Barn solar system (I'm very new to this)

[Coffeecow]

Hi there,
We live in southern Colorado. We have a barn / shop that is detached from the house, I would like to see about what it would take to run everything with an off grid solar system.

there are technically 3 buildings that need power. We would need lights and a heat lamp (winter) in the barn, lights and some occasional power tools in the garage, and a light and heat lamp in the chicken coop.

All of the buildings are very close together, I have a large south facing roof on the garage, so plenty of room for panels.

I am just beginning this journey, so I apologize in advance for stupid questions. I was hoping to get a rough guesstimate as to what all equipment I would need. I have no problems installing everything, I just want to make sure that I get enough but not too much power for what I need.

I will use the lights in the barn nightly for short periods of time (while feeding or checking on livestock) The heat lamps will be used only when we have baby animals in the winter, and occasionally when we have an animal that is sick. (The heat lamps are just 75w lightbulbs in a reflector) The garage out there is seldom used at night. and during the day, there are skylights that provide more than adequate lighting.

I am not sure what other information you would need in order to give me some suggestions, but I will happily give any other info that would be needed.
Thanks for reading,
Mac

[SunEagle]

Hi there,
We live in southern Colorado. We have a barn / shop that is detached from the house, I would like to see about what it would take to run everything with an off grid solar system.

there are technically 3 buildings that need power. We would need lights and a heat lamp (winter) in the barn, lights and some occasional power tools in the garage, and a light and heat lamp in the chicken coop.

All of the buildings are very close together, I have a large south facing roof on the garage, so plenty of room for panels.

I am just beginning this journey, so I apologize in advance for stupid questions. I was hoping to get a rough guesstimate as to what all equipment I would need. I have no problems installing everything, I just want to make sure that I get enough but not too much power for what I need.

I will use the lights in the barn nightly for short periods of time (while feeding or checking on livestock) The heat lamps will be used only when we have baby animals in the winter, and occasionally when we have an animal that is sick. (The heat lamps are just 75w lightbulbs in a reflector) The garage out there is seldom used at night. and during the day, there are skylights that provide more than adequate lighting.

I am not sure what other information you would need in order to give me some suggestions, but I will happily give any other info that would be needed.
Thanks for reading,
Mac

Welcome to Solar Panel Talk.

To properly size your off grid system you really need to know how many watts hours you will be using per day & night. You have a good start knowing the wattage of the lamps but you haven't stated how many and for how long those heat lamps will be on.

Go read this sticky post on battery sizing for off grid systems. It will get you started on understanding what equipment and how big it needs to be.

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

The next thing you will need to know is that off grid systems are very expensive and can cost 10 times more than using power from the electric company. Unless you are paying a whole lot for grid tie electrical it will be much cheaper to run a power line from the house to these buildings.

[Coffeecow]

Welcome to Solar Panel Talk.

To properly size your off grid system you really need to know how many watts hours you will be using per day & night. You have a good start knowing the wattage of the lamps but you haven't stated how many and for how long those heat lamps will be on.

Go read this sticky post on battery sizing for off grid systems. It will get you started on understanding what equipment and how big it needs to be.

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

The next thing you will need to know is that off grid systems are very expensive and can cost 10 times more than using power from the electric company. Unless you are paying a whole lot for grid tie electrical it will be much cheaper to run a power line from the house to these buildings.

I haven't installed anything yet. The heat lamps would only be used during cold winter nights when we have kids (Goat) So maybe 5 nights a year. The lighting can be anything, I just need a little light to see while feeding in the evenings.

I can run grid power out there with a little difficulty, but I was thinking that I have southern facing roofs on the garage and the barn, and it would be nice to get a little clean power out there. I figure that wiring the buildings to tie to the grid would cost me about $500 - $600 doing it myself. If I could set up a solar system that would suit my needs out there for around the same price, I would rather do that.
Please let me know if I am way off target here =)

Thanks again,
Mac

[PositiveDude2000]

I figure that wiring the buildings to tie to the grid would cost me about $500 - $600 doing it myself.

Do this, you will be so much happier.

[SunEagle]

I haven't installed anything yet. The heat lamps would only be used during cold winter nights when we have kids (Goat) So maybe 5 nights a year. The lighting can be anything, I just need a little light to see while feeding in the evenings.

