My Greenish Power Project and Updating a Few Grid Cords

[Burnin Since 1991]

I have not bought this before, so I don't know. I do see another active thread that's going to do something similar

G

Post in thread 'DYI Hearth pad - In order: 5/8" plywood, 1/2" Micore 300, 1/2" Durock, and ceramic tiles'

Feb 5, 2026

Oups, you got me thinking about the exiting floor.... Yes 1 5/8" screws would be too short indeed because I also have 1/4" plywood under the vinyl.

So a better choice would be: #9 x 2 in. Star Drive Torx Bugle Head R4 Multi-Purpose Wood Screw (110-Pack)

Highlights​

• For use in wood, particle-board, cement fiberboard, plastic, sheet metal
• Star drive eliminates stripping for improved productivity
• Zip-tip point eliminates the need to predrilled and provides easy starts into wood
• CEE thread enlarges hole to reduce splitting, thus eliminating rework
• W-cut...

• Gmarcil

• 

He's in Canada. Maybe it's available there? I do see that it's at some of the online fireplace stores. I found an online fireplace store in Logan OH that offers Micore 300. I sent them an email to find out if that is something they can ship to me?

It does say between the micore and tile or stone or whatever there needs to be a layer of cement board. That would make the thickness an inch plus the tile. Would you think cement board between the Micore and the concrete floor? And yes, I've read that thread.

 

[stoveliker]

I'm not sure but if the concrete is properly flat, I would think it's not needed to add cement board below the micore.

 

[Burnin Since 1991]

The floor is well flat. I wish I had a way to truly heat up the cold concrete floors. I've looked around and it's too bad they didn't consider heating them while the house was being built. I suppose thats the case in all slab built homes. The kitchen floor is the worst with just tile down it radiates as much cold as the woodstove radiates heat.

 

[EbS-P]

The floor is well flat. I wish I had a way to truly heat up the cold concrete floors. I've looked around and it's too bad they didn't consider heating them while the house was being built. I suppose thats the case in all slab built homes. The kitchen floor is the worst with just tile down it radiates as much cold as the woodstove radiates heat.

I’ve seen retrofit hydronic systems. They are neat but pricey.

 

[bogieb]

I put an air gap floor in my basement and it really helps keep the cold at bay (plus, my floor has dampness that comes up thru during wet seasons, so the air circulation is needed). It does raise the floor before putting plywood on top - my basement is unfinished so I could do that. It probably wouldn't work for your circumstances, and can also be a bit pricey. This is similar to what I used just in case anyone is interested.

 

[Burnin Since 1991]

I put an air gap floor in my basement and it really helps keep the cold at bay (plus, my floor has dampness that comes up thru during wet seasons, so the air circulation is needed). It does raise the floor before putting plywood on top - my basement is unfinished so I could do that. It probably wouldn't work for your circumstances, and can also be a bit pricey. This is similar to what I used just in case anyone is interested.

That's pretty interesting. Definitely wouldn't work in my situation, but I can see it's usefulness. That would have worked perfectly in the house I grew up in.

 

[Burnin Since 1991]

An Update:
In regards to item #3 I am breaking it into two parts; A & B

3. Power
A. We have no UPS's in the house. (It should have also said or battery backup etc)

I've done a fair amount of research and found a pretty good deal on a "starter pack". I bought 3 Aferiy Battery Backups/ UPS / Solar Generators. Aferiy Backups and Solar Gen.

I bought 2 smaller 800 Watt units and a third unit rated at 2800 Watts. I have them in "UPS" mode which means that if there is an outage they will kick in, in about 20 mili-seconds. They all accept solar charging as well as charging via the 120 Volt inlet.

I placed one 800 Watt unit in the main bedroom where it has just the tv connected to it. In an outage. there is a 25 foot extension cord for the power strip next to the bed with a lamp and a couple of cell phone chargers.

The second 800 Watt unit is in the family room behind the TV. It is powering a blink camera module, an internet router and a few other misc items. Everything is plugged into a power strip. I have a 25 foot extension cord that will run (in an outage) another power strip that has my electric power recliner, a 10 Watt LED light, my laptop and 4 various usb chargers for my hearing aids, cell phone and others requiring a usb connection.

