hayden
Veteran Member
I've got another project going in parallel with my shop construction. My place is 100% off the grid with power being supplied by solar panels and a backup generator. It works great, but as we use the house more and more we have found the system to be undersized and the generator runs much more than I'd like.
So, I'm doing a major upgrade of the system. I'll be expanding the solar panels from a little over 600W to over 3100W, and will be replacing the 4KW 120V inverter with a 6KW 240/120 split phase inverter. On the battery front, I'll be changing from a 24V bank to 48V and jacking up the capacity. I haven't nailed down the exact battery sizing, but I'm thinking of something around 1000Ah @ 24V. My current bank is 800Ah @ 24V.
Since I have a concrete truck coming for my shop foundation, I decided to set the solar panel mounting poles and footings. The first pictures are of the trench I dug for the footings. These babies are 6' deep and will be formed with 36" diameter Sonotubes. There will be two poles spaced 10-11' apart. The poles are aligned E-W so the panels face due south without shading each other.
So, I'm doing a major upgrade of the system. I'll be expanding the solar panels from a little over 600W to over 3100W, and will be replacing the 4KW 120V inverter with a 6KW 240/120 split phase inverter. On the battery front, I'll be changing from a 24V bank to 48V and jacking up the capacity. I haven't nailed down the exact battery sizing, but I'm thinking of something around 1000Ah @ 24V. My current bank is 800Ah @ 24V.
Since I have a concrete truck coming for my shop foundation, I decided to set the solar panel mounting poles and footings. The first pictures are of the trench I dug for the footings. These babies are 6' deep and will be formed with 36" diameter Sonotubes. There will be two poles spaced 10-11' apart. The poles are aligned E-W so the panels face due south without shading each other.