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diy solar

Need help with cabin electrics

Nixmac

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Joined
Feb 10, 2020
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I have a small cabin on the northern CA coast that has intermittent power from the utility. I have looked at Will's videos on Growatt systems and it looks like what I might need. But need some help confirming this. When utility power goes down, I want to be sure, mainly that the fridge/ freezer has power. We are not there at times when the power quits. It would be nice to power a few other things like lights at those times as well. As I understand it, the Growatt units have a transfer switch that will switch between utility, solar and battery. I am thinking of using 2 100 watt lithium batteries with the system and having them charged by the utility or solar ( 2-100 watt panels) controlled by the transfer switch. Am I on the right track here? And what Growatt units would work for my needs?Thanks for the help in advance.
 
You are on the right track, but you really should do a energy audit to decide what you need for batteries and solar.

 
Doable, though with the supplies you are talking about, totally inadequate. I would recommend at least 1000W of panels with at least a 250Ah 24V battery. Assuming you're using a golf-cart style battery and you get 50% of capacity, that works out to be 125Ah X 24V = 3000Wh of power.

At my own cabin, on days I'm not there, the base useage with the refrigerator, and appliances left on, I use about 1.5kWh of power. That would give you two days of autonomy in rainy weather.

If you want to utilize a hybrid inverter that can connect to both the grid and a battery backup, I'd look at Schneider, which I myself am using (fully off-grid).
 
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