First Post-Here's my initial plan. Rip it apart for me...

[ArthurEld]

I have a Pro Tran 2 as well. It functions as expected but man that's a lot of extra wires.
I am still thinking about adding another Pro Tran 2.
If I did it over, I would buy an inverter that just runs the whole main panel. The Solark 15K and the EG4 18K are much more plug and play.
I still have hope of running my whole house with my Solark 12K but it has not been a plug and play experience and I am far from done.
I was not very experienced with electrical systems when I started and I am just barely getting used to it after 3 or 4 years of tinkering.
If I do end up making my 12K handle all of my needs, I will have a fine tuned efficient system. But it is a lot of work and constant thinking about what I am going to do next and how I will go about it.
So, basically I am saying that you would probably save yourself a ton of work by installing the bigger system that runs your whole main panel.
That way your whole system will be engineered by people that really know what they are doing and and your whole system will go through the permit process.
Good luck

 

[EastTexCowboy]

I love the hatch idea. The guy that built mine has become a friend of mine. I'll have to ask him about that idea. Does it leak any when it rains?

Absolutely not. Same type of hatch used on commercial buildings. And professionally installed. It wasn't cheap - around $1750 - but it's solid. I already had an area that was a covered second level with stairs for storage. I put it over that and built a permanent ladder. Now I can get in the roof easily without dealing with a 20' ladder. Another advantage for me is no one can see my panels from the ground and there's no external permanent ladder. I kinda like that. People who come here never realize we have solar unless I tell them.

 

[EastTexCowboy]

 

[DrZ123]

I am in NE Texas with 6 eg4 batteries and can not get thru the night with all this heat.
also with 12kw panels I can not go below 35 percent SOC or I will not get back to 100 percent by evening, due to running the A/C causing a high load all day
with your low usage 12kw panels and maybe 6 batteries will do you pretty good, as it does for me most of the time

Is that with central AC or split units? That's a lot of crazy consumption!

 

[EastTexCowboy]

Is that with central AC or split units? That's a lot of crazy consumption!

That's about what I would expect for this part of the country. I have 12 of the same batteries and when it gets up around 105 I'm in the same situation. If it gets below 35% or so I kick on the chargeverter for a couple of hours in the morning. Otherwise it doesn't get back to 100% and each day is progressively lower. I could let it go into bypass but I've found I prefer using the chargeverter. Part of this is that I'm cooling around 3000 sf with solar and running a bunch of other stuff. I have one other AC unit that cools the second story but it's still on the grid. That said, the new heat pumps are MUCH more efficient than the old ones. If I hadn't upgraded the AC I would only have one unit on solar and the house would never get cool. Texas heat plus Texas humidity = crazy consumption, yep. And the prediction is 111F here today so it's pretty miserable.

 

[EastTexCowboy]

I live off grid in south Texas near Willis and I’m running 4 mini splits in a 1600sqft house no problem through the night with 6 batteries.

Hey, neighbor. I'm right up the road from you. We're east of Livingston about a half mile from the lake.

 

[Texican]

Is that with central AC or split units? That's a lot of crazy consumption!

These are 2 ton mini splits
I actually have 3 units , 1 is upstairs and pretty much never used.
all units are set to as low as a temp as they allow, we like it cold. like below 68
the other 2 are downstairs, one in main living/dining area and the other in the master bedroom
normally we only run 1 at a time except for 6-10 pm as the wife and I watch different tv programs.
after overloading my system breaker couple weeks ago I installed this switch which allows me to switch the living/dining mini split to either the off grid system or directly to the grid 200A panel, mainly at dinner if we have both units running and need the microwave which is 120v all on 1 leg.
this heat is crazy
with 12kw panels, if I drain my 6 eg4 batteries below 35 soc, I can not fully charge from my off grid system
I also have 11kw grid tie system and can normally use excess to supplement charging batts, but lately I need to send everything I can to the grid to offset some of my grid usage.
I have 2 outbuildings I am cooling with grid power.
my july electric bill was $34, but I am expecting $125 this month
did I mention I am SICK of this heat ? if I wanted to live in an oven I could move to Phoenix

 

[cpainter]

Absolutely not. Same type of hatch used on commercial buildings. And professionally installed. It wasn't cheap - around $1750 - but it's solid. I already had an area that was a covered second level with stairs for storage. I put it over that and built a permanent ladder. Now I can get in the roof easily without dealing with a 20' ladder. Another advantage for me is no one can see my panels from the ground and there's no external permanent ladder. I kinda like that. People who come here never realize we have solar unless I tell them.

I have the same situation. With a hatch over our living area, a permanent 6' ladder could get me on the roof. I'm a little afraid of heights, so this sounds really good to me.

 

[ArthurEld]

I don't like getting on the roof either. I'm too old.
If I fell off I'd be a bag of fat and broken bones

 

[Wv lew]

Save yourself the headache with the various EG4 products and go with the EG4 18k with 6 LifePower batteries. I live off grid in south Texas near Willis and I’m running 4 mini splits in a 1600sqft house no problem through the night with 6 batteries. Also, I put all of my solar on ground mounts using unistrut. Makes for servicing the system easy and you don’t have to worry about roof leaks.

Email signature solar for a new system design.

How many panels do you have and what are their rating? Thanks

 

[cpainter]

How many panels do you have and what are their rating? Thanks

I have 34 of these, and I'm thinking of using 27 of them initially.

 

[cpainter]

It's been a while, but I finally received most of my equipment. Here's what I have in my possession so far (in addition to the 34 solar panels mentioned above) to start my project. I'm looking at how to mount the panels now and trying to decide on that equipment. I'm leaning toward the S-5 stuff.

 

[cpainter]

94 degrees - do you mean 184???????
94 is 4 degrees south of Due East.

Sorry, I just got back on this thread and realized I hadn't answered that question. It is 94 degrees, or 4 degrees south of east. The way my barndominium is constructed, half the roof is pitched 15 degrees facing 94 degrees azimuth and the other half, same pitch, faces 274 degrees azimuth.

 

[OffGridForGood]

The way my barndominium is constructed, half the roof is pitched 15 degrees facing 94 degrees azimuth and the other half, same pitch, faces 274 degrees azimuth.

That can be a useful set up - as long as there is no shade on either side, put half the PV on the East and half on the West - all day solar collection. You will lose a bit for the non-ideal pitch to the South, but not too bad at the latitude you live.

 

[cpainter]

That can be a useful set up - as long as there is no shade on either side, put half the PV on the East and half on the West - all day solar collection. You will lose a bit for the non-ideal pitch to the South, but not too bad at the latitude you live.

Thanks for the advice on these things. I'm not skilled at such things...yet. By the way, I like the lynx pic in your avatar. We raised 2 male baby bobcats a few years ago that I came across working on our place. Those things can't be completely tamed.