Hi everyone, this is the beginning of my journey into DIY Solar.

[Pipmeister]

Hello,

It is nice to meet you all and be a part of this forum.

Looking forward to learning a lot on here, I have been learning about alternative energy over the past few years and this forum seems like a great way to learn from more experienced people in the solar community.

I am planning on building my own solar setup at home, and I will definitely be reading all the great posts on here for insight and advice. My goal is to have it up and running in about a year or less, if my financial situation allows for it.

I haven't decided if I will be doing an off grid or on grid setup yet, but I am leaning towards off grid for night time use and emergency backup.

Hi Mate,

I am also new to this forum so hello to everyone here.

I tend to agree with Sunking, which is to say that if you have a grid connection available, it is not financially justifiable to spend money on batteries. They are a very Expensive way to manage the risk of a power outage. Having said that, if you are approaching this from more of a hobby angle and wont be talk out of batteries, there are good options that are nowhere near as expensive Sunking stated ($35,000), My home runs of a 24v bank of 1100Ah "Sunking" Deep Cycle Wet Cell batteries, which I purchased brand new for just under AU$3500.00. These run my home quite well and I only need to run the generator in the middle of winter when we get 5+ days of overcast/rainy weather.

I would also like to point out that the remainder of the equipment required (Charge Controllers, Inverter, Ect.) can all be purchased online and are all in the hundreds of dollars each, not thousands. This is 100% complaint equipment which I had no trouble getting an electrician to install and certify.

In conclusion, off grid is, as a few people have already mentioned in this thread, not at parity with grid economically. But it certainly isn't as bad as some have stated here.

Also, I check and top up my batteries once a month and it takes under 5 mins No mess, no fuss

Ben

[SunEagle]

Hi Mate,

I am also new to this forum so hello to everyone here.

I tend to agree with Sunking, which is to say that if you have a grid connection available, it is not financially justifiable to spend money on batteries. They are a very Expensive way to manage the risk of a power outage. Having said that, if you are approaching this from more of a hobby angle and wont be talk out of batteries, there are good options that are nowhere near as expensive Sunking stated ($35,000), My home runs of a 24v bank of 1100Ah "Sunking" Deep Cycle Wet Cell batteries, which I purchased brand new for just under AU$3500.00. These run my home quite well and I only need to run the generator in the middle of winter when we get 5+ days of overcast/rainy weather.

I would also like to point out that the remainder of the equipment required (Charge Controllers, Inverter, Ect.) can all be purchased online and are all in the hundreds of dollars each, not thousands. This is 100% complaint equipment which I had no trouble getting an electrician to install and certify.

In conclusion, off grid is, as a few people have already mentioned in this thread, not at parity with grid economically. But it certainly isn't as bad as some have stated here.

Also, I check and top up my batteries once a month and it takes under 5 mins No mess, no fuss

Ben

It seems you have been able to design and build an off grid system that works for your needs. That is good to hear but you did not provide specifics on what your kWh loads are so it is a little hard to compare costs.

Some people come into the forum wanting to power up large appliances, heaters, pumps or air conditioners. When you add those electrical loads to the essential loads like lighting the battery system grows to be very big and expensive.

Based on some calculations the battery systems could reach the $35,000 mark. It all comes down to how much you want to power off the batteries and for how long. Some people have no idea the cost of going off grid and start buying panels and batteries without any plan or design. Sunking (being very direct) try's to bring reality to those that are hung up thinking they can save money and go "green" in the process. Unfortunately they sometimes end up going broke.