dc. My mppt has a 12v out but, it seems to breach 13V (verified with volt meter). Will that fry my devices or will it stay around 12v once i put a load on it?
Thanks people!
-Eric
