New and looking to get a solar panel system

[VanW]

Hi, totally new in the world of solar power. Where I live (island by Honduras) electricity from the power company is around 44 USD cents a kwh.

I have a salesman that came around offering our business a solar power system.

The first option he provided was I believe is called a grid tie system. It would only supply solar power if the utility company power is on (it goes off a lot) and I don't THINK had any kind of battery option. (can't afford them currently anyway). We use about 10,000 kwh in our busiest month.

I've been doing a little research and think maybe I should be looking at getting hybrid inverters instead.

I don't want to buy batteries now in the beginning but would like the option of adding them in the future as we save money using the solar panel system.

I would also like to be able to use the power from my solar panels (during the day) if the utility company is off. I'm not 100 percent sure this is possible with a hybrid inverter or not?

 

[rodrick]

If you have a lot of grid down time you want to go grid assist not grid tied but to make it work reliably a battery is needed some of the units are battery not required but for good performance I’d run a small battery at minimum to start with and then start saving for a larger bank there are many entry level aio units that will work for this at reasonable prices check out growatt, mpp, sungold to name a few these are middle of the road cost vrs performance

watch out for solar sales/install companies wanting to sell a grid tied system they are not always honest on actual costs and performance they are a lot like used car salesman

 

[VanW]

Honestly there is not a lot of downtime and we already have back up diesel generators. I just want to be able to use solar power during the day and as the system pays for itself in a couple years start adding batteries or at least have the option to so I don't have to keep paying the 44 cents a kwh.

The original grid tie system was 144 panels and 7 7.7kw sunnyboy inverters

They're quoting me 160 425 watt panels, 4 solis s6 11.4 kw hybrid inverters and a bunch of batteries (that I can't afford)

 

[Solarcabin Channel]

How many Kw are you using a day and month?

Are you running an air conditioner a lot?

An off grid system sized to cover some of your load might be better.

Do you have anough property getting good sunshine for a ground mount system?

 

[MisterSandals]

We use about 10,000 kwh in our busiest month.

10,000kWh / 30 days = 333kWh per day

Since its a business, lets say a 12h day (a guess): 333kWh / 12h = 27kW all day!
Or steady 24h power consumption: 333kWh /24 = 14kW continuously around the clock

Assuming 5 quality solar hours:
333kWh / 5h = 66,000W of solar panels

 

[Crowz]

Hi, totally new in the world of solar power. Where I live (island by Honduras) electricity from the power company is around 44 USD cents a kwh.

I have a salesman that came around offering our business a solar power system.

The first option he provided was I believe is called a grid tie system. It would only supply solar power if the utility company power is on (it goes off a lot) and I don't THINK had any kind of battery option. (can't afford them currently anyway). We use about 10,000 kwh in our busiest month.

I've been doing a little research and think maybe I should be looking at getting hybrid inverters instead.

I don't want to buy batteries now in the beginning but would like the option of adding them in the future as we save money using the solar panel system.

I would also like to be able to use the power from my solar panels (during the day) if the utility company is off. I'm not 100 percent sure this is possible with a hybrid inverter or not?

I have a sungold tp6048 split phase hybrid inverter. Its at a very good price point especially for 6kw output. I'm not familiar with the power setup for where you live but if you have 120volt outlets and 240 volt outlets its split phase so this will work great if that is how your setup.

The tp6048 will run without power if you have enough solar panels to provide power in an outage. I ran without batteries for months on the hybrid part where it used the grid for whatever the panels couldn't make and during power outages in the daytime it ran everything fine except when the clouds cut output to low.

Once you add batteries it can be used to provide power from the battery during outages when the panels are not providing enough power or at night.

It can also be set to run on the batteries all the time using solar or the grid to charge them.

The tp6048 can be run in parallel with other tp6048's to produce up to 54kw at one time and can surge up to 162kw for 3 seconds.

Good unit.

 

[Crowz]

10,000kWh / 30 days = 333kWh per day

Since its a business, lets say a 12h day (a guess): 333kWh / 12h = 27kW all day!
Or steady 24h power consumption: 333kWh /24 = 14kW continuously around the clock

Assuming 5 quality solar hours:
333kWh / 5h = 66,000W of solar panels

Nuclear might be the better choice with those numbers

 

[VanW]

Those numbers are 24 hours. Think we have more like 6 hours direct sunlight. I'm not overly concerned with power during the night at this point but do want an option of upgrading the system in the future.

 

[VanW]

Also it would be divided up something like 5/8 day time usage and 3/8 night time.

 

[MisterSandals]

Also it would be divided up something like 5/8 day time usage and 3/8 night time.

So if you intended the night time to be stored in batteries (charged by solar):

333kWh x (3/8) = 125kWh of batteries

125000Wh / 48V = 2600Ah

Just off hand, i think Tesla batteries are about $10,000 for 10kWh. Going that route, you're looking at about $125,000 just for batteries for each night.