jasonjsimon
New Member
- Joined
- Nov 2, 2021
- Messages
- 5
Hi.
New member here that's been studying up on building out a solar system for my 3k sq ft home on acreage. First off this forum and it's members are awesome and thanks to Will for all his great DIY videos.
I have grid power, but want to go off it entirely - right away if possible, but gradually is fine if necessary if costs become a constraint. I've run through several energy audits and calculators, but I'm not clear on a few product specific questions.
My average daily usage over the 10 months in my home is around 43kwh per day. Typical household appliances, AC/Heat pump (propane), electric water heater and just added propane tankless water heater, washer/dryer, dishwasher, 2x desktop PC's, 5 laptops, lots of small electronics, security cams, etc.
I have a large shop with gobs of south-facing rooftop next to my home, so I'm thinking I can go with less efficient panels and gain some cost savings from that.
Here's what I'm thinking I can start my system with:
Jason
New member here that's been studying up on building out a solar system for my 3k sq ft home on acreage. First off this forum and it's members are awesome and thanks to Will for all his great DIY videos.
I have grid power, but want to go off it entirely - right away if possible, but gradually is fine if necessary if costs become a constraint. I've run through several energy audits and calculators, but I'm not clear on a few product specific questions.
My average daily usage over the 10 months in my home is around 43kwh per day. Typical household appliances, AC/Heat pump (propane), electric water heater and just added propane tankless water heater, washer/dryer, dishwasher, 2x desktop PC's, 5 laptops, lots of small electronics, security cams, etc.
I have a large shop with gobs of south-facing rooftop next to my home, so I'm thinking I can go with less efficient panels and gain some cost savings from that.
Here's what I'm thinking I can start my system with:
- 56x 240watt 48v panels from Santan. I want to have some spares for a RV and other projects, so I'm going to buy 70 of these initially and possibly pull more into the large system if needed. So that's 13,440watts at 48v for the initial 56 panels.
- 6x 48V 100AH 5.12kwh LiFePower4 Battery by EG4. So that's 30.72kwh total.
- 1x 12kW 48V 250VDC 120A Inverter by Growatt
- Can the 12kW inverter handle 56x 48v 240watt panels? I'm thinking 4 rows of panels splitting the full system into 4 3360watt segments. Am I reading correctly that this inverter can only accept a max of 250volts and/or 7000 watts - or is that per string/array? Am I going too big with my plan for 56 panels?
- I'm reading the 12kW inverter cannot stack. Is there any way to expand it if needed in the future? I'm honestly not even clear if the 12kw is sufficient for my usage.
- Am I better off going with 3 (or 4) of the stackable 5kw inverters? If so, is the midpoint transformer needed for all inverters or is 1 sufficient?
- With an average daily use of 43kwh, is 30kwh battery storage enough? Will this get me through a cloudy day or two given the solar input I'm planning? Could I get away with 4 of these initially with a capacity of 20kwh?
Jason