dfisher25
New Member
Hi Everyone,
Let me start off by apologizing if I have anything wrong here. I have done quite a bit of research on this forum and the internet but I’m still a bit lost. Part of my confusion is related to me doing a new build and most of the articles / resources I find are people adding solar/battery to an existing home. I would like to streamline the process as much as possible since all components will be new.
I’m currently constructing a 1,300-SQFT cottage in St. John USVI. The power there is very expensive and very unreliable. The first reason for me wanting to do solar plus battery is to deal with the constant outages and the second reason is to lower my power bill. The cottage will be partially used for an Air BNB and partially for personal use. For the initial set up I’m trying to stay under $10K and will add additional batteries and panels as time goes on. Please let me know if this seems like a reasonable path forward or if I’m missing something.
I have calculated my worst case daily usage at 49 kw per day. This seems really high and is mostly related to the split units, pool pump and water heater which are all biased high. Since the cottage will not be occupied full time I think things will average out around 30 kw. Also, the POCO (WAPA) no longer allows net metering so I don’t have the availability or desire to sell back.
Here is the basic thought on the design.
Grid Feed ---->Growatt SYN200-XH-US ($1,600) --->Growatt 11.4kW MIN11400TL-XH-US ($1,600)---->Conventional 100-amp main panel that feeds the home. To start, I would have 12 550-watt panels ($3,000) feeding into the inverter. When I ran the math through some calculators these panels would provide approximately 11,300 kw production per year relative to my 17,000 of worst case usage (which I hope will be more like 11,000 kw once things are dialed in). I would then have two 270 amp 12 volt LiFeP04 batteries (~$4,200) tied in.
Now what I’m looking for feed back on is if this system will do what I want it to. What I want is for the solar/batteries to be primary and for it to flip to the grid automatically if we are in a deficit. If it looks like I don’t have enough solar/battery to maintain the house, I would like to automatically switch back and forth from the grid to keep everything going. I would also like for it to automatically transfer over to solar/battery if there is a grid outage. One component question I have is regarding the Growatt SYN200-XH-US. This is a pretty expensive transfer switch, it is possible to go with a cheaper model that is suited for a generator? Another question is on my main home breaker panel, are there any solar systems that integrate this in? Or will I always have a conventional breaker box that is fed by the other components?
Once again, thank you for this resource as it has been very helpful. I started off looking at Ecoflow and the like but it seems like I can get much more bang for my buck with a DIY system. Thank you in advance and sorry for any stupid questions.
Let me start off by apologizing if I have anything wrong here. I have done quite a bit of research on this forum and the internet but I’m still a bit lost. Part of my confusion is related to me doing a new build and most of the articles / resources I find are people adding solar/battery to an existing home. I would like to streamline the process as much as possible since all components will be new.
I’m currently constructing a 1,300-SQFT cottage in St. John USVI. The power there is very expensive and very unreliable. The first reason for me wanting to do solar plus battery is to deal with the constant outages and the second reason is to lower my power bill. The cottage will be partially used for an Air BNB and partially for personal use. For the initial set up I’m trying to stay under $10K and will add additional batteries and panels as time goes on. Please let me know if this seems like a reasonable path forward or if I’m missing something.
I have calculated my worst case daily usage at 49 kw per day. This seems really high and is mostly related to the split units, pool pump and water heater which are all biased high. Since the cottage will not be occupied full time I think things will average out around 30 kw. Also, the POCO (WAPA) no longer allows net metering so I don’t have the availability or desire to sell back.
Here is the basic thought on the design.
Grid Feed ---->Growatt SYN200-XH-US ($1,600) --->Growatt 11.4kW MIN11400TL-XH-US ($1,600)---->Conventional 100-amp main panel that feeds the home. To start, I would have 12 550-watt panels ($3,000) feeding into the inverter. When I ran the math through some calculators these panels would provide approximately 11,300 kw production per year relative to my 17,000 of worst case usage (which I hope will be more like 11,000 kw once things are dialed in). I would then have two 270 amp 12 volt LiFeP04 batteries (~$4,200) tied in.
Now what I’m looking for feed back on is if this system will do what I want it to. What I want is for the solar/batteries to be primary and for it to flip to the grid automatically if we are in a deficit. If it looks like I don’t have enough solar/battery to maintain the house, I would like to automatically switch back and forth from the grid to keep everything going. I would also like for it to automatically transfer over to solar/battery if there is a grid outage. One component question I have is regarding the Growatt SYN200-XH-US. This is a pretty expensive transfer switch, it is possible to go with a cheaper model that is suited for a generator? Another question is on my main home breaker panel, are there any solar systems that integrate this in? Or will I always have a conventional breaker box that is fed by the other components?
Once again, thank you for this resource as it has been very helpful. I started off looking at Ecoflow and the like but it seems like I can get much more bang for my buck with a DIY system. Thank you in advance and sorry for any stupid questions.