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diy solar

Up and running (test) Sol-Ark 12k. First day/night on new system.

Sun_Dried_Toad

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Sep 6, 2020
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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.
 

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For your HVAC a lot oh people are using mini split units with great success. They produce both heat and air. And are a lot more efficient then window units. Plus a lot quiter too.
 
If you've got 10 acres, seriously consider ground mounts for the panels rather than the roof. Ground mounts are so easy, roof mounts create so many potential headaches. I have about 20 kw of panels, all ground mounted, built and put up by myself, so much easier than roof mounts and don't have to panic when thinking about a new roof.
 
thanks for the suggestion on pole/ground mounted panels. It just seemed automatic to mount them on the roof. good point about removal during roof replacement. I will research pole mounts.

any suggestions on brand/model for pole mounts?

we have high winds in our area. is that a problem for pole mounts? seems like it would be.

__________________________

woke up this morning to find my unit in alarm, for low battery. it had gone into shutdown/protect mode. this is not surprising, since we only have one 48v battery bank right now. I will be buying 4 more trojan T-1275 batteries today, and wiring them in tonight.

I also need to make some charge/discharge adjustments in the settings. I spoke to trojan this morning, to get more accurate setting values.

it also looks like we will be buying a several more panels, much sooner than we planned. that's not a problem, it just shows that my calculations of usage were off.... learning curve. better to get it sorted, purchased and upgraded now, at the current house, where we still have grid option, then to find all this out when we move to the new house and are forced to be 100% off grid.
 
Use ground mount if you have that much acreage.
I have a 20kw Sinclair fixed ground mount.
Sinclair engineering will make one for you for a reasonable cost. Of course there is Ironridge.
Then you can just make one yourself out of steel our wood.
Problem is you have to make them strong enough they don’t become sailboats.

I have 2 Sol-ark 12ks and have had great experience with them..

Waiting to see how the 15kw do if they every get certified and shipped.
 
If you've got 10 acres, seriously consider ground mounts for the panels rather than the roof. Ground mounts are so easy, roof mounts create so many potential headaches. I have about 20 kw of panels, all ground mounted, built and put up by myself, so much easier than roof mounts and don't have to panic when thinking about a new roof.
What did you make your out of?
 
Another vote for ground mount and mini-split based systems.

The GM systems do allow you to select your ideal mounting angles and tilt, which is great if you want to do something like a SE/SW or SSE/SSW panel layout to extend your production across the entire day, which I'd strongly consider doing being completely off-grid.

If you'll have the HVAC ductwork in place, I'd look for a MS system which will integrate into that for better distribution, and again visual integration... vs the more localized and less visually appealing tradition MS systems with the big wall warts or ceiling cassettes. (The big wall wart based systems typically offer the best efficiency though).
 
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