Thank you, Alte, for the way you intergrated the screens with the follow along highlights. This made it a lot easier for laymen to grasp the schematics.
Please ale more of these type of videos.Its very educational showing practically with the schematic wiring diagram side by side. I would also like to see how you earth/ground the panels.
Good video. I just got 2 quotes for grid tie systems using my 12 month power usage. The 1st quote was for a 17.8kw system and the second for a 12.8kw system. I devided the yearly power consumed by 12 months and got 1980kw average. Not sure why a big diffrence in size, both systems use 300+ watt panels with enphase inverters.
That was a great video. Liked the way the screen was divided by actual equipment and diagram. No batteries ?? Is that because he feeds excess to grid. Guess he gets credit towards his bill??
@@larrymoore6640 I'm glad you asked. Take a look at your electric bill and see how many kWh a month you use on average. Enter it in the grid tied calculator to get an idea of what size system you would need to offset whatever percentage you want. Remember that you don't have to make all of your power, most people just make some and buy the rest, reducing their bill. www.altestore.com/store/calculators/on_grid_calculator/ Then take a look at your roof and see if you have a sunny roof facing anywhere from east to west, not north (for northern hemisphere, the opposite for southern hemisphere). If this is something you think you can install yourself, you can take a look at some of the DIY kits we have available. www.altestore.com/store/solar-power-systems/grid-tie-solar-power-systems-c569/ We can custom design them as well. If you don't want to install yourself, contact a local installer to get a quote.
Thank you always for a very clear and informative video! I was wondering if there is any DC side protection fuses or breakers? Is it embedded somewhere inside the PV disconnect of the DC side of the inverter?
Because the strings from the solar array are not combined, NEC does not require over current protection as long as 1) the short circuit current (Isc) does not exceed the max Series Fuse Size of the panel and 2) the wire is sized big enough to handle the max current. Because the solar panel can never produce more current than that, there is no risk of over current.
Thanks so much for your informative videos. I have a couple of questions/comments regarding this video. 1. What are the circles shown at various places around wires in the circuit diagram? 2. I presume this particular inverter has two separate AC output circuits. Quite unusual, no? It would have been nice for the two circuits to have separate colours for the live wire. 3. As you mentioned, the load provided by the house, exists in the main DB board. But a pity it is not shown on the diagram. 4. The inverter shows the DC disconnector joining the input strings. This is definitely not correct as there are two MPPTs. Thanks again for showing us a grid tied inverter setup 'in situ'. 😊
Thanks for the questions. To clarify. 1) The circles are showing the wire is in conduit. 2&3) The inverter only has 1 AC output. It goes to the main breaker box (through the AC disco and meter). Once in the main breaker box, it is distributed through the house through the breakers, same as the grid power. If extra power is made, it goes back out to the grid through the main breaker. All of that is in the schematic, but I don't show all of the regular house breakers connected to the loads. 4) the schematic was drawn with simplicity in mind, It doesn't show all of the goings on inside the inverter. The point was that the DC disconnect will disconnect the DC input when needed. Hope that helps.
Perfect...... Alte I need help on drawing Schematic diagrams, I mostly use Microsoft word ''Paint'', any program to use..? Your diagrams are well outlined and clear...
What is the conduit material used ..looks very reliable and secondly if you could run through all the earthing details and lightening arrestor used, it would be more detailed and helpful.
It looks to me like standard Electric Metallic Tube Conduit (EMT). I don't believe a lightning arrestor was used. I'll make sure the next video points out the ground a bit better. This system wasn't installed by Sean, so we couldn't really get inside the boxes. Our next ones were self-installed, so we can dig deeper.
I have an identically sized grid-tied array. How easily (and cost effectively) could a Kilovault HAB battery system be integrated and installated? Quotes for LG Chem and Powerwall batteries exceed $15K...
With a string inverter, you could do DC Coupling where you take one string and send it to a 600V charge controller. Here's a kit with AGM batteries for under $6k, or you could upgrade to the HAB for about $9k total. www.altestore.com/store/solar-power-systems/battery-backup-solar-power-systems/morningstar-dc-coupled-retrofit-battery-backup-system-p12001/
Is there a way to show your current power usage vs PV power created? What I'm looking for is what is the current net plus or minus power usage from the grid.
There are meters that have you put a sensor on the solar input and the main input of your main breaker box. This allows you to monitor actual energy going in and out of the house. SOme of the newer inverters have monitoring systems that include this. Since this is a 7 year old system, a 3rd party meter like this would be needed. www.altestore.com/store/meters-communications-site-analysis/solar-monitoring-systems/efergy-elite-energy-monitor-p10892/
Hi Amy , hope you are fine and doing well. There is lot of confusion about battery sizing ,suppose if some 1 ask me to give him 1hours backup incase he has 100 watt load , i divide 100 by 12volt to get amp for him then do further calculation according to battery 'dod" but if his inverter support 24 volt then obviously my calculation gone wrong so should we calculate battery size as watt hour instead of amp hour (as we do not know about other person inverter voltage ) , some 1 told me that we should only do calculation with amp hour as voltage doesn't matter but i think otherwise .
