Solar system project is finally complete (I hope). This has been a long journey, especially if you count when we put in our first panels
August 24th, 2021
I installed the first 4 of our 200 watt solar panels. And for a while, it went pretty well, with just the weekend trip here and there. I think we started with 2 batteries and ended up with a total of 4 100 ah deep cycle marine batteries.
But after we moved here full time, I realized just how little power we were producing, and it just wasn’t going to cut it
February 18th, 2023
I thought it was just the lead acid batteries that we used. We had 4 – 100 AH batteries. so we upgraded to 4 – 200 AH LiFEPO4 batteries. And it was great. But even then, it just wasn’t cutting it. We weren’t making enough power for our demands, so while we had more storage, we couldn’t refill it.
March 24th, 2023
After much research, and pondering my choices, we upgrade to 12 new 200 watt solar panels, and another 4 – 200 AH LiFEPO4 batteries, a 48 volt all in one charge controller, and the process of really upgrading the solar to something that through actually looking at what we had, and how much power things were going to use, let me build.
June 24th, 2023
The last four solar panels are FINALLY wired into the system. The wires are tucked away nice and neat, and it’s all tied into a solar combiner box.
So, 16 – 200 watt panels, which in a perfect world would generate 3200 watts of electricity. (Now, that doesn’t happen, and I tried to take that into my consideration on my numbers as well.)
That’s where this video stops.
July 19th, 2023
That’s today. The day you’re reading this. The video doesn’t cover this, and later, I may make a video talking about usage and the like, but so far, so good.
We have 2 air conditioners (rare ran at the same time, and not 24/7 like when we were on-grid. We now have a small fridge (7.4 cu ft) and lights, and computers, and StarLink, and fans, and more.
And to date, we’ve not dropped the battery capacity below 80%. And most days, it fully charges during the day. (exception is extremely cloudy days).
The system we’ve build, can be upgraded if needed. (can add 4 panels without much effort at all, and the system could easily take a lot more.
More tree trimming would be nice, and that’s still on tap, but so far so good.
And More…
After getting the solar panels wrapped up, we had several things were were looking to do, but a surprise thunderstorm moved us inside.
So, since we were inside, we ended up deciding to go ahead and grout the tile, so we can be completely done with that.
So glad we did.
