Solar power

[Brent S]

Thanks for the info I'll be using it.I'm with you on getting off the grid, the grid is so weak might not last anyway.

I don’t even care to be completely off the grid. I do want to be able to run the lights, a couple 110v receptacles, and a little tougher but do able will be the well pump and my referigerator/freezer. AC of course is the holy grail of solar ability but I’m not even planning to consider it for now. I did just replace my unit with a much more efficient one than my 10yr old unit was, but it’s still an energy hog as far as solar is concerned.
I usually tell people to think about what they need. Water, a way to cook, some sort of refrigeration so food will last longer, some lights and a couple receptacles for occasional tools or small stuff. I have multiple ways to cook so don’t need that for the solar at least. Setting up your whole house can be a thirty five thousand dollar investment, but setting up just what you need can be done a lot cheaper.

 

[jeff miller]

I have to finish the project I'm working on now before I start the solar. I'm going to have to do little by little, retirement pay sucks compared to a job but more time to enjoy life.

 

[Arcticdude]

There are solar calculators available to estimate the ROI on installing solar power. If your able to install the system yourself you can save some money. On my system I hired a crane to set the pole mount and to lift the panels in to place. Hired a concrete guy and 8 yards of concrete to set the pole. Then I hired an excavator to trench the lines and an electrician to connect the system to the house, cabin and shop. All of this, plus the cost of components, qualified for the Federal 30% tax credit.
I connected the inverter, battery bank, generator, auto start and panels myself. It was all easy.
I highly recommend solar to anyone who wants to live independently and not be connected to the grid. For me I had no other option for electric. Power is 6 miles away from my place.

 

[jeff miller]

You didn't have much choice, 30,000 for solar and power free from there on or 30,000 in power poles and wires still monthly bills and on grid. The 30,000 was just a number .

 

[WGregMiller]

At one point, I talked to the guy who ran the solar thing at Calhoun, from its inception.

He said, if he was going to do it on his dime, he’d buy good panels off eBay, but put his money in the batteries.

The worst part of it all is that you have to get good information, and there are a ton of opinions out there on batteries. And everyone knows that opinions are like assholes, and whoever is selling ‘system a’ will promise you that theirs is the bestest ever, and the same for every other system.

I’ve considered Tesla batteries, but I don’t know how long they’ll be in business.

 

[jeff miller]

I still have a year before I ready to start , I'll keep looking and listening .

 

[tmttactical]

ROI (Return On Investment) is not there on Solar Systems. In normal situations, they will not pay for themselves. If you are like Arcticdude, then it pays. The weak point in the Solar System and a very expensive weak point point is the Battery Bank. High quality batteries are very expensive and have a relative short life span, compared to the rest of the system. If you can isolate the circuits to critical (refrigerator / freezer) vs. non-critical (washer / dryer) components, the battery bank can be held to a minimum, thus reducing the cost. As with all things, there will be a trade off. You will have 24/7/ 365 use of refrigerators but you will only be able to do the laundry during daytime and on sunny days.

 

[DrHenley]

In Australia they are developing a solar-hydro hybrid system that uses solar power to pump water from a lower reservoir to a higher reservoir, and then runs the water from the higher reservoir through a turbine to a lower reservoir to generate hydro electric power. I'm thinking you could do the same thing on a smaller scale with a water tower.
https://www.energymatters.com.au/renewable-news/world-first-hybrid-solar-hydro/

 

[jeff miller]

Urbanprep, just used the info you gave me. It was out F------standing, I did pick the right one. Thanks again.

 

[Brent S]

I have to finish the project I'm working on now before I start the solar. I'm going to have to do little by little, retirement pay sucks compared to a job but more time to enjoy life.

Yeah, either you have time and little money or work your butt off and don’t have time to enjoy the money. Life is a little backwards sometimes.

 

[Brent S]

At one point, I talked to the guy who ran the solar thing at Calhoun, from its inception.

He said, if he was going to do it on his dime, he’d buy good panels off eBay, but put his money in the batteries.

The worst part of it all is that you have to get good information, and there are a ton of opinions out there on batteries. And everyone knows that opinions are like assholes, and whoever is selling ‘system a’ will promise you that theirs is the bestest ever, and the same for every other system.

I’ve considered Tesla batteries, but I don’t know how long they’ll be in business.