It's easier to do all of the calculations in watt hours (Wh), then you don't have to worry about how many volts it is. If you have a 100W load for 1 hour, you need 100Wh. If you have a 12V system, that's 100Wh / 12V =8.3Ah. If you have a 24V system, that's 100Wh / 24V =4.1Ah.
Hi amy hope you are fine and well , we are also in quarantine 😊 ,I am confuse in 1 thing , suppose we have 600watt hour and 12 volt ,50ah battery , by keeping watt hour in mind i need single 150 watt panel to charge it in a day as 600watt hour divide by 4 = 150 watt but by keeping 50ah in mind i need 2 panels in parallel to charge it , as 50ah divide by 4 we get 12.5 then 12.5 divide by 8 or 9 amps of single panel we get around 1.6 . Remember 4 is sun hour factor in our area. i am confused how to do calculation 🤔, calculations changes if we do it with watt hour and ampere hour :-(
You are close, but didn't take into account losses and inefficiency. I usually figure on losing 40% in an off-grid system. So 600Wh / 4 sunhours / .6 losses = 250W of solar. But keep in mind, if it is a lead acid battery, you can only use 1/2 of the capacity, so it is really more like 300Wh you need to make. If it is lithium, you can use more of it.
@@AltEStore Solar engineers have 1 problem atleast in my country they don't know how to use pvsyst software neither helioscope please do us a favour make atleast 1 or 2 video on it to make us complete design engineers. ;-)
RIP Amy. Sure miss your videos.
Thank you, Alte, for the way you intergrated the screens with the follow along highlights.
This made it a lot easier for laymen to grasp the schematics.
Super glad to see you back Amy! You're the Solar Queen!
Yes you are correct.
Enjoying these real world install walk throughs. Thanks Alt-E
Please ale more of these type of videos.Its very educational showing practically with the schematic wiring diagram side by side. I would also like to see how you earth/ground the panels.
very easy to understand great job man , thanks to u lady
Good video. I just got 2 quotes for grid tie systems using my 12 month power usage. The 1st quote was for a 17.8kw system and the second for a 12.8kw system. I devided the yearly power consumed by 12 months and got 1980kw average. Not sure why a big diffrence in size, both systems use 300+ watt panels with enphase inverters.
love it
The setup is well explained
That was a great video. Liked the way the screen was divided by actual equipment and diagram. No batteries ?? Is that because he feeds excess to grid. Guess he gets credit towards his bill??
Exactly. Credits earned in August can be used in November. His grid is very reliable, so he didn't need the battery backup.
This gentleman seems very happy with his system. How would a person go ahead and look into a solar system that would fit their needs
@@larrymoore6640 I'm glad you asked. Take a look at your electric bill and see how many kWh a month you use on average. Enter it in the grid tied calculator to get an idea of what size system you would need to offset whatever percentage you want. Remember that you don't have to make all of your power, most people just make some and buy the rest, reducing their bill. www.altestore.com/store/calculators/on_grid_calculator/ Then take a look at your roof and see if you have a sunny roof facing anywhere from east to west, not north (for northern hemisphere, the opposite for southern hemisphere). If this is something you think you can install yourself, you can take a look at some of the DIY kits we have available. www.altestore.com/store/solar-power-systems/grid-tie-solar-power-systems-c569/ We can custom design them as well. If you don't want to install yourself, contact a local installer to get a quote.
Thank you always for a very clear and informative video!
I was wondering if there is any DC side protection fuses or breakers? Is it embedded somewhere inside the PV disconnect of the DC side of the inverter?
Because the strings from the solar array are not combined, NEC does not require over current protection as long as 1) the short circuit current (Isc) does not exceed the max Series Fuse Size of the panel and 2) the wire is sized big enough to handle the max current. Because the solar panel can never produce more current than that, there is no risk of over current.
@@AltEStore I see thank you for the response!
Ok I've your videos, I wonder what schematic software do you use for PV systems?
Neat installation., Thanks for sharing. It cud be more useful to me if I get that wiring diagram.,
Pause the video at 1:32 and print screen.
Thanks so much for your informative videos.
I have a couple of questions/comments regarding this video.
1. What are the circles shown at various places around wires in the circuit diagram?
2. I presume this particular inverter has two separate AC output circuits. Quite unusual, no? It would have been nice for the two circuits to have separate colours for the live wire.
3. As you mentioned, the load provided by the house, exists in the main DB board. But a pity it is not shown on the diagram.
4. The inverter shows the DC disconnector joining the input strings. This is definitely not correct as there are two MPPTs.
