So back to Randen's initial question......I apologize for getting somewhat off topic....
Plans are indeed in the works to "cut the cord" or "go dark"!
I've had a micro-offgrid system working for a couple of years now to run my wood kiln. As we have been hit with the Emerald ash borer I decided to make new flooring for the house rather than firewood out of the hundreds of ash trees that died. A 420w 2-panel homemade tracker charges a 12v /1000ah battery bank via an Outback FM60 charge controller. A small modified-sinewave inverter then powers the kiln. This has allowed me to make mistakes and fine tune the system at a level that is manageable and allowed me to collect lots of data.
My plans for off grid equipment are as follows:
40 @ Eclipsall 250w panels (10kw)
6 @ Canadian solar 205w panels (1.2kw)
3 @ Jingwang (or something like that) 210w panels (0.6 kw)
20 @ single-axis polar trackers (homemade)
2 @ Magnum MS4448PAE inverters
2 @ Magnum PT-100 charge controllers ( was going to use outback FM80's but these new controllers allows me to get away with 2 instead of 3 controllers)
Batteries are still up in the air - I already have 700ah (48v) of reclaimed AGM's that I will start with and add a few more strings as needed. They probably have another 5 years left in them.
1 @ solar shed! This is my holdup right now - of our 6 kids, 4 have decided to get married over the past 4 years - let's just say the "shed fund" is rather depleted. Hopefully in two weeks when the 4th is married the shed will begin! I want everything out in the shed - the front half will be a pool shed and the back half will house the batteries, inverters, charge controllers and anything else I might need out there. I'm hoping (planning) that the well insulated shed will be heated by the inverters,etc in the winter months, and cooled via AC with excess PV in the summer.
Tim
|