The 2800 Watt unit is to run the fridge and alternately the microwave, coffee maker and air fryer. Other than the fridge, usage of the other devices would be kept to a minimum other than the coffee maker, which as most everyone knows is the life blood of America. I have other options for making coffee if needed. My favorite is heating hot water on the woodstove and pouring it through a portable filter bag.

http://www.amazon.com/Portable-Hanging-Disposable-Perfect-Camping/dp/B07HMJYP7K

I don't have any place to put the backup in the kitchen, so for now it is running the strip with my chair and devices listed above. In an outage, we'll find a place for it, no problem.

I will do a calculation on run times. I think I'm a little small in the family room, but we will see. I don't watch much tv, mostly only football and news. The internet router is 24/7, the blink is 24/7. Other than that everything else is only used when needed.

B. Our electric backup is a 4400 watt starting/ 3300 watt generator that is not an inverter. Dirty power. We have more than a few critical appliances that wouldn't last long with dirty power. The generator runs great and in the 14 years I've owned it I've only done tune ups, oil changes, replaced the electric start battery and the carburetor. I don't have an hour meter but the generator has less than 150 hours on it.

The issue for the generator is that it outputs about 108 volts and if you want to recharge the battery backup then the UPS will bypass the battery (and still charge it) but it will also feed that 108 voltage to whatever is plugged into the UPS / backup.

More on the inverter/ generator later. I bought a plug in voltage, wattage and amperage meter so I can see what my generator is actually putting out, before I pull the trigger on the new inverter/ generator. It's a lot easier than using a multi-meter.

My solution for 3B is a Westinghouse iGEN4000DFc It is an Inverter/ generator, 4000 surge Watts 3000 running Watts. Dual fuel (gasoline and propane) and it has a remote, electric start. It has eco mode and is very quiet. I will be buying this as soon as I can get over to the store and buy it in the next weeks.

Thanks for reading. Your thoughts and input are invaluable.

 

[EbS-P]

I don't have any place to put the backup in the kitchen, so for now it is running the strip with my chair and devices listed above. In an outage, we'll find a place for it, no problem.

I ran an extra outlet that’s just terminated in an empty J box. Next owner is going to have some questions.

 

[Burnin Since 1991]

I ran an extra outlet that’s just terminated in an empty J box. Next owner is going to have some questions.

That's not a crazy solution... hmmm. Might as well keep my future owners scratching their heads too.

 

[woodgeek]

That's not a crazy solution... hmmm. Might as well keep my future owners scratching their heads too.

I have a 4 prong 240V 50A outlet in my garage I use for lots of 'things'. The next owner will assume I plugged in a Tesla there.

 

[bogieb]

Just for reference, >10ms is considered EPS, not UPS. Most things won't notice the difference, but make sure your router/wifi are okay with that.

All power stations will have self consumption for the inverter, lights and colling fans when they are on. So that gives rise to two important points:

• If not in use and not plugged into a power source, make sure you know how to turn the station completely off (and do it). Otherwise, you may come back in a couple of weeks and find it is dead and have problems getting it to accept a charge again. If left too long at zero, it will brick the unit (I can't tell you how many times I've heard that story).
• I would count on only having 75-80% of the rated wh available for running your devices/appliances. The smaller the load, the greater percentage of self consumption (in most cases). A 300wh station will usually be more frugal for charging small devices (phones, kindle etc) than a 1,024 wh station. Of course testing will give you a better idea of how your particular stations perform.

 

[gthomas785]

If you buy a heat pump of any kind you can sign up for the MA heat pump electric rate which reduces your whole electric bill by around 8-10% in the winter. Even if you leave the heat pump off or just heat one room with it.

 

[Burnin Since 1991]

If you buy a heat pump of any kind you can sign up for the MA heat pump electric rate which reduces your whole electric bill by around 8-10% in the winter. Even if you leave the heat pump off or just heat one room with it.

