oddball size and ya gotta buy a lot

 

My panels are 220 watt.

From what I have seen; 190, 195, 200, 205, 210, 220 are all fairly normal sizes.

 

Please keep us updated on what you are doing and how well they are working out for you, with pics of course I'm very interested in this!

 

36 volt, so you are planning a grid tied system.

 

Huh? What does panels having 36 vdc have to do with grid tie?

 

We have 4400 watts of panels [twenty 220 watt panels]. I bought a pallet of them on sale, 18 months ago. Last Fall I built an array and mounted them. 70' long, up on eleven 6X8 posts in concrete sonotubes. I got them all up, and a few days later we had a wind-storm with 50 knot winds. A week before Hurricane Sandy hit down South. It snapped all eleven posts inside the concrete, and laid the entire array on the ground.

I have changed the design, to be more wind resistant. I am waiting for the ground to thaw and dry-out so I can re-build. This summer, they will be up again.



We will not be grid-tie.

I have spoken with our Utility Company about grid-tie and net-metering. I have a copy of their contract. It basically triples the cost of a system to be grid-tied.

I have spoken with two other families in this county who are grid-tied / net-metering, and we do not see any benefit from all that extra expense.

The families who did it, have lots of cash, they like the bragging rights of being grid-tied. "Spinning the meter backwards" on days when the grid is up, is a big deal for them.

Making power during the day, using power at night, the energy part balances out. But you still pay taxes on the power you use. Plus you pay their fees. Every month your still without power for anywhere from a day, up to a week, or more.

Why spend so much cash, when your still going to be without power? Makes no sense to me. Plus they still pay all the taxes on the power they do use.



In our township there are three other homesteads currently off-grid, and doing fine with no grid access.

I have grid access, which is okay for back-up. But only on the days when the grid is up. Our Utility Company is way too unreliable to be tied to them.

 

Isn't the 36v and 48 volt cells used more for grid tied systems ?

Like you I would never used a grid tied system. My system is stand alone. This last summer, our electric was off 9 days from a storm, with temps at 105 degs. Our system was a life saver. My daughter is off the grid with her system and people was amazed that she had electric when on one else had electric. I keep building on my system and at this time my electric bill is $25-$35 a month. A little more and I will be having the grid electric turned off.

 

That is why I am interested. I am on a Coop and they don't have to let us grid tie. So to run our entire farm, it would cost about 60K. Now, I'm not seeing savings there, but if the SHTF, I would have power enough to run my farm. BTW I have to have a new solar pump and motor for my well because it is 465 feet deep.
I am thinking of putting the panels on my roof. Thoughts?

 

You have to be able to turn and tilt the panels through out the seasons in order to get the best exposure. And clean them. Plenty people don't mind roof crawling. I just prefer not to. So mine are on the ground where I can reach them easily.

 

Cool!! Thanks for the input on these prices. $0.40/watt is about as cheap as I've seen anywhere.

36 volt panels are not a problem. Modern charge controllers can deal with that.


Brian

 

Forest, Your link is to the panel data sheet, what company did you buy from? Do they have distributors? Thanks

 

Ooops, I meant to mention 'Sun Electronic' in the OP.

I forgot. So sorry. I got my panels from Sun Electronic.

http://www.sunelec.com/

 

I have my panels (Kyocera) set for the average angle. From what I understand the change is about 1 deg a month where I am located. I made my solar frames adjustable (welded 1/1/2" steel angle frames). I could not see enough change to make it worthwhile. Maybe in lab conditions. Just add one more panel and forget about it. Same for tracking the sun during the day. When the sun comes over the eastward mountain ridge it hits the panels until going over the west ridge in the evening. My charge controller is a Morning Star and does a great job of taking care of the golf cart batteries. My daughter is also using a Morning Star controller charging her golf cart battery's and a 600 lb fork truck battery that was given to her. She has a switch box so she can switch from one set of batteries to the other set.

I would never put panels on the roof. I live in the country and have lots of room. My panels are in the yard on the south side of my hanger/workshop/office building and feed the power to my house 50' away. Easy to clean, and keep the snow off in the winter.

 

Bearhawk, could you tell me why you would never put panels on the roof please, thanks!

 

I'm almost 73 years old and have no business on a steep house roof when I need to clean the bird crap or snow off the panels. Also the distance makes for a lot more line lost from the resistance of the longer wiring having the panels on the roof, unless you use very large, expensive wiring. The wiring from my controller to the junction box at the solar panels is 15 feet, and 30" from the controller to the batteries. Less chance of wind damage on the ground. Plus, I have lots of room for the panels on the ground, bolted to steel frames and frames bolted to concrete piers that extend 30" into the ground.

