[ClintK]

I'm buying some land soon, and rather than run utility lines out to it I'm looking into a full Solar Power solution. Initially my family will be moving into a fairly small house on the land.

I haven't called yet, but these guys seem to have the best prices:
http://partsonsale.com/cabins2intermediatetemp.html
Either their 1600W or 2400W system.

I want to be able to power all standard household items (energy efficient where possible): refrigerator, microwave, lights, TV, computers, etc. (And of course my electric car!) Hot water heater, stove, and clothes dryer will probably have to be gas.

Ideally I'd like to have an expandable system where as we increase usage I can add additional panels / inverters. Also, a backup gas generator for when we really need extra power.

Any suggestions? Is there a company you've worked with that has been pretty good? Thanks!

[dimitri]

I found this company to be very price competitive, but haven't bought anything from them yet.

http://sunelec.com/

Hope this helps.

IMHO, cost of solar setup largely depends on your skills and desire to do most of the work yourself. If you are capable of calculating system size and config and can assemble and install yourself, you can save lots of money by finding deals on Ebay, collecting components from different sources and then put it all together. Its especially easy for off grid system since you don't deal with utility hookup.

You can go as crazy as getting individual PV cells on Ebay for $1 per Watt, but you have to actually assemble them in panels yourself, solder them and mount them together. Lots of fun labor, but less $$$ to spend.

[ClintK]

Originally Posted by dimitri

I found this company to be very price competitive, but haven't bought anything from them yet.

http://sunelec.com/

Their prices seem pretty good.

I'm trying to figure out how to make a system that I can expand on as I go. It seems like the inverter would be the most difficult in that regard, and I should probably purchase the maximum power inverter at the beginning to tie into my distribution panel. Adding additional solar panels / chargers / batteries would be very simple after that. Does that sound right?

[ClintK]

Well so far I've found 3000W/6000W inverters for $200. Once you get above that wattage the prices skyrocket! I wonder if it will just be more economical to wire multiple inverters into a single distribution panel. Pricing for solar electricity makes no sense.

Latest hunt also found 200W panels on ebay for $496, but I still need a charge controller.

Components wise (right now) I'm thinking:
3000W Continuous Inverter(s) ($200 each)
Walmart MAXX29 Batteries ($80 each)
200 Watt Solar Panel ($496 each)
Solar Charger (?)
Wiring/Fuses (a couple hundred)
Distribution Panel (?)
Gas Generator + 12V Charger (Maybe $200?)
Mounting (?)
What else?

[dimitri]

Be careful with multiple inverters. To parallel multiple inverters they must be daisy chained to sync the AC phase. Only some models have this feature, and I doubt that $200 model has it. It has to be advertised on a spec sheet. Basically one unit becomes master and it sends a sync signal to all slaves so they all produce syncronized sine wave.

I agree, pricing on PV stuff is crazy, you really have to do your homework

Also, I think more expensive inverters have battery charge control integrated, so you don't have to buy separate battery charge controller, you just connect battery to battery terminals, PV to PV terminals and AC output to your house.

Please note, I haven't done any of this yet, just learning and planning.

[Amberwolf]

You could always just use one inverter per circuit (or room), rather than having them all physically wired together.

[CPLTECH]

I like the idea of solar, but I figure it take 7 years to just come out even for money spent vs. money saved. $2.38 per watt is the least expensive panel I’ve come across. So for now, it’s on the wish list. Currently, I heat with wood & use an old 50 gal water heater that preheats the actual electric heater. To heat the first tank, we route some copper tubing past the stove using a boiler circulation pump.

Just a few other thoughts to consider and others should feel free to agree or disagree…

The less expensive inverters and generators are not “pure sine wave” and can cause AC motors to overheat(???). Yes, I have some for emergencies. It seems to me that disasters had been ratcheting up quite a bit in recent yrs.

The guy I bought the EV from lived off the grid and showed me his fridge. The insulated doors were about 4 inches thick, the compressor was on the top (heat goes up), and had a DC compressor motor (AC is inherently inefficient in this application).

Consider LED lighting (costs lots more than CFL)

When all is said and done, there are so many things each of us can do to lighten the carbon footprint as our forefathers had to do, but we are spoiled at present. Looks as tho things are about to revert back to yesteryear, whether we want it to or not.

[david85]

Originally Posted by Amberwolf

You could always just use one inverter per circuit (or room), rather than having them all physically wired together.

I was thinking the same thing. More complicated in the long run but you also have redundancy so that no single failure can knock out power in the entire house.

As for the pay off period, that might end up being shorter if you drive an electric car. Fuel prices are more reasonable right now, but still pretty high up there. I don't think 7 years is an unreasonable break even period at all. If you sell the house, something like this will add to the value so pay off could be sooner.

EDIT: on closer examination, I found that my 220V car charger will pull a theoretical 3.6kw, for about a 6-7 hour charge time. A 3000 watt inverter would be cutting it close, but would still be doable considering the size of my battery pack (~30 kwh). Thats more than enough for our wielding equipment.

[ClintK]

I have seen those inverters you can wire together and set one as a master with the others as slaves. I haven't investigated their prices enough yet though. I was more talking about a dedicated inverter for each outlet (or maybe 2 outlets?).

I haven't really found a 'high wattage' inverter. I think the highest I've seen has been 6000 Watt continuous, which really isn't much if you're trying to wire several rooms.

The payoff period is less of a concern because right now there is no electrical service on the land. I haven't gotten an estimate yet to run the poles out there, but it should be in the thousands.

So making sure it says "pure sine wave" is critical? I'll eventually be running a few water pumps with it.

So what happens if the car charger tries to pull more wattage than the inverter can handle?

[Tesseract]

Originally Posted by CPLTECH

...Currently, I heat with wood
...
When all is said and done, there are so many things each of us can do to lighten the carbon footprint as our forefathers had to do...

I'm pretty sure burning wood -even in one of them fancy stoves - results in far more CO2 emission per BTU produced than any fossil fuel.

Originally Posted by ClintK

The payoff period is less of a concern because right now there is no electrical service on the land. I haven't gotten an estimate yet to run the poles out there, but it should be in the thousands.

Yep, in the thousands is probably right. One of my friends used to live in the mountains right outside Ft. Collins, CO and it cost him $8,500 to have electricity run from the pole servicing his closest neighbor to his house - about 3mi and 3,000 ft of elevation away, mind you, so not nearly the rip-off you might otherwise assume .

That certainly changes the payback time, doesn't it?