Solar off-grid photovoltaic system power management_1140
This is the inside of my "power-house" (really a small shed), where the power from my 30 205-watt solar panels (6100 Watts) feed power to my batteries and are controlled and converted from 48 volt DC to 110/120 volt AC. Below, just out of this image, are my batteries; about 1350 Ah at 48 volts. Since we are too far from PNM power lines (they wanted $36,000 to run a line to our place), we are entirely off-grid, relying on the batteries to handle nights and cloudy days. If we are careful, we can go 3 or 4 fairly cloudy days before needing to run the generator.
This system can handle up to about 7600 Watts output continuously for the entire ranch. Most of the time, this is plenty. But almost everything we have is electric and we have some that draw pretty big loads (clothes dryer 4500 watts, oven 4000 watts, hot-tub 4000-6000 watts, well pump 3000 watts) so if we don't pay attention, sometimes we pop the circuit breakers and have to reset them. This is really only a problem if I am in the shower when it happens!
Solar off-grid photovoltaic system power management_1140
This is the inside of my "power-house" (really a small shed), where the power from my 30 205-watt solar panels (6100 Watts) feed power to my batteries and are controlled and converted from 48 volt DC to 110/120 volt AC. Below, just out of this image, are my batteries; about 1350 Ah at 48 volts. Since we are too far from PNM power lines (they wanted $36,000 to run a line to our place), we are entirely off-grid, relying on the batteries to handle nights and cloudy days. If we are careful, we can go 3 or 4 fairly cloudy days before needing to run the generator.
This system can handle up to about 7600 Watts output continuously for the entire ranch. Most of the time, this is plenty. But almost everything we have is electric and we have some that draw pretty big loads (clothes dryer 4500 watts, oven 4000 watts, hot-tub 4000-6000 watts, well pump 3000 watts) so if we don't pay attention, sometimes we pop the circuit breakers and have to reset them. This is really only a problem if I am in the shower when it happens!