Overkill shed solar

[Red Squirrel]

Years back I put 400w of solar panels on my shed, it was feeding a small battery and 350w inverter, and I always had the intention of upgrading that setup and mounting it on the wall so I can make it look decent, as it was just sitting on the ground.

So recently that's what I did. There is still work to be done as I want to run power to the house too, but it's more or less done now. I also have disconnects (using breakers as that was the easiest thing to find) to isolate different parts of the system such as solar power in, charge controller output, battery, and inverter.

I used to run a small ATV battery and now running 4 golf cart batteries as a 24v configuration. The solar panels are also setup as a 24v configuration.

I still want to add automation such as a low battery cut off that turns off circuits or even the whole inverter, and maybe stuff that can also be on a timer and/or only turn on when there is extra power. But for now it is done.

Pics here:

https://imgur.com/a/bJGHKQc

 

[Bob142]

Nice job with the shed! I also enjoyed the before and after hair pics. ?

 

[chrisski]

Very nice install job.

400 watts does not seem like a lot of panels for a 3000 watt inverter or 4 golf cart batteries, but you’ve had this running successfully for a while, so its actually a great match.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Yeah the 400w is kind of small but all I can really fit. I just have to remember that's all I have, so I don't feel comfortable constantly running the batteries down, as it will probably take a few days to fully charge. Though once I have power coming to the house it will be nice knowing I can handle running big loads for a short interval if I have to. Like microwave etc. I still need to test running big stuff like that though. Inverter has a 16 month warranty so I will want to put it through it's paces before then.

 

[Donlumber]

Years back I put 400w of solar panels on my shed, it was feeding a small battery and 350w inverter, and I always had the intention of upgrading that setup and mounting it on the wall so I can make it look decent, as it was just sitting on the ground.

So recently that's what I did. There is still work to be done as I want to run power to the house too, but it's more or less done now. I also have disconnects (using breakers as that was the easiest thing to find) to isolate different parts of the system such as solar power in, charge controller output, battery, and inverter.

I used to run a small ATV battery and now running 4 golf cart batteries as a 24v configuration. The solar panels are also setup as a 24v configuration.

I still want to add automation such as a low battery cut off that turns off circuits or even the whole inverter, and maybe stuff that can also be on a timer and/or only turn on when there is extra power. But for now it is done.

Pics here:

https://imgur.com/a/bJGHKQc

Nice and clean. good job!

 

[Red Squirrel]

Did some changes to the setup. Re-tilted the panels so that 1: snow has a better chance of coming off and 2: if it doesn't, I can at least see them from the ground, so it's easier to see what I'm doing with the long brush.

So far it seems snow is staying mostly off though. The main issue is freezing rain, as it then makes the snow stick to it, but when we had freezing rain it just drips right off before it turns to ice. So far so good!

I also switched the panels to all series, so getting a higher voltage going into the charge controller but still within it's limits. Had them in series/parallel before.

Pics here:

https://imgur.com/a/whuxsJP