diy solar

diy solar

Main reason for going solar even though I do it for fun

Russ

Russ

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Joined
Oct 1, 2019
Messages
184
I am connecting a sub panel to my house mainly because my main breaker box is full. It will also make it easier to work with while expanding. I plan on moving a 15 amp circuit to it one at a time and see what and how long it will run. A bed room does not consume that much power for example at least at my house and none during the day. No ac, heat, dryer etc.. WIll not really get close to the 200 amp max of the panel

Now here is the big reason for doing this a circuit at a time:
THE WIFE
When I installed LED lights everywhere our power bill dropped about 30.00 to 50.00 a month.
If I can show her one room at a time is being powered by solar and not the grid she gets a visual.
When the power bill comes she will get a visual eventually of a drop in the power bill.
She pays the power bill !!!!!!!!!!!!
Although she does know how much the solar equipment cost.

Any input on a better way to incrementally add a circuit at a time or anything else I would appreciate
 
Hollo Russ,

This is my first post. I felt that your scenario is slightly familiar with mine. In my case, I live alone and I want to go solar to learn about it and because I always dreamed of going solar as a kid.

I live in a 9th (which is the top floor by the way) and the best approach I could think of was making a separate circuit that would go off-grid. I finished the circuit recently and this is what I did:
My apartment had two circuits already, one for the kitchen power sockets and another circuit for everything else.
I ran a new pair of wires and added two sockets in the living room, one in the main bedroom and hooked up the existing socket in the bathroom.
I hooked up the new circuit and the kitchen socket's circuit to the grid.
So, vacuum cleaner, hair drier and A/C use the newer circuit (that is on-grid).
All remaining sockets and all lights shall go to the inverter.

Depending on the amount of work you're willing to do, you might do something similar like wiring new circuits for things you're not planning to feed with solar. Depending on the amount of appliances or sockets, it might be easier this way or the other way around?

Please take into consideration that I'm extremely new to solar, in fact I'm going to use an online UPS (that I already had) as the inverter to save money since technology is super expensive where I live.

Best regards
P.D.: I know my english is not very good, sorry about that!
 
Russ I think your approach is a good one what I did was move my unattached garage to its own panel that way Im not messing with anything important. Once I get this worked out im thinking of adding a new panel to the house and slowly attaching low draw circuits to that panel. I dont think its worth moving things like the dryer but who knows maybe some day. My wife approved goal is to get our current power usage below the average for our area.
 
Good reason do this. I have to do the same just because the washer and dryer consume a lot of electricity. My husband wants to connect a few panels on our roof to increase power. But in my opinion the best solution - its replace washer and dryer. I find a useful article https://websolarguide.com/solar-powered-washer-and-dryer/ about it.
 
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Russ said:
I am connecting a sub panel to my house mainly because my main breaker box is full. It will also make it easier to work with while expanding. I plan on moving a 15 amp circuit to it one at a time and see what and how long it will run. A bed room does not consume that much power for example at least at my house and none during the day. No ac, heat, dryer etc.. WIll not really get close to the 200 amp max of the panel

Now here is the big reason for doing this a circuit at a time:
THE WIFE
When I installed LED lights everywhere our power bill dropped about 30.00 to 50.00 a month.
If I can show her one room at a time is being powered by solar and not the grid she gets a visual.
When the power bill comes she will get a visual eventually of a drop in the power bill.
She pays the power bill !!!!!!!!!!!!
Although she does know how much the solar equipment cost.

Any input on a better way to incrementally add a circuit at a time or anything else I would appreciate
Click to expand...
I have installed transfer switches which allow for a circuit by circuit disconnection from street power over to generator power. Instead of having a generator as the input to your transfer switch, you can feed it with your 110 VAC or 220 VAC solar inverter, thusly, impressing the wife even more!reliance-controls-transfer-switches-a510c-64_1000.jpg
 
I installed a solar clothes dryer... many years ago - works flawlessly and cheap, additional perk is the clothes smell fresher.

It is sometimes referred to as a clothesline!
 
Kilowatt said:
I installed a solar clothes dryer... many years ago - works flawlessly and cheap, additional perk is the clothes smell fresher.

It is sometimes referred to as a clothesline!
Click to expand...
I have one of those too!
 
WoodsieLord said:
Hollo Russ,

This is my first post. I felt that your scenario is slightly familiar with mine. In my case, I live alone and I want to go solar to learn about it and because I always dreamed of going solar as a kid.

I live in a 9th (which is the top floor by the way) and the best approach I could think of was making a separate circuit that would go off-grid. I finished the circuit recently and this is what I did:
My apartment had two circuits already, one for the kitchen power sockets and another circuit for everything else.
I ran a new pair of wires and added two sockets in the living room, one in the main bedroom and hooked up the existing socket in the bathroom.
I hooked up the new circuit and the kitchen socket's circuit to the grid.
So, vacuum cleaner, hair drier and A/C use the newer circuit (that is on-grid).
All remaining sockets and all lights shall go to the inverter.

Depending on the amount of work you're willing to do, you might do something similar like wiring new circuits for things you're not planning to feed with solar. Depending on the amount of appliances or sockets, it might be easier this way or the other way around?

Please take into consideration that I'm extremely new to solar, in fact I'm going to use an online UPS (that I already had) as the inverter to save money since technology is super expensive where I live.

