We are a retired couple settling in to a home we bought two years ago. We have grid power and don't intend to disconnect it. We worry about power outages and increased costs in the future. Our metal roof has a good southern exposure, but probably not enough area to power our home completely. We received a quote for a complete system from a local company, but probably won't live long enough to pay it off and they said it couldn't provide full power for us. So, now we're thinking of a partial, DIY system that could keep the A/C and refrigeration going during high heat conditions and/or during power failures. We also want expansion capability as technologies improve. So, now we're thinking of a small-scale project to power part of our home. We have a separate structure that would be well suited for this purpose.
Newbies Wondering Where to Begin
- Thread starter BigBlonde
- Start date
Go to the Resources section of this forum and read about how to put together and Energy Audit and then present that here. Until you do that, no one knows which appliances you plan to use, what their power draw is at what voltage and for how long you will use each and every appliance, light bulb, computer, modem, machine, too, anything using electricity that you want to use, (all called "Loads" as they load the power draw/current). Otherwise it's guess work and nearly impossible to give you advice. Look too at your electrical bill and it will tell you / us, how much power you use per month and list out every month and also consider if you want to match that exactly or how much energy conservation you are willing to do, that is, how much less electricity are you will to live with?
A/C or Air Conditioning, is potentially a HUGE power draw and would require either constant sunshine or a very large and expensive battery bank. Also define if it will be 120V or 240Volt Air Conditioning? As either will increase your inverter and battery requirements.
Seeing as you already got an estimate, perhaps you or they already did an energy audit of appliance and electrical use and can post that for comments? You also should provide a budget, or limit as to how much money you can spend now and or later.
Next, do a web search of this forum and YouTube for Will Prowse videos and LithiumSolar videos, both have done videos on DIY systems that should give a great introduction. They usually also tell you in their videos how much the DIY components cost,, which you can add up to price a sort of system.
Personally and as a retired/unemployed person, If I were already connected to the grid, it would be HIGHLY unlikely that grid prices would get so high to be more expensive than a DIY system for Air Conditioning which you'd have to pay 100% up front for, vs per use as with the grid. Otherwise, if you need a back up power source, buy a gasoline, propane or diesel generator for the occasional power outages and that will run Air Conditioning and refrigeration etc. during those short periods. The world has seen inflation before as well as depressions, so it's unlikely that over the long term, that the sky will fall and the electrical grid will become totally unaffordable. Too many religious dooms dayers out there fill heads with nonsense.
A/C or Air Conditioning, is potentially a HUGE power draw and would require either constant sunshine or a very large and expensive battery bank. Also define if it will be 120V or 240Volt Air Conditioning? As either will increase your inverter and battery requirements.
Seeing as you already got an estimate, perhaps you or they already did an energy audit of appliance and electrical use and can post that for comments? You also should provide a budget, or limit as to how much money you can spend now and or later.
Next, do a web search of this forum and YouTube for Will Prowse videos and LithiumSolar videos, both have done videos on DIY systems that should give a great introduction. They usually also tell you in their videos how much the DIY components cost,, which you can add up to price a sort of system.
Personally and as a retired/unemployed person, If I were already connected to the grid, it would be HIGHLY unlikely that grid prices would get so high to be more expensive than a DIY system for Air Conditioning which you'd have to pay 100% up front for, vs per use as with the grid. Otherwise, if you need a back up power source, buy a gasoline, propane or diesel generator for the occasional power outages and that will run Air Conditioning and refrigeration etc. during those short periods. The world has seen inflation before as well as depressions, so it's unlikely that over the long term, that the sky will fall and the electrical grid will become totally unaffordable. Too many religious dooms dayers out there fill heads with nonsense.
Rednecktek
Solar Wizard
Well, I'll start the default answer to these questions and we can work from there. Here's you To-Do list:
1: Power audit! This will give you some important information on how big your inverter needs to be as well as how much battery capacity you'll need. There is a link in the FAQ section (I think, or someone here will post it shortly) so fill in the blanks and see what it comes up with. You'll probably need some sort of Kill-A-Watt to get accurate measurements. Are you going to be running a 12v system? 24v system? 48v system? What are the specs on your solar panels? VoC? Vmp? Being as this is a new build, throw together a wish list of what you want and estimate on the high side.
1a: Where do you live? Speccing out a system for Scotland is a LOT different numbers than Arizona due to the amount of light you actually get. Someone here can post the link to the PVwatts.com or JCR Solar Uber-Sun-Hours calculator sites to help figure out how much you'll have to work with. That will be a box in the Power Audit form.
2: Parts list: You don't need a make & model list, just a parts list to start from for reference. You'll need an inverter, a MPPT charge controller, fuses, shunt, buck converter, batteries, wire, etc. Once you have a basic list it can be fine tuned to make & models after that. If you're looking at the All-In-Ones check for correct voltage outputs (120v or 240v Split Phase for North America, 220v Single Phase for European type areas) and make sure it has enough capacity for a little bit of growth and fudge factor.
3: Budget!: Steak is great but doesn't mean anything if your wallet says hamburger.
Figure out what you're able to spend now vs what you'll have to cheap out on now and upgrade later.
4: Tape measure! Figure out where you're going to stick all the stuff you'll need. A dozen 3000AH batteries sounds great until you're sleeping on the floor because there's no room left for a bed. Is there a compartment that can house all this stuff? Will the server rack batteries fit? Are you going to have to make space? Physics can be pretty unforgiving.
5: Pencil out what you think you need and throw it at us so we can tell you what you've missed (because we ALL miss stuff the first go-round ) and help figure out which parts and pieces you're going to want to get.
1: Power audit! This will give you some important information on how big your inverter needs to be as well as how much battery capacity you'll need. There is a link in the FAQ section (I think, or someone here will post it shortly) so fill in the blanks and see what it comes up with. You'll probably need some sort of Kill-A-Watt to get accurate measurements. Are you going to be running a 12v system? 24v system? 48v system? What are the specs on your solar panels? VoC? Vmp? Being as this is a new build, throw together a wish list of what you want and estimate on the high side.
1a: Where do you live? Speccing out a system for Scotland is a LOT different numbers than Arizona due to the amount of light you actually get. Someone here can post the link to the PVwatts.com or JCR Solar Uber-Sun-Hours calculator sites to help figure out how much you'll have to work with. That will be a box in the Power Audit form.
2: Parts list: You don't need a make & model list, just a parts list to start from for reference. You'll need an inverter, a MPPT charge controller, fuses, shunt, buck converter, batteries, wire, etc. Once you have a basic list it can be fine tuned to make & models after that. If you're looking at the All-In-Ones check for correct voltage outputs (120v or 240v Split Phase for North America, 220v Single Phase for European type areas) and make sure it has enough capacity for a little bit of growth and fudge factor.
3: Budget!: Steak is great but doesn't mean anything if your wallet says hamburger.
Figure out what you're able to spend now vs what you'll have to cheap out on now and upgrade later.4: Tape measure! Figure out where you're going to stick all the stuff you'll need. A dozen 3000AH batteries sounds great until you're sleeping on the floor because there's no room left for a bed. Is there a compartment that can house all this stuff? Will the server rack batteries fit? Are you going to have to make space? Physics can be pretty unforgiving.
5: Pencil out what you think you need and throw it at us so we can tell you what you've missed (because we ALL miss stuff the first go-round
) and help figure out which parts and pieces you're going to want to get.
