Is it considered bad manners to ask for advice and help? Consider me the “Jon Snow” Of the DIY solar world

[rockwind1]

i’m 57. Retired fire captain, not hurting for funds But my dad raised me to almost always do everything myself. I built houses and rebuilt engines. I’ve wired quite a few new construction homes. I am positive I have the tools and competence to do my own solar set up but i’m a bit too impatient to read all this stuff.

By the way, for the folks who never watched Game of Thrones, Jon Snow was always being accused of “you know nothing, Jon Snow!”

my question is, are there any other somewhat retired do it yourselfers on here who have maybe done two or three solar set ups that would not mind talking to me a bit. I basically just want to know what to buy and the cheapest place to buy it at. Have it delivered to my project locations and start doing it.
is this a realistic idea? Is there someone out there who wants to pass on their experience? Is there anyone in central Arizona who would want A job helping me install a couple of probably larger than normal grid tie systems with a battery back up start to finish. I’ve got enough acreage to do ground mount panels.
my apologies but if you work for a company it’s probably not gonna work out, I just can’t bear the thought of paying The profit margin for your company.

my question, what are the best panels to get? Should I order a bunch of 48 V lithium batteries? Are there any supply chain issues right now for the accessory parts like cables and computer systems and brackets and such stuff?

project 1: A 20 acre ranch, all electric at this time but I may switch some stuff over to Propane. I have a windmill on one of my wells but I want to put down a back up submersible pump, probably in the 300 to 400 foot depth range I’m only looking at getting five GPM because I want to be able to hopefully use batteries to run it for maybe one or two hours a day to fill up a big holding tank. What sort of battery set up should I get, and of course panels, to power a one and a half or 2 hp submersible pump which will no doubt be a 220 V pump probably pull in around 5 to 6 Amps after start up. How do batteries handle the start up load versus the run load?

project 2: similar property but without the windmill, I’ve got a 3 1/2 hp pump at this one, I’m not sure if it’s even feasible to have enough batteries to run it

project 3. Tile roof install with a grid tie system with minimal battery back up

project 4. My 2007 toy hauler trailer, the lifeline AGM batteries I put on there pretty much suck, would like enough solar to comfortably charge a 4-600ah set up. I have no illusions about running the air conditioners, but I would like the heater to be able to run most of the night plus lights and water pump

Thanks for any help or advice, my email is Same as my username but at yahoo
I live in Las Vegas but my first solar project Would probably be in Arizona, but maybe I should start on my house first

 

[pellicle]

Thanks for any help or advice, my email

advice: delete your email from here quick smart before every robot on the internet sends you spam

 

[rockwind1]

advice: delete your email from here quick smart before every robot on the internet sends you spam

I already get so much spam I don’t even notice it anymore but I did change that, thanks for the advice.

 

[pellicle]

I already get so much spam I don’t even notice it anymore but I did change that, thanks for the advice.

all good ... perhaps your approach with emails is why you get so much..

As to the best panels, I guess that depends who you ask, but in Australia

• First Place: LG (25.27% of votes) ...
• Joint Second: REC, SunPower (23.08% of votes) ...
• First Place: Trina (21.98% of votes) ...
• Second Place: Jinko (16.48% of votes) ...
• Third Place: Longi (13.19% of votes)

26 Apr 2021

 

[JoeHam]

Treat panels as a basic commodity and look at dollars per watt, assuming you are not space limited.

I have paid as low as 14 cents per watt for used panels. If Gilbert is not too far of a drive for you then save shipping costs and go see SanTanSolar.com.

No affiliation, just a satisfied customer.

They, and Northern AZ wind and solar in Flagstaff should be willing to spend some time with you on the phone to help you figure out some of this.

 

[timselectric]

I'm also a very satisfied customer of SanTanSolar.
I will never buy a panel from anywhere else.
Customer service is top notch.

