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i was looking at some solar and come across this one and i DONT know anything about solar but was wondering if something like this would work for a house ??

main question is .. this size of unit about how much could you run off it per day
 

i was looking at some solar and come across this one and i DONT know anything about solar but was wondering if something like this would work for a house ??

main question is .. this size of unit about how much could you run off it per day

Ahh - yeah -- I'm going to say at 2880 thats ALLOT ...

WHAT ARE YOU WANTING TO RUN???? You need to back into your requirements -- not the other way around
 

i was looking at some solar and come across this one and i DONT know anything about solar but was wondering if something like this would work for a house ??

main question is .. this size of unit about how much could you run off it per day

Also -- if you bought all these things individually the cost would come up to $5852 ... So you are literally paying someone $6000 to put the stuff in a box for you ...

And at that wattage I would not be using 200 ah deep cycle batteries ... and unless you are running allot of stuff at the same time in a home that power inverter is pretty much an overkill perhaps ...

so once again -- depending on what you are trying to power
 
ok i just asked a question ( LOST beginner ) and TRYING to learn things about solar not about a 6000 dollar box
so would have been better to say
it would be cheaper to buy each part individually and the batters i think would be best to use _____

and with 2880watts you can probably run a small town or something like that


thanks
 
8 x 200ah lead-acid seems like a lot, but it ain't !!!!
You don't want do discharge them too much for lifetime reason.
That give you max 50% available.
Lead acid ain't effective, every KW put in have 20% loss (heat) and during discharge also about 10%.
That leaves you 40%.

8*200ah*12v = (with numbers above)
Realistic 7500 watts for your "black out" period.
One winter night (short time daylight) is 14 hours on battery, and 10 hours to recharge + your own usage.

Modern panels are 330watt or more.
How much power do you use??

That keeps the main question.
And how many power do you want to continue to use for how long??

With current Lifepo4 prices, I never would buy lead acid again!!

Even here in Thailand with low price of $ 275 for one 12v @200Ah lead acid deep cycle...
Lifepo4 is cheaper and give (almost) full power without reducing lifetime.
Plus the lifetime is not 3 years, but 8-10 years.

And I agree..
Those parts..
You pay someone $6000 to put it in a box for you :)
 
and with 2880watts you can probably run a small town or something like that
2880w run a small town?

I'm not sure if you live in the USA?
(Average power usage 914kw per month, that is 1270 watt per hour.

The 2880w solar is max theoretical production.
On a normal day you are lucky to get 150w x 12 panel for 8 hours a day, is
14.400 watt for the whole day.
(Yes I know there are more hours of sunlight, but in the morning and afternoon the sun is less strong. This is easy calculation how much you realistic can get on a sunny day. Cloudy days give half, full clouds and rain... About nothing.

14.400watt

Normal USA use about 30kw a day.
On a sunny day, you make enough for half a day power.

If you talk only about led lights, yes then you can have a lot of light.
Even a small tiny town.. (during sunny daylight)

At night... Or with clouds, you want to use your power.
 
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For me..
My average power usage for a day is 20kw.
I live in sunny Thailand.
Off grid.
No backup line except what we make.
We have 27 X 300watt panels.
Most of the power is used during day
(Air-conditioning)
And now 32* 152Ah lifepo4.
(14 KW usable, max 16kw)

I think I need to expand that set to 456Ah. (21kw/24kw)

Why?

Even in sunny Thailand,we have rainy season.
And during rainy season, we produce 200 watts with our 27*330w panels.
I'm happy we even have that much!
That's during the rain.
Other hours we have more.

But, we need to have buffer.

All comes down to:
How much power do you use?
(Solar panels)
How long do you want to keep using power as you are used without grid?
(Battery)

For solar panels, devide power by 2 and count 10 hours if you live in sunny California.
Or less if you have less sunny hours.
Then you have realistic power.

Best to ask a person in your neighborhood who already have solar.
They are happy to share that information with you!
 
main things that would be running is a computer, 1 or 2 lights (LED) + outside light, refrigerator, fan or 2 and maybe a water pump when you turn on your water
and the battery's i was thinking about changing to lithium ion
i am trying to understand what all i would need to power my house in Arizona USA with solar
 
:)

I understand.
I'm not from the USA.
I don't know how hot or cold Arizona is.

