New to what seems like an awesome forum. I am on the verge of purchasing 15 Jinko 535 watt panels that have minor frame imperfections. I am on an acreage in Central Alberta Canada and am on a tight budget but need help with what inverter to get and also what batteries that will not leave me awake at night but also not have my grandkids paying them off. With 8kw solar should I get one big inverter or two smaller ones? Was going to build this with adding on more as I could afford but found the panels at a great price from a solar farm install hence why so much solar pv. Most of the stuff on Ali is 230V for the bigger inverters. Eventually looking to go off grid when I can self sustain. Any help would be most appreciated.
The more I research the more confused I am.
- Thread starter opr8tr
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scoharri
New Member
What does your power audit say?
MichaelK
Solar Wizard
Don't buy anything yet. Do the power audit first. Decide how many days of autonomy you need for sunless days. Find out what your December 21st sunhour value is. Itemize first, plan second, purchase third, install fourth.
You'd be surprised how so many people here can't get that order right!
You'd be surprised how so many people here can't get that order right!
Think About It
Solar Enthusiast
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I strongly advise that you use the PVWatts calculator. Your 8KW of panels may never generate nearly 8KW of power. I have 16,400 watts of panels. I have never generated more than 8000 watts. This is correct for my application and very close to the PVWatts calculator. The PVWatts will be pretty accurate if you plug in all the correct data.
pvwatts.nrel.gov
PVWatts
Estimates the energy production and cost of energy of grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) energy systems throughout the world. It allows homeowners, small building owners, installers and manufacturers to easily develop estimates of the performance of potential PV installations
robby
Photon Vampire
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Yep it's mostly about Geo location and how well you can position the panels.I strongly advise that you use the PVWatts calculator. Your 8KW of panels may never generate nearly 8KW of power. I have 16,400 watts of panels. I have never generated more than 8000 watts. This is correct for my application and very close to the PVWatts calculator. The PVWatts will be pretty accurate if you plug in all the correct data.
PVWatts
Estimates the energy production and cost of energy of grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) energy systems throughout the world. It allows homeowners, small building owners, installers and manufacturers to easily develop estimates of the performance of potential PV installations
While it is possible in the summer with the right Location and angling plus a cool temperature to get 8KW out of 8KW of panels a good average for a sunny location in the summer is probably about 85% efficiency or 6.8KW during peak Sun hours.
PVWatts pretty much takes the guess work out of it.
rodrick
Free energy enthusiast
This sounds like rehashing the AIO thread, growatt and mpp make descent units and have a large market share in the off grid market if you are not grid tied these are good alternatives I can buy 3 of them for the cost of one victron, granted they have a higher idle consumption but that can be compensated with a extra panels and that cost is offset buy the cost of having to purchase a scc for the victron so I can have equal capacity with 2 spare units for backups and in a off grid environment you have to have a backup not to mention how many parts in the tier 1 units are made in china
MurphyGuy
It just needs a bigger hammer
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I've been reading these forums for long enough to know not to buy the cheaper inverters. To each his own, you get what you pay for.
schmism
Solar Addict
They are all built in china, even SMA.
I like my growatt and would be my goto for a second build. They are well respected all over the world.
Before you make decisions look at an annual solar irradiance chart for your location. You are so far north that you're going to get very little solar input in the winter compared to the rest of the year and you'll need to size your panels and batteries to allow for that. I'm a lot further south than you in Oregon but we do get a cloud now and then and my winter average production is around 10 percent of my summer power. I have about 20 kw of panels up at the moment, with more stacked by the barn waiting to go up, and in December and January it's no where near enough to power a typical house. It's enough to run my freezers and lights but if I wanted to be fully off grid I'd be doing some massive cutting back and I already use very little power compared to most people, , my electric bill from the grid runs about $35 a month.
Hedges
I See Electromagnetic Fields!
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Can you show any SMA presently built in China?
They tried for a while but it went over like a lead balloon.
The ones I'm aware of are made in Germany, US, or Canada.
OffGridForGood
Catch, make or grow everything you can.
As a fellow northerner, I would recommend you run the numbers, look for the NOCT values for the panels, or use maybe 70% of the max for your calculations. when it comes to looking for an inverter, find the Stand-by consumption values, often these are not presented clearly on low priced units (becasuse they are poor). During our winter Nov-Feb that standby consumption can be all the power you collect in a week. High standby consumption can be offset in summer with additional PV modules, in winter not so much. Do your research: you are about to make a big investment, know what your getting for you money and how it will (if it will) work as you expect. MMP/Growatt/EG4/others are all made by Voltronics (for example) based in Taiwan, there are many 'clones' from Mainland China, and the low price may not be worth the risk, search out comments.
There is a steap learning curve in Solar, I suggest a lot of study and number crunching is well worth the time, before spending hard earned money.
There is a steap learning curve in Solar, I suggest a lot of study and number crunching is well worth the time, before spending hard earned money.
OffGridForGood
Catch, make or grow everything you can.
I believe you're right. from my own research on this:
SMA - Germany
Deye - South Africa
Fronius - Austria
ABB/Fimer - Italy
Growatt/MPP/EG4 - generally by Voltronics in Taiwan, but Voltronics also have factories in Mainland China (for Chinese market perhaps/parts) and a new factory in Vietnam I believe.
Zillion Chinese Clones - China.
All Inverters have parts made "everywhere" with many sourced in China, so you never really know "where" something is made, and it can change.
MichaelK
Solar Wizard
How are you coming up with these numbers?
Here's your sunhours per day. Take the monthly total and divide by 31 days.
Solar Energy Maps Canada 2021 (Every Province)
A complete set of solar energy maps (insolation maps, photovoltaic maps, irradiance maps) for every province
www.energyhub.org
In December, you are getting 2.0 sunhours day.
In June you are getting 4.1 sunhours per day
Assuming you consume 460kWh per month, your daily production needs to be at least 15kWh. With 2.0sh in December, that means you need 7500W of panels to just barely break even, assuming no cloudy weather at all.
Are you saying you have generated 460 x 12 so 5,520kWh a year?
Or is “calculated” consumed?
Think About It
Solar Enthusiast
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Yeah, I was questioning that also. Please post the output of your PVWatts.
Think About It
Solar Enthusiast
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Panel azimuth and tilt has a lot to due with performance. Is shading a factor?
OffGridForGood
Catch, make or grow everything you can.
Check out Solar Power Store (Orangville ON) they have a Rack battery branded with their name for a reasonable price point, as well as SOK's, Jakiper, and Pytes. Since SPS is in Canada, the price you see is plus shipping, no inport duties. I don't know your skill set or comfort level, so will just throw out there the idea of DIY batteries using Cells. I bought two rack batteries when I started out, one from Signature Solar, one from Solar Power Store(super happy with both); after that I built two DIY batteries using EVE280Ahr Cells, and have on order the cells for a third one. From my experience I can build a 14.3kWhr rack with 100A BMS for about the same cost as purchasing a factory made 5.12kWhr rack battery so it is well worth it, if you have the skills/confidence.
I have 16PV panels, 2 Inverters, 8kW genset, and 39kW battery pack: More than 50% of the cost of this system is just the batteries.
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