Lithium batteries have a pretty good life span now. They are the best thing out right now but are still crazy expensive. The return on investment just isn’t even close yet. The only pro is if your somewhere power isn’t available or just want the independence from the grid. A lot of people say they want the reliability of their own system vs the grid, but with weather and maintenance, your own system isn’t any more reliable than the grid.

 

[jeff miller]

Not much of a balance, but yea do what u can when u can. Only 2% of the 7% prepping have the funds to do all that needs to be done fast, but then there not living the life.

 

[Arcticdude]

ROI (Return On Investment) is not there on Solar Systems. In normal situations, they will not pay for themselves. If you are like Arcticdude, then it pays. The weak point in the Solar System and a very expensive weak point point is the Battery Bank. High quality batteries are very expensive and have a relative short life span, compared to the rest of the system. If you can isolate the circuits to critical (refrigerator / freezer) vs. non-critical (washer / dryer) components, the battery bank can be held to a minimum, thus reducing the cost. As with all things, there will be a trade off. You will have 24/7/ 365 use of refrigerators but you will only be able to do the laundry during daytime and on sunny days.

My system is designed to run everything in the house shop and cabin at the same time 24/7/365. That doesn't mean that the solar and battery bank will run everything at once on it's own 24/7, it wont, but part of my system includes a 12 kw Perkins diesel generator with an auto start. During high demand, and whenever the battery bank drops below 24 volts the generator automatically starts and will cover the load. When our house is finished we'll have a large electric refrigerator, two chest freezers, electric washing machine, central AC and heat with a heat pump. Plus my wife has every electric appliance known to man. Water heater, cooking, clothes dryer, and furnace are all propane.
My system has preformed flawlessly so far. Except for last winter when we had an early cold spell and the fuel gelled before I had a chance to treat it. That was my fault not the electric system.
I do believe that with the 30% Federal tax credit, and possible state and local incentives, that solar can pay for itself over time. It's well worth considering. Everything in the system, including buildings, generator, labor, concrete and equipment all quality for the tax credits. If you go solar keep track of every expense that goes into your system.

 

[JackDW]

Just adding my 2cents worth (worth less than a penny these days). I am just in the planning stages. Hope to get phase one started later this year. Phase one will be the learning stage. I hope to setup a couple solar panels (cheap Amazon panels). I will start with an inexpensive charge controller that I can upgrade later as I build the system and finally determine what I really want. Current question, is batteries. In phase 1, don't need a lot of battery power but want to make sure I use something that will be compatible as I grow the system. Phase 1 will be approx. 1,000 watt Pure Sinewave inverter. Don't need that much initially, but I may as well plan ahead.

The panels will be mounted on wood structures on the outside corner of the house. Power will feed into the crawlspace under the house to the charge controller and batteries. I will mount a small breaker box near the batteries and inverter and run the power from the invertor into this breaker box. I will then run 12guage wiring to one outlet box in the den and one to the bedroom. The solar power will be connected to separate outlets that are no way connected to any other power. I can the use these outlets to power lower powered item such as TVs and maybe lap tops.

This will allow me to gain experience with solar systems and I can expand the system as I go. Eventually, I hope to grow it enough to power the refrigerator / freezer and other larger items but I will have to grow into that. Yes, this will be a slow process but it will allow me to walk before I run. With this approach, I should be able to handle everything myself. Biggest thing for me, I will, in no way, even come close to tying into the current power grid.

Additional consideration for me. I will be relocating from Raleigh NC to the Charlotte, NC area in a year or so. Since I am mounting everything in modules, I should be about to just pick everything up and move it. So, I will not permanently mount anything in my initial stages. When I get to the point that I move it to it's permanent location, I should have enough experience to avoid some of the "rookie" mistakes that I WILL make.

 

[Brent S]

I got one 100w panel, a 2000w pure sine wave inverter, two agm batteries and a charge controller. Also usable links for the battery cables. I mounted all that in my camper and haven’t finished all the connections yet but could in an hour or so. The good thing about our business is money is good, the bad is we seem to always be really busy and it’s easy to drop projects and take a long time to get back to them. The camper was supposed to be my trial run before setting up something for the house. One of these days I will get back on track!

 

[Arcticdude]

Just adding my 2cents worth (worth less than a penny these days). I am just in the planning stages. Hope to get phase one started later this year. Phase one will be the learning stage. I hope to setup a couple solar panels (cheap Amazon panels). I will start with an inexpensive charge controller that I can upgrade later as I build the system and finally determine what I really want. Current question, is batteries. In phase 1, don't need a lot of battery power but want to make sure I use something that will be compatible as I grow the system. Phase 1 will be approx. 1,000 watt Pure Sinewave inverter. Don't need that much initially, but I may as well plan ahead.

