Your Solar Power System – The Stand Alone Version
Should you find yourself in the situation where you are going to install a solar power system which is entirely autonomous, then here is a quick guide.
The items you will need will include solar panels, either purchased or DIY, an inverter, a DC breaker box, a controller, a battery bank and a monitor.
The power from the panels will travel via suitable size wire to the controller, which prevents your battery bank from becoming overcharged.
From the controller, the negative power (black)goes to the inlet side of the inverter – which in turn is hooked up to the DC breaker. The positive power (red) goes to both the positive side of the battery bank and to your monitor. In order for the power to reach your battery bank, the DC breaker will be on.
Once the power is in the battery bank, it will then go to the inverter – via the DC breaker – to turn it into AC power and from there to your regular house power panel.
Aside from solar panels, you may need to use a generator for extra backup protection. Since the generator will be providing regular AC power, it can be used to power your house power panel directly, as well as charging your battery bank.
In order to charge the battery bank with the generator, one of two options will be deployed. Either you can use DC power from the generator providing you have an inverter type generator, or you will run the power from the generator through the inverter to charge the battery bank. In this case you will need an inverter with a built in charger.
Many of the smaller inverters, frequently up to 1,500 watts or so, will not have a built in charger. If you are going to build a stand alone system, this is not the sort of inverter you will need. Make sure you get the right type of inverter, which is to say it should have a charger built in and be large enough to provide for any normally anticipated power requirements.
The generator, usually 3,000 watts or so in the case of an inverter generator, or perhaps 4,000 watts plus if not the inverter type, can take over any temporary excess power needs which the inverter may not be able to handle.
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