Off grid in the middle of no where, so hello!

[wkyongae]

Just found your site and I find it very informative. A little about ourselves. We live 30 minute drive back dirt trails from a main highway. Cattle country is the norm all around us. We own 20 acres, fenced off from the cattle.
Our solar system
Altesolar turn key Tiny House Base Kit 3
We went with this kit because we knew very little about solar.
6 Paimer 310watt panels 3s2p configuration into a combiner box.
Outback flex 80 charge controller
4024 Samlex inverter
Midnight solar epanel
8 305p 336ah Trojan flooded batteries 4s2p configuration after a year of using I've learned too small of a battery bank.
We have produced as much as we can use.
Daily
Large refrigerator, large freezer, small freezer, and barn lights.
Nightly
Nothing we run our little 2000watt generator for an hour or 2 and shut the system off.
Morning
Turn generator on at 4am to run barn lights and since it's on run the 3 appliances. Until sun comes up and we can switch to solar.
What we raise
Quail, guineas, and pheasants.

 

[John Frum]

Welcome.
Your farm sounds like a nice place to be.

 

[wkyongae]

It is once you get to it. We see deer, elk, grouse, quail, badgers, foxes and coyotes. Pocket gophers, mice and pack rats and chipmunks. Makes gardening fun and entertaining.

 

[wkyongae]

Thought I would add the rest of our system.
Well 117 feet powered by RPS 400watts on a pole mount. Works great!

 

[Koldsimer]

Post some pictures if you get a chance. Sounds like a cool place with lots of wildlife.

 

[Don B. Cilly]

Sell some birds, get some LFP batteries, and live happily ;·)
-

 

[wkyongae]

LFP batteries is on the list once these batteries go bad. Not in any hurry as LFP batteries are getting cheaper every day. I especially like the new LFP all in one systems. Ecoflow seems really nice with the extra battery pack. Or I'll just go with one of the new LFP battery packs that are easy to expand.

 

[Don B. Cilly]

Those batteries are bad :·)
I mean, come on, switch everything off at night, turn the generator on at 4 AM... they might get cheaper, they might not, why not live happy now?
Also, you might even resell those batteries if they're not EOL.

You have plenty of PV - depending on your location, obviously, not much in the way of loads...

I live in the middle of nowhere too. I have 5kW of LFP (24V), 1kW of PV, fridge, power tools, breadmaker, washing machine (yeah, well, I do cold cycles ;·)... last time I turned the generator on was (months ago) when it rained for a week.
-

 

[wkyongae]

Alright, right now we have a 24/7 load of 300watts on the inverter. That we cannot turn off. Just for the next 3 months. Then we drop to zero load from 9pm to 5am.

 

[Zwy]

LFP batteries is on the list once these batteries go bad. Not in any hurry as LFP batteries are getting cheaper every day. I especially like the new LFP all in one systems. Ecoflow seems really nice with the extra battery pack. Or I'll just go with one of the new LFP battery packs that are easy to expand.

I'm not certain prices will continue to drop due to the recent increase in crude prices plus that inflation is not under control here. My suggestion is to buy what you will need now including additional panels and work on getting everything installed.

Distortions are occurring in the futures markets for metals (just look at nickel, 250% in two days) and all commodities. This hasn't trickled down to the end product yet as futures are what every manufacturer will pay in the future for a commodity.

If crude and natural gas stay high, which I think they will until we are deep into a recession or even a depression (too much debt out there), everyone will want to buy alternative energy for their home/shelter. Demand for batteries will increase from here on out. I see my electric bill came yesterday, if I compute the increase in $ per Kwh, it was an 18% increase. I've been hearing people talk about their electric bills the last few months and how some have seen quite an increase. For your system, even the generator cost will be increasing due to the increase in fuel to run it.

If you have the money or can borrow it at cheap interest way below the rate of inflation, it might be wise to purchase now.

 

[Zwy]

One more thing, do you take visitors?

 

[12VoltInstalls]

Those batteries are bad :·)
I mean, come on, switch everything off at night, turn the generator on at 4 AM

I think something is wrong. I know one person - actually two now that I think about it- who’ve been on solar 20+ years with similar Ah without issues of going overnight. Then again 300W continuous is a pretty good drain for the batteries.

