Solar house generator I started DIY back in 2000 - My path from Trace to Xantrex (on FLA battery) to XW Pro inverters on Tesla Model S batteries

[dougbert]

Instead of 20 or 30 kWh more battery, how much more PV would be needed to accomplish the same goal?
Just overpaneling - you have enough SCC already.
(What we really need is a way to turn surplus electricity into fuel we can store in a tank.)

I fully agree

I have the following limitations and possibilities at my place:

• small lot, .09 acres - almost all space I could use have panels on them, save one
• currently my system will support 4 strings of panels.
• Schneider controllers can each support 3200 watts @ 48v, so it is possible for 12,000 watts
• currently at 7300 now as mentioned. Still have 2 idle 355watt panels needing modification and installation. That would bring capacity to 8,000 watts
• Last place for filling the last array string is over a Pegola over deck, both not yet built. Not ready for it. Then 3,200 watts of panels on the pegola is my plan
• During the winter I will have the money, space and time to add more batteries
• looking at 10 bi-facial panels 400watts each, can only use 8, but the order is 10 at a time (SignatureSolar)

Just engineering the project with resource limits, time and possibilities

4th array needs:

1. Engineering Plans and permits for deck and pegola: $1500 (got a bid)
2. Deck and pegola parts: Unknown at this point (wag: $2,000+)
3. 10 panels $2300 (including shipping)
4. Time to build

thanks

 

[Mike 604]

dougbert, Wow, really want to thank you for all of the time you have spent documenting your build, posting pictures, links and all of the excellent write ups. Your thread has taken me many days to read. Lots of info to take in and learn.
We have been building a home for our retirement for many years and we are now at a point to
"the lets get power into the house. "
We are off grid on an Island with no ferry access. That is both good and bad.
We are lucky to have a creek on our property. Have a micro hydro station that we have installed.
Finished the penstock, weir and have to get it up and running but still need to decide on the last few bits of gear.
Bought a Midnite 250 charge controller for the MicroHydro. The Midnite 250 has an aux for a dc diversion load/dump load.
Hoping to heat water my 2000 L tank with the diversion load. Once that has reached set temp will need divert again not to overheat the house. We installed hydronic heat in our floors and also on the interior walls. Lots of mass for storage of heat.
We also have a gasification fireplace which has a water jacket meant to be used with my hotwater tanks.
Need to finalize the inverter decision and battery selection.
After having read your posts will probably use the singineer 48V 15k, tesla model S batteries and the EVTV control module.
This way I can add to the battery capacity should I require it grow.
Again thanks for sharing all of your info.

 

[dougbert]

dougbert, Wow, really want to thank you for all of the time you have spent documenting your build, posting pictures, links and all of the excellent write ups. Your thread has taken me many days to read. Lots of info to take in and learn.
We have been building a home for our retirement for many years and we are now at a point to
"the lets get power into the house. "
We are off grid on an Island with no ferry access. That is both good and bad.
We are lucky to have a creek on our property. Have a micro hydro station that we have installed.
Finished the penstock, weir and have to get it up and running but still need to decide on the last few bits of gear.
Bought a Midnite 250 charge controller for the MicroHydro. The Midnite 250 has an aux for a dc diversion load/dump load.
Hoping to heat water my 2000 L tank with the diversion load. Once that has reached set temp will need divert again not to overheat the house. We installed hydronic heat in our floors and also on the interior walls. Lots of mass for storage of heat.
We also have a gasification fireplace which has a water jacket meant to be used with my hotwater tanks.
Need to finalize the inverter decision and battery selection.
After having read your posts will probably use the singineer 48V 15k, tesla model S batteries and the EVTV control module.
This way I can add to the battery capacity should I require it grow.
Again thanks for sharing all of your info.

I will WOW you back,for the response/complements

I documented my build for at a least 2 reasons: 1) share with others and 2) to document it for my recall memory - it is my documentation to re-read what I did - lol

sounds like you are doing some deep research and thoughts into your design, and that is great.

I recommend Jack Rickard's videos on Youtube - channel renamed to "EVTV Motors". He did so much for solar, before he died in Aug 2020
Suggestion: Playback at video speed 1.25 or 1.5, as he speaks slowly

the following video I posted before, but it is a good one

also I have mentioned also going to get the siganeer 15k
I did the testla for the lower battery cost AND as you point out, the ability to add batteries over time
I suggest getting the various cables up front first, might come a day when it gets hard to order them, for what ever reason.
I need to order more of the copper C buss connectors as only EVTV has them since they are their own design and manufacturng

I am trying to figure out a way to have some blog and/or forum (maybe here on this site) for users of the JITB (Jack-In-The-Box) battery controller to share insights and other learned operational details, like a Users Group

dougbertInExile

 

[dougbert]

thank you again and I hope you post a build thread on this site for what you do

 

[dougbert]

Monitoring one's solar generator

A fellow engineer has followed my lead and has installed a Jack-In-The-Box (JITB) controller and tesla battery modules. He is in a transition phase of preparing to build his house on land in the mountains. I don't want to release much info on the process, but since charging and monitoring system is different than mine, I have adopted some of his monitoring mechanisms.

