diy solar

diy solar

Transfer switch

At least you have a choice for power. In CA... Well northern CA, PGE is it. In my area anyway. We don't have a choice.

The sob story about 60k solar... well, I would just say people are lazy and too trusting. I grew up with encyclopedias... You did your actual "research", you didn't read the first three reviews you could find like today. Then bitch about how you were lead down the wrong path.

Information is everything. Hell even if YouTube was your main source of solar information, you would know what to spend on a solar system.

I'm not picking on you Greg, just saying.

On one hand I feel like those folks should have done more research but on the other hand I also feel like they were taken for a ride by unscrupulous sales tactics. I do have some level of empathy for some level of ignorance. But this is why I try to educate everyone around me about solar so they can make an educated decision.

Had you asked me a year ago if I was going to get solar installed I would have showed you the door. I was paying $0.09/kWh for electricity, the economy was stable and things were in a state where solar made zero financial sense in Texas. Yet here we are a year later, inflation is high so spending money now is better than spending it later, electricity rates in Texas jumped to $0.17/kWh on average and I have a full solar+battery system that covers 75% of my usage with 94% self consumption.
 
What other options are there for a microinverter install? Is this something I can install myself or does it need a licensed electrician?
You would need an AC coupled battery backup, not something you can install yourself it requires permitting and inspection.
You can install a Sunny Boy battery system, a Tesla Powerwall.

Your only problem is going to be that these will still not allow you to run the PV without grid power, only the fully integrated Enphase system will, which, as previously discussed, is expensive.

Question: what requires you to install micro inverters? Any particular need for this requirement? My biggest problem with Enphase is twofold:
1) It has no economies of scale discount. The more panels, the more batteries, the more microinverters you have to buy. The marginal cost for each kW is the same.
2) It is an AC coupled system so energy losses are much higher than a DC coupled system for battery backup. The PV power has to go PV -> AC -> Battery -> AC before it can be used. With a DC coupled system it goes PV -> Battery -> AC.

The Sunlight only option doesn't require batteries. It was specific wattage to the number of panels in the quote. It's something like 33% of the system potential to allow for surge and shade.

Yeah, that sounds like a pretty horrible idea that doesn't buy you much. Most power outages generally happen during adverse weather events, meaning storms, so solar will not be producing adequate power to begin with. Adding a critical load panel and having a select few items run off of solar during a sunny day in a rolling blackout scenario is a very low value proposition in my mind.

If you want whole house backup, do whole house backup and get a system built/bid for that. You're at a stage where it's still not too late to have a drastic design change for fairly low cost. Once the system is in, you're bound to the technology and the manufacturer. Pick it wisely now so you won't have regrets later.
 
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The Sunlight only option doesn't require batteries. It was specific wattage to the number of panels in the quote. It's something like 33% of the system potential to allow for surge and shade.
Right, I knew that but as usual I didn't word my question clearly.

My not particularly fruitful research on Enphase seems to indicate that that in order to do a battery system one had to first have the components that battery system would need as well.

Below is the the Sunlight "no battery" system. I believe all you have to do to add batteries is run battery wiring up to the appropriate breaker inside the System Controller. Ergo my question. $3900 got you a Sunlight System but did the battery prices already have that cost baked in?

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Ergo my question. $3900 got you a Sunlight System but did the battery prices already have that cost baked in?
They didn't mention a battery but I doubt it comes with one at that price. Plus I haven't got one yet. I'll probably wait on V2H instead.
 
When I started my research and looking, just like you said, they did not have UL Listed rackmount batteries so I went with Homegrid Stack'D. It was a good bit more expensive, about $600/kWh.
You're a wealth of information! Thanks. Where did you end up getting your SolArk and Homegrid Batteries?
 
You're a wealth of information! Thanks. Where did you end up getting your SolArk and Homegrid Batteries?

I had the system installed by a local company in DFW. I started my research with the Sol-Ark website and asked for installers from them directly. They gave me a list and I chose the top three based on reviews in the area.

Two of them were close in price for a similar system: $3.30-$3.40/W for solar and $800-$900/kWh for storage.

The third one was a smaller mom and pop operation that got COVID in the family and couldn't provide a competitive bid in time so they were out of the running.

Just to verify the other two bids, I also solicited bids from Energy Sage, those were wild in offers and ranged from $2.20 to $3.70 per Watt of solar installed. Since I had no control over the dealers I had offers with Enphase, Solar Edge, with and without batteries even though I asked for storage specifically. Some were one liners, others were detailed proposals.

Ultimately the company I ended up going with was through Energy Sage, a smaller local company that just started a year ago in the area but the owner had a successful solar company that he sold to the employees in New Mexico so I took a bit of leap of faith but no regrets. The owner bid the system directly so there was no sales commission, I did run their numbers through my own cost accounting to make sure it was actually feasible for the price and ultimately it was the right decision.

I ended up paying $2.30/W for solar and $685/kWh for storage, which was a bargain in my opinion. This also includes Tigo optimizers and cloud monitoring of the individual panels in addition to the Sol-Ark 15K, 44x440W Aptos panels and 38.4kWh Homegrid Stack'd battery.