 

[wkyongae]

I try to never drain my lead acid batteries below 80%. They'll last longer and my little generator can't push the amps if I drain too low. My daughter has a 1500watt Jackery and she pulled it down to 10%. I was on generator the next morning and didn't know she was charging it. I had to quickly shed load to save gas after a few hour her solar generator wasn't pulling much so I could turn everything back on. I was surprised at the amps that little unit pulled. That's the downside nobody really talks about when you need to charge a large battery bank on generator.
Now to compare generator/gas usage to cost of larger battery bank. I can buy gas cheaper. My little 2000 watt generator with a 300 watt load can run for 15 hours without a problem using maybe a gal. of gas.
Our daughter has been our only visitor never really thought about it. Our greatest thing to do is stargazing and looking at wildlife besides our own livestock.

 

[Zwy]

Now to compare generator/gas usage to cost of larger battery bank. I can buy gas cheaper. My little 2000 watt generator with a 300 watt load can run for 15 hours without a problem using maybe a gal. of gas.

If so, at $4/gal gas, that's $0.0008 per watt, $0.88 per Kwh. $4.00 divided by 4500w x 1000

That's not cheap plus it is a recurring cost, plus the cost of maintenance on the generator, oil changes, spark plugs, air filters. And eventually replacement of the unit. If you take that cost times 365 days times 10 years, it comes to $3,212. And that is with $4/gal gas which it may not remain that low.


Missed the 4S so system is 24V. It appears you are using 20% of the bank for a total of 3200W. Still, addition of LFP would be beneficial as payback is less than 3 to 4 years compared to generator power.

Our daughter has been our only visitor never really thought about it. Our greatest thing to do is stargazing and looking at wildlife besides our own livestock.

I like heading to middle of nowhere with my truck camper. It would be great to stop by and talk solar.

 

[wkyongae]

Is your truck camper 4 wheel drive? If it is there is planty of places to camp here. We own 20 acres and there is over 1000 acrea of cattle grazing land that is not being used till June. And 500 acres of Department of Natural Resources land that they aren't aloud to graze on. I've hiked all over this land and just never get tired of hiking it. There is even ancient pit Indian ruins as well. The landscape was curved by glacier flooding.

 

[Zwy]

Is your truck camper 4 wheel drive? If it is there is planty of places to camp here. We own 20 acres and there is over 1000 acrea of cattle grazing land that is not being used till June. And 500 acres of Department of Natural Resources land that they aren't aloud to graze on. I've hiked all over this land and just never get tired of hiking it. There is even ancient pit Indian ruins as well. The landscape was curved by glacier flooding.

4 wheel drive, and I've been in some places that are pretty crazy. https://diysolarforum.com/threads/server-rack-batteries-in-an-rv.33249/post-410586

I'm heading somewhere this year for a few weeks. DM me your location and maybe I'll come visit.

 

[GLC]

OK, so my brain is not working very well this morning but, if you have this:8 305p 336ah Trojan flooded batteries 4s2p configuration after a year of using I've learned too small of a battery bank.
Each battery has 336 AH at 6 volts. This would be 2016 WH at 6 volts.
Flooded batteries you should not drain past 50% so now you have 1008 WH available at 6 volts.
You have 8 batteries which you would have 8064 WH at 6 volts.
You are running a 24 volt Inverter, so now you have 2016 WH at 24 volts.
300 watt draw will last only 6.72 hours?
I know its early but is this correct?

 

[12VoltInstalls]

is this correct

Watts don’t change with voltage

 

[GLC]

Watts don’t change with voltage

Like I said, I have brain fog. I understand Watts do not change with volts but Watt Hours possibly do?
If there is 8064 WH that can be pulled at 6 volt draw, would you not expel the WH faster if you are pulling 24 volts instead of 6 volts? Like I said my brain is not working well this morning.

 

[littleharbor2]

8.064 kwh usable. At 24 volts your current draw is 1/4 of what it would be at 6 volts.
I run my off grid home on 4.5 - 4.8 kwh a day 24/7/365.
300 watts for 12 hours is 3.6 kwh.
Sounds to me like your batteries are not well or you aren't producing enough power to recharge and run loads, or a combination of both.