I can run grid power out there with a little difficulty, but I was thinking that I have southern facing roofs on the garage and the barn, and it would be nice to get a little clean power out there. I figure that wiring the buildings to tie to the grid would cost me about $500 - $600 doing it myself. If I could set up a solar system that would suit my needs out there for around the same price, I would rather do that.
Please let me know if I am way off target here =)

Thanks again,
Mac

Even a small off grid system will cost more than $600. I built one to run a piece of medical equipment in case we lost power from a hurricane. It would only be used at night when a generator would make too much noise.

It consists of about 400 watts of panels, a 30 amp charge controller, a 200 Ah battery bank and 600 watt pure sine wave inverter. Along with wiring and fusing this set up cost me over $1500 and will truly only run the 100 watt unit for about 6 hours. I could have spent less getting a better charge controller which would allow me to use less panel watts but that may have saved me about $200. Also I will probably have to replace the batteries within 3 to 4 years which would be another $300 to $400.

Building an off grid system that will only be used every once and a while on cold nights is not very cost efficient. Better to have a small quiet generator which you start when you need it or run the power from your house.

[Coffeecow]

Thank you for the replies. I was exploring options, and apparently tieing on to the grid seems to be the way to go.

Another question since I have everyones attention =)

What about a grid tie system? My garage is about 30' long, and the barn is about 50'. Both have southern facing slopes on the roof. Would it be in my interest to cover them with panels and tie to the grid? Would their be a return in my investment there?

I know I have a lot of questions here. but I am trying to figure out a balance of green energy vs. coal power.

[SunEagle]

Thank you for the replies. I was exploring options, and apparently tieing on to the grid seems to be the way to go.

Another question since I have everyones attention =)

What about a grid tie system? My garage is about 30' long, and the barn is about 50'. Both have southern facing slopes on the roof. Would it be in my interest to cover them with panels and tie to the grid? Would their be a return in my investment there?

I know I have a lot of questions here. but I am trying to figure out a balance of green energy vs. coal power.

Grid tie systems have shown to have both short and long paybacks depending on where you live. There are many variables that need to be considered but probably the biggest is the cost of electricity. The higher the cost the better the payback.

If you are truly interested in a grid tie system I would suggest getting installation quotes from at least 6 different vendors. You can post the specific size, equipment type and costs on this website to get feedback on if they are good deals or not. Hope that helps you.

[PositiveDude2000]

Would it be in my interest to cover them with panels and tie to the grid? Would their be a return in my investment there?

http://www.dsireusa.org/

Check here this site out.

[Sunking]

I can run grid power out there with a little difficulty, but I was thinking that I have southern facing roofs on the garage and the barn, and it would be nice to get a little clean power out there. I figure that wiring the buildings to tie to the grid would cost me about $500 - $600 doing it myself.

Mac here is the answer you are looking for. It will cost you a few thousand dollars to do each barn with very limited power. Run grid power and call it done.

[Shockah]

Even a small off grid system will cost more than $600.

^^^ Truth.

I just sold (2) 42Watt parking-lot night-lights for $1499 each... it will cost me a good fraction of that $3000 to build and install them.

However, the property owner was quoted $6000 to trench, cable and conduit grid-tied lights... not including the light fixtures which would burn at least 100Watts each.

Add the $306 annual utility charge onto that, and you'll see why in many situations, off-grid lighting pays for itself.

[SunEagle]

^^^ Truth.

I just sold (2) 42Watt parking-lot night-lights for $1499 each... it will cost me a good fraction of that $3000 to build and install them.

However, the property owner was quoted $6000 to trench, cable and conduit grid-tied lights... not including the light fixtures which would burn at least 100Watts each.

Add the $306 annual utility charge onto that, and you'll see why in many situations, off-grid lighting pays for itself.

I don't know where that guy got his $6000 quote but unless the run is very long or on bedrock usually an underground power cable run is less than $10 per foot. Someone with a shed or barn that is 200 feet from their home will still save a lot of money going with an U/G power line than with an off grid battery system.

[FloridaSun]

^^^ Truth.

I just sold (2) 42Watt parking-lot night-lights for $1499 each... it will cost me a good fraction of that $3000 to build and install them.

However, the property owner was quoted $6000 to trench, cable and conduit grid-tied lights... not including the light fixtures which would burn at least 100Watts each.