Yes, we get that rate for the family home on the cape. We got a mass save rebate, so we were auto enrolled.

If we do a heat pump, it would likely be a smaller unit with two heads mostly for the AC benefits. It's on the list of possibilities. My wife and I are still in negotiations. The mini-splits would eliminate two AC's one thru the wall and another window AC unit. Even if we go in a different direction, it's possible we may have to replace the thru the wall unit, as it's getting on in years.

And the heating electrical discount is tempting.

Just for reference, >10ms is considered EPS, not UPS. Most things won't notice the difference, but make sure your router/wifi are okay with that.

All power stations will have self consumption for the inverter, lights and colling fans when they are on. So that gives rise to two important points:

• If not in use and not plugged into a power source, make sure you know how to turn the station completely off (and do it). Otherwise, you may come back in a couple of weeks and find it is dead and have problems getting it to accept a charge again. If left too long at zero, it will brick the unit (I can't tell you how many times I've heard that story).
• I would count on only having 75-80% of the rated wh available for running your devices/appliances. The smaller the load, the greater percentage of self consumption (in most cases). A 300wh station will usually be more frugal for charging small devices (phones, kindle etc) than a 1,024 wh station. Of course testing will give you a better idea of how your particular stations perform.

The manufacturers I've looked at call the 20 ms response a UPS. I'm going to refrain from using either term. I trust your knowledge. I am in the process of testing out the 20 ms response time on the router / wi-fi and tv. I bought an inexpensive 50 watt solar panel that will be connected to the the battery backup/ solar generator etc used for the family room tv, wi-fi and router to see what that will do. I have a timer that will turn off the backup when the sun is high enough to get power from the panel. The timer will turn on the unit as the solar panel stops charging for the evening. Not sure about the placement of the solar panel until I get it. I have my eye on some 200 watt solar panels to run to the three different battery backups. It's a work in progress. I'm also building a few firewood racks that are really well located for a solar panel roof. I could get three or four panels up there (for testing purposes). We have zoning laws that require permits and special permits and certified plot plans for wood sheds involving set backs etc... and for solar panels. Wood racks aren't covered and if I leave the outsides open-ish then it is just a wood rack. Then the solar panel feasibility study on the top of those wood racks.

I watch tv infrequently. It might be possible that with a larger solar panel, I could take the tv, internet router and wi-fi off the grid and just keep it going with solar and grid power when needed. Running the electrical recharge cycle via the timer for two hours or less in the evening, if the solar can't keep up. It may even need a shorter cycle to keep it leveled off.

The backups are sized to provide at least 24 hours of power for their assigned role. For me that is the key as if we have an extended outage I won't have to run the generator except once a day for a couple of hours to recharge the backups. That way my 15 gallons of gas and 40 pounds of propane can be stretched for an extended amount of time. We are also testing some small battery powered motion sensor lights for critical areas of our house.

Very much a work in progress. I can't afford to go full blown roof solar array and the ROI just doesn't equal out for our situation. All that we have done can be removed easily and can go with us to the next place, if that opportunity presents itself.

Thanks for your input!

 

[Burnin Since 1991]

Regarding
Item #4 Our cable tv bill just hit $300- per month. Includes hard wired internet with wi-fi. I only watch sports and news mainly. The tv I watch is on less than 4 hours a week. My wife watches 4 channels. We do use the internet frequently. Me with a laptop and my wife has an iphone.

I ordered the standard Starlink. Starlink is having a special. No rental fees, no money down no costs. $20 for shipping the unit from Indiana to Massachusetts. The initial costs to run Starlink is $50 per month for 100 Mbps speeds. Not sure if that is robust enough to cover the TV's and internet, but so far, so good. I installed the starlink last week and we're on day 5 of service. I swapped over everything except the module for our blink cameras and the wi-fi thermostat. Both are simple to swap and I want to get to that today.

A pic of the Starlink antenna. I will move it to a better location and route the cables when all that white stuff is gone!

