Home Solar System

[GeraldTheBonzai]

After a lot of mulling, I think I am not going to go down the balcony solar route, and stick with the existing shed as a stand alone solution. It means that I can't feed into my mains, but that was never really the intention. If I wanted to do that, I will go full solar on roof install.

Looking at the plug-in solution, there is the initially outlay for the appliance. But then I would have to get a new distribution box with updated RCD's, get a smart meter installed (which I don't want), dig the drive up so that we can lay an armoured cable into the shed and, the hardest, find an electrician who can do all of this. On top of that, our house was rewired over 20 years ago - fiddling with it might be a can of worms. So the actual cost is a lot more than the initial cost of the appliance.

For a percentage of that, I can get another (or 2) more 280Ah batteries and wire them into the existing rig.

[jennyjj01]

After a lot of mulling, I think I am not going to go down the balcony solar route, and stick with the existing shed as a stand alone solution. It means that I can't feed into my mains, but that was never really the intention. If I wanted to do that, I will go full solar on roof install.

Looking at the plug-in solution, there is the initially outlay for the appliance. But then I would have to get a new distribution box with updated RCD's, get a smart meter installed (which I don't want), dig the drive up so that we can lay an armoured cable into the shed and, the hardest, find an electrician who can do all of this. On top of that, our house was rewired over 20 years ago - fiddling with it might be a can of worms. So the actual cost is a lot more than the initial cost of the appliance.

For a percentage of that, I can get another (or 2) more 280Ah batteries and wire them into the existing rig.

The only reason I'm mulling grid tied is the potential for some return on investment if TS doesn't HTF. The off grid that I bodged together before was a learning curve and leaves me with some off grid emergency power in the form of an extension lead from the 1500W inverter into the house to feed 'the lounge', TV and some internet for a few hours. (We've used that and it proved its value) All that is still in place, but without the panels. So I figure I lose nothing by making my new system grid tied, and in the case of an extended outage, I'll just swing my solar panels ( or just one of them) over to my off grid system. Max flexibility, minimum spend and some ROI.
Professional installation costs are severe, so faced with what you need to do, I'd balk too.

I can't get my head around how folk spend upward of £8k getting a grid tied install and still getting no resilience. Break even periods of 15 years are a no-no for me. I'd want 5 years or less. Ambitious, it's true.

[Peter]

After a lot of mulling, I think I am not going to go down the balcony solar route, and stick with the existing shed as a stand alone solution. It means that I can't feed into my mains, but that was never really the intention. If I wanted to do that, I will go full solar on roof install.

Looking at the plug-in solution, there is the initially outlay for the appliance. But then I would have to get a new distribution box with updated RCD's, get a smart meter installed (which I don't want), dig the drive up so that we can lay an armoured cable into the shed and, the hardest, find an electrician who can do all of this. On top of that, our house was rewired over 20 years ago - fiddling with it might be a can of worms. So the actual cost is a lot more than the initial cost of the appliance.

For a percentage of that, I can get another (or 2) more 280Ah batteries and wire them into the existing rig.

I agree, we have a small 240w set up with 2 leisure batteries on our shed, just for battery AA/AAA and usb charging, rather
than a plug-in I would think a Jackery would be more useful, and its portable, camping as well as home power outages.

[jennyjj01]

Until last week, the Ecoflow Stream micro inverter could be had for <£100 either direct from their website or on the Bay.
Currently It's £129 on the website... Currently playing chicken with their shopping cart to see if they send me a discount code.

OK. Another day, another discount code. Currently £119 on the Bay.

I'm not biting yet '
Hoping for an 'abandoned basket' discount offer. I'll probably bite at £110. (tightwad)

Well, I Double Dog missed out.
As of this morning, with various discount codes, the Stream was £122 from EcoFlow.com or £129 from them via the river site or £134.10 from EcoFlo via the Bay

But now, the main website has them 'Out Of Stock'
The Bay site shows 10 available but with estimated deliver as late as 5 May

Meanwhile, I'm reading lots of rubbish reviews of EcoFlow's order fulfillment, communications and customer service.

Oh hum. I guess demand is through the roof and that they will be holding some back to sell as parts of bundles. No sweat. I'll get my panels mounted ready.

