12v/24/48v parallel or series? Confused!!

[Sunking]

I think you have a typo:
1000 Watts @ 12 Volt Battery
2000 Watts @ 24 Volt Battery
4000 Watts @ 48 Volt Battery

Dyslexia today.

[Brandon8791]

I just figured micro inverters were cheaper/going to be more efficient , I thought bout selling the stuff off anyways since the kits sell for like $700 a 400 watt kit, figured I'd do it for 500 a kit or something lol...I probably will eventually move into the grid tied system, once I figure out the wiring >.>

[jflorey2]

So basically I need to forget the battery backup and just do grid tied, in that case use enphase inverters right?

I'd sell what you have and take that money and do a standard grid tied system. If you have no shading issues, then go with a standard string inverter. If you have shading consider Solaredge or a microinverter solution like Enphase.

[Wy_White_Wolf]

So basically I need to forget the battery backup and just do grid tied, in that case use enphase inverters right?

I bet that the panels you purchased are not designed to use with enphase inverters. They are 12v battery panels and not grid tie panels. One might be able to put 2 or 3 of them in series hooked to 1 enphase inverter but I wouldn't bank on that.

Sorry to inform you but what you bought is a bunch of crap that someone through together to get a sucker to buy.

WWW

[littleharbor]

Hopefully, it'll all come through. The eBay user has really good ratings from several people, so I somewhat believe this one. I could understand if they had just two people saying they did great, but when it's from 70-80 people I don't think it's a scam. They only thing I don't like is they didn't provide tracking. We can hope for the best!


Brandon, For your sake I hope I'm wrong. They have a very limited amount if positive feedback, (this can be created artificially) and a very short track record.
I won't give you the old "I told you so" but I would be very interested how this turns out.

[Brandon8791]

So basically I need to forget the battery backup and just do grid tied, in that case use enphase inverters right?

[ButchDeal]

1000 Watts @ 12 Volt Battery
2000 Watts @ 12 Volt Battery
4000 Watts @ 12 Volt Battery

I think you have a typo:
1000 Watts @ 12 Volt Battery
2000 Watts @ 24 Volt Battery
4000 Watts @ 48 Volt Battery

[Sunking]

Additionally when you have more than 2 parallel strings you are going to need a Combiner$, Fuse$. A 80 Amp MPPT Controller has the following panel wattage input limitation verse battery voltages:

1000 Watts @ 12 Volt Battery
2000 Watts @ 24 Volt Battery
4000 Watts @ 48 Volt Battery

You have very expensive battery panels that cost you roughly 2 to 3 times more than higher wattage and higher voltage Grid Tied Panels. You could have bought 6 x 200 watt panels and made two parallel strings. Half the racking, hardware, and material. You paid a whole lot more than you needed to.

Lastly at at 1200 watts you can go with 24 or 48 volt batteries and you NEVER EVER want to use parallel battery strings. Instead of 5 years of service is you parallel them you get 2 or 3 years. Batteries have minimum Charge Current requirements and with you need at least C/10 Charge Current to even stand a chance of keeping lead acid batteries charged up with solar, and that is not likely to do it. All C/10 means is C = the battery AH capacity divided by 10 Hours. So with a 1200 watt panel system you need at least 500 AH batteries @ 24 volts, or 250 AH @ 48 volts. Given that it is a no brainer to go 48 volts because you would only need a much less expensive 25 amp charge controller vs 50 amps @ 24 volts. Either way is a 700 pound $2000 battery you get to replace every 5 years or so.

So let's clear up some of your confusion as money makes things crystal clear. Anything you take off grid from commercial power from the POCO is going to cost you 5 to 10 more for power, very limited power in battery cost alone. Nothing else included like panels, controllers, hardware and such things. So do you really need solar?

If you answered; I am doing this to save money and/or mother earth, forget it because you just volunteered for a huge rate increase and became an extremely heavy polluter with a huge carbon footprint depriving future generations of limited resources.

[inetdog]

So basically, I do have to have separate setups? So like I said in my previous reply, 6-8 panels on one controller and battery bank. If I wanted more than that, I'd have to buy another controller and batter bank to have more than 6-8 panels. So therefore, that would multiply it to 12-16 panels on two controllers and two battery banks. Is that what you all are saying?

Your most cost effective way to use that list of parts is to just set one panel aside as a spare. Then with 12 panels you can go two strings of six, three strings of four, four strings of three or six strings of two. We will leave twelve panels in parallel out of consideration. No need to buy an additional CC.
The remaining one of a kind panel may be usable as part of that setup. but probably not.

[Brandon8791]

So basically, I do have to have separate setups? So like I said in my previous reply, 6-8 panels on one controller and battery bank. If I wanted more than that, I'd have to buy another controller and batter bank to have more than 6-8 panels. So therefore, that would multiply it to 12-16 panels on two controllers and two battery banks. Is that what you all are saying?

[Sunking]

You cannot use 13 panels on any controller. No PRIME numbers allowed as that only leaves you with 2 possible configurations of all in series or all in parallel. A 250 wat pannel has a Voc of roughly 30 volts. Do the math, 13 x 30 volts = 390 VOLTS. Not going to happen.

[Brandon8791]

Hopefully, it'll all come through. The eBay user has really good ratings from several people, so I somewhat believe this one. I could understand if they had just two people saying they did great, but when it's from 70-80 people I don't think it's a scam. They only thing I don't like is they didn't provide tracking. We can hope for the best!

Back on topic though, did I explain everything correctly when I described how to hook everything up?

[littleharbor]

I have some bad news for you, as if you need more. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for this to arrive. Most likely, IT WON'T. I have seen these incredibly good deals come up on ebay before. I have actually purchased similar "deals" myself, rather skeptically, I might add. Of course when all is said and done you should get your money back after a painful process with ebay.
Think about it. You're not going to get 4 100 watt panels, inverter, charge controller and all the other accessories for $145.00, ANYWHERE. Also you're not going to get said panels and all other goodies shipped from China for $35.00.
I'm sorry to have tell you this but better you know now than a month from now while you are anxiously awaiting your delivery. I saw these listings last week myself and watched all the bids come in knowing full well there will be a bunch of really bummed ebay customers.

[SunEagle]

Yeah I've tried to do a lot of research on this and I kept getting directed to this forum so I was like we'll Ill just make an account here and ask the folks the specific question I have since I couldn't really find a direct answer... so basically if u get a mppt controller it doesn't matter if u hook up say 13 12v panels in series which in turn would create 156 volts. It would bring it down to 24v to charge say a 24v battery bank or something? I'm trying to do a grid tie system but have a battery back up to power the house when the power goes out or slowly work my way off grid.

would the mppt controller use the rest of the watts and amps? Or the other say 122 volts that the series panels produce? Lol hopefully you all don't get mad at my stupidity!

Unfortunately that hardware is for off grid only. You will never get approval from your POCO or the AHJ to connect to the grid without a UL listed grid tie inverter.

Also if you want to have a battery backup system you will need to get a hybrid inverter that can charge a battery system as well as connect to the grid. Those are not cheap.

[Mike90250]

Well, you sure have a mixed bag of stuff there. Some you can sell to get cash to get parts you will need, I suppose.