Lightning29
New Member
Firstly, what a great resource this forum is, I’ve scrolled quite a bit and learned lots, thank you all who contribute!
My why and some details: I live in a mountain town in Colorado at around 8,500’, so plenty of sunshine here. I rent a house, so I’m not doing a full array here. I do plan on buying our own place somewhere in the country in the next year or so, where I would want a good off grid setup. In the event of a power grid failure I want to keep the fridge and 2 freezers going at a minimum. That’s the starting why that will grow into being off grid once we get our own place. I also don’t want to rely on a gasoline or propane generator and have to store the fuel, hence solar.
I’ll buy used solar panels semi locally. I’m thinking 750-1,000w total for this location. I’d like to just take over the breaker for the garage with solar as the 2 freezers are in there. If there’s power left to spare, great!
My question: AIO vs itemized system, and 12v, 24v, or 48v? We err on the ‘buy once cry once’ side of things and I’d like good components even if they aren’t the cheapest. I’m mechanically inclined, work in construction, but green with electrical. I’ve seen opinions that 12v is good till 3,000w, but I thought I’d go 24v to reduce wire size and cut amps in half. Then I read more and get the feeling some are of the opinion that if you go 24v you really just might as well go 48v right away.
I like the idea of being able to grow into it, but not sure if I need to go all out and start a small 48v system that can move to the future place and take on everything, or should I stay minimal and do a larger 12v system? Or 24v?
Future place would have workshop with welder etc.
Also AIO’s… I don’t mind building out an itemized system instead of an AIO, especially if that means it would help answer the voltage question in some way.
Was thinking LiTime batteries.
Thanks in advance!
My why and some details: I live in a mountain town in Colorado at around 8,500’, so plenty of sunshine here. I rent a house, so I’m not doing a full array here. I do plan on buying our own place somewhere in the country in the next year or so, where I would want a good off grid setup. In the event of a power grid failure I want to keep the fridge and 2 freezers going at a minimum. That’s the starting why that will grow into being off grid once we get our own place. I also don’t want to rely on a gasoline or propane generator and have to store the fuel, hence solar.
I’ll buy used solar panels semi locally. I’m thinking 750-1,000w total for this location. I’d like to just take over the breaker for the garage with solar as the 2 freezers are in there. If there’s power left to spare, great!
My question: AIO vs itemized system, and 12v, 24v, or 48v? We err on the ‘buy once cry once’ side of things and I’d like good components even if they aren’t the cheapest. I’m mechanically inclined, work in construction, but green with electrical. I’ve seen opinions that 12v is good till 3,000w, but I thought I’d go 24v to reduce wire size and cut amps in half. Then I read more and get the feeling some are of the opinion that if you go 24v you really just might as well go 48v right away.
I like the idea of being able to grow into it, but not sure if I need to go all out and start a small 48v system that can move to the future place and take on everything, or should I stay minimal and do a larger 12v system? Or 24v?
Future place would have workshop with welder etc.
Also AIO’s… I don’t mind building out an itemized system instead of an AIO, especially if that means it would help answer the voltage question in some way.
Was thinking LiTime batteries.
Thanks in advance!
