A lot of watts! But no knowledge...

[nathanbrown]

Hey guys. My name is Nate, and I am confused. Like, really confused. I used to have a solar panel that attached directly to a small pc fan. That's all I used to know to do. Recently, my friend gave me four 255W 30v solar panels. They have these weird looking male and female connectors. He also gave me these microinverters that go along with them. They are a bunch of enphase 215 microinverters. He also gave me one P300 solar edge power optimizer.

How can I go about connecting these to a car battery or what not? If my homework is correct, wouldn't I just connect each of the panels in a row with the microinverters in between them and then connect them to a battery bank? I am confused with the weird looking cables that are coming out of the inverters. They have male and female cords, and also this weird looking 4 pin connecting thing. I know I sound very ignorant, but is there a way to connect these things together?

Thanks For Any Help
Nate

[inetdog]

Hey guys. My name is Nate, and I am confused. Like, really confused. I used to have a solar panel that attached directly to a small pc fan. That's all I used to know to do. Recently, my friend gave me four 255W 30v solar panels. They have these weird looking male and female connectors. He also gave me these microinverters that go along with them. They are a bunch of enphase 215 microinverters. He also gave me one P300 solar edge power optimizer.

How can I go about connecting these to a car battery or what not? If my homework is correct, wouldn't I just connect each of the panels in a row with the microinverters in between them and then connect them to a battery bank? I am confused with the weird looking cables that are coming out of the inverters. They have male and female cords, and also this weird looking 4 pin connecting thing. I know I sound very ignorant, but is there a way to connect these things together?

Thanks For Any Help
Nate

DANGER Will Robinson!

Each microinverter is what is called a Grid Tie Inverter. It produces 240V AC, not DC, and will only deliver an output when it is properly connected to your house electrical system and the grid is up. This is not anything you should be touching as a DIY project, especially with your current level of knowledge.

The panels can be used together with a suitable Charge Controller (CC) to charge a battery bank, but the microinverters and the SolarEdge optimizer are of no use to you at the moment. The optimizer will only work in conjunction with a SolarEdge inverter or another piece of equipment that serves the same purpose of giving commands to the optimizer.

The four pin connector on the enphase trunk cable is for two hot conductors, one grounded conductor and one equipment ground (EGC) conductor. It connects to your 120/240V grid-connected AC wiring system and you should not be trying to do anything with that!

[nathanbrown]

So lets see if I can comprehend whats going on. You're telling me I can, for example, connect a solar panel, to my microinverter to an appropriate charge controller and then directly to a battery? That's it? Its that easy?

[inetdog]

So lets see if I can comprehend whats going on. You're telling me I can, for example, connect a solar panel, to my microinverter to an appropriate charge controller and then directly to a battery? That's it? Its that easy?

No, and if you think you read that in what I said you are not reading carefully enough.

DO NOT try to use the microinverters for anything! They produce AC, not DC. The optimizer converts DC at one voltage and current combination to DC at a different combination, but will not do anything on its own.

You could connect the panels to a CC and connect that CC to a battery bank, but you will need to do wiring with MC4 connectors to match the panel leads. And you will have to DESIGN the system first before buying anything.
1. Read the sticky threads in the Off Grid section.
2. Download Solar Power Your Home For Dummies off the internet and read it from end to end.

[Sunking]

Stop! Start here. DO NOT BUY ANYTHING as you have several weeks of homework to do.

[nathanbrown]

Thanks for the direction guys. I really appreciate it.