DIY Solar Setups

[FAZIN]

I've been looking into solar to power my garage for a little while now and was wondering if anyone here had their own setup/expertise they could share.

For my garage I could get away with using an off the shelf Bluetti or Jackery setup, but if in the future I wanted to power my whole house then those setups don't seem scalable enough to build off of. If anyone knows of a good Canadian solar wholesaler then I could start pricing out a more scalable solution to compare against the off the shelf solution.

[Caroline]

If it's a really large property and want scalability don't skimp on the charge controller, battery bank and inverter(s), go straight for 96V, you can start with just two large panels in series and then add more pairs in parallel to those.

 

My setup is tiny but has some headroom left, the controller is 200A but the panels only output around 39 on a good day, and it's got a single battery, no inverter because scalpers want an absurd amount for them because normal users would want to power mains lights and appliances with the kit, which I don't need as everything it powers is low voltage: lights, a fan, soldering iron, USB power supplies and battery chargers, and basic emergency appliances meant for RVs or camping: cooler, hotplate, kettle, anything you'd use in an RV or off-grid location. It can also charge the batteries for the UPS.

 

Power is extremely unreliable and now it's off more than it's on because there's almost no fuel left even though the power plants run on coal, the machinery and haul trucks run on diesel.

 

 

I doubt you'll use it this way but get the large panels if you can.

[FAZIN]

12 hours ago, Caroline said:

If it's a really large property and want scalability don't skimp on the charge controller, battery bank and inverter(s), go straight for 96V, you can start with just two large panels in series and then add more pairs in parallel to those.

 

My setup is tiny but has some headroom left, the controller is 200A but the panels only output around 39 on a good day, and it's got a single battery, no inverter because scalpers want an absurd amount for them because normal users would want to power mains lights and appliances with the kit, which I don't need as everything it powers is low voltage: lights, a fan, soldering iron, USB power supplies and battery chargers, and basic emergency appliances meant for RVs or camping: cooler, hotplate, kettle, anything you'd use in an RV or off-grid location. It can also charge the batteries for the UPS.

 

Power is extremely unreliable and now it's off more than it's on because there's almost no fuel left even though the power plants run on coal, the machinery and haul trucks run on diesel.

 

 

I doubt you'll use it this way but get the large panels if you can.

Looking into Bluetti a little bit more and their system does seem more scalable than I originally thought. They even sell a charge controller that lets you use higher voltage panels of your choice. I think they're my leading option at the moment until I can get some pricing on other options from a local wholesaler.