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  • Solar System Setup Questions

    Hello Everyone,

    This is my first post here and I'd like to get others opinions on my thoughts.

    A little background on me... This is my first time working with solar on this scale. We live in the US Virgin Islands and our electricity rates are pretty high at .56 per KWH. Our current bill shows 655 KWH for the month (21.12 per day). Not only is our power expensive, it isn't very reliable, recently we were off and on (mostly off) for a week. We are in the Virgin Islands so we do get PLENTY of sun but I live on the north side of a mountain and have two large mahogany trees, that being said, parts of our house have good sun most of the time. I work 6 days a week so most of the time during daylight hours I'm at work but on Sundays the deck and house are sunny with crisp shadows. Is there a meter that I can buy to set outside to measure the amount of sun my house receives?

    I'm thinking of installing a 3kw 48v solar system with a 5kw inverter so I can expand if necessary. The previous owners of the house had a generator, so there is a manual transfer switch installed. I plan to keep our grid power and hook the inverter to the transfer switch so if we have any issues or need to charge batteries we can just flip a switch.

    Do any of you see issues with my plans? Does $7000 sound like a reasonable budget for the whole setup; panels, batteries, charge controller, wire, mounting hardware, etc. I have been looking at ordering from aliexpress or alibaba but I'm not sure of the quality of the components. Price is a little bit of an issue for us. If I were to know that I can get 100% of my power needs from solar then I can just put it on a credit card or take a loan and use the $325 a month that we pay to the power company to pay the credit card. Do any of you have experience buying your solar equipment from China or do you have recommendations on quality equipment at lower pricing?

    Thank You for any replies. I am still in the early stages of my research but I want to start making my purchases within a month or so.

    Stay Safe,
    Gabe

  • #2
    $7000 won't cut it. think about $35,000 to $50,000 for complete off grid setup.

    Comment


    • #3
      The stuff coming out of China varies, some good stuff, some not so much, it is kind of on a product by product basis. In the long run you wont save any money trying to go off-grid, but if you want something for when the power is out the generator option or a smaller PV system and get by with the basics when the grid is down (lights, TV, charge phone, etc), you can run quite a bit of electronics and lights off of a small - mid size solar system and not break the bank like it will require if you wish to run appliances off the solar. Just the price for living in paradise, we don't feel too sorry for you. Have a great day.

      Comment


      • #4
        You need a Solar PathFinder that will give you an accurate indication of shading for your spot.

        A quality grid-tied battery backup system that size will probably cost about $20k.
        Solar Queen
        altE Store

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by LETitROLL View Post
          The stuff coming out of China varies, some good stuff, some not so much, it is kind of on a product by product basis. In the long run you wont save any money trying to go off-grid, but if you want something for when the power is out the generator option or a smaller PV system and get by with the basics when the grid is down (lights, TV, charge phone, etc), you can run quite a bit of electronics and lights off of a small - mid size solar system and not break the bank like it will require if you wish to run appliances off the solar. Just the price for living in paradise, we don't feel too sorry for you. Have a great day.
          The good stuff generally is produced for companies outside of China where they insure quality control. Direct from a supplier inside of China is a lot more problematic.
          [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

          Comment


          • #6
            Thank you all for the replies!

            I was thinking last night... Why is my per day so high? We don't have AC or heat, all led lighting one brand new energy star fridge and a small chest freezer 7 years old... then it dawned on me, we have five large ceiling fans running 24/7. Those damn ceiling fans are consuming about half (10+ kwh) of our daily power. It is humid at home so we leave the fans running to keep the air moving in the house. I did some looking last night and found a ceiling fan called 'SuperFan' that pulls 35w as opposed to 90w.

            If I were to get the fan usage under control and bring my usage per day down to say... 11kwh. What would that do to my system size and price? I'm kinda seeing the writing on the wall by comments I have been reading on this board; that is that if grid power is available, use it. Even though our electricity costs 56 cents per Kwh it's still cheaper than going solar.

            Is there a point where it is worth it to go solar? One other thing that makes solar attractive is that when a hurricane tears through and fuel and power is out, I could still be up and running. Maybe like someone mentioned I should just go small and have just enough for a few lights and TV.

            Thanks Again Everyone.

            Gabe

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by russ View Post
              The good stuff generally is produced for companies outside of China where they insure quality control. Direct from a supplier inside of China is a lot more problematic.

              Russ,

              To be specific, the panels I was eyeballing were made by a company called Yingi PANDA 60.
              I don't want to post a link but a quick Google search Wil take you right to it. They have a US office but I haven't been able to contact them yet. Anyone know anything about them?

              Thanks,
              Gabe

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by RiP-HS- View Post
                Russ,

                To be specific, the panels I was eyeballing were made by a company called Yingi PANDA 60.
                I don't want to post a link but a quick Google search Wil take you right to it. They have a US office but I haven't been able to contact them yet. Anyone know anything about them?

