View Single Post
kscherer
Which way is up?
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Boyzeee
 
2022-09-22, 13:31

Solar-powered homes without batteries are actually a pretty dumb idea. And batteries are still super expensive if you want to be able to ride out an outage, or a long storm, or anything between sundown and sunup.

My advice is this: If you cannot afford batteries (and all of the chargers/inverters, wiring, and other specifics), don't bother. I'm not putting money into solar until I can also put money into batteries.

Also, if you want to be able to ride out the night, you need to double your solar capacity because you need to run the house while simultaneously charging the batteries. And, you need to decide what conveniences you want to power with solar (such as a water heater, A/C, etc., or just the lights will do thankyouverymuch) and plan your capacity accordingly.

And then expect to pay $$$$$!

And you will never recover your costs, so this is purely a "spare me from the grid" proposition.

I set my camp trailer up with solar and good batteries, and it wasn't cheap, nor can I run the A/C. Basically, it's just lights and fans — 12V stuff — and a 2000W inverter to run some basic appliances. All that stuff to run a small trailer for 72 hours cost $3000! To set up a house just to keep the fridge running and the lights on for the same amount of time will cost double that. And that's figuring a secondary system with no connection to the grid whatsoever. If you want auto-switching for grid connection, then add another $3000+.

As of today, I have four solar systems in play. One for my trailer (200W panel with two LiFePO4 100Ah batteries, 2000W inverter, chargers, etc.); one for my shed (70W panel, 100Ah lead acid battery, 400W inverter) to run 12V lights and a Ryobi battery charger); A Jackery 500 solar generator and 100W panel for emergencies; and a Costco solar light system for my gazebo. And I'm pretty convinced it may make more sense to have separate systems for separate, uhm, systems, rather than one big system that powers everything.

My next adventure will be an 800W capacity solar system to run the fridge/freezer in emergencies! Still working on that.

- AppleNova is the best Mac-users forum on the internet. We are smart, educated, capable, and helpful. We are also loaded with smart-alecks! :)
- Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. (Mat 5:9)

Last edited by kscherer : 2022-09-22 at 14:37.
  quote