Starting a solar journey - on grid.

Hi everyone, I am grateful for the forum. I am hoping to get some much-needed answers and maybe add a little to the community.

I want to be able to run two relatively high-spec gaming computers using solar power only. For now, I have no desire to have a connection to the grid for the solar system, which should simplify the necessary equipment.

I have a flat (positive-pitch) roof on a one-story residence. The flat portion is not the traditional tar and gravel, but rather TPO (i.e. white plastic). In Albuquerque, we have great solar exposure year-round.

The peak, combined wattage of both computers and monitors running I estimate to be around 1kW. I have plugged in wattage meters to confirm the actuals. For each computer, the usage is around 5 hours per day M-F and much more on weekends. Let's round the usage to about 60 hours total per week. Weekly usage would therefore be around 60 kWh.

From a quick online calculator, I should be able to retrieve a maximum of about 6.5 kWh/m2 per day.

Edit.... correcting my math!

One approach ...

Get a 24v 3000w or larger AIO inverter, or a 48v 6000w or larger inverter, and an appropriate battery-bank for each:
- 24v MPP 3000w (off-grid model) inverter, 2x 12v300ah (LiTime) LiFePO4 batteries in series for 24v, or 2x 24vXXXah batteries in parallel
- or, 48v 6000w (off-grid model) inverter, 1x 48v100ah (SOK) LiFePO4 battery

Phases:

1. install inverter, battery-bank (& cabling, connectors, etc.) ... test. this is also now a UPS for your gaming systems, if you confirm inverter specs to have very short cutover time from battery to grid & such ... computers won't notice. It recharges from the grid, but that is a safe "appliance-like" connection, so no back-feeding possible.

2. determine how many panels your inverter will take (inverter manual details this), and how you'll mount on this flat roof (careful about penetrating that membrane roofing layer ... perhaps other mounting options?), get that done, and feed to inverter. It now has two charging sources (panels as primary, grid as fallback).

Notes:
- don't know budgets, but that determines 24v or 48v system reference voltage ... most everything has to match up to choice
- battery-bank determine total run-time of gaming, so run some calcs to match runtime with battery choices, and decide
- no idle-time issues, as you just power on/off inverter for gaming session(s).
- if desired, have an electrician figure out the wiring from inverter to power outlets for all gaming, etc. equipment; perhaps a panel, perhaps something else ...
- buy it all from well-known vendor like CurrentConnected ... great warranties, service, etc.

Hope this helps ...

Burkey said:

...

From a quick online calculator, I should be able to retrieve a maximum of about 6.5 kWh/m2 per day.

...

Click to expand...

Most new panels are in the 20 to 23% efficiency range which translate as to 200w-230w per meter squared. In order to achieve 6500wh per day that would mean your average hours would be impossible for a meter squared to produce.

Typically you can figure 3 to 6 hours as average. Thus a meter squared will produce from 600wh/day up to 1.38kWh/day