Recently I put together (with Ghurd's help) a solar system for my parent's cottage.
Ghurd helped me a lot with the design - thank you G!
The solar system consists of:
- 2 x 80W solar panels - Sharp 80W NE-80EJEA
- C12 Xantrex charge controller
- 110V, 150W Tripp lite inverter
- 220V, 375W Tripp lite inverter
- two power distribution blocks (one AGU fused for positive and an unfused one for negative)
- Xantrex Battery Monitor, located in the house - to monitor the battery state of charge
- one 12V, 115Ah Dyno deep cycle battery
- AWG5 wires between the panel's junction box and the charge controller
- AWG9 wires to parallel the panels
- the charge controller, the inverters, the battery and the fuses are installed in a metal cabin, few meters away of the house
- the house was previously wired for two voltages, 110V and 220V
Here is a diagram of the system
The solar panels were well packed, to survive the trip from Canada to Romania.
The panels were installed on the South side of the roof, on a frame made of angle iron.
The frame is sitting on 4 legs which are going through the ceramic tiles and sitting on two heavy wood beams.
We cut the ceramic tiles with the angle grinder - later will be insulated with some expandable foam.
The AWG5 wires from the panels are entering in the attic in the same spot with one of the frame's legs.
The wires from the panels are going down in the space between the shigles and the idoor cover of the roof.
This space will be insulated in the near future.
The panels were wired parallel, for 12V 160W - the white wires between the panels are AWG9
Here are the three flexible tubes carying the cables between the house and the shed:
- one black tube is carying the AWG5 wires from the panels to the charge controller
- one black tube is carying the 110V and 220V wires from the inverters to the house
- one gray tube is carying the wires from the cabin to the house for the Xantrex Battery Monitor
The 110V cable is installed, the 220V cable is hanging, and the XBM cables are also installed
The circuit breakers box and the Xantrex Battery Monitor.
The wires coming out of the XBM box are used for an external alarm (window magnetic
alarm, hooked to the XBM NO relay) that was set up to be triggerd by the XBM whenever
the voltage drops below 11V, goes above 16V, or the battery state of charge drops below 75%)
Inside the cabin, the C12 charge controller, the inverters, the power distribution blocks,
the switches, the fuses and the XBM shunt. The fuses are 15A for the solar panel fuse and 10A for the inverters.
The fuses for the remote controls are 1A.
The back of the panel. Here are 3 switches, the one on the right is cutting the solar panels out, the one in the middle
is providing positive 12V for the 110V inverter and it's remote control, and the one on the left is providing positive
12V to the 220V inverter and to it's remote control
The battery, 115Ah, deep cycle
Here is another fuse, close to the battery positive post - 30A
I used double sockets to hold two bulbs with high and low wattages and just unscrew one of them (the small one if
the battery is full, or the large one if the battery is getting close to 80% state of charge).
At the first level both 110V and 220V bulbs are on, at the second level only the 110V bulb is on
Thanks for taking the time to read my posting.
Speo