 

Solar panels

I need 250 watt solar panels.
I need 50 of them.
I also need 10 Grundfos SQF 11-2 Submersible pumps.
Who as the cheapest per watt?

 

I need 250 watt solar panels.
I need 50 of them.
... Who as the cheapest per watt?

It is hard to beat Sun Electronic.

http://www.sunelec.com/

 

Wow, FBK!! That's an awesome price!! And I've heard really good things about Sun.

Honestly, with the way modern charge controllers are built these days, I would think the higher voltage panels might be a little more efficient just due to less of a loss between panels and over the wiring.

I'm curious, was shipping a huge deal with getting a pallet of them? Any problems with damage?

 

... I'm curious, was shipping a huge deal with getting a pallet of them? Any problems with damage?

Very happy with shipping, no damage.

 

I've ordered from sunelec a few times. They messed up my order most of the time.. Usually they made it right with partial refund or discount on another order... But once they shipped panels they claimed were certified(after I verified this with several people over the course of a couple of days), but were not, and hence not usable in 'this particular' install.. They made no offer to fix, refused to have the shipment returned on their dime... I eventually had to make dispute through my bank/credit card... It took a while but eventually I was refunded and then sun wanted their panels back(and arranged pickup)...


Some orders they messed up, ordered 2 wind generators, they sent 1 that I ordered, and 2nd one was discontinued completely different.
Ordered another wind generator, they sent the wrong cheaper one, but charged me for the one I ordered(a few hundred diff).
They sold me 2 solar panels without junction box covers, but were claimed to be complete, they could locate no covers to use and refunded me $15ea :/ ...

I do my best to avoid them from now on.

 

Personally i think they rock! NO ONE has better prices on solar.

 

Finally, someone else gets a great deal from SunElec. They rock! :thumb: I've been posting about their awesome prices for 6 years.

 

I'm probably going to be ordering from them.

Sadly looks like their 24V pannels aren't discounted nearly as much.

 

Huh? Listen, it doesn't matter what voltage they are unless it powering something that requires a certain voltage. It's all going into a charge controller which takes care of the details. :thumb:

 

I bought my 'system' from http://www.wholesalesolar.com/

The pre-wired systems change monthly, as new/better components come out. Basically what I bought was this one:
http://www.wholesalesolar.com/1890725/wholesale-solar/complete-systems/large-off-grid-home-3

But without their panels and batteries.

 

Remember to protect your system from lightning strikes.

 

Yep i use lightning arrestor on my charge controller. :thumb:

 

With panels on the roof there are some concerns if there is a fire. Part of it is structure for access, another is if they are still producing electricity. I don't remember if there are other concerns.

http://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf...05/editorial_solar_panels_save_energy_but_what_about_fire_safety_editorial.html

 

Lightning- What I do/why

Where I am solar(and off-grid) there is lightning storm only about once or twice a year! So just keep that in mind for what I'm about to say...

Most lightning damage occurs from power coming into the home through the grid and/or GROUND. I have a metal roofed/sided house with panels hanging off roof/sides; with some roll shutters the place could likely become a faraday cage... Most all electrical code, having been derived from conventional residential AC hookup 'requires' grounding. There is much debate online about this for solar/mobile setups. My whole house is basically isolated w/floating ground with the idea being, any nearby strikes will not travel inside. Any direct hit will make the place glow(frying all plugged in electronics) before jumping to ground anyway, *maybe* with the thousands of square feet of metal siding/roofing it would distribute the heat and save starting a fire..... Again tho, my odds are fairly good given the frequency of lightning here. Being Floating/isolated from ground should in theory also make for a less direct path to ground reducing the risk of a direct strike(tho in reality lightning generally goes where-ever it's gonna go).

If I were to add more lightning protection, I think I would attach lightning rods to nearest highest trees to encourage any strikes 'over there'. I've also heard of devices that produce a high charge similar to lightning to actually discourage/deflect incoming lighting; That could be interesting in a floating metal covered building...

 

I have off-grid neighbors who have lost a lot of their system components to lightning strikes.

The US Navy protects their piers by installing 40' power poles with a lightning rod on top of each pole. Then a ground cable strung from pole to pole. As you walk underneath that, you are basically protected from strikes.

 

It is common practice to wire batteries in series 'strings' to add-up the voltage [to whatever voltage level your Charge-Controller and Inverter need], and then to parallel the strings to add-up the current that your system needs.

I am looking at four 12vdc batteries in series to form each 48vdc string, and then at least three strings in parallel to provide 300ah.

Six strings would be almost ideal.

 

It's getting anymore where the panels are not the most expensive part of solar, but the inverters and optional batteries (assuming you're not going grid-tie).

 

nice. i'll have to check that out