Beginning your alternate energy journey

[Lowdown3]

Also, consider that he purchased a battery charger, which depending on the model might have only been $50. or might have been into the $100's. That's more money that will be tossed out later as his system expands. That money could have been put towards an inverter that actually DID that function also.

You gotta ALWAYS consider growth of the system.

I ALMOST hedged myself in on my system here not to long ago. I was planning on doing some "structural strengthing" of the area near my battery bank. We've lived with 20 batteries for almost a decade. However, in the last year we added 10 more KC130's to our system, increasing power input by 1,300 watts. Thirty minutes after sun starts hitting everything the batteries are maxed out now. Needless to say I'm probably going to expand our bank to 24 batteries at some point in the future. Had I made that "structural strengthening" little modification to that area, expanding the battery bank would not be an option now- we would be hemmed in at 20 batteries.

ALWAYS think about growth and plan for it, even if it takes a decade- which it has in my case!!!

[Klayton]

Sorry for the newb questions. But if my inverter is hooked directly to my fuze box, wont I lose power to the grid? or is there something preventing the power I create from leaving my house?

So far, what I understand, I need the following items: Solar Panels (+wind turbine possibly) + wires to take the power to an Inverter (with built in battery charger) + then wires from inverter to battery bank (which charges the batteries and then also is used in reverse to take power when needed from battery to inverter to house) + and finally a bank of batteries...

Do I have that correct? Not sure about the wind turbine, because the only turbine I can currently see in my area is only spinning maybe 10% of the time...

OH, and diesel gensets for when/if grid fails for emergency refill of batteries, right?
Are diesel generators modern enough to run off of biodiesel with no mods?

[Lowdown3]

Your missing a charge controller from the DC side of the equation.

1. DC power source- i.e, solar panels or wind gets wired to:
2. Charge controller(s)- depending on the size of the system you may need more than 1. These are rated by amps.
3. From the charge controller(s) to the battery bank.

All this is still DC to this point.

4. Inverter- this is going to take the DC power out of the battery bank and convert it to AC 110 that is used in your house.
ALSO, if the inverter has a CHARGING capability, you can wire multiple AC sources into the inverter- this could be your GRID power for a "grid tie" system or the AC from your generator.

5. From the inverter the power which is now 110AC runs right to your standard house power box.

Might not be the according to Hoyle way to do it, but if you want to stay grid tied also, the easiest thing is to put a 110 breaker in the box which brings the power from your inverter to your power box.

Now, if your connected to the grid the "MAIN" to the power box and that 110 breaker for the inverter power CANNOT be both on at the same time.
A QUALITY inverter will not blow up or get irreputable damage if that does happen, but a cheapie one would probably crap out. Either way, you don't want to leave both on at the same time.

Does that make sense?

The best way to find out about any chances of GOOD wind in your area is calling the closest airport and asking them. They'll have all kinds of wind data.

I've been some places in TX, like Sealy, Berkshire, etc. that it seems like winter, summer spring or fall the wind is always blowing like mad out there.

I think in the first page or two of this thread we discussed some of the drawbacks of wind also.

We have no wind in our system, but that doesn't mean it won't work for you!

Let me know if all that made sense....

[Klayton]

OH Thanks.
I got a little confused when I read that the inverter could also be a charger.
But now it makes sense, the inverter acts as the charger from an AC source, and the charge controller charges from a DC source.
Thanks.

[1Admin]

That's correct.

[trkarl]

Klayton,
An idea you might like is how I wired my off grid system. To make it simple and redundant I wired two reliance transfer switches into my main box which is real simple to do.

They have videos showing how here http://www.fareastdepot.com//Stream/...layer_56k.aspx

This allows me to run my circuits off a generator if for example the inverter goes down or run them off the inverter. I run the 110 coming from the inverter into an Outback PSX240 step up transformer to get 240 and then I cut the male end off a 30 amp generator cord and wired it to the transformer.

In essence either the generator or the inverter acting as the generator gets plugged into the transfer switch. The double throw breakers in the switch will either power the loads from the inverter or grid depending on where you position the switch so you eliminate back feed worries.

Also where the inverter would have it's ac in hard wired to the main panel I wired a plug so I can either plug it into the grid or plug it into a generator if need be to charge the batteries.

[Lowdown3]

Very nice! Thanks for posting this!

[Klayton]

those are some serious batteries!!

thanks for the post!!

[trkarl]

those are some serious batteries!!

thanks for the post!!

LOL! Actually they are quite small when you consider some real serious batteries. Those are surrette 6cs17ps which are 546 amp/hr 6v batteries.
Have a look at some of the 2v cells they have like the 2 ys 31p. 285 lbs for a 2v cell with 2430 amp/hrs.
Mine weigh 221 lbs each 6v battery which is simply 3 2v cells in series.

https://www.surrette.com

Or check out these

http://hupsolarone.com/

[Lowdown3]

BTT for folks looking