Solar installation

[Rob-D]

Well, I finally got all my panels and inverters hooked up. Took some time because I had to build a structure to hold the panels ( I don't like roof mounts.)
The second photo is the battery box in my basement. I took special care with this. It runs fans off my inverters that kick in when the batteries are charging to remove hydrogen gasses.

The inverters are two Outback VFX3648 pure sine wave. They can run up too 7.2KW and 240 volts to run my well pump. The system is 48 volts. I wanted to run the solar panels at a higher voltage but it gets too cold here in the winter and their open circuit voltage would have exceeded the MPPT's input voltage max.

It's pretty nifty. The system works on the top inverter (the two inverters are in the middle of the photo) When it needs more power the slave inverter kicks in. This saves power. Right now I have it set up to run off the grid if the batteries get below a specific point. This way I always have a good battery reserve if the power goes out here which happens from time to time.
I'm planning on adding a micro-hydro and two home made wind mills and it should run 24/7 with no problems. Right now I have 8-175 watt panels for a total of 1400 watts. With the mills and the hydro it should be over 3,000 watts. Especially in the winter and spring when we get less sunlight but the stream is running well.

So I'm officially off the grid, at least most of the time and it really feels good to be able to shut off the world and notworry about the winter power outages here.

Rob

 

[forgeblast]

Where did you get your inverters from? What brand panels?
The windmill idea sounds great.

 

[Rob-D]

Where did you get your inverters from? What brand panels?
The windmill idea sounds great.

Hi,
Gee, I don't remember off hand as I ordered components over a couple of years and from different suppliers. They are Solar World panels and they appear to be very good. It surprised me because they are rated for 175 watts each and this morning I was getting over 1800 watts out of a system that came in on paper at 1400 watts.

I do have a couple of small Southwest windmills that I can run up but I really want to make my own as well as my own design hydro.
I've been monitoring the wind here on my Davis overthe last coupleof years and it's quite good, the winters here really blow across my front field that's about 4 acres and abuts state land that used to be farm pasture. So I can literally look over a mile of mostly uninterrupted pasture which, as you probably know, is great for wind.

Rob

 

[forgeblast]

how big of a tower are you going to put it in? If you dont mind where are you getting the plans or are you using a book to build the windmill.

 

[Rob-D]

how big of a tower are you going to put it in? If you dont mind where are you getting the plans or are you using a book to build the windmill.

I've been building alternators for years. I go to a large town about 1/2 hour away and get old fields from large hp motors wind the fields, machine the armatures and weld everytyhing together.
The towers will probably be between 30 and 40 feet high. I'm thinking about 1,000 watts each windmill so I can use them the suppliment my heat.

There's are site, if you don't know about it, with lots of info.

Otherpower.com

best,
Rob

 

[sodamo]

Looks nice.
I have those battery miser caps - love em. Use maybe upto 50% less water with them.

 

[LD1]

If you dont mind someone asking, what is your total out of pocket investment to be totally off grid.

I would much like to have a solar or wind setup, but the cost of payback on everything I have looked at is 15-20 years. With my $200/month average electric bill, It would take over 20 years to pay back a 50k system.

A couple of other questions fo you if you dont mind.

1. Why did you choose to go off grid?? Does your electric company do et metering where they will pay YOU if you are making more than you are using?
I know my electric company does NOT. Which is another reason cost of payback is high.

2. How does a totally off grid system handle sudden high loads? For example, working in the shop and running equimpent a lot. Like welders and such???

Good luck with the system and congrats. But until prices come way down, I dont think it's something I am going to be doing anytime soon.

 

[Rob-D]

Looks nice.
I have those battery miser caps - love em. Use maybe upto 50% less water with them.

Thanks David,
Yes, I was surpised to see how little water I have to add.

Rob

 

[Rob-D]

If you dont mind someone asking, what is your total out of pocket investment to be totally off grid.

I would much like to have a solar or wind setup, but the cost of payback on everything I have looked at is 15-20 years. With my $200/month average electric bill, It would take over 20 years to pay back a 50k system.

A couple of other questions fo you if you dont mind.

1. Why did you choose to go off grid?? Does your electric company do et metering where they will pay YOU if you are making more than you are using?
I know my electric company does NOT. Which is another reason cost of payback is high.

2. How does a totally off grid system handle sudden high loads? For example, working in the shop and running equimpent a lot. Like welders and such???

Good luck with the system and congrats. But until prices come way down, I dont think it's something I am going to be doing anytime soon.

Hi LD1,
First, we lose power here often especially when there's a storm, so it's more than just payback but that is important.

I didn't show my panels but they are on my own structure that we built out of treated lumber.
I saved considerably doing the entire install myself, I haven't totaled all the bills yet but it is around 15 or 16k. The good new is that panel prices are dropping and I could have done it for less today as I paid about 900 dollars a panel for 175 watts.

The other thing is that I have a good field for wind AND a stream for microhydro. This will help heat my house when I get the alternators built and in. I expect payback in a few years, maybe five or six if I can get the heat going and that's conservative.
We just found out that our REA (rural electric assoc.) is offering intertie systems at no cost to us so this will tie in too. We get up to 20k of install.

I have welders and lathes too. What I did was set up the electric so the welder is on the grid circuit. So the times I use it it gets powered by the grid although the inverters can handle it pretty well as they can put out 7.2KW plus more for surge.

The battery bank is 48 volts at 560 amps so that's over 13KW (batteries at half power) of power before I have to recharge them.

Here's a partial brake down.
8 panels at 900 $7200
2- Inverters $4000
8 Rolls batteries $1600
MX60 MTTP 500
Power boxes, wire, conduit,
Lugs, screws nuts, etc. $1500
Total=$14,800.00

But I did it all right down to making my own battery cables, digging trenches, constructing the solar panel structure and putting all the boxes and inverters on the panel you see in the picture and then wiring them which took a couple of weeks of work.
I did it over a couple of years, getting stuff and storing it until I had everything to complete the job.

Here's a photo of my office wall. I get all the info about what's going on right from my desk (you can see the Davis weather pro2 in the lower right hand corner)
It's overcast yet the Trimetric is showing that running the house I'm still addingcharge to the batteries (That's the LED 3, showing 3 amps going to charge the batteries)

Rob

 

[Rob-D]

PS:
Here are some of the things I run:

Well pump 240volts
Oil burner motor
oil hot water motor
40 " flat panel TV
Freezer

And of course lighting, the fridge, washing machine and the computer I'm on now.

It's hard to describe the feeling. there's this world out there and we can't see another house from ours and the world is shut off. It's pretty cool actually!

Rob