The timeline was a bit long, I started research early June, signed contract mid-July and I just got the battery commissioned and PTO from my electricity company yesterday. I've been running the Sol-Ark in load only mode with no battery for the last two weeks and it generated ~48 kWh/day of electricity that was 100% self consumption. With the battery and grid export I expect to get my daily production over 75 kWh/day in September.
 
Just to verify the other two bids, I also solicited bids from Energy Sage, those were wild in offers and ranged from $2.20 to $3.70 per Watt of solar installed.
Great details! That price range was just the solar or did that include the Sol-Ark installed as well?

I ended up paying $2.30/W for solar and $685/kWh for storage, which was a bargain in my opinion. This also includes Tigo optimizers and cloud monitoring of the individual panels in addition to the Sol-Ark 15K, 44x440W Aptos panels and 38.4kWh Homegrid Stack'd battery.
That does sound like a great deal.
 
The switch isolates the grid. You can power it with solar, but you'll need an inverter.
I run a 20 panel enphase grid tied system, then a 6 panel off grid setup to a lv6548 and 20kwh of batteries. I leave all of my 120v circuits powered from the inverter/transfer all the time, the grid tied system is my ac input to my inverter.
So if the grid goes down the inverter is already on and I don't even know it. Well my 240v stuff won't work, so that's how I know.
During the day the off grid panels charge the batteries and provide power to the house, the grid tied backs them up and runs the 240v.
Works pretty good.
For the six panel system that connects to Lv6548, I assume you are not using enphase micro inverters on those panels. Are you wired series/parallel without an alternative like DC optimizer?

I like this system you created. I imagine the bulk of the load is generally covered by the 20 panel enphase and the grid also provides backup.

However if grid goes down, you lose the enphase but still have some power. Interesting. Is this a common setup?
 
For the six panel system that connects to Lv6548, I assume you are not using enphase micro inverters on those panels. Are you wired series/parallel without an alternative like DC optimizer?

I like this system you created. I imagine the bulk of the load is generally covered by the 20 panel enphase and the grid also provides backup.

However if grid goes down, you lose the enphase but still have some power. Interesting. Is this a common setup?
Correct, the six panels are in series/ parallel, ran directly into the lv6548. I have these panels ground mounted right now. I'll put optimizers on them when they go on the roof.

They charge the batteries and provide power to just the 120v circuits in the house. That system runs everyday 24/7. When there is no solar the batteries take over. So I never pay the on peak charges for power. Well unless the main ac is running.

The enphase is grid tied, so it sends power to the grid as normal.
The lv6548 is ac connected to my main breaker panel so if I don't charge the batteries to full with the off grid system, then they will charge from the on grid system instead of sending the surplus to the grid.

Since it is a 120v system I can also connect my 120v generators to the transfer switch if needed, I can run the house and charge the batteries in a grid down no solar, dead batteries situation. I already owned the generators and they are not giant like a 240v generator is.
My wife can move them around and I can also take them camping. So no wasted money on a fixed home genset.

I don't know if this is a common setup. It's just what I thought would work best for me.

The only down side is, I cannot run any 240v when the grid goes down, but I really don't care. I have a portable ac, so if it's down I grab the wife and the dogs, we pile in the master and run the ac just in that room. I also ready owned the ac.

The other down side is, there is no where for any surplus the six panels make to go. This can be fixed with more battery storage, I have 20kwh now and it does fine.

I figured in a true long term grid down situation, I just have be careful how we use the power, so I don't need to run anything 240v anyway. We have a gas water heater.

We lost the grid 5 times last year for the longest of 12hrs. Only way I knew it went down was I looked outside and saw all the neighbors standing out front looking at each other with flashlights. It's a good feeling to know you will almost always have power.
 
The switch isolates the grid. You can power it with solar, but you'll need an inverter.
I run a 20 panel enphase grid tied system, then a 6 panel off grid setup to a lv6548 and 20kwh of batteries. I leave all of my 120v circuits powered from the inverter/transfer all the time, the grid tied system is my ac input to my inverter.
So if the grid goes down the inverter is already on and I don't even know it. Well my 240v stuff won't work, so that's how I know.
During the day the off grid panels charge the batteries and provide power to the house, the grid tied backs them up and runs the 240v.
Works pretty good.
Hi There, Im planning on building a similar set up at my house. Got the lv6548 with 2 SOK batteries. My question for you is, what transfer switch are you using? amp rating? I wanted to use the Reliance 10 circuit one but is 50 amps and the inverter output is 54 amps.
 
Hi There, Im planning on building a similar set up at my house. Got the lv6548 with 2 SOK batteries. My question for you is, what transfer switch are you using? amp rating? I wanted to use the Reliance 10 circuit one but is 50 amps and the inverter output is 54 amps.
Read the manual. It's 50 amps at 240, or 12000 watts combined. So that's 100 amp at 120. I use the 30 amp switch.
 
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