Good day everyone,
We have a solar powered off grid home. 8 x 365w LG panels. 4400w Magnum inverter. outback flexmax60 charge controller. and 8 x 6v batteries wired in series. (stark energy 533aH.)
We have a propane generator for backup.. Propane also runs our on demand hot water, dryer, and oven.
The home is woodstove heat only; but is A-frame.. and the south facing wall is all windows, so heat is not an issue and we actually only used 2 cord of wood all winter.
So we purchased this home in October of last year. All winter, if we had two consecutive cloudy days, on the third day we would have to run the generator.
Now that the sunny times have returned, the generator runs less frequently. But maybe this depends on whether the kids run their fan all night or not. After a couple of consecutive cloudy/rainy days, the power goes out at 7am when we turn on the coffee maker. Running the generator for 4 hours would fully charge the system. .
My questions are.. can I add two 6v batteries to the bank, so that it's a 60v system versus 48v? or can I split 10 batteries into two banks of 5 (30v each) in series and parallel? or do I need to add 8 batteries, parallel to the current set. (do the banks need to be 48v?)
Or do I instead add 4 more panels to max out the inverter, and increase charging capacity in sun & cloud?
thank you for your time. I appreciate your time.
take care
We have a solar powered off grid home. 8 x 365w LG panels. 4400w Magnum inverter. outback flexmax60 charge controller. and 8 x 6v batteries wired in series. (stark energy 533aH.)
We have a propane generator for backup.. Propane also runs our on demand hot water, dryer, and oven.
The home is woodstove heat only; but is A-frame.. and the south facing wall is all windows, so heat is not an issue and we actually only used 2 cord of wood all winter.
So we purchased this home in October of last year. All winter, if we had two consecutive cloudy days, on the third day we would have to run the generator.
Now that the sunny times have returned, the generator runs less frequently. But maybe this depends on whether the kids run their fan all night or not. After a couple of consecutive cloudy/rainy days, the power goes out at 7am when we turn on the coffee maker. Running the generator for 4 hours would fully charge the system. .
My questions are.. can I add two 6v batteries to the bank, so that it's a 60v system versus 48v? or can I split 10 batteries into two banks of 5 (30v each) in series and parallel? or do I need to add 8 batteries, parallel to the current set. (do the banks need to be 48v?)
Or do I instead add 4 more panels to max out the inverter, and increase charging capacity in sun & cloud?
thank you for your time. I appreciate your time.
take care