What Type of Solar System Would Be Best?

[Irish916]

Hello Everyone- Newb from Pennsylvania Here.

I'm looking for feedback to understand what type of solar system would work best for my application. I currently have a 2,500 sqft ranch home here in Northeast PA - elevation 1000ft. Our house is primarily all electric, with some wood pellet stoves to offset the high cost of electric heat during the winter. We currently average 83 kWh used per day @ $0.08315/kWh. With our rates expected to continue to climb, we're looking for a solution to offset our consumption from the power company. A previous assessment done by a local solar company confirmed that we cannot go 100% solar to offset our current usage. We wouldn't have enough room for the amount of panels needed to do that.

My ask is this. What type of system is recommended where I can do two things:

• Offset my current power consumption - IE power my home A/C system as much as possible
• Serve as a power backup for the house in the event of a power outage (outages occur more often than we'd like here in rural PA)
  • thanks in advance for your help with this one.

 

[Supervstech]

Ok, firstly, how much unshaded space do you have facing south?
Do you have enough space east and west to add supplemental panels?
83kWh is a lot to supply especially in the northern areas. Winter sun is minimal.

In summer 16kW of panels should provide enough to cover 83kW in winter figure 10 times that much, and still be short.
So, have a generator ready.

 

[Supervstech]

If you only want standby power, you can buy enough batteries to cover the load… if power is rarely out over 8 hours, only 30kWh of battery is needed, then get 6kW of panels to keep that charged… use it on lighting and kitchen loads normally, then add in the rest during an outage.

 

[Irish916]

Ok, firstly, how much unshaded space do you have facing south?
Do you have enough space east and west to add supplemental panels?
83kWh is a lot to supply especially in the northern areas. Winter sun is minimal.

In summer 16kW of panels should provide enough to cover 83kW in winter figure 10 times that much, and still be short.
So, have a generator ready.

We have a traditional east/west roof for the length of the house with a north/south positioned garage. The house is very much an L shape. We recently took down a lot of trees that were blocking the roof exposure to the sun. When a solar company was here, the south-facing side of the garage roof had the best southern exposure. They thought we could get 64 panels up on the house fairly easily. My thing is that I know I can't offset my power usage from the utility company 100%. I'd like to get solar hooked up where I can feed into my panel all day long. I'd want battery storage so that I can run the essentials in a power outage. Most outages don't last more than 8 hours. Idealy though, if the power were out more than 8 hours and we had sun, we could maintain power.

 

[Supervstech]

We have a traditional east/west roof for the length of the house with a north/south positioned garage. The house is very much an L shape. We recently took down a lot of trees that were blocking the roof exposure to the sun. When a solar company was here, the south-facing side of the garage roof had the best southern exposure. They thought we could get 64 panels up on the house fairly easily. My thing is that I know I can't offset my power usage from the utility company 100%. I'd like to get solar hooked up where I can feed into my panel all day long. I'd want battery storage so that I can run the essentials in a power outage. Most outages don't last more than 8 hours. Idealy though, if the power were out more than 8 hours and we had sun, we could maintain power.

If PA has grid tie program available on the power, and you have space for 64 panels, you should be able to install 20kW of panels, to completely offset your power, and add battery for outage times.
Best bang for the buck.

 

[TomC4306]

I installed a 10 circuit manual transfer switch off of my main breaker panel. Originally used for generator backup. I brought the 10 most active circuits into the transfer switch. Fridge, freezer, lights, computers, TVs, pellet stove etc.
This is where I connected the solar system that I built.
Two each 3000 watt inverters connected in split phase, 5,500 watts of used solar panels, 15 kwh of batteries (soon to be doubled ).
Over the course of a year I have seen my electric bill go from $220 per month to $150 per month but I'm quite certain some of that decrease is a result of conservation. We are much more conscious of our consumption now than previously.
BUT... about $8k. Minus 30% tax credit.

 

[Irish916]

I installed a 10 circuit manual transfer switch off of my main breaker panel. Originally used for generator backup. I brought the 10 most active circuits into the transfer switch. Fridge, freezer, lights, computers, TVs, pellet stove etc.
This is where I connected the solar system that I built.
Two each 3000 watt inverters connected in split phase, 5,500 watts of used solar panels, 15 kwh of batteries (soon to be doubled ).
Over the course of a year I have seen my electric bill go from $220 per month to $150 per month but I'm quite certain some of that decrease is a result of conservation. We are much more conscious of our consumption now than previously.
BUT... about $8k. Minus 30% tax credit.

Thanks for sharing your set-up. Is there a way to constantly power the panel, and then have the manual transfer switch to use during an outage? I'm told that some configurations of home solar shut off during an outage so as to not backfeed the power lines during an outage. I want to put as much power back into my panel as I can each day, while still having batteries for backup or nightime power consumption.

 

[TomC4306]

Thanks for sharing your set-up. Is there a way to constantly power the panel, and then have the manual transfer switch to use during an outage? I'm told that some configurations of home solar shut off during an outage so as to not backfeed the power lines during an outage. I want to put as much power back into my panel as I can each day, while still having batteries for backup or nightime power consumption.

The manual transfer switches don't get switched back and forth. They are now set to generator / solar and those 10 circuits run that way 24/7.

In my main breaker box is a double pole 30 amp breaker. That breaker feeds AC to both inverters. So now the inverters can choose between solar, battery, or grid. The output of the inverters go through a 30 amp double pole breaker on the wall to the manual transfer switch.

Inside the inverters is an automatic transfer switch and lots of settings. The inverters use my settings to choose how to power those 10 circuits in the manual transfer switch. My preference is solar first battery second utility third.

If the grid goes down, I won't even know unless there is no solar and my battery is completely depleted. The inverters prioritize where they pull power from based on settings.