Planning whole home solar and battery setup. Two panels?

[Takagati]

I'm looking to move over.
I've been eyeballing the lv6548.

I know I can pair them and get split phase along with 240.

But I'm also aware that balancing l1 and l2 can be a pain.

Seeing as how our heat is electric (80amp) 60amp hot tub. Electric furnace.
All 240.

But a majority of the house is 120.

Would it be smart to have two setups?
A pair of the 6548 in parallel, running to a single phase panel, redirect all my 120 wiring to that?

This avoids balancing issues etc.
And would be step one of the upgrade process.

Than later on down the road figure out what I need for my 240 sources and do a separate panel and 6548 combo for the 240 devices?

Am I over complicating this or is this a good plan?

It also allows me to move the high draw back to grid as needed.

Love some input, thanks

 

[FilterGuy]

It seems to me that you are over-complicating it. The only reason you will need to balance it is to make sure one of the inverters does not get over-loaded. I would do an energy audit that lists all of the loads and then eyeball it for all the things that might be on at the same time.... and do your best at selecting what load goes on each phase to balance it. It won't be perfect, but unless your load is nearly maxing out the inverters, it is probably going to be good enough.

Seeing as how our heat is electric (80amp) 60amp hot tub. Electric furnace.

That is a lot of power.... I am guessing it is electric Hot Water too. Have you done an audit to figure out what you are going to need for solar and storage?

System Energy Audit and Sizing Spread Sheet

To get the spreadsheet, click on the orange button at the top of this page. This sheet is intended to help you plan your system. Fill it out down to the last decimal place, look at the results..... and then make your best guess;) Notes...

diysolarforum.com

 

[FilterGuy]

BTW: You may want to consider solar water heater to supliment the hot tub heating. The solar can heat it up during the day so you don't have to use much power at night to get it to temp. You could also use the system to supplement your Hot Water heating.

 

[Takagati]

BTW: You may want to consider solar water heater to supliment the hot tub heating. The solar can heat it up during the day so you don't have to use much power at night to get it to temp. You could also use the system to supplement your Hot Water heating.

Thought of that. I have something else in the works that will help with heat, water and tub.
We use a lot, so at this point I'm just going for "slam as many panels as I can fit" method of attack for round one.

As I learn more about these mppt things. It would seem theyre not allowed in canada as grid tie.

 

[FilterGuy]

We use a lot, so at this point I'm just going for "slam as many panels as I can fit" method of attack for round one.

I would still recommend doing an energy audit. It will give you a much better understanding of what it is going to take to power the house and how to size your system. It will also give you a good understanding about where energy conservation efforts will pay off the most.

 

[Ironman]

I'm looking to move over.
I've been eyeballing the lv6548.

I know I can pair them and get split phase along with 240.

But I'm also aware that balancing l1 and l2 can be a pain.

Seeing as how our heat is electric (80amp) 60amp hot tub. Electric furnace.
All 240.

But a majority of the house is 120.
Would it be smart to have two setups?

A pair of the 6548 in parallel, running to a single phase panel, redirect all my 120 wiring to that?
This avoids balancing issues etc.
And would be step one of the upgrade process.
Than later on down the road figure out what I need for my 240 sources and do a separate panel and 6548 combo for the 240 devices?
Am I over complicating this or is this a good plan?
It also allows me to move the high draw back to grid as needed.

Love some input, thanks

If you went and got a large low frequency transformer based inverter you would be set for your load balance issues. It seems to me you can't wean off the bottle with your power consumption. I suggest you do an audit, it will surprise and maybe shock you.
Then once you realize what you wasting, and decide what is necessary consumption in your life, go rent a generator of the size dictated by your reduced consumption gleaned from your Audit .
Live for a 2 week summer period on the generator to verify what you have learned. You may find the generator idling or maxed out after a week.
I know y'all love grid tie, batteries are expensive, generator fuel is cheap. If you want to live withing your means, live lightly on the earth, blah blah and such, well, Grid tie enables you to live beyond your means (of production) and going solar should be about reduce, reuse, recycle as much as is practical.
If it were me, I would trash the electric heat. A reversible AC that can provide heat would be my choice and the choice of every hotel chain I ever stayed in.
Personally I love wood heat and don't live near greenies offended by the smoke. As I am a mid 70's patriarch, I now heat with a wonderful product from oil wells called propane. cheap and I love it

 

[jasonhc73]

If you think one leg will have more than 6500 watts, then use four LV6548's! ?

I regularly see one leg pull about 2/3 of the load, once in a while even as much as 5/6th of the total load.

I stick the ammeter on the wire and watch the N flow reverse. It's no big deal, everything is happy.

The internal bus transfers/shares energy regularly.

This is what happens when I run a 12" Dewalt saw;

 

[Takagati]

If you went and got a large low frequency transformer based inverter you would be set for your load balance issues. It seems to me you can't wean off the bottle with your power consumption. I suggest you do an audit, it will surprise and maybe shock you.
Then once you realize what you wasting, and decide what is necessary consumption in your life, go rent a generator of the size dictated by your reduced consumption gleaned from your Audit .
Live for a 2 week summer period on the generator to verify what you have learned. You may find the generator idling or maxed out after a week.
I know y'all love grid tie, batteries are expensive, generator fuel is cheap. If you want to live withing your means, live lightly on the earth, blah blah and such, well, Grid tie enables you to live beyond your means (of production) and going solar should be about reduce, reuse, recycle as much as is practical.
If it were me, I would trash the electric heat. A reversible AC that can provide heat would be my choice and the choice of every hotel chain I ever stayed in.
Personally I love wood heat and don't live near greenies offended by the smoke. As I am a mid 70's patriarch, I now heat with a wonderful product from oil wells called propane. cheap and I love it

Sorry, we will use what we use,
I live in the coldest climate you can expect, and switching to wood heat or something simply isn't an option.
I'm not looking to conserve, simply spleen what I can. We also have some of the cheapest power in north America.

No audit needed, but thanks