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Hello everyone, and happy Friday! I'm new here :P And, pretty new to the whole solar thing too 
I've been doing a TON of reading though, and just finished up the ginormous-but-informative NEC-PV overview.
Currently, I'm not planning anything too extravagant, but figured that I'd start dabbling and then progress from there as time, money, and need allow.
Next year we're going to replace a small portion of our south-facing roof with steel roofing (about 2 square worth,) which will give us a good long-life roof to install on top of.
Currently have two 100W monocrystalline Renogy panels sitting in their boxes at home waiting for the new roof. Figured that would give us a good start to play around with. At this time, planning to mostly power DC loads off of it, but do have a 600W sine-wave inverter that I'll be able to use if need be. Planning to put this behind a Samlex SDC-23 20 Amp 24v DC to 12v DC converter.
Planning on picking up four T105-RE batteries to run in a 24v system, because we'll have about 50' of wire length, and want to minimize loss. Currently planning for a 20% discharge cycle to maximize the battery life. Right now have the Renogy 30A PWM charge controller that came with the panels, but don't know if I'll end up sticking with it, definitely up for recommendations there, and have a lot of questions in my head about the best controller to make sure that the batteries will be properly cared for.
At this point, I'm planning to go with 6AWG aluminum wire through metal conduit from the roof to the basement, with a Midnite Solar MNPV6 on each end (one to combine the eventual additional solar strings together, as well as provide a service entry disconnect, the other one in the basement to provide a disconnect for the batteries as well as house the GFPD.) At some point down the road when we add more panels, we'll add a second cable run from the roof to the combiner in the basement.
Grand scheme of things is to eventually move this to a small grid-tie solution with more panels (planning on eventually 1200 watts at 24v.) We don't plan on being off-grid, but are hoping to be able to offset a decent amount of our normal-load stuff, and just depend on the grid for higher-amperage things like the AC and furnace.
I'm a total noob at all this, and these options and products are results of a lot of reading and research, but I'm totally welcoming suggestions, criticisms, etc. Right now, only own the two panels, inverter, and 6awg wire.
I won't have a whole lot of time to spend on the forums because we have a young'n that takes up most of my spare time, but will pop in from time to time. And I'll do my best to ask only educated, pre-researched questions so that I don't waste your time
Hope you all have a splendid day, and nice to e-meet you
I've been doing a TON of reading though, and just finished up the ginormous-but-informative NEC-PV overview.Currently, I'm not planning anything too extravagant, but figured that I'd start dabbling and then progress from there as time, money, and need allow.
Next year we're going to replace a small portion of our south-facing roof with steel roofing (about 2 square worth,) which will give us a good long-life roof to install on top of.
Currently have two 100W monocrystalline Renogy panels sitting in their boxes at home waiting for the new roof. Figured that would give us a good start to play around with. At this time, planning to mostly power DC loads off of it, but do have a 600W sine-wave inverter that I'll be able to use if need be. Planning to put this behind a Samlex SDC-23 20 Amp 24v DC to 12v DC converter.
Planning on picking up four T105-RE batteries to run in a 24v system, because we'll have about 50' of wire length, and want to minimize loss. Currently planning for a 20% discharge cycle to maximize the battery life. Right now have the Renogy 30A PWM charge controller that came with the panels, but don't know if I'll end up sticking with it, definitely up for recommendations there, and have a lot of questions in my head about the best controller to make sure that the batteries will be properly cared for.
At this point, I'm planning to go with 6AWG aluminum wire through metal conduit from the roof to the basement, with a Midnite Solar MNPV6 on each end (one to combine the eventual additional solar strings together, as well as provide a service entry disconnect, the other one in the basement to provide a disconnect for the batteries as well as house the GFPD.) At some point down the road when we add more panels, we'll add a second cable run from the roof to the combiner in the basement.
Grand scheme of things is to eventually move this to a small grid-tie solution with more panels (planning on eventually 1200 watts at 24v.) We don't plan on being off-grid, but are hoping to be able to offset a decent amount of our normal-load stuff, and just depend on the grid for higher-amperage things like the AC and furnace.
I'm a total noob at all this, and these options and products are results of a lot of reading and research, but I'm totally welcoming suggestions, criticisms, etc.
Right now, only own the two panels, inverter, and 6awg wire. I won't have a whole lot of time to spend on the forums because we have a young'n that takes up most of my spare time, but will pop in from time to time. And I'll do my best to ask only educated, pre-researched questions so that I don't waste your time
Hope you all have a splendid day, and nice to e-meet you
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