The panels will be mounted on wood structures on the outside corner of the house. Power will feed into the crawlspace under the house to the charge controller and batteries. I will mount a small breaker box near the batteries and inverter and run the power from the invertor into this breaker box. I will then run 12guage wiring to one outlet box in the den and one to the bedroom. The solar power will be connected to separate outlets that are no way connected to any other power. I can the use these outlets to power lower powered item such as TVs and maybe lap tops.

This will allow me to gain experience with solar systems and I can expand the system as I go. Eventually, I hope to grow it enough to power the refrigerator / freezer and other larger items but I will have to grow into that. Yes, this will be a slow process but it will allow me to walk before I run. With this approach, I should be able to handle everything myself. Biggest thing for me, I will, in no way, even come close to tying into the current power grid.

Additional consideration for me. I will be relocating from Raleigh NC to the Charlotte, NC area in a year or so. Since I am mounting everything in modules, I should be about to just pick everything up and move it. So, I will not permanently mount anything in my initial stages. When I get to the point that I move it to it's permanent location, I should have enough experience to avoid some of the "rookie" mistakes that I WILL make.

Sounds like a good plan. However, I'd advise caution with using cheap components. Like everything else, buy the best product that you can afford. Especially if you'll eventually be powering your home with it, you'll want a dependable system.
Also, be aware that if you plan to add additional batteries to your battery bank at a later date you may not be able to. For my system I chose 8 Crown 860AH lead acid batteries wired for 24VDC for 20,640 watt hours. I was told that if I wanted to add additional batteries that I'd have to do it within a year. This may not apply to other types of batteries but it does for lead acid.
I had the resources to go with any type of battery bank currently available. After I did my research and talking with battery "experts" I went with lead acid batteries. They do require some periodic maintenance and cleaning though.
My solar array is 10 each American made 295 watt panels mounted on top of a 24 foot 8" diameter schedule 80 pipe buried 6' deep in 8 yards of concrete. I put the panels up this high so I wouldn't have to cut any trees for the winter sun.
I have a 12 kw liquid cooled diesel generator to cover any additional power needed. Currently I have a 55 gallon fuel tank dedicated to the generator but have a 285 gallon tank on order.
The generator, inverter, battery bank, power panel, extra parts and all other related components are housed in a seperate building.
For my system I wanted everything to be as automatic and easy to maintain as possible. In the past year or so that I've been on solar power I've has zero problems with it.
Good luck with your system, and remember to save all receipts for tax time.

 

[Arcticdude]

.

 

[mak270]

Thanks for the info I'll be using it.I'm with you on getting off the grid, the grid is so weak might not last anyway.

if you go solar I would sugest getting an "mppt" charge controller, it takes all the headache out of worring wether you are overcharging or undercharging your batteries. it knows when to float charge or bulk charge. and make sure you use deep cycle batteries. if you are even a little bit handy and can follow instructions, you can install your own system. doing it your self is where you save the big bucks!

 

[Arcticdude]

The construction process on our house has been the real test on how well our solar electric system works. You can add up your electrical devices and light bulbs etc to try and calculate your anticipated electric usage, but I just guessed on my system.
Even on a cloudy day I'm producing enough "free" power to run the builders air compressor, table saw, floor sander and all the lights in the house. Plus the refrigerator in the cabin.
Since I'm running a chicken brooder during the night, it does cause the generator to start up around midnight - 3 am and run for 3 hours.
I'm happy with solar so far.

 

[Arcticdude]

Solar update.
Over the last 2 weeks I had some overheating problems with our charge controller. The controller would heat up and trip a breaker shutting off the solar panels. After awhile the batteries would run down and the generator would automatically start up.
We had very hot weather here, up to 90 degs and I was running the AC in the cabin. The builders also had their table saws, air compressors and lights on at the same time. I think I found the limit on our solar system.
I added a small fan to help cool the charge controller, and since it's cooled down to the mid 50's I don't need the AC.
So far this has been the only problem that we've had with our solar system.
I heard that this is the last year that the Feds are offering the full 30% tax credits. Next year it drops to 24% and after that it's drops to 6%.
With that in mind I'm going to buy another backup generator before the end of the year to run the well pump.