Solar panels MPPT charge controller and 1500 watt Go power pure sine wave inverter part 3

[ambrose361]

bad wiring techniques

[arnoldcustom]

2ga is far to light, you need 1/0 or 2/0 gag at lest

[helloman1976]

@arnoldcustom Maybe if I had a long run of wire, like 40 feet or so. 1 foot of 2 gauge wire versus 1 foot of 0+++ gauge wire is basically no difference. Take an ohm reading, you may see .01ohm versus .009 ohms if that... It's important when choosing wire and such to take into account the laws of electricity, when you select wire you are selecting it NOT on its size but on its resistance. Picking wire based on its size alone will only result in spending more money than you needed to...

[MrJamieLudwig]

WOW! $1.40 a watt. that is incredible. The cheapest i could find was $3. I priced building and came up with $1.50. Would you be willing to share your suppliers?

[helloman1976]

@MrJamieLudwig Sure thing, there are a couple places. I miscalculated slightly but I got 4 x 200w panels for $1200 shipped so to be precise I got them for $1.50 a watt shipped. I'm not sure if I can put a link in here but I got them on eBay from a guy who has about 70 extra. You can also go to SolarBlvd com and search in their section called "Solar Panels & Systems" under the 175W+ solar panels and you'll find them for around $1.40ish a watt. Let me know if you want anything else solar..

[MrJamieLudwig]

have you noticed a difference in your systems efficiency being off grid compared to grid tie? I am planning on going solar this winter by building my panels. Did you ever consider building your panels? How has your system been producing during these hot summer months? P.S. Nice wheels!!!

[helloman1976]

@MrJamieLudwig People will argue back and forth on efficiency. My system is far more efficient then a cheap Chinese grid tie from eBay but not near as efficient as an Enphase inverter system. Also consider that when you stay on the grid your grid costs goes UP with each rate increase your power company does so yes you are making power but you are buying it at a higher cost. If you live in a state that buys back power then you're good, but otherwise you're getting hosed!

[helloman1976]

@MrJamieLudwig I get my panels for about $1.40 a watt shipped so no need to buy them when I get them for cheap with a warranty. My system produces about 6,000 watts a day but my panels are laying on the ground. I'll be putting them on a mount...someday when I get off my arse.

[MrJamieLudwig]

excellent job on the videos. on your earlier vids you showed a 1200 watt grid tie inverter. i was planning on buying one but did more research and found allot of people making claims that they cause fires and burn out quickly. how was your luck with it? any problems at all?

[helloman1976]

@MrJamieLudwig I only had it for a very short time but it was excellent when I had it. I now do off-grid solar but I'm probably going to get another grid tie to bleed off excess power when my battery bank is full. My goal is to be 100% off the grid eventually. Thanks!

[Xringer]

What kind of fuses does that fuse block hold?

75A seems like a pretty big fuse..

[helloman1976]

@Xringer I thought it took regular car blade type fuses but from the looks of it it might be MAXI type fuses which go up to 80A, if they are car blade fuses like I thought they were then I'll put 2 35A fuses in which will give me one big 70A fuse basically. The charge controller manual says to be "in code" you must use 25% larger fuses than the device can handle, the device handles 60A so 75A fuses based on the data provided by the manufacture.

[Xringer]

@helloman1976 How much current do you think will actually come out of the charger?

(with the panels you plan to use)..

[helloman1976]

@Xringer I know where you're going with this "...the fuses will never pop..." and I'm way ahead of you. The current I will have right now will be 33.38A @ 24V coming out of the charger at max amperage under MPPT. I am fully aware that 70A of fuses will not pop given this HOWEVER if the batteries short or something like that they will pop. I'll probably use 40A worth of fuses, e.g. 2 x 20A blade fuses.

[Xringer]

If the controller went bad and shorted out the batteries, then I could see how a fuse might prevent the controller from catching on fire or melting.

I've been thinking about fuses and have pretty much decided that circuit breakers might be the better choice for my 48v system.

Since they should allow an easy way to switch things off and also provide some protection.

[helloman1976]

@Xringer I think we've had a few talks about circuit breakers versus fuses, I still prefer circuit breakers they are just too convenient. I'll be wiring everything through mine with the exception of the battery bank. I like the fact that when I need to do maintenance all I have to do is flip my breaker and wait for the GTI CAP to discharge and I'm all set. I'll be working on the battery stand and battery wiring this weekend. Videos coming soon...

