NW-Bound
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2008
- Messages
- 35,712
Here's an update on the home DIY solar storage system.
I got all the ground-mounted solar panel wires running to the garden shed last week. The 20 panels were paired up for a higher voltage, but not so high that it required expensive charge controllers. Still the 10 pairs mean 20 wires to go inside a conduit, tee'ing off along the panel array. The other end of the conduit terminates at a garden shed, where all the electronics and battery packs are kept.
Yesterday, I finished wiring the panel output wires to 3 charge controllers, each handling 2kW. The charge controller outputs were connected to a bus, where two inverters are connected along with the battery bank.
It still takes a lot of work to install and connect the 22kWh lithium battery bank (they require building a shelf and a lot of wiring), but for quick testing I borrow a 2kWh lithium battery setup from the motorhome.
Turned on all circuit breakers, and watched the power output coming up to more than 2400W, despite 6 panels getting shaded by the 2nd story rooftop this time of year. In a few months, when all panels are in the sun and the sun angle is higher, I expect to get around 5kW at noon.
For temporary testing, I brought the power into the home via a long extension cord, and powered two electric portable heaters of 1,600W total load, and was able to run them most of the day.
At the end of the day, I installed a power meter so I will be able to count the kWh produced tomorrow. Also installed a circuit to automatically cut out the load to prevent running down and ruining the lithium battery if the solar production drops due to cloud passing. Today, when that happened, I had to babysit it in order to disconnect and reconnect the load. The eventual battery bank will be babysit by a homebrew BMS (battery management system).
Besides the battery installation, I still need to run wires to bring the inverter outputs to the power distribution box, then install automatic transfer switches to bring this solar power into the home on selected circuits.
When I get done, the whole operation will be automatic. I should be able to save the solar juice to run the AC until well after sunset. Will probably need a few more kW of panels on the roof, but that should be easier than all the "infrastructure" that I have spent so many months working on.
I got all the ground-mounted solar panel wires running to the garden shed last week. The 20 panels were paired up for a higher voltage, but not so high that it required expensive charge controllers. Still the 10 pairs mean 20 wires to go inside a conduit, tee'ing off along the panel array. The other end of the conduit terminates at a garden shed, where all the electronics and battery packs are kept.
Yesterday, I finished wiring the panel output wires to 3 charge controllers, each handling 2kW. The charge controller outputs were connected to a bus, where two inverters are connected along with the battery bank.
It still takes a lot of work to install and connect the 22kWh lithium battery bank (they require building a shelf and a lot of wiring), but for quick testing I borrow a 2kWh lithium battery setup from the motorhome.
Turned on all circuit breakers, and watched the power output coming up to more than 2400W, despite 6 panels getting shaded by the 2nd story rooftop this time of year. In a few months, when all panels are in the sun and the sun angle is higher, I expect to get around 5kW at noon.
For temporary testing, I brought the power into the home via a long extension cord, and powered two electric portable heaters of 1,600W total load, and was able to run them most of the day.
At the end of the day, I installed a power meter so I will be able to count the kWh produced tomorrow. Also installed a circuit to automatically cut out the load to prevent running down and ruining the lithium battery if the solar production drops due to cloud passing. Today, when that happened, I had to babysit it in order to disconnect and reconnect the load. The eventual battery bank will be babysit by a homebrew BMS (battery management system).
Besides the battery installation, I still need to run wires to bring the inverter outputs to the power distribution box, then install automatic transfer switches to bring this solar power into the home on selected circuits.
When I get done, the whole operation will be automatic. I should be able to save the solar juice to run the AC until well after sunset. Will probably need a few more kW of panels on the roof, but that should be easier than all the "infrastructure" that I have spent so many months working on.
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