R Webber

He has submitted a partial plan to the power company. They allow you to design and install your own system as long as they approve the design. They want a wiring diagram and the specs for the panels and inverter.

If I wire the panels in 2 banks of 10 series for 480 volts I think I can use this inverter:

What do you think?

A good friend of mine is taking advantage of local government incentives to install a grid tie system to his house. He will be on net metering so doesn't require batteries or a charger right now. If I design and install his system for him he will give me some panels which I can use to power my off grid home. I don't have access to the government incentives because I'm not grid tied, so this will be my chance to get into more solar than my 2 40w RV panels and hopefully stop running the generator all the time.

He has 20 480w panels he got a good deal on. I need to choose an inverter and deside how to wire the system. These are the panels:

Dalton Dycer wrote:

The corduroy roads are so cool to watch be built by the military in that old ad! I’m so glad someone suggested viewing the military corduroy Rds video.  Educational and inspirational those granddads sure worked their behinds off!  

That's the video I was thinking of, thanks! It inspired me to do my corduroy. I plowed it with the backhoe last year too.

Absolute cheapest driveway: corduroy road.

It costs trees, not the nice big ones, medium size will do, gas for chainsaw, and your time and effort. I use a wide strap to drag the logs around by looping the log and throwing the strap over my shoulder. Built 30 feet of it 2 years ago and it's still holding up very well. Drove a 15,000 pound backhoe over it multiple times without issue. Corduroy roads can last hundreds of years.

Lots of videos online on how to build it. My favorite is one produced by the american military in the 50s.

The prices are nasty here. A feature of living in Canada, and for some reason the prices of anything used are near new in New Brunswick in particular.

Thanks for the link!

The sine wave inverter i have is too small, and I read you don't want to use a regular inverter on electric motors. So I will need to acquire one.

I'm still reading about mppt controllers, but my understanding is you wire your panels in series up to the voltage capacity of the controler, and can wire groups of those panels in parallel up to the amperage capacity of the controler. Is this correct?

Trying to get panels as cheap as I can, but around here the cheapest I can get used poly panels is $.75 a watt. Is this a decent price for 6 year old commercial panels? How much are people paying for their solar panels?

I have two hundred watt 12 volt panels with their own pwm controllers on my 12 VDC trailer system. I'm looking to upgrade to a 24 volt system to run a freezer, microwave, computer and TV.  If I buy a 1000 volt 40 amp mppt controller can I hook up those two panels to it, as well as other panels I get? Or will different spec panels cause issues, and i should just get matching panels to connect to the controller?

Ok,so I had my budget severely cut and I won't be able to afford panels right away. I need a generator, batteries, and an inverter for now. Looking at 235 ah 6 volt batteries from crown. They seem to be the cheapest decent quality batteries available locally. $259 each. I could get 2 or 4, depending on the cost of the other items. Inverter - modified sine wave or pure sine wave?. I don't know if I should get a 12v one though, because once I have money for panels I will probably want to move to a 24 volt system. If I get a 24 volt one then I have to buy 4 6v batteries. I have seen ones that accept multiple input voltages, but they seem to cost a lot more. I would rather spend more on an inverter now and not have to upgrade it when I get panels. I eventually want to run 3-4 300 watt panels. Generator - ideally it would be big enough I could use my small welder with it. I use hat at home on a 220volt 30amp circuit with no issues. I don't mind running the genny for welding, power tools, etc, but I want to be able to run freezers on my solar setup eventually. Thoughts?

Oh and the trailer's charger/converter is an intelli power 9000. PD 9040 13.6 volt 40 amp

LiFePO 12v 100ah batteries are about $800 each here. Canada sucks for batteries.