Redoing Canada Cabin Off grid system

[Bernard H Yantz]

I am looking for 1800 watts of 24 volt solar panels and mounting hardware for my cabin roof in Canada. Suggestions?

FYI ... l also plan through away my third set of 8 acid batteries (Crown) and install four (4) 24 volt Battle Born LIFE04 in parallel.

Pictures attached..

byantz1958@gmail.com

Thank you..

Bernard

 

[MisterSandals]

24 volt solar panels

Is there a reason you are limiting yourself to “24 volt panels”?

 

[Bernard H Yantz]

Is there a reason you are limiting yourself to “24 volt panels”?

Hello Mister Sandals,

I was thinking easy wiring for my 24 volt system...

 

[Bernard H Yantz]

Is there a reason you are limiting yourself to “24 volt panels”?

Easy wiring for my 24 volt system... I am guessing from your question, I am not thinking correctly?

 

[MisterSandals]

Easy wiring for my 24 volt system... I am guessing from your question, I am not thinking correctly?

You will need a solar charge controller. The solar charge controller will take voltage from your array in a voltage range and convert it into the voltage and current for your battery bank.

A medium sized array like you have, will almost certainly have some panels in series which will raise the voltage additively with the numbers in series. So whether you start with 24v is not an issue. Its the max input voltage of your solar charge controller and if its an MPPT controller (which you should get), then it will likely be optimized in the upper end of the voltage input range.

So for panels, look for big cheap panels. Craigslist is a great source for panels in your area - taking shipping out reduces the costs significantly. Its pretty easy to find big cheap panels in the $.50/watt range.
Find panels, do the math on how you can configure them for the SCC's that are in your budget/fancy.

There are folks here to help you along the way if you find some things that catch your eye. Just ask.

good luck!

 

[Bernard H Yantz]

You will need a solar charge controller. The solar charge controller will take voltage from your array in a voltage range and convert it into the voltage and current for your battery bank.

A medium sized array like you have, will almost certainly have some panels in series which will raise the voltage additively with the numbers in series. So whether you start with 24v is not an issue. Its the max input voltage of your solar charge controller and if its an MPPT controller (which you should get), then it will likely be optimized in the upper end of the voltage input range.

So for panels, look for big cheap panels. Craigslist is a great source for panels in your area - taking shipping out reduces the costs significantly. Its pretty easy to find big cheap panels in the $.50/watt range.
Find panels, do the math on how you can configure them for the SCC's that are in your budget/fancy.

There are folks here to help you along the way if you find some things that catch your eye. Just ask.

good luck!

Thank you for the information. I do have an OutBack FPIVFX3524 with a 2000 Watt limit. 150DC voltage limit, I am told to stay around 120DC. I am currently exchanging e-mails with a Santan salesman with great prices on panels and mounting systems. It is a never ending learning curve. I only wish I had found William Errol Prowse IV about 10 years ago... I would have saved a ton of money on ACID BATTERIES.

 

[Hedges]

While Craiglist (and eBay) can be used to find local sellers, there are other vendors across the U.S. and I suppose Canada. Truck shipping cost can be traded off against panel price.

We see prices between about $0.12 and $0.20/watt for panels without UL stickers from SanTan Solar, $0.25 to $0.50 with UL and sometimes full warranty. They are in Arizona, and similar vendors are in other states.
Truck shipping can range between $100 and $400. I paid about $225 for a pallet from Canada to San Jose, which I picked up at the freight terminal.

1800W of UL listed panels could be $450 to $900, with shipping $550 to $1300 total.

I would suggest putting in considerably more panels than you need, and mounting them in multiple orientations. So long as charge current remains within allowed rate for battery, extra PV keeps production up when weather/sunshine is less ideal.

 

[Bernard H Yantz]

Thank you Hedges... UL approval is needed. Good information. Thank you again.

 

[Hedges]

120 Voc is good, leaves 25% headroom to 150V limit so very cold days aren't a problem. Calculating with the temperature coefficient of a given panel you can design it a bit closer to the limit. I use 16% for my location and panel specs.

You can over-panel well beyond 2000W (STC) of panels. Their actual (PTC) output tends to be about 85% of label rating. Peak output only occurs during full sun at the optimum orientation. Charge controller will simply limit output if more PV wattage is available. Multiple strings of PV panels (all same length) can have different orientations and all be paralleled. It would not be unreasonable to put 3000W to 3500W of panels on the charge controller. With multiple orientations you'll get 2000W for more hours.

I selected SunPower, which he had at he time.
Although new panels may have 20 year manufacturer warranty, if you get a quality brand a few years old for cheap, SanTan's 1 year warranty gives time to make sure they are good.
There are differences in quality and some things cause panels to die young. Wish we had a reliable source of info on them.

In this thread I posted a link to reports for many years. It doesn't name names for poor performers, but it does list many top names for each year tested.

Is there a reliable resource to compare panel makes/models

Well that sounds like a heck of a deal! Glad you placed your order and can't wait to see how it all works. That is a very good price, and I should not be surprised but that confirms they get a great deal when they upgrade. I wonder if they went with Trina on the replacement units? Any idea?

diysolarforum.com

 

[Bernard H Yantz]

120 Voc is good, leaves 25% headroom to 150V limit so very cold days aren't a problem. Calculating with the temperature coefficient of a given panel you can design it a bit closer to the limit. I use 16% for my location and panel specs.

You can over-panel well beyond 2000W (STC) of panels. Their actual (PTC) output tends to be about 85% of label rating. Peak output only occurs during full sun at the optimum orientation. Charge controller will simply limit output if more PV wattage is available. Multiple strings of PV panels (all same length) can have different orientations and all be paralleled. It would not be unreasonable to put 3000W to 3500W of panels on the charge controller. With multiple orientations you'll get 2000W for more hours.

I selected SunPower, which he had at he time.
Although new panels may have 20 year manufacturer warranty, if you get a quality brand a few years old for cheap, SanTan's 1 year warranty gives time to make sure they are good.
There are differences in quality and some things cause panels to die young. Wish we had a reliable source of info on them.

In this thread I posted a link to reports for many years. It doesn't name names for poor performers, but it does list many top names for each year tested.

Is there a reliable resource to compare panel makes/models

Well that sounds like a heck of a deal! Glad you placed your order and can't wait to see how it all works. That is a very good price, and I should not be surprised but that confirms they get a great deal when they upgrade. I wonder if they went with Trina on the replacement units? Any idea?

diysolarforum.com

Good Wednesday Morning Hedges, Very good information... Thank you. I am now thinking more panels in two (2) groups, one to catch the AM rays, the other for mid day and evening sun. I like the idea. Also, I will study the panel comparison you provided. Priceless intel. Thanks again, I have research work to do... Good Morning. Bernard