Building Small Office Solar system

[navino87]

Hello friends.. Been a long time since my last project(Building a simple solar powered outdoor light). I have tried my luck in the last project and succeeded in it.. Its now up and running 24/7.. All thanks to the fellow members here in this community..

Now here is my next project.. I am planning to design a small solar system for my office.. Here at my place, there is a huge power crisis at moment.. There is a minimum of 8-9hrs of power breakdown daily.. So, planning to make a investment on this solar project.. And here are my requirements :

1. I need a minimum power output of 1500-2000 Watt from this built system.
2. Since My office hour is from 9.30am to 5.30pm, Will I be able to get the system running without battery?? Is it even possible!!?? If so, what is the required components apart from solar array, charge controller and Inverter??
3. If I had to stick with using battery for storing the power, then what is the amount and specification of battery that i should be looking for??
4. What should the spec and quantity of the solar array, charge controller, inverter, battery that i should procure for this project?? Am i missing something more important to get this system running??? Please advise..

Looking forward for some suggestion..

Thank in advance..

[bonaire]

You want to run the whole office using solar without the grid? - or do you want to keep power "up" when the grid goes down?

What country/location?

[navino87]

You want to run the whole office using solar without the grid? - or do you want to keep power "up" when the grid goes down?

What country/location?

Okey, say, I wanna run the office or a portion of office in solar power whenever it is available.. And when there is no power generated from the solar system, will use the power from grid..

Location :

Country : India
State : Tamil Nadu
City : Vellore


TY

[Naptown]

You need to use a Kill a watt meter or something to pin down your daily use in Watt hours.
If you need 2000 watts per hour for 8 hours a day that is 16 kilowatt hours. and is a huge off grid load.
Now assuming that you get the power on for at least say 1/2 the day or night you could use mains to recharge the batteries and allow you to reduce size of the array. Battery size is going to be the same regardless of what you do to get the most cycles out of them.
Did I mention that this is going to be expensive? cause it is.
so 16 KW per day use x 5 (to get longest battery life ) = a 48V battery @ 1700 AH
the array would need to be at least 6KW
2-80A MPPT charge controllers
+ a mains charge controller.

[inetdog]

If you need 2000 watts per hour for 8 hours a day that is 16 kilowatt hours.

To avoid confusion, I would make that either just "2000 watts" or "2000 watts all hour".

[navino87]

Thank you.. I am very sorry tat i couldn't understand much about my watt usage and calculation..

Say for example, at any said point of time, the setup solar system has to power 20 X 100 watt bulb(2000 watt). I am sorry that i couldn't put it any better..

In my last setup, I had built a outdoor solar light(2x20watt cfl) for use @ night.. So, had to connect it to a battery.. But, in this setup, Iam planning to use the generated power from the solar system directly powering up the electrical fittings in the office.. Is it possible to do this way?? What would be the cost involved in building such system?? If its cost effective if I had to use batteries to store the generated power and use it, then i could stick to it..

Thank you

[bonaire]

Okey, say, I wanna run the office or a portion of office in solar power whenever it is available.. And when there is no power generated from the solar system, will use the power from grid..

In the USA, we have a high percentage of grid-tie systems where you use grid always. However, when the sun is shining, much of (if not more) of your daytime power is coming from Solar and the extra produced by solar goes back to the grid in reverse. If the shop operates mostly in the sunshine hours, then grid costs are lower this way. In areas like Hawaii where power is very expensive, this works out pretty well for shop owners, I presume.

A workshop near me has done a solar roof where they use maybe 300 solar panels on top of their workshop.

The cost of adding batteries and keeping them healthy adds a large cost to the system. If you can "grid-tie" then you are doing about the best you can for the lower cost.

Note: A grid-tie system does not operate if the grid is down (for safety). But your statement of "use the grid when the solar system is off" will surely work.

[navino87]

In the USA, we have a high percentage of grid-tie systems where you use grid always. However, when the sun is shining, much of (if not more) of your daytime power is coming from Solar and the extra produced by solar goes back to the grid in reverse. If the shop operates mostly in the sunshine hours, then grid costs are lower this way. In areas like Hawaii where power is very expensive, this works out pretty well for shop owners, I presume.

A workshop near me has done a solar roof where they use maybe 300 solar panels on top of their workshop.

The cost of adding batteries and keeping them healthy adds a large cost to the system. If you can "grid-tie" then you are doing about the best you can for the lower cost.

Note: A grid-tie system does not operate if the grid is down (for safety). But your statement of "use the grid when the solar system is off" will surely work.

Thanks.. Here in India we dont have this grid-tie systems. Though, going off-grid is a good option, I couldn't go for it considering the investment point of view.. so, will stay connected to the grid.. The main purpose of this planned solar system is to reduce the huge cost incurred in fuel with the use of generator..

Please suggest me a optimal solar setup that could meet my purpose... Also the approximate cost that could be incurred on procuring the material required..

[Sunking]

Simple you do not need solar to do what you want to do. All you need is a good battery charger, batteries, and an inverter.

[bonaire]

Look into what some call UPS systems. Normally used for computers but many more affluent homes in India have them because of the many power outages. That is basically a battery, charger and inverter in one box.