Off-grid house
- Thread starter Mark
- Start date
svetz
Works in theory! Practice? That's something else
What sort of advice are you looking for? A good place to start might be Frequently Asked Questions
Getyourbone
Hard to offend but hard to bend...
Well only info provided is 8 kilowatt generator so based on that I would recommend maybe 160 kWh battery bank 12000 continuous watt inverter and a 50,000 watt panel array...
Any more advice is kind of difficult without additional information such as where you’re located, what your daily usage is, Square footage and quality of dwelling,etc...
Hopefully with more info and some fine tuning, people around here can chip away at my numbers offered...
Any more advice is kind of difficult without additional information such as where you’re located, what your daily usage is, Square footage and quality of dwelling,etc...
Hopefully with more info and some fine tuning, people around here can chip away at my numbers offered...
yer cheers,
I meant to say an 8KW 24V solar system with a generator back up.
was wondering is there where was gear specific to lager systems.
And is building your own LiFePO4 battery practical for the bigger systems?
Ive been doing the "off grid" thing for 5 years now. One thing I can recommend even without specifics being provided is the generator. Only use an Inverter type. They aren't as cheap but your electronocs will thank you. Dirty power will effect the life of all electronics. Also, you will want to get the smallest genset that will support the charging needed for the size of the battery bank/minimum loads required (do you really need to do laudary at night). Any more and your just wasting fuel and $. Ive seen my neighbors go out and buy the biggest genset they can and usually just run small loads 80% of the time. I told them they should get two smaller units and parallel them (most have this feature) as needed. But they never listen...
As for the inverter itself you should consider one with a hybrid charger such as Victrons Multiplus. These allow you to charge the battery and supply the loads needed in the house. But, if you need an additional (short term) load increase (wife really wants that late night toast) it can use the power from the genny AND draw from the battery at the same time. Unlike most inverter chargers that look to the generator to do it all and probably trip the breaker. These are pretty new and I plan to get one when mine is do for replacement.
As for the inverter itself you should consider one with a hybrid charger such as Victrons Multiplus. These allow you to charge the battery and supply the loads needed in the house. But, if you need an additional (short term) load increase (wife really wants that late night toast) it can use the power from the genny AND draw from the battery at the same time. Unlike most inverter chargers that look to the generator to do it all and probably trip the breaker. These are pretty new and I plan to get one when mine is do for replacement.
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Deleted member 783
Guest
I've been looking in to this a lot, and I'm kind of settled on a honda 20kp50. Any thoughts on that?
Not familiar with that....neither is google. Can you provide a link?
Never mind. Google "checked my spelling" for me and made a mess of it. Anyway. What are your expected house loads and any battery charging loads? I would expect this to be to small in most any event at 900 running watts and 1000 surge?
Also Honda makes a great generator, but I was never able to justify the cost myself. Generators such as the Ryobi ryi2300bta for example are half the price but by no means half the value. If one works for you now, great. If you need more power get a 2nd and just link them (parallel kit). Not to mention you always have a spare! Not trying to start a "which genset is best" discussion, but it seems every forum ends up with one. ?
Never mind. Google "checked my spelling" for me and made a mess of it. Anyway. What are your expected house loads and any battery charging loads? I would expect this to be to small in most any event at 900 running watts and 1000 surge?
Also Honda makes a great generator, but I was never able to justify the cost myself. Generators such as the Ryobi ryi2300bta for example are half the price but by no means half the value. If one works for you now, great. If you need more power get a 2nd and just link them (parallel kit). Not to mention you always have a spare! Not trying to start a "which genset is best" discussion, but it seems every forum ends up with one. ?
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PHoganDive
Solar Enthusiast
Generators use a significant amount of fuel just to run themselves. You get the best efficiency by running it at max output, that way the percentage of fuel it uses to run itself is the smallest relative to the total output. It's also more efficient to run a small gen at max power than a larger one at half power...and start a second gen if you need more than the max of the small gen.
eddie1261
Solar Enthusiast
In addition to that good advice maybe look into a Furman power conditioner. That will give you clean, stable power. In my music studio upstairs everything is plugged into a Furman. Computer, monitor, keyboards..... From the wall to an uninterruptible power supply to the Furman. If I do have a power loss I have 20 minutes to save my work and power my stuff down gracefully.
Bluemalibu
New Member
Two additional Inverter Generators that I can recommend are Yamaha's iPower 1600w and Firman 2900w, $450 and $640 respectively at Costco......
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