RE: Designing, building and installing an off-the-grid photovoltaic system - Let's talk about it
I see some things in your post I see differently but overall pretty decent for a basic system. When we went to total solar off-grid living 6 years ago we looked into building our own panels and found so many reasons why not. It is not as easy as one thinks and takes a lot of time. We just upgraded our system this year with new batteries and 5 more panels. I am Canadian and the panels only cost me for 320 watts, approx. 200.00 a piece. Our batteries, of course, are industrial deep cycle golf cart batteries at 210AMH. and cost us just under 200.00 each. My figures might be a tad off. Will correct when my husband gets home. A system hooked up to the main grid with solar as a back up is a different system and the type of MPPT may be different. The switch box is a must for sure. We only consume on average 1kw of power a day. In the heat of the summer more but then we have lots more sun for power. For us, it is about 2 things, conservation, and management. We do not run more than 1 heavy appliance at any one time. Water pump to the well gets turned on manually when water pressure is low. We use all LED lights. We do not leave anything turned on that is not being used. So a system can cost less simply by cutting back power and managing. Harder to cut back when you are on the grid and everything runs on its own cycle such as water pumps, fridge, freezers etc. Anyway, I could write a whole book so I shall leave it there. I do commend you @alexdory for considering to reduce and for trying to be a part of the solution. For sharing this basic information for those considering as well, good job!
I didn't want to keep it too technical since not many here on Steem are that technical. The idea is to get regular people to invest in such a system and to prove it's not a Gargantuan task.
But please do tell me the flaws, so I can fix them :P What is a guide without feedback, right?
You got a good price for the batteries and the panels. Are they made in Canada?
Congrats for low consumption. I have written a series on off-the-grid before, you can just scroll through the articles, I will try to add all the articles in a future article, just to keep them categorized.
Sadly I am using 5-6 kWh per day, which I thought was a good figure until now :D
I guess I could do more to reduce.
Thanks for dropping by.
haha, I was thinking of my post and came back to change it and saw you already read it. I changed the word flaw because that was an incorrect word, my apologies. I think it was more a difference of opinion is what I should have said of which I shared such as easier to buy now that prices are so low. Yet if people's budget is extremely low creating your own panel is an economical way to go. I had a friend who did that and found it so tedious and difficult she regretted wasting her money and finally bought panels. Even though one lives on the grid one can learn to be aware of power usage and reduce where one can. One can learn a bit on management so one can reduce or be more prepared in a power outage. A generator does not always run everything in the home unless one bought a huge expensive back up generator. Our first system had a 3000-watt inverter and we switched to a 1500 watt sine wave. ( you are correct, be sure what you buy, some Chinese sine waves are junk) Grid power is sinewave. Our inverter determines the quality of power if you will. For what ever reason, I only briefly looked into it, computers, TV's etc run more effieciently, with less issues on sinewave. We bought ours 2 years ago and was like 800.00 possibly a lot cheaper now. Of course a 3000 watt sinewave would cost more. Typically you would want 3000 or more because one major appliance like a toaster can use 1500 watts. In the summer when we have sun power the freezer (100 watt unit)fridge (250 watts) watter pump (800 watts) need to run more often and we can consume on average 3000 watts in the day. So for a house on the grid 5-6 kWh per day is not bad. Possibly could get it down to 4000 watts per day. Our solar panels came out of Calgary, AB but not sure where they were manufactured. Our town provided batteries, again not sure of the manufacturer, I believe the USA. I can look into it if interested. It is a pleasure to talk with you, @alexdory. Good to see you have other articles on this topic. I feel it is very important so much so that this winter I am writing a book.
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