In Netherlands, where I come from, average summer is 20-25 degrees Celsius.
Due to climate change we now often also see days above 40.

Thailand, rural Isaan... We have many days above 40.
And days above 38, I can't be outside too long. Make my brain boil... Lol
That why we have "crazy" high power requirements for off grid.
(Besides being a farm)

Reading from your requirements you have small home or RV.

Computer? Unless it's a heavy game rig, it doesn't use a lot.
Ventilator, depending on size.
Together 200w?
Pump, inside the house or a well pump?
(My 50m deep well pump is 2000w)
Refrigerator?
Depending on size, age, usage and room temperature!!

Refrigerator is the highest power consumption in an average household (I don't count air-conditioning)
You can place a "killawatt" (watt meter) to know it's real consumption.
 
So what I would recommend is first figure out exctly how much power you need use your energy bill and divide monthly usage by 30 to see how much you use per day. After that pretend you use 10kw per day. You would need to produce that much energy each day to sustain yourself. The sun usually shines on solar panels 5 hours a day as a rule of thumb. In AZ you will most likely get more than that. So you need about 2 kw of panels.

Then you need to process that with a Solar charge controller. If you use a 24 volt system you would need something that can produce 80 amps at 24 volts to use all the power generated by the panels. A midnight Classic 150 should accommodate that or a larger victron unit as well.

then you need an inverter or an inverter/charger Some of us here use Samlex Evo 24 volt 4000 watt inverters with success in running homes off grid.

lastly you need a battery to store the energy for night time. I would guess you need to store about 8kw in our scenario So you would need about a 350Ah 24 volt battery. If you have grid power you can get a smaller battery and use grid power to charge it at night and save some money.


So

8 300 watt panels santanSolar in arizona $1000.00
Midnight Classic 150 $800.00
Samlex evo $1800.00
Battery Diy Battery about $3000.00

complete system around $6500.00 rond numbers


Hoping this gives you ideas to ask more questions.
 
I largely agree with Craig, except the 8*300watt panels.

Even sunny Thailand didn't make 20kw with 18 X 330w panels (on average)
That's why I bought additional 9 panels.
Now I don't have a problem with production :)

Panels are relatively cheap, and if you have the space....
More is better.

It's not the days with many sun that you need to worry about, it is the days without.
And then... How long do the clouds usually stay?

In Netherlands that can be weeks..
In Thailand 2 or 3 days.

Even with 2 or 3 days (longer periods of rain, a day sunny and rain again) I noticed the battery array slowly reduce storage..
Till a level I didn't want (below 40% charge)
Adding more panels for me was easy
And good, as panels last + 25 years
 
Panels are here about $110 for 330watt 36v A grade panels. (Include transport, not mounting materials)
B grade even $ 95
 
fhorst and craig ... thanks that helps a LOT i will have to find out how much EACH thing uses and go from there ... i didn't know this and i am trying to learn what i need to get for solar
 
Panels are relatively cheap, and if you have the space....
More is better. <------------------------------------- can you hook more panels up to your system then what you really need ??
 
Fastest way might be the tip from Craig.
(If you are grid tied)
You pay monthly money to the electricity company.
That is based on your usage.
Most give insight in your "real time" usage (a few days delay)
But they should be able to inform you how much energy you used the last 12 months, and what was your peak power usage.

Unless you have mining farm that day... (E.g. there was not some special to have a crazy high peak)
It is good to use that as your power requirements.

It's always more easy to use more electricity then less...

On a hot day your refrigerator will use a lot more power then a cool day
(If your room where you have the refrigerator does not have air conditioning)
 
More is better. <------------------------------------- can you hook more panels up to your system then what you really need ??
Yes!!
That is the wonderful part of solar panels.
They do not have to give out there power production.

A generator does.
If it can not lose its generated power it will turn into heat and it will brake down.

Solar panels can have sun without any wire connected without any issues.

Your MPPT (more intelligent solar charger) will stop feeding power to the Battery when they are fully charged.

