Solar system review

[mikejh]

In the winter, the sun usually doesn't hit our house till about 9:00 and goes down around 4:00, so we probably get 4.5 hours of good sun.

As for the 40% DOD, I am not meaning daily, I was meaning that is the about the most I ever expect to draw. The battery bank is about 1540AH at the 100hr rate. The only reason I got such a big one is because I may want to add to the load somday.

Do you know of a good place to get the wires neccesary to link the batteries, or should I just make my own?

Also, is the AIMs 5000 inverter a good one? It sounds like I should get the pure sine wave instead. I was just hopping not to have to being that I am not going to be running any computers/small electronic devices off of it.

Like I said, I am pretty new to this whole thing, and am open to any suggestions.

Thanks!

[Sunking]

Depends on your location and winter insolation means you need a minimum 3.75 Sun Hours in December/January.

[Mike90250]

whoa !! Stop !!


4, 240W panels, is only 960W x 5 hours = 4800w
If you REALLY get 5 hours of usable sun, this may barely work. Rule of thumb with battery systems, with all losses added up, you need to harvest 2x your consumption, to be ballanced.

Taking batteries to 40% discharge, daily, will give you a very short battery life (2 years if lucky). 7 year life is based on 20% discharge.

Mod-sine inverter & motors = early motor failure, and an additonal 20% extra power consumption over nameplate usage.

[mikejh]

Hey guys,

I am pretty new to solar, and this is going to be my first large setup and I wanted to know your oppinion/reccomendations for it.

I am using it to run several appliances. Refrigerator/freezer ect.

My draw is about 2.8KW, or 240AH per 24hrs.

My setup is as follows:

(4) grape solar 240W monocrystalline panels
(1) Instapark MPPT 50A charge controller
(6) Rolls surrette S-1590 2V batteries
(1) AIMS 5000watt power inverter (modified sine wave)

Should I get a in-line fuse, in addition to the one in the inverter? Also, the inverter has a battery voltage indicator, and the charge controller has a charge indicator. Should I also get a charge indicator to mount in the house, or is checking the charge controller/inverter going to be fine? My draw is quite low, so I am not expecting much more than 40% DOD.

I am making a tracking mount for the panels, which are located on the western central Washington border. We are at a pretty high elevation, and get quite a bit of sun.

If you could give me your suggestions and tips, it would be appretiated!

Michael