Solar power. My first foray into it.

[Mountain trapper]

Holy crap 5at looks cold! Can’t wait for some summertime Picts though!
How many amp hours are your 6v batteries? Looks like a good setup.

Yeah. I'm looking forward to summer too. We had another foot of snow today.
My batteries are 430 amp hours each.

 

[Mountain trapper]

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[Mountain trapper]

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[Mountain trapper]

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[Mountain trapper]

Looks like I will do fine with 2000AH artery storage. 10 200Amp Hour deep cell AGM batteries. Roughly $4000. Just for batteries. I should still be able to keep the whole system below 8,000. Once I finalize all the parts I will post them with actual costs and pictures. The regular power bill is looking better all the time! Other than the self sufficiency part I don’t see this as economical at all. As soon as the accountant gives us a final tally for last years taxes I will pull the trigger, but still have a little design work to do.

My battery bank cost $2600 (no tax and free shipping) for 8 each 6V 430AH batteries for 20,640 watt hours at 24 VDC. The engineer told me that if I need to add additional batteries that I'd have up to 1 year to add more if needed. He figured that I'd have plenty of power. I'm not too concerned as the generator will automatically start to cover any unexpected loads.

 

[Mountain trapper]

Got the battery bank connected to the inverter and the generator wired to the inverter today. I programed the battery charge controller, the remote battery moniter and the inverter power center too. Just have one connection left to make, from the AC side of the inverter to the cabin. I figured that I'd wait until the wife is home before I make the finial connection. Just in case I made a mistake and electrocute myself.
The programming was easier than I thought. Next step is to order the auto start for the generator.
It'll probably be around the end of May before I can get a cement truck and a crane up here to set the pole mount for the panels. If the timing is right the cement can be done at the time they pour the slab for the shop and foundation for the house.

 

[Brent S]

I’m still waiting on our accountant to finish our taxes before I spend any money that I might have left over from the IRS. Still looking at 8k just to run a fridge, freezer and a couple light and 110v circuits. Ouch.

 

[lonewolf]

having all those batteries lying around would put me off, (even if I was considering it, which I'm not) from a safety and storage point of view.
storage of anything is a problem in the UK if you have a "modern" house, anything built in the last 30 years +.

 

[Mountain trapper]

Last night I made the final electrical connections on my inverter, battery bank and generator. We're running everything on battery power now. I still need to run the generator about 5 hours a day for the next couple of days to charge and equalize the battery bank. Next I'll connect the auto start.

 

[Mountain trapper]

Been running the cabin on the battery bank and inverter for several weeks now. Everything is working even better than I expected. Until I get the solar panels up I still need to run the generator about every 3-5 days for about 6 hours to recharge the battery's.
An added plus, thanks to the 30% tax credit, we had zero federal tax liability for 2017. The tax credit covers everything to with installing an alternative energy system; construction costs, equipment costs, electrician, labor, wire and components.
Construction will start on the house and shop in two weeks. When they bring the excavator up to dig the foundation I'll have them dig the hole for the solar panel mount. I'm going with a single pole mount with 10 each 395 watt panels. I figure it'll take about 6 yards of concrete for the pole. Of course all of this cost will qualify for the 30% tax credit too.

 

[Brent S]

I was pretty much done researching and about ready to purchase the parts for a solar system here. After a long and hard thought discussion with my son here I’ve decided to put the solar on hold and went ahead and gave a well guy the go ahead to drill a well here. In lots of my posts here I advise others that water is the number one prepping supply to ensure, so I’m taking my own advice. I’m currently on county water, which is a lot cheaper than the well, but not in my control if things go bad. I do have two creeks too, but drinking surface water isn’t as safe, even when filtering. This still fits into solar as I will plan to hook the well to its own panels and inverter system. I looked into a DC motor for the well, but at 400’ deep (average here), the options were pretty limited. The fridge is just taking a lower priority for now. I’m at a pretty good financial point in my life right now but still have to prioritize what kinds of projects that I can afford to do. Damn, if I was only rich.... the possibilities!