Best regards
P.D.: I know my english is not very good, sorry about that!
Click to expand...
Your English is fine
 
Treysi said:
Good reason do this. I have to do the same just because the washer and dryer consume a lot of electricity. My husband wants to connect a few panels on our roof to increase power. But in my opinion the best solution - its replace washer and dryer.
Click to expand...
I have never heard of a Solar clothes dryer. Where do you get one and how much are they?
 
offgriddle said:
I have installed transfer switches which allow for a circuit by circuit disconnection from street power over to generator power. Instead of having a generator as the input to your transfer switch, you can feed it with your 110 VAC or 220 VAC solar inverter, thusly, impressing the wife even more!View attachment 865
Click to expand...
Good idea I have never used one. I have a auto transfer switch for when solar power is low. Does this auto transfer also?
Is that a Reliance switch
 
Two solar cells charge a 100Ah 24V battery that runs a 1000 watt inverter . That feeds to 2 power points in the laundry and I plug in what I want to run one at a time by extension cord or a few things together . Not using the house wiring at all . Rot proof timber frame with 7mm villa board (cement fibre) over . So 2 layers on the back . Slatted floor for cooling
IMG_20191008_134328.jpgIMG_20191008_134316.jpgIMG_20191008_134258.jpgIMG_20191008_134238.jpg
 
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Treysi said:
Good reason do this. I have to do the same just because the washer and dryer consume a lot of electricity. My husband wants to connect a few panels on our roof to increase power. But in my opinion the best solution - its replace washer and dryer.
Click to expand...
Guess who wants a new washer and dryer for christmas!
 
b.james said:
The posts are getting pretty trying ,moving off topic and being a moderator perhaps should not be as spurious huh?
Click to expand...
Hate to step in... but folks won't defend themselves because it can escalate and get even more off-topic (sorry Russ) and yet if you don't address it the problem persists. Moderators are people too, just because someone volunteers to keep the forums civil doesn't mean they should be excluded from being social. It also means you shouldn't give what they say any more weight than anyone else.

As to being off-track, ... the topic as I read it is a better way to incrementally add a circuit at a time or anything else I would appreciate" So Kudos to @offgriddle for being the only person to be on-topic with the first part. I can also chime in with Smart Panels & Sockets.

So what about all the other posts being off-topic such as people introducing themselves, expressing their interest or even things like:
b.james said:
Guess who wants a new washer and dryer for christmas!
Click to expand...

Are those all bad? Depends on how frustrated Russ is with it, but since he added in the "or anything else" I believe the clothesline cleanly falls into that, the obvious is often over looked - although I don't see that as ever being wife approved. As to people being social and introducing themselves or expressing similar problems - I think that's all fair game. Forums are meant to be social otherwise moderators would be instructed to delete all off-topic posts; no one wants that sort of censorship. It even serves a purpose for Russ in that it keeps the thread floating to the top where more people can see it.

DO NOT REPLY TO this post. If anyone want's to discuss it further please post in Threads going Off Topic so this thread isn't further derailed. Okay... I'm off the soap box, really sorry Russ!
 
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It is a manual switch, but you can set it up for automatic configuration if your inverter supports pass-through and has an ATS.

Capture.PNG​

So the trick is to leave the switch in the generator position.

Here's how it works. When the grid is up power goes to the inverter and it is passed through to the circuit switch. So, circuit A is live as the switch is in the generator position.

When the grid goes out, the inverter kicks in and provides power to circuit A. The only time you need to use the circuit switch is to purposefully turn off circuit A. Keep in mind that turning A off at the load center does NOT turn power off to A anymore - you must use the circuit switch.
If (or more like when) the inverter dies, you need the circuit switch to reroute circuit A to have power.
 
svetz said:
It is a manual switch, but you can set it up for automatic configuration if your inverter supports pass-through and has an ATS.


So the trick is to leave the switch in the generator position.

Here's how it works. When the grid is up power goes to the inverter and it is passed through to the circuit switch. So, circuit A is live as the switch is in the generator position.

When the grid goes out, the inverter kicks in and provides power to circuit A. The only time you need to use the circuit switch is to purposefully turn off circuit A. Keep in mind that turning A off at the load center does NOT turn power off to A anymore - you must use the circuit switch.
If (or more like when) the inverter dies, you need the circuit switch to reroute circuit A to have power.
Click to expand...
Wow, thank you Svetz I will come back and look at this diagram a little later after chores.
 
I have gotten my little system to work starting with a 15 amp circuit. Now about to put the Auto Transfer switch and it is the same one Will put had in his video. It is the Blue colored MOES 50 amp 5500 watt ATS. In the video I don't think he said what the output went to or zoomed past it but I could be wrong though. On the left of the unit you have the grid or public power and in the middle is the output and the inverter plugs into the far right connection. What does the Output connection connect to? In my case using a sub panel ?
I just don't want to take any chances.

So that the ATS switch will use solar by default I want to plug solar into the public power connection and the public power into the inverter connection. My power never goes out. So when the battery charge drops to a certain voltage it will switch back to power until the battery is charged again back. Will this work?

I think I am starting to like the Reliance transfer switch. Especially since I saw SVETZ wiring diagram. He did a great job on the illustration. It is a pain in the butt wiring a circuit into the sub panel and the main panel is full.
My inverter is a Pure Sine Wave PS 1004. Does it support Pass-Through that you mentioned?
 
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Was I suppose to open a new thread and not post to it anymore?
I may have made a mistake since you did say it was closed. Should I move it?
 
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