I'm brand new to this solar stuff, I have a full size house side by side Refigerator that I want to run 24/7 365 off grid, I might have jumped the gun by buying 8 100w Renogy solar panels can anyone advice me on a invertor/charge controller , for my 15 x 20 Man Cave, also thinking about the smallest BTU mini split. for heat and air, thinking about 24v or 48v system . I have been bing watching Utube vides, just don't know which way to go.
To start with, can you return the solar panels? If so, do that. What you're thinking of doing will require waaay more power than you're going to get out of those, and in general larger panels are better value.
Then, stop buying more things (except one particular thing) until you have an idea of what you need... To figure out what you need, buy one thing: A Kill-a-Watt meter.
Use it to do an energy audit of the things you want to power with your solar system.
As an estimate, if your fridge is new-ish, it probably consumes something like 1.2-1.5kWh per day. If it's old, probably much more. A mini-split will use that in an hour.
Here are some things to keep in mind when you're doing your energy audit that every beginner seems to get wrong:
1. Your inverter will be constantly using power. The larger it is, the more power it will use. My 3500W inverter burns 50W constantly, whether anything else is using power or not. There are more efficient inverters, but they're expensive.
2. Mini-splits and space heaters use a LOT of energy. If you're not prepared to spend at least $10k, don't even think about controlling climate with solar power. And that's the bare minimum. If you have a big space, or poor insulation, or live somewhere it's very hot or very cold, that price goes up really fast.
3. Things that have to run constantly require more power than you think. Your fridge and freezer need power 24 hours a day, so even if it's a small amount it adds up.
4. You need battery energy to get you through more than just the time between sundown and sun-up. Like, way more. Your panels will stop making real power well before sundown and won't start again until well after sunup. Also, cloudy days happen, rainy days happen, and the short days in winter really reduce your solar output. Unless your fridge stores only beer (you did say it was a Man Cave, so this is possible), power outages because of a rainy spell are a real problem.
5. Batteries will be the most expensive part of your system.
I'm sure there are lots of others, but these are the things I see over and over again.
Now, to be clear, I'm not trying to discourage you from going down the solar path here, I just want you to be realistic about what you can do, and how much money and time it might take to make it happen.
