elizabethii
New Member
- Joined
- Jun 3, 2022
- Messages
- 25
I feel like I made some generic beginners mistakes, and now I'm trying to figure out how to make the best of what I have. I'm seeking to build up an off-grid solar setup capable of powering a shed and an RV with 50-amp service. Now, from the get-go, I know that what I purchased isn't remotely enough to do that, but I had a phased plan in mind. The idea is to add more panel and battery as funds allow, but supplement with the charger built into the inverter. I'm in the low-30s latitude with roughly 4.5 hours of sun.
So, my shed consists of a 1-ton mini-split A/C and 200-ish watts of servers. The RV is used for full-timing, and it's hot, so when I'm not at work, the A/C is in use. I only use the electric water heater when it's time to shower. Otherwise, I turn it off. By my count, the shed is probably pulling 1500-ish watts when the A/C compressor is running, but I haven't measured it. No clue what the R/V pulls, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's 2,500+. I really need to get a meter capable of measuring the total load and KWh usage. My monthly usage is around 1500KWh at its peak in summer, so I'm estimating 50KWh usage per day.
Now for the mistakes. Without doing sufficient research, I purchased 1320 watts of Renogy panels at about $1 a watt. I was under the dated assumption that $1/watt was good. I also purchased 6 golf-cart batteries, a 48 volt Ampinvt split-phase 5000 watt inverter, 2 Outback FlexMax 80 charge controllers, and a 4-string combiner box. I feel like I was on the right track, but a lack of current research means I wasted money that could have been more effectively spent. It definitely seems like I was an idiot to spend a penny on lead-acid batteries when LifePo4 is superior in nearly every way.
So, after watching a bunch of youtube videos including Will's, I've been looking at Signature Solar's site for the 48v rack batteries. From my rough calculations, just to power the shed, 200ah should get me just enough to power it at least 90% from solar, but I don't have enough solar panel. I was looking at Signature Solar's solar panels, but I'm not sure about the value proposition. I know they're fairly reasonable, but I don't know if they have the best current deal or if another vendor has better prices. Since their minimum order on panels is 10 and the max voltage of the Outback controllers is 145 volts, I was figuring I'd pick up 12 of their 445 watt panels to give me around 5kw of panel in a 3S4P arrangement, but I'm also not sure if I'm over-paneling the batteries. I think down the road as I buy more batteries it'll balance out and will allow me to add the camper into the mix for complete off-grid. In the long run, I'd also like to move to AIO inverters, (Growatt or EG4) but I feel like the charge controllers and inverter were reasonable buys, or at least not complete waste.
As for the existing golf-cart batteries and Renogy panels, I think I have another lower-power project I can use them on. Or, I might try to sell the batteries and add the panels to the main/future array on another controller. Am I getting back on the right track with a reasonable plan? I'm trying to learn the solar game, but it's not something I've dealt with in my automotive DC and LV AC experience. Thanks to everyone with wisdom!
So, my shed consists of a 1-ton mini-split A/C and 200-ish watts of servers. The RV is used for full-timing, and it's hot, so when I'm not at work, the A/C is in use. I only use the electric water heater when it's time to shower. Otherwise, I turn it off. By my count, the shed is probably pulling 1500-ish watts when the A/C compressor is running, but I haven't measured it. No clue what the R/V pulls, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's 2,500+. I really need to get a meter capable of measuring the total load and KWh usage. My monthly usage is around 1500KWh at its peak in summer, so I'm estimating 50KWh usage per day.
Now for the mistakes. Without doing sufficient research, I purchased 1320 watts of Renogy panels at about $1 a watt. I was under the dated assumption that $1/watt was good. I also purchased 6 golf-cart batteries, a 48 volt Ampinvt split-phase 5000 watt inverter, 2 Outback FlexMax 80 charge controllers, and a 4-string combiner box. I feel like I was on the right track, but a lack of current research means I wasted money that could have been more effectively spent. It definitely seems like I was an idiot to spend a penny on lead-acid batteries when LifePo4 is superior in nearly every way.
So, after watching a bunch of youtube videos including Will's, I've been looking at Signature Solar's site for the 48v rack batteries. From my rough calculations, just to power the shed, 200ah should get me just enough to power it at least 90% from solar, but I don't have enough solar panel. I was looking at Signature Solar's solar panels, but I'm not sure about the value proposition. I know they're fairly reasonable, but I don't know if they have the best current deal or if another vendor has better prices. Since their minimum order on panels is 10 and the max voltage of the Outback controllers is 145 volts, I was figuring I'd pick up 12 of their 445 watt panels to give me around 5kw of panel in a 3S4P arrangement, but I'm also not sure if I'm over-paneling the batteries. I think down the road as I buy more batteries it'll balance out and will allow me to add the camper into the mix for complete off-grid. In the long run, I'd also like to move to AIO inverters, (Growatt or EG4) but I feel like the charge controllers and inverter were reasonable buys, or at least not complete waste.
As for the existing golf-cart batteries and Renogy panels, I think I have another lower-power project I can use them on. Or, I might try to sell the batteries and add the panels to the main/future array on another controller. Am I getting back on the right track with a reasonable plan? I'm trying to learn the solar game, but it's not something I've dealt with in my automotive DC and LV AC experience. Thanks to everyone with wisdom!
