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  • Intro from Virginia

    Hi Everyone,

    Obligatory thank you's here, skip if you already know you are awesome
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    I have been working on learning about solar for a number of years and searches for answers have brought me back here numerous times. The breadth of knowledge and willingness to share is great to see. I also appreciate that while there are strong opinions they are usually based on actual experience and not the sales and fluffy abstractions that can be found all over the internet. So those of you who do take the time to post and share it is appreciated by the many lurkers that happen to find this site by chance.

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    My background

    I am located in central virginia, out in the woods with the threat that any storm could take out our power for a while but close enough to the city that we are not in an isolated area. I am not a fan of stereotypes but understand that it is a shortcut that we as humans often take. So I am somewhere between a prepper/environmental/conservative/libertarian/liberal/geek/sports guy. Hopefully that clears it up for you. So I am interested in solar as a backup power source for disasters but not planning on a compound off-grid fully independent setup either. I support the use of solar power to reduce the use of natural gas/oil/fossil fuels and believe it is a good thing to do for many reasons but not at any cost and I don't believe that solar panels are mana from heaven and somehow will save us from (insert your disaster of choice here). I do believe that having a backup in case oil/gas etc becomes expensive is worth the hedge even if solar payback may not work out at current rates. I do find motivation in using my tax dollars for my own gain rather than sending them off to the feds even if I find that kind of policy an abhorrent way to govern. And I like to know how things work which may explain why I am here. Enough about me though lets get on to the project.

    As I said, I live in the woods. Trees are bad for solar panels and I like trees. We had a few solar installers come out to take a look and see if we had any options. Turns out we don't really, even the roof away from the tree lines wouldn't really work and a fixed array right in the middle of our field didn't work for me. But I did get my first experience with sales and found out that there was lots of fluff in the marketing and not much meat (or tofu if you are vegetarian). I wanted a system that could last (quality and value) and be expandable (due to current limits imposed by the local power company) and work as a backup (the prepper side of me) but I didn't have confidence in the answers given on those fronts. So my research started. I think I have a viable plan now where we can use a small area for a new barn oriented for a large south facing roof and add solar here. The location is at the top of a rise from a creek so with the building height and elevation drop to the south we can minimize the tree removal needed. I will post details in appropriate areas but right now I am thinking that I will likely need two systems to meet my needs and that batteries are a PIA and make any of my plans for expansion unlikely. Anyway, hopefully I can add something interesting!


  • #2
    Welcome! You sound like you'll fit right in here.

    I'm out in the woods, too (hence my handle), but about 1/2 acre near the house out of my 30 or so acres was populated with scrawny little trees that I was OK with clearing to make room for a ground-mounted array and with selective logging to avoid the worst of the low-angle shading. Very little of what I took out from there I'll really miss. Now I've got a pretty decent hybrid system that will run the house off-grid if some natural or economic disaster takes the grid down, and meanwhile cuts my electric bills nicely by returning 5-6 kW to the grid during the day. (I live in one of the increasingly rare places with net metering.)

    I agree with you regarding the tax dollars thing. I rejected my state's generous offer of a bonus payout per kWh generated because I don't believe the state really has any business with my solar installation, either with incentives or penalties. I'm pretty liberal about the environment (long story short: Our kids are screwed) but realized early on that PV solar is just not a solution for reducing reliance on fossil fuels, and has its own environmental costs. (Seeing prime farmland get covered up with plexiglass rectangles really upsets me.)

    My system is an Outback Radian GS8048 with two Morningstar TS-MPPT-600 charge controllers, each connected via 150 feet of buried IMC conduit to a string of 12 split-rail PV panels ground-mounted with an IronRidge support tilted at 45 degrees (6 columns of 4 panels). The battery bank consists of 8 Rolls 410 Ah AGMs, which I plan to replace in 5-8 years with a huge pile of lead and sulfuric acid (Trojan industrial line FLA) that should hopefully last about as long as I will.

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    • #3
      Thanks BackwoodsEE. I will have to check out your build in old posts!

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