DIY Remote Solar Power System

[Hiro]

This is why many people pay someone to design the right system for their needs. Lots of nook cranny details in there to overlook as a newbie trying to learn it all from books and online volunteers, neither of which will get injured or waste money if you make a serious mistake. I'm a DIYer and consider myself above average intelligence, but my first step to build my own system would've been to read a couple starter books/guides before I hit the line diagrams. Just sayin... IMO, folks have been pretty patient in this thread compared to some historical ones.

Point taken and thanks for the concern. However, NO SERIOUS MISTAKE IS GOING TO OCCUR and being involved in the Construction industry since 8yrs old. Really the only thing I cannot do confidently is electrical, just because I haven't devoted effort to learning it. I'm aware how big a field it is, how dangerous it is etc. I do know how to wire basic residential internal switches, GPO's etc. 3 way or multiway switching or 2 way 8 terminal switching gets tricky... I'm not building it next week...
I've also worked in the lift industry for 13 yrs and seen alot of industrial lift/escalator phase 3 boards, controllers, safety switches and how they are repaired, been shown how they work. I can trace a faulty safety in a big controller. I've even helped in reparations. Two heads are always better than one!
I've just never understood it the way I have learnt it from this thread and the top blokes giving me their time and patience to become more aware.
Why get a cpl books/guides when I have the internet? Even if I pay someone to design something, who says he will be spot on with the design and how will I know if I don't learn anything about it?? Too many people are getting ripped off with **** systems and overpaying and getting pissed in the pocket and told its raining.

For me diagrams are better than reading sometimes. You show me, I get it... When I have to read it, my retention is less successful.

Mike90250
I found 1/0 AWG @ $8 Lm. 2/0 AWG is $13 Lm. It wont be a very long length so affordable... Battery to Inverter or Inverter to Board?
Wont a circuit breaker stop a surge at 80A should it occur? I've placed an 80A fuse at the beginning of the line and also before the monitor. seen alot of industrial phase 3 boards

[Mike90250]

....

Mike90250
I found 1/0 AWG @ $8 Lm. 2/0 AWG is $13 Lm. It wont be a very long length so affordable... Battery to Inverter or Inverter to Board?
Wont a circuit breaker stop a surge at 80A should it occur? I've placed an 80A fuse at the beginning of the line and also before the monitor. seen alot of industrial phase 3 boards

While you might use #3 ga wire for the charge controller, you will need something at least 1/O or even 2/O for the inverter wiring,
5Kw peak surge @ 80% eff, will be 125A

The wire from the battery all the way to the inverter should be 2/O
The fuse for it should be right at the battery, 125A The fuse (or breaker) is used to protect the wire, nothing else
you must use special DC rated fuses or breakers, for the voltage you run, DC creates an arc that is hard to extinguish and an AC breaker will actually burn and start a fire if a DC overload trips it.
If you use a 80A fuse, it will likely blow when you have a surge load turn on,

[Sunking]

OCPD (over current protection devices) have only one purpose, to protect the wire on its load side and nothing else. OCPD are not designed to run continuously full load. Example if it is 80 amps, it cannot conduct 80 amps for any significant time before operating.. Minimum wire size is determined by the OCPD. If you have a load that requires 80 amps at full load requires a 100 amp fuse and a minimum 2 AWG wire in a raceway or 6 AWG in free-air. Now having said that with low voltage you do not use tables to select conductors. You use Voltage Drop.

I know you say you have not made any significant mistakes, but you have, many from the start.

[Hiro]

I think you need to stop and go back to the drawing boards. I am not going to do it for you, but go to a website and see what the optimum Panel Tilt is for the months of June and July. Your first trip told you the optimum tilt angle for yearly average. You do not want that. You want optimum for Winter, not year round. If you do that, then you can likely cut your panel wattage from 1/3 to 1/2 a huge chunk of change. Your first go around in post 22 gave you 2.36 Sun Hours. Change the tilt angle and I bet you can get that up to 4 or more hours. Get it to 4 hours and that 5000 watt panel drops to 3000 watts. About $4000 savings just in panel cost.

Now get to work.

DO NOT USE PARALLEL BATTERIES.

I see. While that excerpt in Post #22 doesn't state any panel angle. The panel angle should be at 31 degrees and direction due North. Cords: 31

[Hiro]

I see. While that excerpt in Post #22 doesn't state any panel angle. The panel angle should be at 31 degrees and direction due North. Cords: 31*15'S 139*16'E.
On source (below) states angle at 21*. I found another source that says you calculate angle by its latitude. This gives a 10* discrepancy.
With that considered. At 31*, 4kWh/m2 the PV can be changed to 2000W, and CC changed to 200V but batteries remain the same for the 5.8kWh usage.

