Need some input, please.

[Sparkie220]

I bought some land and me and my wife and children are living in the RV as we start our homestead.

I want to start building my solar system but I want to build something I can grow into as I plan on building a house here soon.. so I want to us solar for the RV and later the house.

My plan is to build a shed and store the MPPT and the batteries and as well as a breaker box and build a receptacle for the RV.

We live in the Ozarks of Arkansas and get plenty of light. I have a family of 5

I would like to buy a bigger system and grow into it.

So should I get 48 volt system and if I do would the breaker box/receptacle set up work?

How would you build this out?

Thanks

 

[chrisski]

When I see a 48 volt system, a family of 5, a power shed, I think this build would want to provide up to 25 amps of 120 VAC power (3000 watt inverter) for 30 kWh a day, mostly to cover a single 15 K BTU AC drawing 1700 watts for up to 12 hours a day.

I see the cost of this being $25k, DIY.

If you are looking for considerably less power, this will be much cheaper..

In my signature block, you can look at the RV build part 1 and RV build part 2.

 

[BentleyJ]

If the system is going to grow into supplying the house then a 48V system for sure. To specifically answer your question about the breaker box/receptacle. Substitute the term load center. Any inverter that feeds multiple devices, appliances and receptacles is going to need a Load Center or some means of distributing power. A breaker box is a good choice, you simply treat the inverter as the main AC input then wire up the branch circuit breakers to whatever you need. The voltage of the battery feeding to the Inverter has nothing to do with how the AC output of the Inverter is configured.

Is this always going to be an off-grid system or will you have utility power later when the house is built? If so then grid-tied with NET metering is a possibility and this would require a UL1741SA compliant inverter rather than one of the Value Priced products discussed often on this forum.

Is the solar array going to be ground mount or on the shed then more panels on the house? Is best to make your wish list of system features and functionality then sketch the basic layout. You probably need an Inverter that is capable of "stacking" so you can add another one to increase output when expanding.

 

[12VoltInstalls]

think this build would want to provide up to 25 amps of 120 VAC power (3000 watt inverter) for 30 kWh a day, mostly to cover a single 15 K BTU AC drawing 1700 watts for up to 12 hours a day.

I see the cost of this being $25k, DIY.

If you are looking for considerably less power, this will be much cheaper..

I love wildhat guesses. They are often not that far off!

Drop the A/C and put a number on it?

\___|___/
Personally I think sometimes spending money to solve a situation short term in a less than two-year vision is acceptable- it’s salable later, and you can A) buy what you need then (and have everything up to date), and B) have a more refined vision of the end game to buy wisely.

so I want to us solar for the RV and later the house.

Build for the rv- optimize for your needs.

My plan is to build a shed and store the MPPT and the batteries and as well as a breaker box and build install a receptacle for the RV.

Will you be running A/C as Papa Neutrino mentioned above?

That’s a night and day difference in how you provision the system. No pun intended.

 

[Sparkie220]

Thanks for all the help.. I really appreciate it.

So, I have $3000.00 expendable cash right now to invest in to solar after this move but can invest more in the coming months.
With that said..... should invest in a 48 volt MTTP and some batteries and charge with my gas generator for now and spend and grow it in the coming months??

With your experience, how would you proceed with $3000.00?

 

[Sparkie220]

Sorry yes to the AC

 

[chrisski]

Honestly with that amount of money, I would ditch the 48 volt idea and build Will's 400 watt 12 volt plan:

RV Solar Power Blue Prints

Building a vehicle mounted solar power system? Let me help.

www.mobile-solarpower.com

The $2339 build with Lithium price is probably a few years old, so I'd put it at closer to the full $3k you have allotted. You'd have to try very hard to get something that is upgradeable in that package. When upgrading to 48 volts for some serious power for a family of 5, there are quite a bit in there to replace, basically everything in this picture (don't think anything except the wire is rated for a 48 volt system):

If you buy lithiums, you might be able to reuse those. About 25% of the value of the project.

EDIT: Unless you are really remote, for any real power the cheapest thing to do is run power lines.

 

[Bvillebob]

Frankly your budget will let your run your lights and a fridge. I built out a system that will (barely) run my house, with NO A/C in the last two years. I did all the work myself, built my own batteries and racking for my panels, bought used panels, saved every penny I could and I figure I have about $15,000 in it.

You should watch Craigslist and FB marketplace for used panels and try to pick up 2-3KW of panels locally, used, so you don't have to pay freight. A decent all in one unit will run you about another $1,000 and spend the rest on batteries.

On the other hand, chances are none of that will be reusable in your ultimate system.

 

[12VoltInstalls]

with that amount of money, I would ditch the 48 volt idea and build Will's 400 watt 12 volt plan:

That’s wise advice.

To build on that thought, for similar $$ with exploration around you could probably do 1000W of solar panels. I’m pretty sure I could duplicate my 800W basic split array system with lithium batteries and be in that dollar range.
So you can do this. Scaling it up later with components isn’t bank breaking either