Solar Powered Barn

[whitemw]

Greetings, I joined this forum today hoping to get some answers to various question I have.

I am building a Barn and want to power it off the grid. I have grid power to my house but want to spend the funds I would need to connect this barn to the grid setting it up off grid.

If I were to connect to the grid I would run a 50 amp 220 volt 60hz 2 phase service. I would then divide that service into 2 20 amp single phase circuits and 1 220 30 amp 2 phase service.

Now I have said nothing about watts consumed and that is because I don't know the answer. I intend to use these circuits to power lights mainly, power tools, circular saws, air compressor, welder, and other poser tools with motors. Knowing me there will be computer equipment out there and most likely a pellet stove to be used in the winter when I working out there (not constant heat). Note, I will only be using one tool at a time plus lights and pellet stove.

I would actually like to run the lights as a 12vdc load but it may be simpler and more effective to use 120vac CFL or LED lights.

In this post I am mainly thinking about Inverters and their configuration. I have a portable generator that I can use as input to a Inverter/Charger. I'm thinking I can use a split phase Inverter/Charger maybe 3-4k pure sine watts to feed my main electrical panel. It seems to me as the place to start then work back with batteries, charge controller, and power source. I am not restricted to Solar Panels as there is a lot of wind available. But this is for a Barn, and not necessarily daily use and on a bad stretch with out sun my draw can be minimal.

So the bottom line is to have enough watts available to spend the day in the barn working on a project using my tools.

So I would like to hear your thoughts.

[solar pete]

Howdy Mike,

I think you need to do some more reading, search for threads in the off-grid section. You need to do a loads analysis before you do anything. You design your system to match a load not build a system and then see what it will run. Read up and then ask some questions, cheers

[Sunking]

Greetings, I joined this forum today hoping to get some answers to various question I have.

I am building a Barn and want to power it off the grid. I have grid power to my house but want to spend the funds I would need to connect this barn to the grid setting it up off grid.

So I would like to hear your thoughts.

OK that would be extremely foolish to put your barn on solar if you have commercial power available. It will be far less expensive to run the 50 amp service to your barn, 1/2 to 1/10 th of what it would cost initially putting in even a small toy solar system. Additionally anything you take off grid the power in battery cost alone is going to cost you 5 to 10 times more than buying it from the POCO.

Run the AC, you will be glad you did. Use that ton of cash you save for something else. Even a better plan that might make you feel better is run the AC feeder, and take the $30K you saved on solar and cash it in $100 bills, then burn them in the fire place. Essentially the same thing as solar for your barn.

[emartin00]

OK that would be extremely foolish to put your barn on solar if you have commercial power available. It will be far less expensive to run the 50 amp service to your barn, 1/2 to 1/10 th of what it would cost initially putting in even a small toy solar system. Additionally anything you take off grid the power in battery cost alone is going to cost you 5 to 10 times more than buying it from the POCO.

Run the AC, you will be glad you did. Use that ton of cash you save for something else.

I think I'd have to agree here. Unless your barn is a half mile away from the house, it probably will be far cheaper to run the wire. Even then, you're going to need a lot of batteries, and that cost adds up fast.
I would say connect it to the grid, and if you want solar, go grid tied. It may still end up cheaper than trying to go off grid.

[donald]

I would build the barn optimized for solar panels, including a standing seam metal roof. Connect it to the house and grid.

Instead of spending money on an uneconomic solar project, I would be investing with a positive ROI (assuming favorable solar policies and conditions in Colorado).

[solarix]

If you are talking having a compressor and a welder in the barn, you are talking a very large, expensive off-grid solar system. It can be done, but way less expensive and better to partner with your utility and be grid-tied. You can produce almost all of your energy but let the utility supply the power surges. (why do you think they hate net-metering)

[Amy@altE]

I agree completely with what everyone else is saying. Since grid is available, and you have occasional high power requirements, and no loads list, planning on off-grid is the wrong way to go. Spend less money on getting the grid out there, design it to have the roof at a 10/12 pitch facing true south, and use S-5! clamps to connect a grid-tied solar system to the metal roof. There is no reason at all to do off-grid in your case.