                Thanks,
                Gabe
                I know nothing about them - maybe someone else does.
                [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by RiP-HS- View Post
                  Is there a point where it is worth it to go solar? One other thing that makes solar attractive is that when a hurricane tears through and fuel and power is out, I could still be up and running. Maybe like someone mentioned I should just go small and have just enough for a few lights and TV.

                  Gabe
                  Even at your high prices (.56 cent per KWH), you probably can not do a normal off-grid system of any size for less over the long run, however the emergency backup benefit of a solar system has some value , and i think you mentioned other non emergency outages. In your case there may be another angle to look into, there are some DC fans out in the marketplace, a DC solar system (lights, fans, some electronics) by eliminating the need for inverter(s) can be done for noticeably less, and the big loser is of course batteries, if your fan usage is needed more in the day and/or not all night, you can possibly set up a tailored system that uses most of the power you generate when you generate it and get by with a smaller battery bank (huge savings, short and long term). Simplicity and conservation are the key, but that also gives you limitations to work within.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Replacing the 5 90W fans with 35W fans would save you 1350 USD a year off your bill assuming they ran 24/7/365.
                    You can buy a lot of gas for a backup gen for what it takes to build a small 2Kwh per day off-grid system (4-5K) capable of running lights and a fridge during the periods of grid down time.
                    1150W, Midnite Classic 200, Cotek PSW, 8 T-605s

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      The humorously named company Big Ass Fans makes high efficiency fans. They may save you a lot of money. NexTek Fanworks make efficient DC fans if you do go solar with batteries.

                      I think your best course of action is to both decrease your fans energy usage, and do a hybrid grid-tied battery backup system with a smaller battery bank than going off-grid completely, but still having the ability to have power backup when needed. Both Schneider and Outback make systems that allow you to configure the system to not send extra power back to the grid, but use the grid when available and needed.
                      Solar Queen
                      altE Store

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        If I were to go with a much smaller system, how difficult is it would be to isolate certain things from the original panel? Sounds like the idea of running fans on a small solar setup that can be used as a backup might be the way to go.

                        Damn, sounds like you folks may have saved me a lot of cash. I sure had high hopes of dropping our electric company. Maybe I need to work on getting more energy efficient first.

                        If I start with a 2kw system, would it be foolish to buy a bigger inverter now maybe something capable of running 5kw so if I do expand?

                        I was wanting to do all of the labor myself but maybe I speak to a local installer about grid tie. Trying to deal with WAPA (power company) is a joke. I was hoping to avoid dealing directly with them.

                        Wow, big ass fans are quite expensive the low end 52" $800+ but they sure are nice looking and 14w on high is pretty damn cool.

                        Once again, thank you all for taking the time to help me.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by RiP-HS- View Post
                          Wow, big ass fans are quite expensive the low end 52" $800+ but they sure are nice looking and 14w on high is pretty damn cool.
                          Investing 5k, 10k or whatever in a solar system then you get back a little each month for a long time, really more energy efficient fans, etc. is no different except in this case maybe 2k to 3k invested in fans may get you your money back sooner than solar. It comes down to what a solar backup is worth to you, if (I mean when) the grid is down. More efficient equipment will save you no matter what source you are running it off of, so I think you may want to make some energy savings either way. The smaller your loads are the smaller you can size a solar backup system, now or in the future. I have seen some other high efficiency fans around 500, I don't recall the exact specs, but you should look real hard at all your options there and see what the best ratio of savings to upfront costs are, some of the fans I looked at had lifetime warranty, inverters, controllers, etc. don't, and the Power company might not stay at .56 cents forever so any money spent now that saves you nearly forever with less chance of repairs, replacement, etc. may be a pretty good deal.

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                          • #14
                            Rip consider this. In the USA for every Kwh per day you use the battery cost if roughly $1000 to $1200 and is replaced every 5 years. That means Kwh battery cost are 66-cents per Kwh. I have no idea how much the batteries will be in St Thomas plus shipping, but I know a lot more than the USA, and will not last as long in a Tropical Climate with salt air. So if you are looking to save money, forget it.
                            MSEE, PE

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Running 5 90W fans 24/7 costs you about $6 a day. Running 5 15W fans 24/7 costs $1 a day. Buying 5 $800 fans costs $4000. Saving $5 a day gives you a payback of 800 days, just over 2 years. The fans sound like a bargain to me.

                              To do a battery backup system, you would move your critical loads from the main breaker box to a new critical loads breaker box. Then when the grid goes out, anything not considered critical would turn off, and anything critical (beer fridge) would stay on and run off the battery bank.

                              We've got a 1.5kW grid tied battery backup package with a Schneider XW6848 inverter and 178Ah battery bank for about $9k. Just a data point for your reference.
                              Solar Queen
                              altE Store

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