24 volt system help, newbie

[Anton]

Hello to all and thanks in advance!
I'm designing a solar system for an earthship I am about to build. Here are the components I was thinking of:

~950 watts worth of solar panels and a 500 watt wind turbine.
An MPPT 60 amp charge controller
24 volt battery bank (four 12 volt, 220 amp batteries)
Pure sine 2,500 watt inverter.

My questions:
What am I missing/what goes between these components?
What is the recommended choice for charge controller/inverter?
Any problems/suggestions?

Thanks again!

[Naptown]

Hello to all and thanks in advance!
I'm designing a solar system for an earthship I am about to build. Here are the components I was thinking of:

~950 watts worth of solar panels and a 500 watt wind turbine.
An MPPT 60 amp charge controller
24 volt battery bank (four 12 volt, 220 amp batteries)
Pure sine 2,500 watt inverter.

My questions:
What am I missing/what goes between these components?
What is the recommended choice for charge controller/inverter?
Any problems/suggestions?

Thanks again!

The biggest thing you are missing is a very accurate accounting of the daily use in watthours.

[Anton]

I would average about 7 kwh/day usage. I will be in the west Texas desert with lots of sunshine

[SunEagle]

I would average about 7 kwh/day usage. I will be in the west Texas desert with lots of sunshine

That is very low amount of energy. I suppose you can handle the Texas heat without air conditioning because you will need a lot more kwh/day to run that.

[Anton]

Might use 9kwh/day at the most. Earthships do not require heating or cooling, they use thermal mass for that

[SunEagle]

Might use 9kwh/day at the most. Earthships do not require heating or cooling, they use thermal mass for that

I think I understand the concept. The living area is partially or totally underground. Is this your design or a commercial type building?

[Anton]

Personal design, everything will be 3-4 feet underground, one side is all windows, facing south.
What inverter/charge controller do y'all suggest for this?
Thanks!

[SunEagle]

Personal design, everything will be 3-4 feet underground, one side is all windows, facing south.
What inverter/charge controller do y'all suggest for this?
Thanks!

I actually found one in the beginning stages of being built for sale down in my neck of the woods in Florida for $225,000. Interesting but not something I can invest in.

I am not sure if one charge controller will work for both the PV and Wind turbine. I also think you will need more batteries than the 880ah for a 4 day reserve.

Of course with more batteries you will need more PV panels. It is a very costly spiral to be completely off the grid which is why you need to really understand and know your daily electrical load to properly design the system. Once you know what you want to power the last thing you will determine is the amount of panel wattage not the first.

[Sunking]

9 Kwh/day is a monster sized system. You will need at minimum 3000 pounds of batteries. Do you have 3000 pounds of batteries?

[Anton]

I will not start with 4 day battery reserve but can add batteries to get there.
Average day should use 8kwh, minimum of 4kwh/day, maximum of 9kwh/day.
Charge controller/inverter suggestions?
Thanks!

[SunEagle]

I will not start with 4 day battery reserve but can add batteries to get there.
Average day should use 8kwh, minimum of 4kwh/day, maximum of 9kwh/day.
Charge controller/inverter suggestions?
Thanks!

Well the 4 day reserve is also there to keep from over discharging your battery. Usually the formula is 1/5 total battery charge to be discharged per day. If you go without sunlight for 3 days that still leaves you with a 40% full battery. Going much lower will damage the battery and shorten it's life. Check the battery specs and they will tell you the % discharge per day to maintain the longest life.

[Anton]

Right, no matter what I would not discharge the batteries more than 50%. If that means I have to shut stuff off that's fine but I doubt I'll not have sun for that long, being in the desert.
With 10,000 watts I should be able to run my essentials for 2 days without discharging more than 50% with no power production.

[Naptown]

Anton
May I suggest you read all of the off grid stickies here.
We are not trying to sell you anything so the info is real
Start here

http://www.solarpaneltalk.com/showthread.php?5334-Solar-Off-Grid-Battery-Design

This may change your perspective. Or you may be like most and buy a bunch of stuff and wonder why the system fails to meet your expectations.
The object here is to point you in a direction that will lead to either success or show you why it failed. Physics and solar are so intertwined and trying to skirt the laws of physics is futile you will lose every time.
So save yourself a bunch of money and angst and read the stickies and learn before committing to anything.

[Sunking]

With 10,000 watts I should be able to run my essentials for 2 days without discharging more than 50% with no power production.

Got bad news for you partner, a lot of bad news. You have no idea what you are doing and heading for disaster. With a 10,000 watt panel power input @ 24 volts requires 5 very expensive 80 amp charge controllers @ $900 each.

Next in line with a 10,000 watt input requires a minimum 80 Kwh battery capacity. That means a 10 day reserve time @ 8 Kwh/day. FWIW a 80 Kwh battery weighs 4800 pounds and cost around $16,000.

Either you are completely ignorant, or making up a story I do not believe for 1-second. You are full of Chit.

[Anton]

What??? That's not at all what I wrote or asked.