Thanks For the input!! Yes, I now realize as I get further along on my audit that an all in one package will probably not work for for our needs, at least not one I have found yet. Just curious, is there a specific reason you went with a 24v system?
Need Advise
- Thread starter Tuckles
- Start date
MrM1
I'm Here, But I'm Not All There
For me it really came down to Stupidity. I knew it, but my brain did not compute it. At the time, Even though I knew better, I wanted the largest battery bank I could possibly afford (which was Lead Acid 3 years ago). All I could see was 435ah Trojan L16s. 24v was x4 and 48v was x8 ... but what I knew, but did not compute in my rush to get the system operational ... I could have have gotten 8 225ah Trojan T105s FOR LESS $ than 4 435ah L16s and had about the SAME Amp Hour. 24x435=10440w and 48x220=10800. My local battery store sells T105s for less than $100 cash all day long (I just bought 4 last spring for $92 each cash).
If I could do it all again, I would go 48 in a heart beat. The Schneider Conext SW 4048 would have only been about $100 more than the SW 4024, I could have doubled my solar array size on my one MidNite Classic 150 Charge Controller (at least to 4000w - I now have 2526w) and I could have used smaller wire.
Live and Learn.
But if you have the coin. I find the Schneider SW and XW series to be very nice ~ probably the lowest price unit in its class. They are both rated UL 1741 so they are fit for in home install. And I think the SW (which I have) is a high frequency inverter, BUT .... it has a huge transformer inside, the unit weighs 77lbs and most of that is the transformer. So it starts motors without a blink.
You can see my full system build in my signature link.
(If you are on a phone you might no be able to see signatures on the Mobile page. I know on an android I cannot. I only see sigs using a PC on a web browser)
MrM1
I'm Here, But I'm Not All There
BTW, I am in the process of building up two 8s 272ah LifePo4 packs to put in parallel for the system. These will give me about 3 days of total black out (and about twice the usable watt hours of my original L16 bank)... based on my energy audit from a few years ago. We do not use much power per day. Only about 3500watts (excluding AC/Heat and Dryer). So a 4k inverter is fine for our needs.