The family room tv was a 12 year old Samsung tv that was due for replacement. I replaced that 50 inch $700 (original cost)LED tv with this 55 inch LED Amazon Fire tv for $300-

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DFNFX2K7

I added an antenna for local channels (crystal clear) for $23- The tv added 51 local channels.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FVTJB1C3

To get the sports and news channels that we watch I added a fubo.tv subscription for $56- per month.

The total cost to set this system up is $343-
The monthly recurring costs are $106
My comcast/ xfinity bill is $305 a month. We had to buy packages we didn't want to get the 4-5 channels we did watch. Outrageous.

The ROI on this new setup is 2 months and will save us $200 per month or $2400- per year.

We will be running a dual system for a month to get any kinks worked out. We ran into a few last night. The bedroom tv is a 12 year old 32 inch, Vizio but it doesn't want to play nice. We installed an older Amazon fire stick and a $9 local tv antenna and it fought me a bit. I did get 75 local channels from the antenna. Besides our very local Boston and NH channels, I'm not sure what the others are. I haven't really looked at it.
We will most likely replace the Vizio with another Amazon Fire tv that costs about $150-

 

[woodgeek]

I bought an inexpensive 50 watt solar panel that will be connected to the the battery backup/ solar generator etc used for the family room tv, wi-fi and router to see what that will do. I have a timer that will turn off the backup when the sun is high enough to get power from the panel. The timer will turn on the unit as the solar panel stops charging for the evening. Not sure about the placement of the solar panel until I get it. I have my eye on some 200 watt solar panels to run to the three different battery backups. It's a work in progress.

I have a little hobby system with a 60W panel that I set up years ago as a 'science fair' project for the kids. I use a solar charge controller and 40 Ah LFP battery and 12V stuff.

You don't need a 'timer', and wouldn't want to use one anyway. You should just get a backup pack that takes solar input and let its onboard controller do its thing. When the solar is powered up, it will just pass the power to the inverter/oad rather than the battery.

Also, my 60W panel in winter is not able to run more than the controller a a few handheld devices. In the summer it can also power a few zooms on my laptop.

Feel free to experiment, but to get a real energy harvest, you would want to go bigger on the panel.

 

[Burnin Since 1991]

I have a little hobby system with a 60W panel that I set up years ago as a 'science fair' project for the kids. I use a solar charge controller and 40 Ah LFP battery and 12V stuff.

You don't need a 'timer', and wouldn't want to use one anyway. You should just get a backup pack that takes solar input and let its onboard controller do its thing. When the solar is powered up, it will just pass the power to the inverter/oad rather than the battery.

Also, my 60W panel in winter is not able to run more than the controller a a few handheld devices. In the summer it can also power a few zooms on my laptop.

Feel free to experiment, but to get a real energy harvest, you would want to go bigger on the panel.

Thanks for that info. That panel will likely wind up as an emergency panel for the truck or maybe for another test down the road or gifted to someone else to experiment with.

The goal is to ultimately add 200 +/- watts of solar to each Battery Backup/ Solar Inverter/generator. I think that ultimately the setup will cover the ROI in a reasonable time, though I need more testing time to get a good look at the numbers and I will post them at some point when they become relevant enough. (and before I buy anymore panels).

If the solar has a bad day and doesn't charge the system enough, how do I get the battery back up to full power without leaving the unit connected to 120v and pulling power 24/7? I only want the electricity on long enough to charge whatever the solar can't.

Thanks, I appreciate your input.

And remember, one is none and two is one so three is two... I've got 120v grid, portable inverter/solar gen (ultimately with solar) and a generator to back all of that up.

 

[Burnin Since 1991]

You don't need a 'timer', and wouldn't want to use one anyway.

actually the directions that came with the units say, don't plug them into anything except an AC outlet. No extension not taps or power strips, so the timers are out. I have sent an inquiry to the company support to ask them specifically about the priority of power the units if solar and outlet power are used.

Just for reference, >10ms is considered EPS, not UPS. Most things won't notice the difference, but make sure your router/wifi are okay with that.

Apparently. I over thought that point. The units I bought are under 10 ms. Sorry for the confusion.

