Requesting System Review for Newbie

[SunEagle]

I disagree that one fiat currency is more valuable than the other, by definition, they are equally worthless. We just have more players in the ponzi scheme with more to lose, that's all. It isn't even paper money anymore, just ones and zeros on a computer screen. Without the injection of 85Bil/mo from the federal reserve, the economy would be contracting at a rate over 5% a year...a depression. I'm just counting the 85Bil, not the 850Bil it becomes in a fractional banking system. Go to your bank and try to withdraw 30K in cash, they won't have it on hand and then they'll report you to homeland security.

Which means that without money there would be no way to purchase anything. Even if a good barter system could be agreed to the masses would have already trashed all supermarkets and pharmacies. No food, water or medicine would cause a lot of lost lives.

Sure once the ciaos dies down maybe someone could start it back up again but the majority of people that are left would be on a survival basis and would no longer be trusting.

It doesn't have to be a Zombie apocalypse. Our society is a house of cards that can be easily knocked over if the real SHTF and we have no real way of stopping if it does.

So why worry about it? Just live for today. Or maybe for the weekend and the big game. Have fun and spend time with your family

[russ]

Just for the sake of discussion...if oil is ever traded in anything other than the USD we will be up chit creek with no paddle in sight. Oil is effectively priced in Euros now - the Arabs aren't stupid -

Today we have the luxury of printing as many worthless dollars as we want IOT buy oil but that may not always be the case. Although electricity is mostly coal here, the mining machines don't run on coal and the people don't drive coal powered cars to work. I guess the Green River Shale deposit will become appealing once oil is traded in a basket of foreign currencies and hopefully, we won't be too weak to defend it by then...SWO to SWO.

The only people that believe oil is still priced in dollars are people back home.

The dollar is shaky - only what other currency is stronger and more attractive today?

Why do you thunk the EU started the Euro?

[JPCoffey]

I'm standing by to "pay it forward". . . .

I'm standing by to "pay it forward".

THastinger, thank you for your offer. I would very much like to review the details of your system. Regrettably, I will not be able to build it to spec because I already have too much skin in the game in the form of my current investment. I have already purchased,

• 1000 watts of the 2000 watts I am aspiring to build
• 6 12V 125 amp-hr batteries
• The FM80 Charge Controller

I'm on the fence with the inverter, because a big part of me wants to scale back to a 1500 watt system on 12 volts just to save money. I could justify a 1500 Watt inverter for a 12 volt system, but not for a 24 volt system. If I go for the 2000 watts then I will need a 24 V inverter and that will cost roughly $400 more than the 1500 watt inverter for a 12 volt system. I am in a pickle.


Cheers,

John

[SunEagle]

THastinger, thank you for your offer. I would very much like to review the details of your system. Regrettably, I will not be able to build it to spec because I already have too much skin in the game in the form of my current investment. I have already purchased,

• 1000 watts of the 2000 watts I am aspiring to build
• 6 12V 125 amp-hr batteries
• The FM80 Charge Controller

I'm on the fence with the inverter, because a big part of me wants to scale back to a 1500 watt system on 12 volts just to save money. I could justify a 1500 Watt inverter for a 12 volt system, but not for a 24 volt system. If I go for the 2000 watts then I will need a 24 V inverter and that will cost roughly $400 more than the 1500 watt inverter for a 12 volt system. I am in a pickle.


Cheers,

John

I know where you are coming from. I made the mistake of getting a 12 volt 2500/5000 watt whistler inverter for about $175. I thought it was a great deal until I started to learn about the limitations of small off grid systems.

It has 3 short comings. 1) It is way too big for my battery bank. 2) It is a modified sine wave. 3) It limits me to a 12 volt battery system. I did recently pick up a 600 watt Pure Sine wave inverter which works better with my system but still limits me to a 12 volt battery system. The good thing is that my pv system was designed to be portable and is only about 400 watts so I do not have a big investment.

Your system is starting out at 1000 watts and has the potential to grow to 2000 watts or more. I would suggest to you to invest in the better 24volt inverter otherwise you will limit your ability for expansion. Spending that extra $400 up front will save you money in the long run.

[thastinger]

THastinger, thank you for your offer. I would very much like to review the details of your system. Regrettably, I will not be able to build it to spec because I already have too much skin in the game in the form of my current investment. I have already purchased,

• 1000 watts of the 2000 watts I am aspiring to build
• 6 12V 125 amp-hr batteries
• The FM80 Charge Controller

I'm on the fence with the inverter, because a big part of me wants to scale back to a 1500 watt system on 12 volts just to save money. I could justify a 1500 Watt inverter for a 12 volt system, but not for a 24 volt system. If I go for the 2000 watts then I will need a 24 V inverter and that will cost roughly $400 more than the 1500 watt inverter for a 12 volt system. I am in a pickle.


Cheers,

John

John, to stay on the smallish side to start and try to use what you have already bought, you could use 4 of the 12V batteries to make a 48V bank. 12V is not where you want to be with 1000+ watts of panel and even if you were able to use all of the present batteries about 900 watts is all they could give you. You'll discover that inverter size basically = PV array size if your system is properly configured because you can only charge or discharge a battery at a particular rate.

[JPCoffey]

Thanks for your feedback . . .

Thanks for your feedback. I have been in the process of putting the panels on my roof. My wife thinks they look ugly, so I am accommodating her by painting the SuperStrut I purchased at Home Depot. I am also going to hide the nuts/bolts holding it to the roof by shielding them with some painted conduit.

Are you really sure I should do the 48V battery bank? While I don't know what it is, surely there must be some downside to ramping it up to 48V. Isn't there? I was going to wire three pairs of the six batteries in series to create three sets of 24V batteries. While this will require heavier connector cable between the batteries than 48V, I will still be able to use all of the batteries. Wouldn't this seem more practical? I am open to your feedback as well as everyone else's. I really do not want the solar installation to cause a fire!

Again, this 48V versus 24 battery bank thing is intriguing, but something in the back of my head is telling me to stay with 24V because that is a voltage that is typically used at the 1500-2000 watt power level. Am I being too presumptive here?

Sincerely,

John

[thastinger]

I'm starting to not understand what you're trying to do with the batteries and panels you have and have not read and/or understand the off-grid stickys. If you're going to have a 24V 125Ah battery then 300 watts is all the panel and inverter you can handle and expect any longevity from. If you used a C10 charge/discharge rate then you can easily see that the max charging/discharge amps into/out of that battery bank would be 12.5 Amps. So on the discharge side to an inverter 12.5A*24V=300 watts.

Multiple CCs can charge a single battery bank but a single CC can not charge multiple battery banks unless you transfer the wires somehow. You might be able to use a DC switch or breakers to connect a single battery set to the CC at a time but then you would have to do the same on the inverter side but you're not going to need a 1500W inverter, just get a 3-500W PSW inverter if that is the battery config you're planning to use.

You need to start thinking of batteries as pounds of energy storage capacity. I have 1150W of panels and 650 pounds of batteries and I'm on the lite side in the battery department.