[jennyjj01]

A little Easter Weekend Project... Have purchased about £50 of timber and some brackets and paint and we * have started building a frame to mount the panels on. It's going to be 4 sloped 20* degree triangles with a big tray for ballast.

* Blame me for the design. Mr JJ just builds what he's told.

Why 20 degree? It will be South facing, but shaded by the house in the afternoon. We figured if it stuck up more than about 80cm, it would be too conspicuous from the road AND it would be too prone to blowing away ( again)

god only knows how we will lift the panels up there: They are HUGE

EcoFlow seriously out of stock with lead time looking like months and no preordering..

Spend so far just shy of £200

[Yorkshire Andy]

A little Easter Weekend Project... Have purchased about £50 of timber and some brackets and paint and we * have started building a frame to mount the panels on. It's going to be 4 sloped 20* degree triangles with a big tray for ballast.

* Blame me for the design. Mr JJ just builds what he's told.

Why 20 degree? It will be South facing, but shaded by the house in the afternoon. We figured if it stuck up more than about 80cm, it would be too conspicuous from the road AND it would be too prone to blowing away ( again)

god only knows how we will lift the panels up there: They are HUGE

EcoFlow seriously out of stock with lead time looking like months and no preordering..

Spend so far just shy of £200

City plumbing.. even they are struggling for stock ..

https://www.cityplumbing.co.uk/c/produc ... 7YEALw_wcB


https://www.cityplumbing.co.uk/p/hoymil ... e/p/298893

As examples

[jennyjj01]

...Have started building a frame to mount the panels on. It's going to be 4 sloped 20* degree triangles with a big tray for ballast.

Carpentry continues on the mount for on the flat garage roof..... Tonight's gales force winds remind me of how our last set of smaller panels blew off the roof with a similar mount. We don't want to screw it down because the garage roof is sealed rubber
.
Previous array roughly half the surface area and size and weight ( 4x 150W panels). This pair of panels weigh in at 66Kilo, but will be formidable as a KITE.

So...... What's the consensus on how much ballast weight to use. Last time we used just a few sandbags and that felt unmoveable by hand so we were gobsmacked when the wind lifted it.
I'm thinking at least 100kilo of bottled water to hold it down. Any' physics experts out there that can suggest best way to distribute the ballast? Central, or in the corners?

Sure ruled out trying to lift the panels to the roof in this darned wind.

[GeraldTheBonzai]

Ooh a real engineering problem

There are so many factors - tilt angle, max wind speed, lift force, slip force....

Thinking.....

As a rough rule of thumb, at a 15deg tilt, i'd go for 100Kg per square meter of panel area. That's total weight - panel, frame plus ballast.

If it's high up or very exposed maybe go 120. If you change the pitch angle to 30 deg, increase everything by 50%.

Ballast needs to be uniformly distributed and consider a tether to the frame.

[jennyjj01]

Ooh a real engineering problem

There are so many factors - tilt angle, max wind speed, lift force, slip force....

Thinking.....

As a rough rule of thumb, at a 15deg tilt, i'd go for 100Kg per square meter of panel area. That's total weight - panel, frame plus ballast.

If it's high up or very exposed maybe go 120. If you change the pitch angle to 30 deg, increase everything by 50%.

Ballast needs to be uniformly distributed and consider a tether to the frame.

Superb answer. Thanks.
It's 2 x 8ftx4ft ( sorry) panels, so about 4 sq m
Mounted together at 20 degrees on 4x triangular frames, sat on a flat garage roof. Sealed rubber roof which I don't want to drill through.
I intend to thoroughly load it down with bottled water*, maybe between 100 and 200 kilo. The panels alone are 30 kilo each. Last time we used sandbags, but they droop and don't apply their full weight on the frame.

* Two birds with one stone. Free storage space

[GillyBee]

Could you screw the frame to a base section which extends out to the garage walls and screw to the walls?
Or talk to a roofer about "washers" or the like to seal the roof and fix there?

Our set up is screwed to the shed roof and does not leak and seems stable in the wind. Although with climate change we may all need hurricane proof panels at this rate.

Do Renogy have stock? I just got a new LiPo battery from them as they had a sale on?