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Good evening all,
As I research and go thru web sites etc the more confused I become on
what I should use or the way we set it up.
My daughter and husband are stating to build their house in a remote
area of the South East (SA) No utilities of any kind. Etsa quoted running a
grid to them!!! well that came to over 6 figures$$$ So solar it will be
The estimated Load is 6kWh with five days storage They want to be able
to relie on solar and battery bank with the generator as emergency use in
breakdowns. Has any one used Kaneka 60 watt thin film 48 volt panels???
As I read on mono poly christlyne and all say how there's is the greatest.
45 60W cells been quoted I understand 48 volts system and 24 2vdc
650Ah batterys chosen to lessen volt drop and the power draw from
them. Panels will be ground mounted.. Is there a reason why 60 watt
pannels instead of less panels however at a higher output??? Also quoted
two 48V 5200 Watt pure sine wave inverter/charger?? why two One will do
the duty.
The people quoting are saying their system will do our need however
they are not too good on the whys and why nots items were selected.
Any one out there using similar panels or power that could say works
well.... problems are... or any helpful thoughts from similar systems.
Looking forward to reading your comments
Thank You gramps (eric)
AMUN-RA Senior Member Joined: 10/03/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 144
Posted: 09:13pm 31 Aug 2007
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http://www.outbackpower.com/forum/
If you want to learn some more this is a good site to start ask the same question. One job of the system designer is to make the client feels comfortable about the system by explaining the hows and whys you have to live with this system every day so you need to understand.Maybe another quote or two will allow you to make a better chice of system.Email me more info and I will run it buy my designer MickEvery day the sun shines
& gravity sucks= free energy.
Bryan1 Guru Joined: 22/02/2006 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1343
Posted: 10:42pm 31 Aug 2007
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Hiya Gramps,
I've got 14 of those kaneka panels on my roof installed by the solar shop If had to setup all again I would of done a heap more research and left the solar shop alone as the trouble I had with their imcompetance and a few other people I've talked to who went down the same road are saying the same things. No doubt you should be able to get the govt rebate and personally I'd go for 175 watt 24 volt panels and a 5kw selectronic inverter with a aerl 900B Mppt. for batteries I've got 12 2 volt 600AH sonnenscheins so for a 48 volt array you would need 24 of them. Mind you it won't be cheap but make sure you get atleast 5 different quotes from diffenent solar stores and scan each one carefully. For the above system I mentioned I reckon it would come to around 35K atleast. So for a huge investment such as this just make sure of everything as we all would hate to see you get burnt by some of the shonks going around.
Thank you Bryan ,
was your problem just not properly explained?? equipment not
functioning as said it would?? Poor working man ship causing faults??? not
enough power as you were told it would do the job?? From my reading on
different style of Photovact cells It appears to me Kaneka are very good ..
Thank you Amun-Ra
Thanks, yes I would very much be interested in what your ideals are on
my daughters sola needs.
1 ground mounted ( have plenty of space) is tracking ease??
Inexpensive....so to speak if all panels are in singel line so one tracker
and motors set will do//
2 6000kWh min system needs
3 5 day battery storage to run total house in winter low sun days
4 could manualy every few days re ajust panels. would do only if tracking
is too expensive
5 Presently the house will have two adults and one child may be one
more down the track. They will be watchful of power consumption
Howerver They do not want to live in the dark ages, tv computer and
lights that light up the areas and not making one feel that they need a
tourch if children are doing home work or watching tv etc and others in
other areas Wants to live in this century..with a carefull watchful eye on
the power as moving to other areas in the house.. Well thats their plan
well all will try for best solution ----in an affordable area of their budget.
what can you suggest Thank you Gramps
hi Eric
i have installed several solar systems using GEB Kaneka 48V modules actually they are 55V at their MPP. i have had no problems with them, they are ideal for grid connect systems but work very well for stand alone power applications using a mppt.
for your needs i would use
20 modules giving giving about 5.kWh/day
830Ah battery bank
3000 inverter/ charger
MX60 mppt or similar
here are 10 modules installed at a coastal site near Elliston SA 3.5 kWh/day from solar.The wind is always
blowing there and 4kWh/day plus from the wind turbine is quite common in fact the wind tends to shut down the solar system with "battery full" showing on the screen of the MX60.
this forum should not be used to bag the solar shop or
anyone else with out allowing them a right of reply and
i am not in any way connected to the solar shop
petanque don Senior Member Joined: 02/08/2006 Location: AustraliaPosts: 212
Posted: 03:14am 05 Sep 2007
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While wind can be very site dependent the south east of SA is meant to be a good location for wind and not particularly sunny.
Have you considered some form of wind generation?
Remember living off grid will have ongoing expenses as well making an ongoing commitment to modest energy use.
Clearly different firms will have different standards of service and the quality remains after any cost savings have been forgotten.
I am still having trouble getting around this sites features in responding etc
hope this gets to you
Hi Windman,
with 20 panels you suggestee is that with the 60 watt ones and you believe
that with the higher current capacity of the larger battery bank we can get
the perfromac we need or are you suggesting a large cell with reduced
number???? Gramps
Hi Gramps
with 20 60W kanekas used in a grid connect system will yeild about 7.5kWh/day peak summer time and around 5.5kWh/day averaged over the year. when used in a stand alone system the yeild may be slightly less.The battery
capacity and the PV array size should match total demand load. This configuration is close to what you want in as much as the daily energy is concerned. As for storage 5 days autonomy is a big ask for just batterys, better to have a back up gen set as the battery would need to have a capacity of around 2000Ah at the C100 rate!!!. exide energy store 24RP830 or similar give good results for cost gels are very good but start to get expensive
20 Kanekas will be connected to mx60 mppt and 3kW outback inverter/charger and 830Ah battery bank. the capital cost of this is around 15k
Good evening windman,
Thanks for that infromation, I will pass it on to my "kids" I they still have
a lot to go thru and the home work on fairly accurate needs and actually
living conditions total Isolated from any utility company . I agree with
you on that 5 day battery holding power. They dont want the expense of
running the generator daily to fill in the high demand times, so working
on a winters day and what min kW they can cope with on a very low solar
load day however still have enough, hopefully I not sure they can afford
what they think they require ... we are working on it. The little things like
turning off lights when they go to work or whatever... Most probably
once they are in they own house and we arent saying turn off your lights,
and a bank of dead batterys thing will work out... As a Dad I probaly dot
too many I's and cross t's I'll pass on your most welcome comments
thanks again windman. gramps
RossW Guru Joined: 25/02/2006 Location: AustraliaPosts: 495
Notice. New forum software under development. It's going to miss a few functions and look a bit ugly for a while, but I'm working on it full time now as the old forum was too unstable. Couple days, all good. If you notice any issues, please contact me.
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If had to setup all again I would of done a heap more research and left the solar shop alone as the trouble I had with their imcompetance and a few other people I've talked to who went down the same road are saying the same things. No doubt you should be able to get the govt rebate and personally I'd go for 175 watt 24 volt panels and a 5kw selectronic inverter with a aerl 900B Mppt. for batteries I've got 12 2 volt 600AH sonnenscheins so for a 48 volt array you would need 24 of them. Mind you it won't be cheap but make sure you get atleast 5 different quotes from diffenent solar stores and scan each one carefully. For the above system I mentioned I reckon it would come to around 35K atleast. So for a huge investment such as this just make sure of everything as we all would hate to see you get burnt by some of the shonks going around.