Add the $306 annual utility charge onto that, and you'll see why in many situations, off-grid lighting pays for itself.

Nice (for you) sales pitch but not exactly honest. You did not add the future cost and labor to replace batteries every few years and your customer would not be saving $306 annually on 2@ 42W fixtures. Grid at $0.35 Kwh would be more like $128 a year of elect. your system will provide. (84W x 12h x 365days)

[Shockah]

Nice (for you) sales pitch but not exactly honest. You did not add the future cost and labor to replace batteries every few years and your customer would not be saving $306 annually on 2@ 42W fixtures. Grid at $0.35 Kwh would be more like $128 a year of elect. your system will provide. (84W x 12h x 365days)

If it were a sales pitch, I woulda added a link to the product... It was simply an example using a non-hypothetical situation.

I warranty the batteries for 2 years... and then the replacement cost would be $190 per lamp when the time comes.

$306 annually is based correctly on the customer having to use a minimum 100W on-grid bulb, (200W x 12h x 365) and even at that, he wouldn't match the 3000Lumen of my Off-Grid 42W LED.
(if he opted for a costlier on-grid LED lamp assembly, then that would alter the KWH calculation)

I don't know where that guy got his $6000 quote but unless the run is very long or on bedrock usually an underground power cable run is less than $10 per foot. Someone with a shed or barn that is 200 feet from their home will still save a lot of money going with an U/G power line than with an off grid battery system.

This is Hawaii, buddy... land of the most expensive cost of living in the USA.
The $6000 quoted was to dig a trench thru an asphalt lot, plumb the conduit, repave the trench, code-wire the lights to the grid & mount junction boxes onto the posts. All the work above requires city permits and licensed contractors.

... and that doesn't include the cost of the lamp fixtures or the labor to install them.

[Shockah]

Nice (for you) sales pitch but not exactly honest....

It's obvious some of you are cynical and boarder-line paranoid about someone possibly making a buck by posting facts.

Y'all need to lighten up and realize that you may have a salary day-job, and do Solar Panels for a hobby...
but some of us do Solar Panels for a living, and sometimes those "sales experiences" will arise on the forum.

If you're gonna accuse me of pan-handling and dishonesty, then at least make sure you got your facts straight....
or better yet, best I avoid it all and not post anymore.

Aloha.

[FloridaSun]

I warranty the batteries for 2 years... and then the replacement cost would be $190 per lamp when the time comes.

$306 annually is based correctly on the customer having to use a minimum 100W on-grid bulb, (200W x 12h x 365) and even at that, he wouldn't match the 3000Lumen of my Off-Grid 42W LED.
(if he opted for a costlier on-grid LED lamp assembly, then that would alter the KWH calculation)

haha, I figgered that was not a complete description of your product. So after 24 months the customer is expected to pay two hundred for battery plus install when it fails, ok. What's the daily discharge % of that $190 (at today's price) battery? .... I'm thinking... $190 AGM... that's about 100Ah batt so you're daily discharging to 50%? Might last 25 months and then you get repeat biz. Might last much less and then... bet that's the last time you offer a two year guarantee.

SunEagle and I live in Florida where digging a trench is like playing in a sand box. Bout 8 years ago I hand dug about 250 foot, of 18+inch deep trench for a power line on this acre and it only took me a few days, the most work was going in around under some big tree roots.

It's obvious some of you are cynical and boarder-line paranoid about someone possibly making a buck by posting facts.

Y'all need to lighten up and realize that you may have a salary day-job, and do Solar Panels for a hobby...
but some of us do Solar Panels for a living, and sometimes those "sales experiences" will arise on the forum.

If you're gonna accuse me of pan-handling and dishonesty, then at least make sure you got your facts straight....
or better yet, best I avoid it all and not post anymore.

Aloha.

Yeah, I'm cynical of some who compare apples an oranges or don't give complete facts. Getting the facts straight is something few salespeople do and I called you on that. Setting an example for others to avoid grid power for solar involves including ALL the facts. Small costs add up and future maintenance costs cannot be ignored in off grid solar. Solar economy is also very much based on geography, what works in Hawaii may be nonsense for the OP in Colorado. You are making a buck with your posts here?? Good luck on your future profits in real life.