If you have a combination of inverter and MPPT, it can redirect it's production straight to the AC conversion.

But, same story, they "stop" when there is no power out.
Like you close a water tap.
The line doesn't burst.
(I know, there are more intelligent ways to explain, end of the line it comes down to the same)
 
Panels are relatively cheap, and if you have the space....
More is better. <------------------------------------- can you hook more panels up to your system then what you really need ??

Two things I recommend you do --

First you need to figure out what you need to power? And for how long. And are you powering different things at the same time or separately.

Second is look at some of the Beginners stuff here on the forum. There is some great reading material where 90% of your questions are going to be answered. Otherwise you are going to get VERY frustrated trying to figure out SCC, AWG, Fuses, cabling, 12/24/48 requirements, series vs Parallel, AGM/FLA/LFP, and the list goes on - and ON ...

Most of the time ppl will bend over backward here to help you design a great system - but after you have done some of your own research - which obviously you are trying to do - so at least you are heading in the right direction ...

Solar is a little wierd -- Theres not an exact way to do it right -- but there are 100 ways of doing it wrong
 
@ghostwriter66

"Solar is a little wierd -- Theres not an exact way to do it right -- but there are 100 ways of doing it wrong"

couldn't agree more!

trial and error..
you probably will see a few sparks now and then.
Connect to the battery will give you.

Just be careful and ALWAYS remember..
This is potentially deadly if you make bad mistake.
Same like driving a car
as long as you are educated and careful, not much can go wrong.

rubber protection (rubber soles of shoes, rubber mat or old tires.)
I have 4 layer rubber foil most use in their pond.(about 5mm)

As long as I don't have positive and negative at the same time, I won't have any issues.

for me, 48v@800ah.. (4*200Ah)
that is a big blast to get...

better safe then sorry.
 
So what I would recommend is first figure out exctly how much power you need use your energy bill and divide monthly usage by 30 to see how much you use per day. After that pretend you use 10kw per day. You would need to produce that much energy each day to sustain yourself. The sun usually shines on solar panels 5 hours a day as a rule of thumb. In AZ you will most likely get more than that. So you need about 2 kw of panels.

Then you need to process that with a Solar charge controller. If you use a 24 volt system you would need something that can produce 80 amps at 24 volts to use all the power generated by the panels. A midnight Classic 150 should accommodate that or a larger victron unit as well.

then you need an inverter or an inverter/charger Some of us here use Samlex Evo 24 volt 4000 watt inverters with success in running homes off grid.

lastly you need a battery to store the energy for night time. I would guess you need to store about 8kw in our scenario So you would need about a 350Ah 24 volt battery. If you have grid power you can get a smaller battery and use grid power to charge it at night and save some money.


So

8 300 watt panels santanSolar in arizona $1000.00
Midnight Classic 150 $800.00
Samlex evo $1800.00
Battery Diy Battery about $3000.00

complete system around $6500.00 rond numbers


Hoping this gives you ideas to ask more questions.
I agree with Craig - you really need to know how much power you use and if residential, it is against Arizona code not to be grid tied and therefore it is very hard to pass inspections with DIY for a home as permits are required. I also live in Arizona and while there is a lot of sun shine here, it also gets hot and solar is not as productive when it is hot. Check with APS or SRP for their solar plans. APS is much more accommodating. If you are doing something more hobbyist for something like a cabin or off grid shed, DIY is much more realistic. But knowing your average daily consumption with at least two days reserve power for the monsoon season, this is what you build your system from. Calculate calculate calculate, then build from that. Before you build anything, study watts volts and amps. Understand watt hours, understand 12, 24 and 48 volt battery banks, learn about battery chemistry and from there, building a system will be much more fun, reliable and successful.

keep us all posted on your progress.
 
well I got the 12v Renogy 400w solar kit that has a MPPT charge controller with 2000w inverter
going to be putting it in my camper.

TRYING to find some batteries is the hard part. was thinking 2 ..12v 100Ah Lithium Iron Phosphate but that comes out to about $1500+
and that is $1450 over my budget LOL

watched a lot of DIY Solar Power with Will Prowse video's and have learned a lot.
later I will be getting something bigger for my house but that's WAY down the road
 
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