Gifted 19 Kyocera 120 watt panels?

[zamboni]

Whoa! Overwhelmed over here.

Good, you should be. As already mentioned what you're trying to do is a big undertaking. I know it seems straightforward from where you stand, but once you get into the details (and there are many), it will become clearer.

I Am A Go Getter Type, If Someone Tells Me It Is Possable I Will Give It My All.

Listen, i get this. I'm like this too; perhaps worse -- If someone tells me it's impossible i'll try even harder to find a way. I've had some successes...but also wasted a lot of time and money. So i do not criticize your motivation and enthusiasm. But if you want to be taken seriously, the first step is acknowledging that you're biting off a lot. This forum has very experienced, very knowledgeable, very patient people. Smart freaking people with decades of experience, whose entire careers / lifestyles are centered around batteries or solar. There's also some jokers like me who like to jump into the deep end of everything. We all want you to be happy, to save you the pain of expensive mistakes, and to stay SAFE. Safety in DIY starts with fully understanding what you're working with.

My little story: My GF and i decided to move into an RV full-time, but we're treehuggers so we wanted to power it entirely from solar. We were told, repeatedly, that it was "impossible". I knew it was going to be hard, for sure. But we got a rig and i spent the next year and half researching how to put together the system. Obviously this was free-time research, a few hours a day. But i put in a lot of time. I found a lot of BAD information, a tiny bit of good, and lots that was outright missing and up to me to figure out. Keep in mind i'm a reasonably competent person technically -- an engineer by training and occupation (not in electricity though). I did alright. We've been living on solar for nearly 3 years now -- but we do not have A/C. Yes, i have run a 5000BTU window unit for a few hours during the hottest part of the day as an experiment. But we didn't keep it; didn't make sense.

Frankly your situation does not sound conducive to taking on such a project. Even i wouldn't do it. You've just lost a house and i can't imagine what kind of stress, distraction, and financial pressure that creates. Are you in a hurry to get this done? Cuz that won't go well. What is your motivation for this move -- is the RV a temporary solution 'til you find a new house, or are you transitioning to full-time RVing long term? How confident are you that you'll remain full-time if you've never done it before? FT Rving has ended a lot of relationships! And what's your motivation for the solar? Are you a treehugger like me or are you just trying to save some money? The break-even point on solar is measured in years. Will you still be in the rig in a couple years? An RV with major solar install is not easy to re-sell; an RV with a generator is.

Do the math on how many days of the year you'll actually need to run A/C and think about whether it makes more sense to size your solar system moderately and just pay for hookups when it's too hot. Or run a generator. I mean, you're in northern CA not Phoenix, and your house is on wheels for a reason. The difference between a solar install that runs your lights TV and fridge, and one that can also power two roof A/C is probably more than $5k. You can get like a full year of (California-priced) RV-park camping for that cost, and that includes dump, water fill, shower, and crappy WiFi. Maybe even a pool...

Yeah, i'm trying to talk you out of it. If after considering our input you still want to go ahead, okay -- but come back with a pic of the roof and a real energy audit which contains duration and time of use info, and some more carefully measured numbers including duty cycle 'cuz i'm pretty sure those roof A/C don't actually draw 1500W steady-state, and your fridge number seems high too. Compared to the work ahead of you these are trifling things to ask.

[J.P.M.]

Tiffany:

Take a deep breath and read Zamboni's last post again as well as all the others in this thread.

IMO only, you appear to be under false impressions and notions of what can be accomplished in a practical sense.

No one here wants to hurt you, but it looks to me that you are mostly unaware of what can and cannot be done in any realistic sense.

You need a fair amount of technical education.

Until you get that education, you will be wasting your money and frustrating yourself, not to mention the possibility of putting yourself and those around you in some danger.

What you don't know can and will hurt you.

[Moto_Joe87]

Hi Tiffany,

I'm very sorry to hear about the loss of your home. I hope all is going well with the RV! I don't know if this is allowed or not and I apologize if it's inappropriate. I'm also in NorCal (Nevada City specifically). I'm in the process of putting together my own off grid system (for an off grid cabin). I've got a few of these KC120-1s and they've treated me great so far. I'm in kind of desperate need of a few more to make my Vmp match up with a new charge controller I'm transitioning to, and they're pretty hard to find online. If you'd like to sell two of three of the KC120s you have (assuming they're not all in use) I've be extremely grateful! I didn't find a method to private message you on this forum but I wanted to try and see if we could work something out, especially since you're so close. Again, sorry to the Mods and/or board if this is an inappropriate reply.

-Joe

[littleharbor]

Hi Tiffany,

I'm very sorry to hear about the loss of your home. I hope all is going well with the RV! I don't know if this is allowed or not and I apologize if it's inappropriate. I'm also in NorCal (Nevada City specifically). I'm in the process of putting together my own off grid system (for an off grid cabin). I've got a few of these KC120-1s and they've treated me great so far. I'm in kind of desperate need of a few more to make my Vmp match up with a new charge controller I'm transitioning to, and they're pretty hard to find online. If you'd like to sell two of three of the KC120s you have (assuming they're not all in use) I've be extremely grateful! I didn't find a method to private message you on this forum but I wanted to try and see if we could work something out, especially since you're so close. Again, sorry to the Mods and/or board if this is an inappropriate reply.

-Joe

Joe, If you don't have any luck here I have about half a dozen factory refurbished kc-120s. They are for all intents and purposes new save for the cells that Kyocera has corrected the lead free solder issue these panels had. they have new frames, backsheets and junction boxes. I am in So. Cal. so this may not work for you but just wanted to help if I could.

[Moto_Joe87]

Joe, If you don't have any luck here I have about half a dozen factory refurbished kc-120s. They are for all intents and purposes new save for the cells that Kyocera has corrected the lead free solder issue these panels had. they have new frames, backsheets and junction boxes. I am in So. Cal. so this may not work for you but just wanted to help if I could.

Hi LH,

I am interested. I don't want to clutter up this thread with a bunch of unrelated replies. Can you shoot me an email at Joseph.Lynch2 at g mail?

[littleharbor]

Hi LH,

I am interested. I don't want to clutter up this thread with a bunch of unrelated replies. Can you shoot me an email at Joseph.Lynch2 at g mail?

Done