Off Grid Garden Shed and Irrigation

[jwensley81]

hello,
I am planning an off grid solar installation for a small garage/ garden shed with DC water pump to irrigate a community garden. Looking for some advice as this is my first time dealing with solar. Is my system size ok for what i need or can i downsize? FLA or AGM batteries? I have a budget of $7100 CDN to do this project. I've priced out the components online for about $4600 but not sure what shipping would be like. I'm thinking that should leave me enough for cable, over current protection, ground mount rack. what do you think??

Daily load demands:
DC pump 100 W x 4 hours= 400 Wh
4 inside lights 40 W x 5 hours= 200 Wh
1 outside light 10 W x 12 hours= 120 Wh
1/2 hp overhead garage door 120V, 6A
maybe a radio, cordless drill battery charger, cell charger

I figure 2000 Wh daily should be plenty with room for growth in case i need a 2nd pump.
I am in Central Canada with Avg 5.2 sun hours, and Low 3.2 hours.
2000 Wh x 1.5 (fudge factor)=3000 Wh
3000 Wh / 3.2 sun hours=937.5 W
So.. 1000 Watt solar array should be good. The system will be 24 volt DC. I'm sure this is a little overkill as i will not be needing much power in the winter months

I plan on using 4 grid tie panels x 250 watts each
45 A MPPT charge controller (Morningstar)
1000 W, 24volt, pure sine Inverter
4 x Rolls S-550, 6 volt, 428 AH batteries connected in series.

[ButchDeal]

What is WA? from your calculations it looks like you are trying to get to wh or kwh
you need to come up with some calculation on the variables like radio, cordless drill battery charger and garage door use per day.

[jwensley81]

Yes it was supposed to say Wh for watt hours. The garage door will be used to air the building out and to take out the garden tractor. The door will be opened/closed no more than twice per day. The cordless drill battery charger is 120 volt and draws 2 amps being used maybe 2 hours per day. A cheap little 120volt am/fm radio, 2 amps used 5 hours per day

[littleharbor]

Can the garage door opener be powered up only when you need to open it? Seems you don't need an inverter running 24/7 otherwise. If you can turn on/off the inverter only as needed you should be able to scale down the whole system.

[bcroe]

Can the garage door opener be powered up only when you need to open it? Seems you don't need an inverter running 24/7 otherwise. If you can turn on/off the inverter only as needed you should be able to scale down the whole system.

Yes, soon as AC motors run from an inverter, the starting surge begs a very oversized inverter
on the average. A battery powered door opener (no inverter) solves this, and eliminates standby
running. Bruce Roe

[jwensley81]

The building already has a door opener installed so id like to use the existing AC one. The inverter can be shut off when not in use. I'm assuming a 1000 watt inverter is the smallest size necessary to lift the door? 120v x 6 A= 720W + starting surge. where would i downscale? to an 800 watt array with smaller battery bank? seems i might be able to save $500-$800 that way.

[Sunking]

The building already has a door opener installed so id like to use the existing AC one. .

Opened twice a day? Disengage opener and use the rope silly.