Upgrading the house power

After seeing the performance of the new MPPT solar system on our 100-year-old barn.
I now have big plans for next summer, to completely remove and replace our current power system (relocating it to my shop building)
Until then, for this winter, I have made a slight improvement.
I have four solar panels on the roof, two of which are matching 150-watt panels.
I separated the wiring at the panels. Combining the two 150-watt panels in series to a Victron MPPT smart solar charge controller and directly to the batteries.
I still need to order and install an inline fuse, but for now, we are up and charging!
The other panels will remain wired in parallel as they have been for many years.
During a mid-afternoon thunderstorm today, I was still receiving a charge from the Mppt control!

Next summer, I will switch to 48-volt LiPo batteries with an all-new solar system for the house.

Really enjoying the simplicity of your systems, Thomas, and am following all of this closely.  Our most concerning power draw is a deep well (220VAC) that would need a cognate inverter for juice.  I recall focussing some years ago on the Magnum brand for such an inverter.  Are the chest freezers that you mentioned elsewhere 12VDC?..... That would be a huge savings to us especially in summer as we are running 4 chest freezers in an un-insulated garage.  Not a problem in winter as you can imagine, but an unnecessary cash pit in summer.  I have the younger brother of your pictured controller in the 75/10 configuration--was going to use that to maintain charge on extra batteries in the Kubota 4X4 RTV to power a winch and bed crane.  Good luck with your upcoming upgrades!

Hey John
Indeed, we have two 12-volt chest freezers; the smaller one can be a refrigerator if you need it to be!
We love them, 4" of insulation throughout, 12 volt Danfrost compressors, they run off of a pair of six-volt deep cycles.
Not cheap to buy, but they run from the sun once you get them home.

https://permies.com/t/216684/newest-volt-deep-freezer

John Weiland wrote:Our most concerning power draw is a deep well (220VAC) that would need a cognate inverter for juice.  I recall focussing some years ago on the Magnum brand for such an inverter.  

Hi John, do you have any specifications for your pump?  What's it's horsepower rating?  Do you have any information about the amperage draw, starting/running?  Those numbers would be essential in the design of a solar-based pumping system.

Yes, completely doable via solar, but you need to know your numbers for proper design first before building something out of randum components, and then trying to flip the power switch.

I have a chart of pump power numbers.  If you can tell me something about your pump, we can get the starting/running figures from the chart.

John Weiland wrote:Really enjoying the simplicity of your systems, Thomas, and am following all of this closely.  Our most concerning power draw is a deep well (220VAC) that would need a cognate inverter for juice.  I recall focussing some years ago on the Magnum brand for such an inverter.

We're running a Luxpower 6000 all in one Charge/Inverter that puts out split phase 220V. Our well pump is 3/4HP for a 300 foot well. I ran it yesterday and was drawing about 1,600 watts from the system. On sunny days that works out just fine with our 9 x 380 watt panels. There's enough juice left over to charge the batteries and keep the lights on in the house.

Water goes into a storage tank when the sun's up, then I have a small pump coming out of that. The battery on the smaller pump would last for about 5 hours of continuous pumping, so with normal water usage it can last for days. To top it off there's a 250 watt panel and a 30A charge controller. I was running 2x 250 watt panels and a 50A controller, but I noticed it wasn't all being used.

This system works pretty well, we can go days without good sun and the faucets stay running. The only thing I'd like to add is automation so I don't have to manually turn the big well pump on.