Adventures in going solar!

[WaltBennett]

Well, the new batteries are in, the inverter works great as does it's remote. Only issues to clean up are spiffing up the vent arrangement as while it will work, I'm not all that happy with it (duct tape will be replaced w/gorilla tape if it stays as is). Also am a bit concerned that things in the basement may shift around while traveling and block the vents. I've an angle metal 'cage' I've made that I will probably mount around it to prevent this from happening. Here's some photos of what I've got so far: http://s1354.photobucket.com/user/th...20-%20Part%204

Found out a few things that'll change some of my habits. I keep the Monty plugged in with a very heavy duty 100' extension cord off a 20 amp breaker when at home. This has been fine to run the AC & refer, but if the refer and inverter/charger are on they trip the breaker. Got to leave one or the other off when at home now. Since the two things that do a good job of charging the batteries are the solar charger and the inverter, I suppose this isn't all that bad.

Also, if the batteries need serious charging, the current required by the inverter charging part is enough that the AC can't be running either. Those brand new Trojans were about 80% charged when I got them installed & the inverter wanted to put some serious volts & current to them - popping the breaker with the AC running. Turned off the inverter and let the solar panels do it instead, and everything was fine.

Finally, although I put the AC on the straight through AC power leg, it also needs some DC to run the thermostat. If the battery bank is disconnected from the 'house', the converter has to be on for the AC to run. Otherwise it just sits there. Lots of little nuances to this stuff!

Total cost with the four T-105's being the most expensive portion $2642 (minus $1500 from the two Yamaha generators equals $1142 out of pocket).

[7.3Ford]

Walt,

Save your receipts, you may get a tax credit too. If very's from year to year. When you fill out the form it ask if it is primary res, check NO, and it takes you to the back, and you get the same credit in the year I put mine on. I got 33% of the total cost back off of the taxes I owed (not gross) the year I did it (2010).

[Bigboomer]

Walt,

Here is a link to what John has pointed out

http://www.solar-electric.com/soentaxcr.html/

Worked out great as last year we took the credit. I made sure we purchased the wind turbine as well last year even though I just wired it up a couple of weeks ago.

[Bigboomer]

Walt,

In reading the install again, did you install a sub panel and wire all the circuits into that or are you still using the converter with all the circuits going into that?

Installing a sub panel allows you to separate the circuits a lot easier and allows you to control what you are or are not using on the inverter.

I only use the converter box for my 12V circuits and all the AC circuits are run thru the main and sub-panel I installed.

[WaltBennett]

Les -

Didn't have to put in new panels as we've separate panels and a separate converter. I was able to re-arrange circuits in the 120v panel without any problems (other than tracing a couple of mislabeled ones). Only power issue I've got left is not wanting the refrigerator AC to be on the inverter leg and I haven't gotten around to switching it - probably put 'Kitch2' on the washer breaker as we don't have one. That circuit has the refer and one lone AC outlet next to it and that's all, but the heater element pulls more current than I want the inverter to be supplying off the batteries.

[WaltBennett]

Never actually tried it before, but just made a microwave bag of popcorn and figured out by the Trimetric that I'd still be able to watch 8 hours of 40" TV w/blu-ray home theater and fan going for at least another 14 hours on these batteries! I do believe this will work out just fine!

[WaltBennett]

Well, I procrastinated about moving the ref. AC lead off the leg supported by the inverter and just paid for it over the past few days of rainy & cloudy weather. Sometime a while ago the house breaker popped and the inverter took over providing AC to the refer. Took me a couple of days to notice, but when I reset the breaker, the inverter started recharging the depleted (not too far) battery bank to the tune of almost 90 amps (from a 65 amp rated charger!). First did what I should have way back and put "Kitch2" onto the other leg, then turned off every AC drawing thing but the turned off inverter and let the solar stuff charge the batteries for a while. Turned on the inverter for a bit after sundown, but it was still putting too many amps in by my Trimetric to let it be, so I turned everything off after a couple of hours. This morning, I reconnected the solar stuff and let that run for about four hours. Batteries up to 70% by the Trimetric with 24 amps solar charging, so I turned the inverter back on - up to 80, then down to 70 and steadily declining thereafter. I'm pretty sure the inverter came close to the 10.5v battery shutoff level, but not quite. Found out the current limiting adjustment on the thing doesn't really do anything. Got a call in about that. What I liked was that it appears my 400 watt solar set up will recharge the four Trojans in a couple of good sunny days by themselves. What I don't like is not being able to adjust the charging current of the inverter like I'm supposed to, but then a 30 amp circuit for the Monty would take care of that anyway . .

[McIver]

I'm told that a proper battery monitor, like the TriMetric, will show you that the current draw of devices is much less than what is labeled on them. Seems that the manufacturers are more concerned with lawsuits than accuracy.