[Fearlessthinker]

"does not go far" I meant.

[helloman1976]

@Fearlessthinker "Far" is a relative term and for us we will be able to run our 110W refrigerator for 50 hours with no additional sun light or we could use our system "regularly" with no additional sunlight from full charge for 12 hours. For us, that's more than sufficient and now if you go back to those figures and add 6 hours of direct and full sunlight and 2-4 hours at partial sunlight the difference is even bigger. We'll see though! I'll post videos of all the real world stuff I do :)

[michael970]

Glad to see it coming together.Why dont you have any white stuff on the ground .if you want some I have about 23 inches of it I could send you.TAKE CARE

[helloman1976]

@michael970 No snow for me! Florida is good like that, also good for solar panels!

[Fearlessthinker]

How many watts of solar are planning for? It's nice seeing it come together, H-man.

[helloman1976]

@Fearlessthinker I have a total of 1150 watts of solar panels but I'm going to leave 350 on the grid and the rest, 800W, will be there to charge the batteries. We started with this smaller configuration knowing that we'll have to expand somewhere, batteries or solar panels, so we're going to use it for a while and see what we need from here. The solar panels run in a 48V configuration, the bank is 24V.

[Fearlessthinker]

@helloman1976 That's good to know. Our 500w setup is more than we need when the sun is shining so I am heading in your direction as well. My meter is digital, slows down but does not go backwards, but I can't justify going withe a $2000 UL GTI to sell the excess back to the grid, so likely will fill a few batteries and run off them to stretch the day. Keep us posted on this as that looks like your plan too.

[helloman1976]

@Fearlessthinker I live in the South where they hate green power or green anything really so I have to be careful with what I do as they'll come after you pretty quick. I'm going off-grid because the cost to be on-grid is far higher than it's worth and the 10 year contract you have to sign is BS. Off-grid is not regulated like on-grid is so no inspections, no contracts, no BS...etc We'll have more than we need in power too...

[Fearlessthinker]

@helloman1976 420AH of battery does go very far when the sun doesn't shine. I see a lot more panels and a lot more batteries in your future! 

[helloman1976]

@Fearlessthinker Actually, it's 230Ah but it's at 24V making it that much more efficient. Input voltage into the charge controller will be 48V and the battery bank voltage will be 24V, you gotta love MPPT charge controllers! The next thing will be a wind turbine just to help at night but I'm not sure how to integrate that quiet yet. One thing at a time, I still have the GF wanting me to plug in the hot tub lol! That's been going on for about 4 months now :)

[Fearlessthinker]

@helloman1976 You obviously didn't read the fine print on your MPPT controller. It will not work with any females involved as part of the load.

[helloman1976]

@Fearlessthinker Actually that's just simply not true, you can have infinite additional charge controllers and they all link together, they just have to be Morningstar controllers. Their tech support wrote me back and told me they are working on firmware to support wind turbines and until then they recommend getting the PWM version of the TS-45 and using that as a dump controller. It's very possible even with MPPT controllers, they send me a diagram PM if you want it.

[Fearlessthinker]

@helloman1976 I was referring to the 5 females you live with .... LOL. Try to keep up.

[helloman1976]

@Fearlessthinker LOL, they ARE my LOAD testers...they're my real world load test. Better will be when my older girls move out in 6 years! That's about a 50% reduction right there! :)

I also see more panels and batteries in my future! I want a switch so I can switch all my panels over to charging to all my panels over to my grid tie, that comes later with my future upgrades.

[helloman1976]

@Fearlessthinker We will be doing everything during the day, running the washing machine etc, for anything that runs off the sun and with 800W we'll have more than enough that everything will be free from now on. My washing machine, home entertainment system, home security/video system and the "usual" things (coffee pot, can openers etc etc etc) will all run off solar power. At night we'll have 5,520 watts of storage to play with. I'll still have 350W on grid to zero out my usage when not home.

[MrHorsetail]

Looks real good, but you really should use the wire secure hold down things on your box so the wire doesn't get cut and short out on your box.

[helloman1976]

@MrHorsetail The wire is clamped down at the connections and I have fuses inline with the battery side and the solar side. I could hang from these 4 gauge wires and they wouldnt go anywhere, might rip the whole board off the wall though lol...

[MrHorsetail]

Looks real good, but you really should use the wire secure hold down things on your box so the wire doesn't get cut and short out on your box.