 

[bogieb]

actually the directions that came with the units say, don't plug them into anything except an AC outlet. No extension not taps or power strips, so the timers are out. I have sent an inquiry to the company support to ask them specifically about the priority of power the units if solar and outlet power are used.


Apparently. I over thought that point. The units I bought are under 10 ms. Sorry for the confusion.

That first part is probably just a CYA thing for them. Just about anything will tell you not to use and extension cord or power strip, or anything besides plugging straight into an AC outlet. Although, it is a good warning that if you use something between the wall outlet and stations, make sure it is heavy duty enough to take in all the amps/watts that the station will demand if charging from AC. Using too wimpy of a connection WILL get you in trouble.

Is that a plain timer or a smart switch? I know they make smart switches that would be suitable. Unfortunately I don't have any specifics, I just know some people on FB pages for Ecoflow sometimes use them for their older stations.,

Does the software/firmware that comes with you station support anything like what you are trying to accomplish with your charging strategy? I know that newer Ecoflows and higher end Bluettis do. You would have to set it up with the app if it is available.

You should also check to see if that brand has a user group, either on FB or their website. They may be able to give you some good tips and tricks, as well as answer questions better for your particular station and what you want to do.

 

[Burnin Since 1991]

That first part is probably just a CYA thing for them. Just about anything will tell you not to use and extension cord or power strip, or anything besides plugging straight into an AC outlet. Although, it is a good warning that if you use something between the wall outlet and stations, make sure it is heavy duty enough to take in all the amps/watts that the station will demand if charging from AC. Using too wimpy of a connection WILL get you in trouble.

Is that a plain timer or a smart switch? I know they make smart switches that would be suitable. Unfortunately I don't have any specifics, I just know some people on FB pages for Ecoflow sometimes use them for their older stations.,

Does the software/firmware that comes with you station support anything like what you are trying to accomplish with your charging strategy? I know that newer Ecoflows and higher end Bluettis do. You would have to set it up with the app if it is available.

You should also check to see if that brand has a user group, either on FB or their website. They may be able to give you some good tips and tricks, as well as answer questions better for your particular station and what you want to do.

The larger unit has an app, but the two 800 watt units do not. They do however come with ports for solar panels as they are solar generators. The smaller have an xt60 port and the larger has a pair of xt90 ports.
The timer I tried was a standard mechanical timer. I will use them for something else.

I don't use facebook. I will research the smart switch. I think I have one here someplace. I also don't have a smartphone. I was a tech guy for the last 17 years of employment and I needed a break from it. I downsized to a flip about 10 years ago, but I might be ready for a smartphone again, just so I can run all the apps. My wife's iphone is loaded with apps that I need to manage our lives.

Aferiy doesn't have a forum, but there are quite a few you tube videos. I will keep watching those.

Thanks for your advice!

 

[Burnin Since 1991]

Regarding
Item #4 Our cable tv bill just hit $300- per month. Includes hard wired internet with wi-fi. I only watch sports and news mainly. The tv I watch is on less than 4 hours a week. My wife watches 4 channels. We do use the internet frequently. Me with a laptop and my wife has an iphone.

I ordered the standard Starlink. Starlink is having a special. No rental fees, no money down no costs. $20 for shipping the unit from Indiana to Massachusetts. The initial costs to run Starlink is $50 per month for 100 Mbps speeds. Not sure if that is robust enough to cover the TV's and internet, but so far, so good. I installed the starlink last week and we're on day 5 of service. I swapped over everything except the module for our blink cameras and the wi-fi thermostat. Both are simple to swap and I want to get to that today.

A pic of the Starlink antenna. I will move it to a better location and route the cables when all that white stuff is gone!
View attachment 346183


The family room tv was a 12 year old Samsung tv that was due for replacement. I replaced that 50 inch $700 (original cost)LED tv with this 55 inch LED Amazon Fire tv for $300-

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DFNFX2K7

I added an antenna for local channels (crystal clear) for $23- The tv added 51 local channels.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FVTJB1C3

To get the sports and news channels that we watch I added a fubo.tv subscription for $56- per month.