 

[Rednecktek]

Well, I'll start the default answer to these questions and we can work from there. Here's you To-Do list:

1: Power audit! This will give you some important information on how big your inverter needs to be as well as how much battery capacity you'll need. There is a link in the FAQ section (I think, or someone here will post it shortly) so fill in the blanks and see what it comes up with. You'll probably need some sort of Kill-A-Watt to get accurate measurements. Are you going to be running a 12v system? 24v system? 48v system? What are the specs on your solar panels? VoC? Vmp? Being as this is a new build, throw together a wish list of what you want and estimate on the high side.

1a: Where do you live? Speccing out a system for Scotland is a LOT different numbers than Arizona due to the amount of light you actually get. Someone here can post the link to the PVwatts.com or JCR Solar Uber-Sun-Hours calculator sites to help figure out how much you'll have to work with. That will be a box in the Power Audit form.

2: Parts list: You don't need a make & model list, just a parts list to start from for reference. You'll need an inverter, a MPPT charge controller, fuses, shunt, buck converter, batteries, wire, etc. Once you have a basic list it can be fine tuned to make & models after that. If you're looking at the All-In-Ones check for correct voltage outputs (120v or 240v Split Phase for North America, 220v Single Phase for European type areas) and make sure it has enough capacity for a little bit of growth and fudge factor.

3: Budget!: Steak is great but doesn't mean anything if your wallet says hamburger. Figure out what you're able to spend now vs what you'll have to cheap out on now and upgrade later.

4: Tape measure! Figure out where you're going to stick all the stuff you'll need. A dozen 3000AH batteries sounds great until you're sleeping on the floor because there's no room left for a bed. Is there a compartment that can house all this stuff? Will the server rack batteries fit? Are you going to have to make space? Physics can be pretty unforgiving.

5: Pencil out what you think you need and throw it at us so we can tell you what you've missed (because we ALL miss stuff the first go-round ) and help figure out which parts and pieces you're going to want to get.

 

[Rednecktek]

Oh, and make sure you have some sort of 12v bus so you can have USB chargers... for the iWatch.

 

[HRTKD]

i’m 57. Retired fire captain, not hurting for funds But my dad raised me to almost always do everything myself. I built houses and rebuilt engines. I’ve wired quite a few new construction homes. I am positive I have the tools and competence to do my own solar set up but i’m a bit too impatient to read all this stuff.

project 4. My 2007 toy hauler trailer, the lifeline AGM batteries I put on there pretty much suck, would like enough solar to comfortably charge a 4-600ah set up. I have no illusions about running the air conditioners, but I would like the heater to be able to run most of the night plus lights and water pump

We're similar ages. I'm not retired yet, but I might as well be since the contract I'm on isn't keeping me very busy.

The RV is where I can offer advice.

The roof of an RV is often a suboptimal place to put PV panels. There are so many objects on the roof that it can be hard to place panels. You want panels of the same size. Panels of different amp/volt specs don't play well together. Figure out what open space is available on the roof and that will dictate how much PV you can put up there.

I have 560 Ah of LiFePO4 batteries in my toy hauler. It's great for my trailer, but it's a bumper pull trailer, not a fifth wheel which has some high amp loads in the slides and leveling system.

You may be close enough to SanTan Solar to pickup panels directly from them. Shipping of panels gets expensive. I found a local source at CEDGreenTech.com to buy my new panels from and that worked out great for me. The catch with buying used panels is that the panels you buy today may never be available again. So if you want more and they need to go on the same string that's a problem.

 

[32 volt boater]

Its fun when people ask questions. I was a member of a boating forum for a wile (before I hopelessly forgot my password used temp e-mail to sign up) anyway it was fun to be the first person to post the right answer and show off my knowledge.

 

[rockwind1]

Its fun when people ask questions. I was a member of a boating forum for a wile (before I hopelessly forgot my password used temp e-mail to sign up) anyway it was fun to be the first person to post the right answer and show off my knowledge.

Hi, hey thanks for reviving my thread. It was some seriously bad timing In my life just as I was starting to do the solar stuff, I had three otherwise previously healthy parents get super sick, my 2 moms have died since then, May 15 and Fourth of July, but my dad is still barely hanging in there after a stroke in April. I basically had to shut down almost all Other activities in my life. But thanks again for redoing this thread, I have started doing some work in fact I just drill the well down in Arizona and I’m looking at doing a solar pump for it