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Off Grid Cabin Solar Upgrades - Time for a system that actually works. Please help!

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  • Off Grid Cabin Solar Upgrades - Time for a system that actually works. Please help!

    Okay, so I am looking to get opinions both good and bad on a potential upgrade to my family cabins solar system. Just a little back ground had a small 12v system for years. TBH, we had very limited knowledge on solar capabilities and kind of patched a system together that worked for us. Fast forward a couple cabin extensions later and we have needs that outweigh our capacity. Our mistakes
    Last edited by sdold; 01-10-2019, 08:54 PM.

  • #2
    Hmm for some reason I cannot post my full question - I attached a document maybe someone could give it a read and post some comments? Much appreciated Thanks guy SOLAR QUESTION.docx

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    • #3
      I give up. I tried editing out apostrophes, hyphens, and it still chokes on some characters. This forum is not one you can copy and paste into, sorry about that.

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      • #4
        Hi All,

        Just an update on the apostrophe and copy and pasting issues, it looks like the boffins have worked out how to fix the apostrophe issue, not sure about the copy and pate issue, bit I think the apostrophe issue will be sorted out by next week some time, cheers

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        • #5
          Good to know. I'm new and tried copying and pasting. Maybe I'll re type it in tomorrow I'm done with the hassle for today lol. Otherwise should be able to read it on the word doc! Thanks though

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          • #6
            The first thing I would do is SELL the inverter. Your 2812 is a good inverter and you should be able to find a buyer for it without too much trouble. Craigslist comes to mind here. Save yourself about $300.00 by buying a Midnite Solar Classic 200 SL charge controller. Make up the difference and get a higher voltage inverter.

            You will need to do something about your battery bank. Normally it's not recommended to add new to old batteries. What is the status of your batteries? If it were me I'd consider adding two more of the same batteries so you can achieve a 24, or 48 volt bank.

            You are on the right track thinking about using a high voltage controller and moving your array to the sunny roof. The key to doing this is to get your voltage as high as you can safely input into your controller. The cold temperatures in your local would require diligent calculations of the temp. coefficients of your panels so as not to over volt your controller. The Midnight controllers have a feature that's called HyperVoc. If you went to a 48 volt battery system you can safely have a Voc. of up to 248 volts. I'd try to stay away from that limit but this feature can be a controller saver in the event of a super cold situation.
            2.2kw Suntech mono, Classic 200, NEW Trace SW4024

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            • #7
              My experience with the PT100 is that its a good unit, easy to install, and no bugs using pretty basic setups.

              You can assume arrays will produce 70-80% of nameplate wattage, and you should account for that loss when setting up an array

              100A @ 15V is going to need 1500w delivered, and array must have 1875 w to reliably give you your 100A

              Or maybe is it time to look at a 24 or 48V system, price out costs each way.

              Powerfab top of pole PV mount (2) | Listeroid 6/1 w/st5 gen head | XW6048 inverter/chgr | Iota 48V/15A charger | Morningstar 60A MPPT | 48V, 800A NiFe Battery (in series)| 15, Evergreen 205w "12V" PV array on pole | Midnight ePanel | Grundfos 10 SO5-9 with 3 wire Franklin Electric motor (1/2hp 240V 1ph ) on a timer for 3 hr noontime run - Runs off PV ||
              || Midnight Classic 200 | 10, Evergreen 200w in a 160VOC array ||
              || VEC1093 12V Charger | Maha C401 aa/aaa Charger | SureSine | Sunsaver MPPT 15A

              solar: http://tinyurl.com/LMR-Solar
              gen: http://tinyurl.com/LMR-Lister

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by littleharbor View Post
                The first thing I would do is SELL the inverter. Your 2812 is a good inverter and you should be able to find a buyer for it without too much trouble. Craigslist comes to mind here. Save yourself about $300.00 by buying a Midnite Solar Classic 200 SL charge controller. Make up the difference and get a higher voltage inverter.

                You will need to do something about your battery bank. Normally it's not recommended to add new to old batteries. What is the status of your batteries? If it were me I'd consider adding two more of the same batteries so you can achieve a 24, or 48 volt bank.

                You are on the right track thinking about using a high voltage controller and moving your array to the sunny roof. The key to doing this is to get your voltage as high as you can safely input into your controller. The cold temperatures in your local would require diligent calculations of the temp. coefficients of your panels so as not to over volt your controller. The Midnight controllers have a feature that's called HyperVoc. If you went to a 48 volt battery system you can safely have a Voc. of up to 248 volts. I'd try to stay away from that limit but this feature can be a controller saver in the event of a super cold situation.


                We have USL16s - they are about two years old. So adding two more at this point is an option we are looking at. Obviously not ideal - but I think if we went down the route to bite the bullet and increase our voltage, the battery mistmatch would be a small cost to the benefit of increasing.

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by mcinmylo View Post



                  We have USL16s - they are about two years old. So adding two more at this point is an option we are looking at. Obviously not ideal - but I think if we went down the route to bite the bullet and increase our voltage, the battery mistmatch would be a small cost to the benefit of increasing.
                  I agree Keep an eye on all 8 batteries looking for anomalies that you may be able to remedy . If 24 volt bank then would it be better to add one new battery to each string, or both to a single string? Checking electrolyte and specific gravity regularly may give some answers If you go 48 volt would it be better to add the new batteries to either end of the string, add them in the middle or randomly mix them in? again, hard to say but for the price of two additional batteries it will hopefully be worth it to build a higher voltage system. Put some thought into wiring your battery bank especially if going 24 volt. You may want to use positive and negative buss bars which are superior to simply stacking all load and charging cables onto the + and - terminals of the batteries. You should be able to control the uneven charging of the new vs. old batteries by using a DC clamp meter and adjusting cable lengths.

                  Here's the commonly referred to battery wiring page from Smart Gauge, Method 3 is the buss bar style
                  http://www.smartgauge.co.uk/batt_con.html
                  Last edited by littleharbor; 01-11-2019, 12:20 PM.
                  2.2kw Suntech mono, Classic 200, NEW Trace SW4024

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by mcinmylo View Post
                    Good to know. I'm new and tried copying and pasting. Maybe I'll re type it in tomorrow I'm done with the hassle for today lol. Otherwise should be able to read it on the word doc! Thanks though
                    You can copy and paste with the following limitations:
                    If the source is a web page, word processing document, or PDF, what you copy may be more than just the visible text and may contain formatting characters as well.
                    Those will cause unpredictable screwups in what ends up on the Forum.
                    You can generally get around this in one of two ways:
                    1. Compose your text in a text editor that uses simple unformatted text only (like Microsoft Notepad in ASCII mode) or
                    2. Paste the copied text into a simple text editor, delete the formatting characters and strings, then copy the text that is left and paste it into you Post.

                    The other limitation is that text containing tabs and white space composed of multiple spaces may look very different on the Forum page. This particularly applies to tables of columns or ASCII artwork, you may have to embed that text block inside a CODE tag. (The "#" button on the formatting tools bar. If you do not see it, click the underlined A button to show the format bar.
                    SunnyBoy 3000 US, 18 BP Solar 175B panels.

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