No you don't need a 3 phase inverter. If it is a residence then almost certainly it is single phase. If you had a house the size of Bill Gate's house, it might be three phase.
Sometimes town houses, condos and apartments are fed with a three phase service but even then, the feeders to the...
There is a lot of confusion and misunderstanding about grounding. I wish I has more time to write about it. But let me toss out some basic concepts that will go a long ways in making things safer.
First, our language about "grounding" is confusing. Let me separate that into two separate...
Low wattage for longer time. System losses are based on I^2 x R. If you cut the current in half, the system losses are cut by a factor of four.
Ask Santa for one for xmas. :LOL:
Mars
If you are looking for more of an energy monitoring system, check out Open Energy Monitor.
https://openenergymonitor.org/
I built something like this a few years ago for my well control system. My system used some of the basics from the OEMon project but it does a lot more than just energy...
Morningstar makes an epoxy encapsulated inverter that would be good for the tropics.
Morningstar 300 Watt 12 VDC Pure Sine Wave Inverter
https://www.solar-electric.com/morningstar-si-300-115v-ul-inverter.html
But if you can get rid of the inverter and go straight DC that would be a better choice.
I looked at the ampacity of copper pipe when I used some copper pipe for bus bars and came to the conclusion that the copper pipe was good for something between 150 and 285 amps. I also realized the copper pipe was not likely to be the limiting factor. The limiting factor would be the connection...
I have a grid tied system that produces 100% of our electric needs and our house is heated with passive solar. I also have a small off-grid system for backup power.
The passive solar is great. Our house is very comfortable. It is warm in the winter and cool in the summer.
When we put in the PV...
A separate ground is TOTALLY WRONG. It is a fire and safety hazard and violates NEC requirements. NEC requires all ground rods and other grounding electrodes to be connected together.
Mars
I use IntelliCAD. It is like AutoCAD. It is not simple or cheep.
For simple and cheep, I would recommend Dia.
https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Dia
For circuiting diagrams, I also use KICAD. It is cheep but not simple. If I were to design a custom BMS, This is the software I would use...
If I were doing something like that, I would run at least two 3/4" conduits between the attic and basement. One for power and one for network and/or control.
With conduit you do not need to know all the details now. And in 10 years from now when you want to upgrade or change things around, you...
For my RV, I made my own Z brackets by taking two L brackets and bolting two of them together. The bolts holding the brackets together are easily accessible so I can remove the modules. These also hold the modules up above the roof enough that they get some airflow and cooling which is important...
I looked at taking a solar panel on a bike packing trip on the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route and quickly came to the conclusion that it did not make sense. I could not see being able to ride and collect solar at the same time. A big issue is that a 100W module just is not going to produce...
That sounds like a good ratio. I would stick with that unless you are planning to do any riding in mountains or big steep hills. Switching to 40T chain ring is a massive change. Although the low end gear ratio is similar, you will be putting a whole lot more stress on your chain. I would not do...
I like Enphase systems because they greatly simplify the design. They are modular so it is easy to match the system size to the energy demands and are easy to expand.
I don't think it complies with the electrical code.
You can download the electrical code from https://law.resource.org/pub/us/code/safety.html
But due to the NFPA and others making a copyright claim on the law, some of the codes are missing. You might be able to find them in the web archives...
I use a bench power supply for charging batteries for testing. It works for charging pretty much anything.
Here is a link to the one I have.
https://www.circuitspecialists.com/csi3005sm.html
If I bought one today, I might consider a higher amp capacity unit.
Mars
I would not call it "over paneling". That is misleading. I have always referred to the ratio of the solar array DC wattage to the watt rating of the grid tied inverter or charge controller as the load factor. In the past I have designed systems with a target load factor of 120%. The last system...
I have a few of this model. How accurate do you need to be?
I have never noticed that these were not accurate. I think I would have noticed if they were way off.
Assuming all the voltage monitoring points are physically in the same location, you should not have issues with varying negative (voltage reference) points. If you wanted to measure something remote, where the current in the negative wire x the wire resistance is going to affect your reference...
My 1990 V6 Toyota RV (Odyssey) has 200W solar, 2 x 100 Ah group 27 deep cycle marine batteries, 1100 Watt inverter. My loads seem to be similar to yours except no microwave and add a drip coffee maker and an entertainment system that includes TV, DVD player and sound system. I also power my...
Here is an interesting video about Ed Mazria. He is one of the early pioneers in passive solar energy. He wrote The Passive Solar Energy Book.
https://www.autodesk.com/redshift/ed-mazria/
Standard duplex receptacles have tabs that connect the two receptacles together. Just use a pair of pliers to break off the tabs and you have two receptacles on one yoke that can be wired to separate circuits.
That is not the case for GFI receptacles like you show.
What is "an RCD"?