Separate battery banks

[Sunking]

At 48 volt, do you think (8 /6volt in series) at 312 ah or about will do the job?

That would give you roughly 3 Kwh/day usage.

Yes. I did the calculator and that was very interesting. Since my demand is about half of Tuscon's where they needed 6000 wh, I need only 3000 or about. So I need about 8/100 or 9/100 watt panels. correct?

This will throw me into the 80 amp mppt charger too. correct? [/QUOTE]No that is not enough panel wattage. You cannot compare Tuscon with Mississippi. I have already shown you what it will take to generate 3 Kwh/day of usable power. In Winter you have 3.5 Sun Hours, not 5.6 Sun Hours like Tuscon. Look at the Seattle numbers I used. To generate the same amount in Seattle as in Tuscon required 7500 watts vs 1800 watts in Tuscon.

For you assuming you use a 25 amp or more MPPT Charge Controller you will need a 1200 watt panel array.

I would suggest you look at 24 volts for your setup. At 24 volts you need.

Panel Wattage = 1200 watts
24 Volt Battery = 625 Amp Hours
MPPT Charge Controller = 50 amps minimum. I would suggest you go with a 80 AMP CC as this will allow you to expand up to 2000 watt panels @ 24 volt battery, or 4000 watts @ 48 volts.

[scheek]

Is it possible to stack (add later) more pure wave inverters. I'm looking at a 3000 watt by AIMS. For a few hundred more I can get a 5000 watt.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

[Sunking]

The inverter size limitation is driven by the battery AH capacity and the voltage drop incurred due to internal resistance of a battery. For Flooded Lead Acid battery the maximum current draw you can take without significant voltage drop is C/8 where C = the battery Amp Hour Capacity. So if you have a 350 AH battery at 48 volts means you can draw about 45 amps or support a 48 volt x 45 amps = 2160 watt inverter.

[scheek]

Remember we decided to go 24 volt /625 ah and leave extra head room for growth with the MPPT (80 amp) I was thinking the same for the inverter, but don't want to over do it.

And I do have two questions in regards to backup generator. I assume it will by-pass the inverter when it is running?

Will I have to have a separate 24 volt charger for it to charge the battery bank?

[Sunking]

Remember we decided to go 24 volt /625 ah and leave extra head room for growth with the MPPT (80 amp) I was thinking the same for the inverter, but don't want to over do it.

OK that means the largest inverter total you can handle is [625/8] x 24 volts = 1875 watts. Less than my previous example.

And I do have two questions in regards to backup generator. I assume it will by-pass the inverter when it is running?

Will I have to have a separate 24 volt charger for it to charge the battery bank? [/QUOTE]No the generator does not bypass the inverter. the Generator runs a battery charger that is connected to the batteries.

[scheek]

I don't think the 24 will get where I want unless I get bigger batteries...and I recall you saying a 120 watt panel will only support a 450 ah battery. I do have 120 panels. I said 100 earlier. My mistake.

Maybe using 12 /450 ah batteries will get me closer to 2500-2700 watts.

I got some thinking to do now.

One more question. Say I use a 2000 watt inverter and I turn everything on which demands 3000 watts, I suppose the breaker will flip. right? At that point will the generator come on with more additional voltage or is it limited to the inverter size?

Thanks