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Solar Consultation

Want to put your deep freezes on solar so you don’t have to worry about power outages?

Want to add Solar power to your homestead, house, shed, or anything else? We may be able to help.

We’ve been fully reliant on solar power since moving here in February of 2023.

We started with a small 12 volt system, and have worked our way up to our current 48 volt system. We currently have 16-200 watt solar panels, and 12 – 12 volt 200 ah batteries wired in series and parallel to give us our 3 – 48 volt 200 ah batteries.

How much solar do I need?

The answer to that question is probably the most famous answer of all… It depends.

What are you wanting to run?
How long do you want it to run?

The more you want to run, the more you need. Just want to run a few things, well, you probably wont need as much.

Our first system, I guessed what we would need. I was wrong.

I then spent hours and hours searching the internet looking for how much I needed. The answers were sometimes confusing and I didn’t really understand all the terms. I about drove my wife crazy.

I think found some information here and there that helped me create this spreadsheet that helped me do a better job calculating what we really need.
Feel free to copy the spreadsheet to your own Google account and edit to fit your needs.

I looked at what devices we would use during the summer. I looked at the plugs, and manuals of all our electronics and entered the watts they use, how many I had, and how long I planned to run them. That gave me how much power that device would use per day. I did that for every device.
I then did the same thing for winter.
Each person is different, but there’s a chance you might use more power in the winter than you would during the summer.

I expected to use about 12,385 watts a day during the summer time, and 8,944 watts during the winter. So I had a good starting point on how much we needed to make each day.

But you don’t really run off of solar power. You run off of batteries. (You can, but it’s complicated, and a single cloud could cause problems).

Solar panels charge your batteries through a charge controller.

Your 110 volt devices run off the batteries through a power inverter.
(If you plan to just run 12 volt devices, then you can skip the power inverter.)

So the next question is how many batteries do I need, and how many solar panels do I need?
That’s what the second page of that spreadsheet tries to answer.

You can see the summer and winter power needs copied to the second page so you can see what you’re trying to make sure you make.

There are multiple types of batteries. 12, 24, and 48 volt systems most people choose from.
I’ve listed the types, their voltage, and amps. (batteries can have different so you may need to change that number).

With the watts and the amps, we can calculate how many watt hours you’ll have.
It then calculates the minimum number of batteries you need for summer and winter.

Moving on to solar panels, you can buy them in any number of sizes. Their advertised production is in perfect conditions. You’ll rarely have that. So calculate at 77%. (And no, I don’t remember where that number came from.) But this gives us how many watts/hr we can make per panel.

We then multiply that by the number of peak sun hours you get. Here in Eastern Oklahoma, we get 6 hours in Summer and 5 in winter. that gives us an idea how many watts the panel will generate per day.

WH% is the watt hours percent for that time of year. It takes the power you need for that time of year, and divides it by how much power that size panel will make. That way we can then calculate the minimum number of panels you’d need for Winter and summer.

This gives you a pretty good estimate on what you need.
For me, I needed a minimum of 2 – 48 volt 200 amp hour batteries and 14 – 200 watt panels to power our house.
Assuming I got a full charge every single day.

Don’t assume that.

We went with 3 – 48 volt 200 amp hr batteries and 16 solar panels. (I’ve considered going to 20, but haven’t done that yet, I may not)
We also have a generator that plugs into our charge controller that can charge our batteries if we have too many cloudy days for the power we’re using vs making.

You get the idea.
Things you still need to decide

charge controller
power inverter
cable sizes
fuses
cut offs
alternate power system?

There is a lot to consider when setting up solar power, but it’s not as hard as you think

What do we NOT offer?

I am not an electrician. I can’t do it for you.

I do not have a grid tied system. I know that with grid tied systems, you need cut offs between you and the power company, that way in the event of power outages, you aren’t feeding power back up the lines and possibly electrocute someone.

I’m not selling unused power back to the power company, and I know nothing about that.

What do we offer?

We’ve made plenty of mistakes and that’s cost us money, and we can help you avoid those mistakes.
I wish I had someone that had been there before me to ask questions of.
There is Facebook and Message boards, but I’ve found them lacking. I didn’t know what I didn’t know and hated feeling stupid for asking the question.

Do you need heated batteries?
Do you want BMS (battery management systems)?
The list of questions just seem endless, I know!

In the end, I want to help you build the system you need. That way, if you need to expand later, or you have problems, you’ll have what you need to make the changes you need to meet the needs of you and your family.

Contact us to learn more

Prices start at $60/hr.

Want some one on one time online to talk about your needs?
Want help picking components?
Want face to face on-site consultation? (additional fee based on distance)
etc.

If we can help, we will, and if we can’t, we’ll let you know.