Averaged across the year, a rooftop in Coonabarabran receives around 3.9 hours of sun per day. With a 1.5kW solar array, 3.9 hours of peak sun will result in approximately 5.85kWh of electricity. A 2kW system in Coonabarabran will generate approximately 7.8kWh of electricity, a 3kW system in Coonabarabran will produce around 11.7kWh per day, and a 5kW system will generate around 19.5kWh per day. {Source: solarchoice.net.au/blog/best-solar-power-pv-deals-in-coonabarabran-nsw-5kw-10kw-20kw-30kw/#_ }

Coonabarabran's solar energy resources

On average, Coonabarabran receives solar irradiation levels of around 4.90 kilowatt hours per square metre daily. Ideally, solar panels installed in Coonabarabran should face a Northerly direction. Acceptable panel angle range is 16* to 26* and the optimal angle is 21*. Sourced from a local website.

[Hiro]

Acceptable panel angle range is 16* to 26* and the optimal angle is 21*.

Admin note, I edited out the link its not necessary.

[Hiro]

Acceptable panel angle range is 16* to 26* and the optimal angle is 21*.

Admin note, I edited out the link its not necessary.

Thanks Admin- You can remove Post # 96 and #97. They are useless...

[Hiro]

The wire from the battery all the way to the inverter should be 2/O
The fuse for it should be right at the battery, 125A The fuse (or breaker) is used to protect the wire, nothing else
you must use special DC rated fuses or breakers, for the voltage you run, DC creates an arc that is hard to extinguish and an AC breaker will actually burn and start a fire if a DC overload trips it.
If you use a 80A fuse, it will likely blow when you have a surge load turn on,

Ye you're right. That is how I understand it and that is where I would place the fuse/breaker as well. Yes, all the safety will be DC rated not AC ofcourse. This is a DC system up to Inverter.

Sunking
I have an OCPD rating of OCPD / 1.25 = Amps in the notes. So the 80A line should have 100A DC breakers. 100A = 125A DC etc.
FTR I said; No serious mistake is going to occur, meaning when the system is ready to implement there wont be errors... I can gather notes on Voltage drop and looked into how much voltage drops over certain distances and at 92V or 48V the drops are below .5V
Voltage drop from MPPT to Batteries is 0.26V over 3m @ 66A
Voltage drop from battery to Inverter is 0.24V over 3m @ 62A etc.

My batteries are series/parallel, but you said don't use parallel...
This next challenge of not using parallel batteries and just series is gonna be fun. I need to create 48V 600Ah bank. Since Amps don't add in series, they need to be 600Ah. I found this; Crown AGM 660 Ah 12 VDC 7,920 Wh $1374 x 4...

Diagram coming soon...

[Hiro]

Updated
Screenshot 2017-03-04 21.02.20.png

[Mike90250]

Your diagram is still wrong
You are pulling off 48V from the batteries, but the charger is wired into the middle batteries for 24V, from what I see

Fuses/Breakers need to be close to the SOURCE, which is the battery terminal, not the inverter, charger or 48-12 convertor.

[Hiro]

Your diagram is still wrong
You are pulling off 48V from the batteries, but the charger is wired into the middle batteries for 24V, from what I see

Fuses/Breakers need to be close to the SOURCE, which is the battery terminal, not the inverter, charger or 48-12 convertor.

The INPUT 1 AWG Wire from MPPT goes to the end batteries, red-battery 4, black-battery 1. They are at opposite ends.
The OUTPUT 2/0 AWG Wire goes from the end batteries as well, red-battery 1, black-Battery 4. At opposite ends as well..
The middle batteries are series connected and have not input or output wiring.

The output on Battery 1 (left) has a 125A Fuse near the source. Each series cable has a surge protection in the diagram, but may not be necessary as I have not seen it done anywhere on any video, any photo yet.
The input on Battery 4, I have placed a 100A Fuse at the battery terminal Screenshot 2017-03-05 12.40.56.png .

[inetdog]

Your diagram shows a red wire connected to battery 4 + and a black wire to battery 1 -. What are they supposed to be for, or should they have been erased?

[ButchDeal]

The INPUT 1 AWG Wire from MPPT goes to the end batteries, red-battery 4, black-battery 1. They are at opposite ends.
The OUTPUT 2/0 AWG Wire goes from the end batteries as well, red-battery 1, black-Battery 4. At opposite ends as well..
The middle batteries are series connected and have not input or output wiring..

Wrong. All four batteries are sieries connected but you attached the mppt charge controller half way to the connnection to battery 3 to 4 and to battery 1 to 2


it it should be at the end of the batteries sieries for 48 v in stead of the middle at 24 v it will not work this way.

[Mike90250]

Batteries do not need surge protection, they are resistant to most surges, but not a direct lightning strike.
SPD should be out doors at the CC side of the combiner box. And on the AC out of the inverter


And wire the batteries the way you have drawn, and you will be unhappy, or your batteries will be ! You have been told 4 times by 3 people.
Usually, the Charge Controller goes to the same terminals as the inverter and other loads, but by all means, try something new.

[Hiro]

Your diagram shows a red wire connected to battery 4 + and a black wire to battery 1 -. What are they supposed to be for, or should they have been erased?

They are the MPPT input wires.