Taking the DIY solar plunge, need advice on microinverters (considering AP) and combiner/storage

[anothersolaruser]

Hello all and thanks for the great community and knowledge!

We are going to mount our system on a pole barn with an existing 100a run. We are all electric and our home uses (I know it's a lot: ig pool w/heater, geothermal, outbuildings, deep well, etc..) ~110 kWH/day. We pay ~13 cents/per kWH and can sell back at ~3 cents. We have ~4.5 solar hours per day/avg here.

I thought I was close to deciding on a system (400+ w panels, enphase 7a's, and their combiner box) using all 4 runs. Was shying away from their storage due to the cell modems etc.. Then I ran across APsystem's qs1 microinverters. We're considering a ~12.5K system and the AP system inverters will save us thousands.

Initially was thinking a battery system in the 10K+ range, to help with the expensive bills, and if that's too small go larger. Would love advice on AC combiners, and non "smart" charging systems. Also considering salt silicate batteries.

But there's not a lot of info out there on their AC inverters, battery chargers, etc. Would love some pointers on where to look for additional info and my apologies if this is an often asked question. FWIW I tried and looked :D

 

[svetz]

Welcome to the forums!

AFAIK, AP Systems doesn't have a battery-compatible system for their microinverters like Enphase does (e.g., ensemble). Used to be you'd need an AC coupled solution, which increased costs. But, according to this, they are compatible with some 3rd party providers (e.g., Tesla powerwall). Those systems are going to limit your battery selection option. There are some string inverters (e.g., Sol-Ark) that can handle a 12 kW array that might give you a wider battery selection.

A 12.5 kW array (at least that's what I think you mean) is huge, but not up to powering 110 kWh/d. That 4.5 average insolation is probably in the 2's for winter and maybe 6 for summer, so a 12.5 kW array might get you from 25 (winter) to 75 kWh/d (summer). An insolation calculator or tool like PVWatts can give you more information for your location.

Hope that helps!