1250watts of solar panels given to me for free, want to make offgrid setup.

[Sunking]

I was given 1250 watts of panels (6 x 250watt) for free. All have been tested and working optimally.

Beg your pardon but 6 x 250 = 1500

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Beg your pardon but 6 x 250 = 1500

hahah forgot to mention on of the panels is smashed and produces about 70watts. So really only 5 are operational.

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Thanks off all of your replies. It defiantly sounds like its not feasible and i should scratch the idea.


Seeing that this is the case, i want to make the most use of what i have available for free.

With the 1250watts of panels. What can i achieve with these UPS batteries i have. Im not looking to power the same solution as before, more just 100watts MAX of external garden and front house lights for 3-5 hours per night on an auto switch. i have 100's of these batters = BB HR5.5-12. i currently have a set of 8 running in a bank for the last12 months without issues. Whats the max i could achieve from these batteries to power these lights.

At the moment my set of 8 powers 2 x 10w lights for 6 hours each night and gets charged by 1 x 250watt panel. Just want to make this setup a bit bigger with what i have and if its possible.

[Logan5]

Throw the smashed panel away. Either way you now have a prime number of panels.

[J.P.M.]

Thanks off all of your replies. It defiantly sounds like its not feasible and i should scratch the idea.


Seeing that this is the case, i want to make the most use of what i have available for free.

With the 1250watts of panels. What can i achieve with these UPS batteries i have. Im not looking to power the same solution as before, more just 100watts MAX of external garden and front house lights for 3-5 hours per night on an auto switch. i have 100's of these batters = BB HR5.5-12. i currently have a set of 8 running in a bank for the last12 months without issues. Whats the max i could achieve from these batteries to power these lights.

At the moment my set of 8 powers 2 x 10w lights for 6 hours each night and gets charged by 1 x 250watt panel. Just want to make this setup a bit bigger with what i have and if its possible.

Once you find out the cost in terms of $$ and hassle, you may find, something like per Mike's post, grid tie or not, that it's the most expensive gift you've ever been given.

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Once you find out the cost in terms of $$ and hassle, you may find, something like per Mike's post, grid tie or not, that it's the most expensive gift you've ever been given.

So your thinking either tie the 1250watts of panels back into the grid and get 4c per unit or just sell the panels?

[J.P.M.]

So your thinking either tie the 1250watts of panels back into the grid and get 4c per unit or just sell the panels?

What I'm thinking is you should do what you want in a way that meets your desired goals in the safest, most cost effective and personally satisfying way possible. What I'm (respectfully) suggesting is that your look before you leap and make sure, to the greatest extent possible, you have all the goods, bads, costs and consequences straight and reasonably correct in your own mind. Many folks show up here completely clueless about solar in general, and are even less informed still about the likely hassles, care, feeding of an off grid systems in particular, and the sometimes major lifestyle changes required for an off grid existence. Then, they get all pissed off and hurt when their ignorance is pointed out to them by very informed folks who have no skin in the game other than offering the wisdom and opinion of experience. If you are one of those folks, perhaps a rethink or more information/education may be useful and worthy of consideration. If you are not one of those folks, ignore this post.

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What I'm thinking is you should do what you want in a way that meets your desired goals in the safest, most cost effective and personally satisfying way possible. What I'm (respectfully) suggesting is that your look before you leap and make sure, to the greatest extent possible, you have all the goods, bads, costs and consequences straight and reasonably correct in your own mind. Many folks show up here completely clueless about solar in general, and are even less informed still about the likely hassles, care, feeding of an off grid systems in particular, and the sometimes major lifestyle changes required for an off grid existence. Then, they get all pissed off and hurt when their ignorance is pointed out to them by very informed folks who have no skin in the game other than offering the wisdom and opinion of experience. If you are one of those folks, perhaps a rethink or more information/education may be useful and worthy of consideration. If you are not one of those folks, ignore this post.

Honestly I just want to use what i got, not upset if i cant use it, not upset if i dont get what i want out of it. I like to tinker and make custom projects Make the most of what i got where i can. I have couple 12v crappy 20A charge controllers, I have a couple custom built 1500Watt pure sinewave inverters i made out of Eaton/MGE Ups's. I got 100's of 5.5AH UPS's batteries all in good order. I got the 1250Watts of panels.

The whole idea behind the original post was upgrading to something a little juicer and making my system worth it bang for buck but obviously from all of your detailed recommendations its not worth the time, money or hassle.

So trying to revert back to something i can do with my setup at a low cost or to at least offset it. I dont want to start playing around with it all at a high cost if its not going to yield anything in return.

So my question is, any idea's i can do with my current parts? Any ways to make more than 10x5.5AH (55AH) battery banks safe? Or at least try and achieve 100AH with these batteries i have, in some wiring order to make them safe. I know its not ideal but i have hundreds and hundreds of them. If they get 300 cycles and they last 1 year i can just replace them out again.

Maybe hook them up to a crappy charge controller and a 500watt inverter and run some garden and outdoor lighting at around 100w. I dont care about the time in this aspect. if the parts are cheap or free i like playing around with stuff like this. More than happy to hook it all up and do the work myself. But if the cost starts becoming expensive and there is no return on it then i rather just sell all the gear or do something that will make me a little profit such as the 4c per unit back into the grid.

[jflorey2]

So my question is, any idea's i can do with my current parts?

Well, you could certainly build a low-reliability system for things like yard lights. I have a "spare parts" system in the backyard with about 65ah worth of gel cells and 170 watts of solar, and use it for yard lighting and Christmas lights. It definitely wouldn't be worth building new, but I had all the parts anyway from previous installs.

[Skunkarific]

Something no one else has addressed and here is the hardware that you listed. That charge controller is a 50 amp pwm charge controller. With that much power, a pwm charge controller would not be indicated. I would be looking at and mppt unit. Something like a Midnite solar. That alone is going to cost you about $600US. Then you are going to need a quality sine wave inverter, think about spending about 550 to $600US also for that. I am learning this the hard way myself, and I'm really grateful for all the help I've gotten here.