Thanks again for showing us a grid tied inverter setup 'in situ'. 😊
Thanks for the questions. To clarify. 1) The circles are showing the wire is in conduit. 2&3) The inverter only has 1 AC output. It goes to the main breaker box (through the AC disco and meter). Once in the main breaker box, it is distributed through the house through the breakers, same as the grid power. If extra power is made, it goes back out to the grid through the main breaker. All of that is in the schematic, but I don't show all of the regular house breakers connected to the loads. 4) the schematic was drawn with simplicity in mind, It doesn't show all of the goings on inside the inverter. The point was that the DC disconnect will disconnect the DC input when needed. Hope that helps.
Perfect...... Alte I need help on drawing Schematic diagrams, I mostly use Microsoft word ''Paint'', any program to use..? Your diagrams are well outlined and clear...
I mostly use Microsoft Visio, but I also like the free tool TinyCAD.
@@AltEStore Thanks will try that out.
Which monitoring software you are using?
What is the conduit material used ..looks very reliable and secondly if you could run through all the earthing details and lightening arrestor used, it would be more detailed and helpful.
It looks to me like standard Electric Metallic Tube Conduit (EMT). I don't believe a lightning arrestor was used. I'll make sure the next video points out the ground a bit better. This system wasn't installed by Sean, so we couldn't really get inside the boxes. Our next ones were self-installed, so we can dig deeper.
@@AltEStore appreciate your reply !!! Keep posting such videos !!!
I have an identically sized grid-tied array. How easily (and cost effectively) could a Kilovault HAB battery system be integrated and installated? Quotes for LG Chem and Powerwall batteries exceed $15K...
With a string inverter, you could do DC Coupling where you take one string and send it to a 600V charge controller. Here's a kit with AGM batteries for under $6k, or you could upgrade to the HAB for about $9k total. www.altestore.com/store/solar-power-systems/battery-backup-solar-power-systems/morningstar-dc-coupled-retrofit-battery-backup-system-p12001/
Is there a way to show your current power usage vs PV power created? What I'm looking for is what is the current net plus or minus power usage from the grid.
There are meters that have you put a sensor on the solar input and the main input of your main breaker box. This allows you to monitor actual energy going in and out of the house. SOme of the newer inverters have monitoring systems that include this. Since this is a 7 year old system, a 3rd party meter like this would be needed. www.altestore.com/store/meters-communications-site-analysis/solar-monitoring-systems/efergy-elite-energy-monitor-p10892/
Hi Amy , hope you are fine and doing well. There is lot of confusion about battery sizing ,suppose if some 1 ask me to give him 1hours backup incase he has 100 watt load , i divide 100 by 12volt to get amp for him then do further calculation according to battery 'dod" but if his inverter support 24 volt then obviously my calculation gone wrong so should we calculate battery size as watt hour instead of amp hour (as we do not know about other person inverter voltage ) , some 1 told me that we should only do calculation with amp hour as voltage doesn't matter but i think otherwise .
It's easier to do all of the calculations in watt hours (Wh), then you don't have to worry about how many volts it is. If you have a 100W load for 1 hour, you need 100Wh. If you have a 12V system, that's 100Wh / 12V =8.3Ah. If you have a 24V system, that's 100Wh / 24V =4.1Ah.
@@AltEStore Thanks a lot .
Hi amy hope you are fine and well , we are also in quarantine 😊 ,I am confuse in 1 thing , suppose we have 600watt hour and 12 volt ,50ah battery , by keeping watt hour in mind i need single 150 watt panel to charge it in a day as 600watt hour divide by 4 = 150 watt but by keeping 50ah in mind i need 2 panels in parallel to charge it , as 50ah divide by 4 we get 12.5 then 12.5 divide by 8 or 9 amps of single panel we get around 1.6 .
Remember 4 is sun hour factor in our area.
i am confused how to do calculation 🤔, calculations changes if we do it with watt hour and ampere hour :-(
You are close, but didn't take into account losses and inefficiency. I usually figure on losing 40% in an off-grid system. So 600Wh / 4 sunhours / .6 losses = 250W of solar. But keep in mind, if it is a lead acid battery, you can only use 1/2 of the capacity, so it is really more like 300Wh you need to make. If it is lithium, you can use more of it.
@@AltEStore thank you so very much .
@@AltEStore Solar engineers have 1 problem atleast in my country they don't know how to use pvsyst software neither helioscope please do us a favour make atleast 1 or 2 video on it to make us complete design engineers. ;-)
Why only 250w panel each? Here in India I am using 435W bifacial panel
His system was installed in 2013. That was standard size 7 years ago.
altE Store ohhh then its OK
I need a tool to calculate the requirements please.
Here is a grid-tied calculator to help determine how much solar you need. www.altestore.com/store/calculators/on_grid_calculator/
Gilfoyle?!
Bertram or Kimberly?