Sun_Dried_Toad
New Member
- Joined
- Sep 6, 2020
- Messages
- 81
After a dismal failure on my first solar adventure, I am back in.
About 2 years ago, I purchased a system, from a vendor online. Nice guy. Honest guy. he was just not particularly well informed on the equipment he was selling.
Basically, he was selling china junk. I honestly don't think he realized it. I mean, he knew his equipment was made in China, but I don't think he realized the terrible quality of it.
I must say, He was kind and honest enough to refund 100% of my shipping and equipment costs once we finally figured out just how incapable the system was. this earns him my respect.
Last September, I purchased a SOL-ARK 12K system. I mounted everything, ran all the wiring, and set up the first half of the battery bank. I have been hesitant (afraid) to start it up and run it, after the disastrous install and poor function of the first system.
I finally started it up yesterday, allowed it to run 24 hours to top off my batteries (4X Trojan T-1275's) and then connected the first load today. I only connected one load circuit to it today because I don't want to actually tax the battery bank until I get the other 4 batteries wired in. that way I don't have "used" batteries in circuit with new batteries. So far, everything is great! I will be buying 4 additional batteries tomorrow, to double my storage capacity. once I have a proper storage bank (8 total T-1275's) I will begin transferring more loads to the system each day, until we are totally off grid. in all, I only have 9 circuits in my whole house.
I have 2440w of panels on the roof right now.
my wife and I are building a new house, and moving to a 10 acre lot we purchased several miles outside of our city. we are going to wait to expand our PV array until we move into the new house. we are building the new home completely off grid. we have explained to our builder how we will need as much uninterrupted south facing roof as possible. once we fully cover the south face of our roof with additional panels, we should have more than enough power for anything that we would realistically want to use. our only real concern is HVAC in cooling mode, during summer. I'm quite sure we can find an answer, but we all know how much power that requires. I am looking into soft start kits on already power efficient condesors. if it ends up just being more than we can do on solar, then we will just go with window units designed for solar systems. We won't even have central HVAC installed in the home at first, anyway. we will have the duct work installed, but will wait on buying and installing the air handler, furnace and evap coil, until we can pay cash, up front, in total, for it.
our heat will be from wood fire, for the first year. after that, it will be a combination of wood fire and propane to supplement if needed.
anyway... that's all 6, or more months down the road. for now, and the point of this post, is that in our current home, we are moving over to solar (again) and it will allow us to learn all about the system and get used to the solar lifestyle prior to moving to an area where there is not currently a grid option.
About 2 years ago, I purchased a system, from a vendor online. Nice guy. Honest guy. he was just not particularly well informed on the equipment he was selling.
Basically, he was selling china junk. I honestly don't think he realized it. I mean, he knew his equipment was made in China, but I don't think he realized the terrible quality of it.
I must say, He was kind and honest enough to refund 100% of my shipping and equipment costs once we finally figured out just how incapable the system was. this earns him my respect.
Last September, I purchased a SOL-ARK 12K system. I mounted everything, ran all the wiring, and set up the first half of the battery bank. I have been hesitant (afraid) to start it up and run it, after the disastrous install and poor function of the first system.
I finally started it up yesterday, allowed it to run 24 hours to top off my batteries (4X Trojan T-1275's) and then connected the first load today. I only connected one load circuit to it today because I don't want to actually tax the battery bank until I get the other 4 batteries wired in. that way I don't have "used" batteries in circuit with new batteries. So far, everything is great! I will be buying 4 additional batteries tomorrow, to double my storage capacity. once I have a proper storage bank (8 total T-1275's) I will begin transferring more loads to the system each day, until we are totally off grid. in all, I only have 9 circuits in my whole house.
I have 2440w of panels on the roof right now.
my wife and I are building a new house, and moving to a 10 acre lot we purchased several miles outside of our city. we are going to wait to expand our PV array until we move into the new house. we are building the new home completely off grid. we have explained to our builder how we will need as much uninterrupted south facing roof as possible. once we fully cover the south face of our roof with additional panels, we should have more than enough power for anything that we would realistically want to use. our only real concern is HVAC in cooling mode, during summer. I'm quite sure we can find an answer, but we all know how much power that requires. I am looking into soft start kits on already power efficient condesors. if it ends up just being more than we can do on solar, then we will just go with window units designed for solar systems. We won't even have central HVAC installed in the home at first, anyway. we will have the duct work installed, but will wait on buying and installing the air handler, furnace and evap coil, until we can pay cash, up front, in total, for it.
our heat will be from wood fire, for the first year. after that, it will be a combination of wood fire and propane to supplement if needed.
anyway... that's all 6, or more months down the road. for now, and the point of this post, is that in our current home, we are moving over to solar (again) and it will allow us to learn all about the system and get used to the solar lifestyle prior to moving to an area where there is not currently a grid option.