My system has the JITB and tesla batteries at 48v batteries configuration and his is 24 volt based batteries
I use Schneider charge controllers for my 4 arrays, while he went with EPEVER controllers, 100amp models
My system comes package with telemetry gathering of what is happening, but his does not - so he really needed to develop one
because the low temperatures where he is at (7200ft).

the tech:

The JITB controller continuously sprays telemetry data on the condition of the controller, battery temps, current flows and the like. This telemetry data is transmitted via networking IP 'broadcast mode - *.255) over Wifi on a UDP port - and I mean continuously. The JITB Display (shown in prior posts) receives this data (via an intermediate Wifi Access point). ANY device can be configured to receive this data over wifi.

The system to harvest this data are composed of a server called Prometheus (not the alien ship). Both his instance of Prometheus (and now my instance as well), run on a Raspberry PI 4 computer with 4gb of ram and just the SD card. Prometheus 'scrapes' telemetry data from a node (in this case the JITB data) and provides formatted data to another 'presentation' server known as Grafana

Grafana server also runs on the same Raspberry Pi and provides a web server/portal to a set of 'dashboards' which we created.

With that background, here is the current dashboard of my system's dynamic operation:






next page



there is more, but this gives the point

neat stuff one can with a little hardware and software

 

[Agmills]

Hi guys , recently got a new sw4048 that will not seem to work with my combox. I loved this interface with my sw4024. Is there a solution to this via firmware upgrade or downgrade to sw4048?

 

[dougbert]

Hi guys , recently got a new sw4048 that will not seem to work with my combox. I loved this interface with my sw4024. Is there a solution to this via firmware upgrade or downgrade to sw4048?

were these Xantrex units?

my SW4024 was a Trace (oldest model year 2000) without a Modbus/Xanbus
even my Xantrex SW5548 (2005) does not have Xanbus on it

so I have no experience using combox on my inverters

I use the more Modern (but End-Of-Life, they made new ones) Gateway to interface to my newer MPPT 60 controllers and that's it, nothing to my older inverters

sorry

 

[Agmills]

were these Xantrex units?

my SW4024 was a Trace (oldest model year 2000) without a Modbus/Xanbus
even my Xantrex SW5548 (2005) does not have Xanbus on it

so I have no experience using combox on my inverters

I use the more Modern (but End-Of-Life, they made new ones) Gateway to interface to my newer MPPT 60 controllers and that's it, nothing to my older inverters

sorry

No this is a brand new SW4048 that I purchased from the dealer last week. Combox works fine with my previous 4024 but I upgraded to 48v , told them I had the combox and did not want to buy any néw interface and they told me it would work but turns out it doesn’t even see the unit

 

[dougbert]

No this is a brand new SW4048 that I purchased from the dealer last week. Combox works fine with my previous 4024 but I upgraded to 48v , told them I had the combox and did not want to buy any néw interface and they told me it would work but turns out it doesn’t even see the unit

ah

dealer needs to help you out

 

[bryn]

Just read your thread, great advice and it’ll help others following your lead

i would look at reinforcing the shelves, i can see the deflection and stress on the panels.

measure how much space you have left, after 3 modules and install some timber under the front lip and the middle or 3/4 of the depth of those shelfs

I’d use PVA and countersink screw down from the top of the shelf and also a 45 degree fixing screw into the end support from below.

easier to do it now before you add more weight.

you can use some of those OSB off cuts if you have any left that are long enough for a full span, you will get more strength with more height than depth, just Think of an I beam or Joist.

 

[Hedges]

I used the following joist hangers to hold 2x4s supporting 4x8 sheets of plywood shelves, which are loaded with about 600 lbs.
Normally I put one piece of lumber on top of the other to support weight, but these were low profile.
Note that unlike many which rely on shear strength of screws, these wrap over the top of orthogonal piece.
What they don't do is hold the 2x4 securely against pulling out because barely toe nailed. So I ran a screw in from the end.

 

[dougbert]

Got pictures of the support boards I placed under the 330 lbs of battery modules.

Used a 2x3 and a 2x4, gorilla glue, and hydraulic jack to lift the board ends into place, then screwed the ends up and sideways
Hard to get decent pictures with the shield in place

front 2x3 rightside

left side of 2x3



front 2x3, right side


rear 2x4 glued and screwed

 

[Jennifer]

Feel like I just dropped acid after that first picture

 

[dougbert]

Feel like I just dropped acid after that first picture

late at nite and I didn't want to remove the plexiglass to take the pic
my bad

 

[Jennifer]

late at nite and I didn't want to remove the plexiglass to take the pic
my bad

It's ok, wasn't complaining... was kind of fun... LOL

 

[Mike 604]

Would like to bounce a few things off of you. Ok to send you a message ?

 

[Supervstech]

Would like to bounce a few things off of you. Ok to send you a message ?

It’s a good idea to quote the message of the person you are talking to… by hitting the reply button.

 

[dougbert]

Would like to bounce a few things off of you. Ok to send you a message ?

if me okay,

but my wife and I are in day 4 of "bad head cold" omicron at the moment.
it blew right through my so-called fax protection required by my employer
so i might be slow in responding

 

[Mike 604]

It’s a good idea to quote the message of the person you are talking to… by hitting the reply button.

Got it thanks.

 

[Mike 604]

if me okay,

but my wife and I are in day 4 of "bad head cold" omicron at the moment.
it blew right through my so-called fax protection required by my employer
so i might be slow in responding

I will collect my thoughts and will send you a message.
Good luck with thr cold and speedy recovery.