The total cost to set this system up is $343-
The monthly recurring costs are $106
My comcast/ xfinity bill is $305 a month. We had to buy packages we didn't want to get the 4-5 channels we did watch. Outrageous.

The ROI on this new setup is 2 months and will save us $200 per month or $2400- per year.

We will be running a dual system for a month to get any kinks worked out. We ran into a few last night. The bedroom tv is a 12 year old 32 inch, Vizio but it doesn't want to play nice. We installed an older Amazon fire stick and a $9 local tv antenna and it fought me a bit. I did get 75 local channels from the antenna. Besides our very local Boston and NH channels, I'm not sure what the others are. I haven't really looked at it.
We will most likely replace the Vizio with another Amazon Fire tv that costs about $150-

I got everything over to Starlink and shut down the xfinity/ comcast router. We will have both systems in place for one month. I also pulled the plug on the cable boxes.

We went ahead and replaced out bedroom tv with a like sized fire tv. I will set it up tomorrow or over the weekend.

The 50 Watt panel I ordered has arrived and I hope to start testing with it this weekend as well. I also got an extension cable.

Anyone who wants to jump in, feel free. I'm looking at 200 Watt panels. N type. I have no brand specific panels so if you know of a good deal, Let me know.
I do see the new bifacial panels, but I don't know if I need anything fancy. Is there anything else as far as specs that I should be looking at?

How about wiring the panels? Series or parallel? They will be easily accessible, so if I have a panel go bad, I will be able to take it out of service without issue.

My Solar generators/ backups can take up to 50 volts and 200 watts and 55 volts and 600 watts on two ports (1200 total) on the 2800 watt unit. I'm looking at four, maybe 5 panels. One each for the 800 watt units and 2 or three for the 2800 watt unit.

 

[gthomas785]

How about wiring the panels? Series or parallel? They will be easily accessible, so if I have a panel go bad, I will be able to take it out of service without issue.

My Solar generators/ backups can take up to 50 volts and 200 watts and 55 volts and 600 watts on two ports (1200 total) on the 2800 watt unit. I'm looking at four, maybe 5 panels. One each for the 800 watt units and 2 or three for the 2800 watt unit.

The only reason to wire them in series would be to boost voltage. If your charge controller takes a max 50V then you will probably wire the panels in parallel but check the open circuit voltage of the panels you get. If they are like 24v then you can make series pairs at 48v. Or if they are 12v panels you would wire 4 in series you get the idea. but then just make sure all the panels are in the sun at the same time or no current will flow!

 

[bogieb]

If you are only going for a couple of panels, look of FB Marketplace. Many times people will order a whole pallet of panels since it is cheaper that way, but they don't need them all and sell them.

Bifacials are good in the event you are not doing a roof mount. They do't add a spectacularly better production rate though, so I wouldn't obsess about that.

When looking at series versus paralell, the VOC of each panel is what you need to compare to your station's max volts. Series adds volts so 2 panels would be twice the VOC. Do not allow the combined VOCs to go over the 50v. ADDITIONALLY, the ratings for the panels are established at something likke 75*F. Cold increases the VOC. So you really want to be less than than the max by a decent amount (seeing as your winters are cold).

 

[Burnin Since 1991]

The panels I'm looking at are 200 watts, bifacial, N type, 24.5 volts. The first power station/ solar gen I am hooking up is rated to 600 watts (on 2 XT 90 ports, total 1200 watts) , 55 volts for solar input. The idea is to use these panels on top of new firewood racks I will be building. Both racks will have a S/SW exposure. They'll run in parallel on one port. I also have my eye on a decently priced 400 watt bifacial panel.

I received the test 50 watt panel yesterday and I'm going to place it later today. The firewood racks won't be built until it warms up. Which could be anywhere between March and June. Plenty of time for testing.

Meanwhile the power stations, Starlink and new tv setups are working very well. If all goes accordingly, in mid March I will turn in the cable tv/ internet stuff.

