chilly2
New Member
- Joined
- Sep 14, 2021
- Messages
- 152
Hello all,
Do you find as you're on this solar journey that you've reached a point where stuff works well enough, and anything beyond that becomes wants over needs? Where do you draw the line? You could spend the money, but do you need to? How do you justify it to yourself?
I'm in that situation. What I have works well enough. It's taking a good chunk out of the electricity bill, and is at the point where I can leave it days and not think about it, but I don't want it to be the end of the fun!
I started out in 2020 with some panels and a grid tie export limited inverter, which later became two inverters. This worked, but lots of power was wasted when I couldn't use it, and was useless in grid down situations.
We had a big storm last June (power out for a week) so to guard against next time I added a 5kWh battery, charge controller, and an off grid inverter to the configuration. It's all wired such that the battery can power the grid tie inverters or the off grid one, and the battery made a huge improvement to the harvest, time shifting and smoothing things out. I know this is paltry compared with some of the harvests on here but my February harvest went from 75kWh in 2023 to 178kWh this Feb. The temptation to go to 10kWh of battery is strong, but am in a heavily shaded property and can't really add extra panels so am worried it wouldn't get fully charged. That said, it would look lovely in the 42u rack I already have. So.. want vs need?
The off grid inverter was a bargain basement type situation, 3kw split phase for $380. Technically it is enough for emergencies and can run the house (lights, fridge, TV, furnace blower, etc), but it can't do more than 12.5a per leg continuously so if it's powering the house and I turn the microwave on, off everything goes. If I run the microwave directly from the inverter and disconnect the rest of the house then no problem, but that's not ideal. A beefier inverter is tempting e.g. one of these 6000xps or a 10k srne, etc. But do I _need_ it? Ah the anguish!
I have other things I need to do (new AC to replace the antiquated seer 10 before summer, etc), but the above thoughts nag every so often so I wanted to put them out here.
Do you find as you're on this solar journey that you've reached a point where stuff works well enough, and anything beyond that becomes wants over needs? Where do you draw the line? You could spend the money, but do you need to? How do you justify it to yourself?
I'm in that situation. What I have works well enough. It's taking a good chunk out of the electricity bill, and is at the point where I can leave it days and not think about it, but I don't want it to be the end of the fun!
I started out in 2020 with some panels and a grid tie export limited inverter, which later became two inverters. This worked, but lots of power was wasted when I couldn't use it, and was useless in grid down situations.
We had a big storm last June (power out for a week) so to guard against next time I added a 5kWh battery, charge controller, and an off grid inverter to the configuration. It's all wired such that the battery can power the grid tie inverters or the off grid one, and the battery made a huge improvement to the harvest, time shifting and smoothing things out. I know this is paltry compared with some of the harvests on here but my February harvest went from 75kWh in 2023 to 178kWh this Feb. The temptation to go to 10kWh of battery is strong, but am in a heavily shaded property and can't really add extra panels so am worried it wouldn't get fully charged. That said, it would look lovely in the 42u rack I already have. So.. want vs need?
The off grid inverter was a bargain basement type situation, 3kw split phase for $380. Technically it is enough for emergencies and can run the house (lights, fridge, TV, furnace blower, etc), but it can't do more than 12.5a per leg continuously so if it's powering the house and I turn the microwave on, off everything goes. If I run the microwave directly from the inverter and disconnect the rest of the house then no problem, but that's not ideal. A beefier inverter is tempting e.g. one of these 6000xps or a 10k srne, etc. But do I _need_ it? Ah the anguish!
I have other things I need to do (new AC to replace the antiquated seer 10 before summer, etc), but the above thoughts nag every so often so I wanted to put them out here.
