Original first post below:
Will, I love your energy of spirit and what you have done, researched and how you teach it is great.
When I build things, I generate a build log of what, how , where, when, who, why questions and answers for that build so that I can have a diary of you will of what I did.
This pattern I have used on rebuilding my trucks, one of which is shown in my avatar
So I am sharing this log of my system (currently on my local computer) here so it can used for reference by myself and others:
This was ALL DIY by myself
I began my interest in solar power generation back in 1993 time frame when I came across an issue of the HomePower magazine. I subscribed and received all future issues til the last one that went out in November 2018. An archive of them is located at
www.homepower.com
At that time I could not buy solar equipment due to cash flow. BUT I could work on reducing my loads in my house. I counted 50 incandescent 60 watt light bulbs located throughout the house. One by one I replaced them all with 13 watt CFL bulbs ($20 each) - I stored the old bulbs so when we moved I would put them back - which I did and took all the CFL bulbs with me.
I measured consumption via the electric meter for the months before and after I swapped out the bulbs: Power consumption went down 30%
I learned of and bought a load meter for individual devices, but it was expensive $100+. Eventually I learned of the Kill-A-Watt for $25 and have used that ever since.
With such metering devices I measured all the pluggable devices in the house. I insulated the refrigerator (floor coils) not side cooler and gained a reduction there.
My first purchase was an 18 watt Chinese panel for $150, back in 1996 time frame. I also purchased a Trace 10amp charge controller for $120. - I still have this controller. We had an old 1 car garage that is really just a large shed, in which I setup this system.
Starting car battery
18 watt panel
10amp charge controller
wires
switch
and a single 12v light in the shed
No other meters, just the above
Of course I got the usually wife "What do you want to do?" questions and looks so I kept my mouth shut mostly.
Then one night the grid went down and I was not home. My wife went looking for some kind of flashlight and one place she went looking was the shed. As she entered, she just flicked the light on and went looking............(wait for it)...............then she realized that the grid was down (I had taken the old grid light out) but she had lights! She finally saw the vision, er the Light.
SOME FOUNDATION
There are 4 major components in any power generating system:
1) Generation
2) Processing
3) Storage
4) Loads - or things that consume electricity - the WHY we like electricity
In 1999 I scheduled and attended a solar design and implementation class put on by SEI
www.solarenergy.org based in Colorado. I took a 1 week class in Washington. The class I took was
PV101: Solar Training – Solar Electric Design and Installation
back then it was focused on battery based system. Today the above class focuses on GRID-TIE systems without batteries. Advanced classes touch on battery based generators
Well I wanted an UPS/battery based system. Uninterrupted Power Supply system. When the grid drops, my system would continue to operation. I had computer servers to run at home.
I didn't (still don't) want a GRID-TIED solar generator. When the GRID drops, then no power to the house not withstanding thousands of watts of power panels on the roof. SO batteries have always been a part of my plan and implementation. But batteries are the dirtiest part of solar generators.
After this class I came home with lots of new knowledge and passion and put together a system plan then began to allocation the monies for it, as well as plans for where to put things. I slowly and concurrently rebuilt the old garage from cinder block walls to 2x6 stick walls (without removing the roof - that was fun) with a good new foundation. How I did that is an other story. But in this new building I housed the first major system I built. The following covers the PROCESSING equipment for my system. This includes controllers, inverters, meters, wires, breakers, conduit and the like.
First pic:
On the far right is the Ground Fault breaker system. If any current hits the ground wires, this will trip OFF all incoming PV power
Center is the 250 Amp breaker from the batteries to the inverter. Above that center, is the RV Power Products Solar Boost 50 (SB50) which is the controller for Array #1 of solar panels. 24 volt incoming design. I am still using this charge controller today
On the left is the Trace SW4024 inverter. Works on a 24 volt battery bank and produces 120 volt AC power (just one leg).
Nice inverter with all types of configuration menus. Still working today
The meter on the upper right is a battery monitor meter, and measures how many amps are going to/coming out of the battery. Like a gas tank gauge, but for the battery. Did not like this version, later I got a new/better user interface one.
The second picture is the inside of the MPPT charge controller