Need more batteries

[tanner0441]

Hi

It started as a hobby.

I have 1150W of solar and 24V 190Ah of lead acid batteries with 1500W 230V inverter, this week is the first time this year I've had surplus power enough to be useful. I cant go to 48V I have too many shading issues, house trees etc until the sun is much higher in the sky,  so I have to run my panels in paralel. Last year I had 20W of yard lighting on dusk till dawn sensors which ran without charger intervention until the end of October not because I can't get enough into the batteries but the period when  the yard lighting and quiescent load is on longer than the battery capacity.

Last year from mid April through October I only had 760W of solar with the same batteries, but the elecrical savings by cooking kettles etc meant I was looking at a 5 year break even point. That was until I had the: "Can we run the washing machine and dishwasher on it"? "Not with the inverter we have." As I dont like runining inverters at their limit and I want just over two Kw Im looking at a 3Kw hybrid  inverter, and probably double my batteries.

And it started as a hobby.

Solar PV is now cheaper than the batteries it connects to.

[Bruce S]

 

[JW]

Good topic

[XeonPony]

you'll learn you never have enough batteries lol!

for years I lived off of 10.3kwH of lead acid (5.5kwH usable) just too small

Now got 18.4KwH of lithium (12.9KwH usable that's to 80% depth of discharge, safe for lithium's) got to add 2 more sets yet!

But I can tell you, do what ever you need to get to 48v as that will be the largest pay off long run for ya!

The Hybrid inverters deff pay off too, some people have done nifty things with the settings to make them really perform as a solar first utility second device.