The Greg's Grid Tie Solar Project

[Gregski]

Does cleaning your solar panels make a difference? On this Sunday Solar episode:

[Gregski]

so this morning I decided to hose off the ten 100 watt solar panels that make up Solar South

don't mind the free range organic cable installation, I am still chasing a potential bad connection

[Gregski]

it's been a while since I compared how our house is doing energy consumption wise to that of our neighbors and our Electric Company allows us to do just that, so here's a look see:

the top gray line is the average of All our neighbors, we used to be above it, prior to rolling our own cheap, moist broadleaf tropical rainforest sourced solar, now look at us, the orange line [ pronounced: "winning" ] hewk we dip below the green line at times

[Gregski]

[Gregski]

it is so good to see the prices on the 100 watt solar panels coming down, and what I have learned over the last couple years is that Poly vs Mono it really doesn't matter for a DIY starter kit

and don't be shy to message the seller and negotiate and ask: "hey if I buy two of these beauties will you do $50 each?"

[Gregski]

Sharing Is Caring

So I did this project using brand new AMAZON sourced solar panels so that anyone else interested could get the same stuff and because I didn't believe the deals people said they got on used panels. For example one of the forum members on here and a good friend of mine claimed he scored a bunch of 300w + solar panels with individual inverters strapped to the backs of each one for $40 dollars each, Yeah Right I thought under my breath.

Well then this happened:

a buddy of mine texts me and says a friend of his will be rolling by my house with a bunch of used solar panels and is wondering if I could take a look and tell them what I make of them and if I would want some for myself

[Gregski]

so I ask how many you got and how much, he says we got 20 and they are $20 each, I say well sorry mate, they are total junk , but since you are here why don't you leave them, here's $400 - LoL

now they were leaning up against the side of my house !

[Gregski]

Solar Panel Lessons Learned:

Solar panel cells are solar panel cells, they are the size they are, so if a 100 watt solar panel is yay big, than a 200 watt solar panel is about twice as big, and a 300 watt solar panel is you guessed it 3x as big... that's all there's to it, there is no magic happening there


100w solar panel vs 275w solar panel

[Gregski]

[Gregski]

so the plan is to throw 10 of these 275w panels up on the patio, Yes for a total of 2,750 watts or as the cool kids say 2.75 kW of potential energy, key word being potential, from what I saw in my initial test is that these are about 55% efficient so each 275w panel captures 150w of sun

and since some will be in the shade, and all will be at anything but the optimum angle to the sun, I should be fine with casting this wide net since I plan on upgrading from a 1,000 watt inverter to a 1,400 watt one, more on this soon

[Gregski]

and who might you think WE have to blame for all this...

[Gregski]

finally I see some being cleaned

[Gregski]

finally got a chance to mount one of my 3 inverters, this one is for SOLAR East (I currently have five 275 watt panels connected to it) yes that is 1,375 watts feeding into a 1,000 watt inverter, but these old tech [Polycrystalline - pronounced: "blue"] used solar panels suck at electricity production mostly due to their location, position, shade, angle, etc, so they are maybe 50% efficient at best

so this little system costs
$100 for five used panels
$100 for the inverter
$50 for cables
===================
$250 TOTAL

below I am trying to show that the inverter is not touching the wall, I am using 1" aluminium spacers to allow for a gap of air / space behind it

[Gregski]

and this is why I hate The Cloud

I was trying to see my energy usage and of course their website is down middle of the day

[Gregski]

it's been a while so I figure I will share an update, here are three of my cheap crappy batteryless solar systems capturing over 10 kWh in one day in the winter, all three inverters and 20 used 275W solar panels plus miscellaneous cables cost me under $1,000 dollars

don't mind the In from Grid / Out to Grid lines, I am not using their solar aware hard wired meter, I am just aggregating 3 smart plugs which are too dumb to know if I am generating or using the energy so they think I am using all that electricity and not capturing it so Net Usage means Net Solar Generation etc.

Note: with the Sun riding lower in the sky during the winter my Solar West is mostly in the shade the majority of the day, my two story house is casting a shadow on those 5 solar panels as well as my neighbors house.

[Gregski]

with a wet spring in the rear view mirror, I decided to take a peak at how my $1,000 DIY solar system is performing

the green means I sold energy back to the utility company that day

[Gregski]

for Mother's Day decided to install a little $250 dollar system on her house

used 5 of the 275 watt solar panels I got for $20 bucks each from a friends friend, the deals are out there folks

[Gregski]

as with any home DIY project a trip to Home Depot is inevitable

[Gregski]

got her one of these 1400 grid tie inverters for a $100 bucks on eBay, no batteries required

[arber333]

with a wet spring in the rear view mirror, I decided to take a peak at how my $1,000 DIY solar system is performing

the green means I sold energy back to the utility company that day


May Solar.png

If only my climogram would look like that!
Best i hope for is a mild winter at 0degC.

[Gregski]

typical energy consumption @ Mama's House Before the $250 dollar 1,375 watt grid tie (no batteries) solar system facing South was installed

[Gregski]

and here is the first full day after we installed the five panel very simple solar system

the green means she sent electricity back to the grid

[Gregski]

so decided to do a little Inverter upgrade:

BEFORE
1400 watt inverter (cost about $100 bucks on eBay a couple years back)
32 volt DC input from solar panels
120 volt AC output to the house (using standard 110v outlet, with nothing else plugged in to this circuit)
840 watt peak production, very inefficient

AFTER
2000 watt inverter (open box item on eBay offered $175 bucks and it was accepted, score!)
Model: SUN-2000G2-H
64 volt DC input from solar panels (simply paired two panels together, positive lead to negative lead, etc. since the new inverter requires a minimum of 45v)
240 volt AC output to the house (using 220v clothes dryer outlet, we converted to a gas dryer so this outlet is not in use)
I will provide a production update after we get a few sunny days under our belt

scored three 25 foot RV extension cables for $20 bucks each on Craigslist to run from the back yard patio to the garage around the house ("temporarily") bought these by mistake, assuming they was 240v, but I guess they are 30 amps / 120 volts, oh well, I won't tell if you won't tell.

Found out this standard 3 prong clothes dryer plug is a top stolen item at 3 different Home Depot's ... joy !!! had to replace the plug on one of the RV cables cause it's illegal to standardize on cord plugs and outlets in America even if they are rated at the exact same amps and volts, (joking of course)

so it's getting plugged in to the same outlet I use to charge my EV Conversion, don't mind the orange adapter that's for the EV Charger cord, of course it is DIFFERENT !!!