The total so far, all in is $2179 and includes the battery bu's, new tvs and the overlap costs of cable tv and new service. It will take me 11 months to recover the investment. If we focus on just replacing the cable and internet, the ROI is less than 3 months. We could have reused the tv's and I only really needed one battery backup/ solar gen to keep the Starlink equipment safe.

Once I settle on the solar panels and placement I will expect to start seeing the electric bill to show a little bit less usage. If I can start saving a little here and there, it will be worth it.

 

[Burnin Since 1991]

An update and a couple of questions.


I tested the 50w solar panel for three days. Unfortunately, only one day had any sun and during the peak hours roughly of 10-3pm., the panel was pulling 45-55w. Not too shabby for a dinky panel propped up against my fence on the side of my house. The other days were both cloudy, but the panel was still pulling 5 watts or so, which didn't really do to much, needless to say.

I'm trying to understand solar panels plugged into solar generators. Maybe it's the all in one feature of the solar generators where they combine the solar charge controller, batteries and inverter.

If I have a sol/gen with an xt60 solar panel input and the max input is 200w and 50v does that mean the solar panel must be within those parameters or just that is the max they will use?

I decided to move on to the next phase of testing. I got a 200w 24v bifacial solar panel. It's still in the box, since it snowed last night. The panel is within the specs of the sol/gen.

What if... hahaha I really dislike that hypothetical questions, but here goes. What if I connected a 350w 24 or 48v panel. Would the sol/gen max out at 200 or so watts? The voltage would still be under the listed 50v.

My thoughts are that the wattage would be capped at some point but going over the voltage would be harmful to the sol/gen?

Is a 48v solar panel too close to the 50v max of the sol/gen.

I have refocused my power goal. I'm still working on the other goals of this phase of the project. I like what I have for the start of this project. I'm going to take my home off grid a room at a time. First, partially and then I will build out. Will I be able to run 24/7/365? Probably not. Will I ever do the whole house? Maybe? Maybe not. All of what I have purchased with regards to solar and power backups/ sol-gens etc. can be re-purposed as needed.

Most if not all of my family room is on a sub panel. I have two out buildings that are in the main box, but I can move them to the sub panel. They are mostly storage for my tools and projects that I am working on. I'm working to replace the 4' fluorescent lights with LED and the only other power is used for my portable radio and to charge my dewalt batteries during the other three seasons that don't get snow.

I'm in the process of determining the overall needs to do this. I want to make this a scalable DIY project. I feel like I need to come up with a solution that will be gradually put in place without replacing a lot of items. I want to try to only expand.

I'm looking at both DIY, buy separate controllers, batteries, inverters and so on vs an expandable sol/gen based system using expansion batteries.

I know it's impossible to really know what is going to work. I know that my high end of usage in Jan and Feb is 48-66kw average per day.

During the summer we use about 17kw average per day. 30-50kw per day in the winter is just for heating. Heating and air conditioning are a separate project and at this point I'm not going to include them in my calculations. I'm going to increase my daily number to 20kw.

Is there a percentage fudge factor to add? I don't want to over build by too much.

Adding different rooms will be less of a challenge. We have two spare bedrooms that only see lights and the one bedroom an outlet for charging my dewalt batteries, which is like an hour or two once a month in the winter. The rest of the time they are charged out in the shed.

The main bedroom has a ceiling fan with lights , a table lamp, tv, ac and a power strip for charging my wife's iphone.

The living room only has two lights and another power strip for charging our phones.

I will save the majority of the kitchen for down the road. I do recognize that I will need to build a system that ultimately will support 220v. I'm not sure if I understand if that is something I need to account from the beginning or if it can be added along the way?

Thanks for reading and as always, your input is invaluable!

@bogieb I sent you a DM.

 

[stoveliker]

I presume 20 kWh per day, not a max of 20 kW.
That, imo, will never be done with dinky solar panels.

I have 20 panels of 360 W, so 7.2 kW. Half facing East, half facing West on a rather low slope roof. Some trees affect generation after 3 pm in summers.

I produce, on average 17 kWh per day. 35 on high days, and zero on snow days. Total yearly production divided by 365 is 17 kWh .

You are farther north, have more cloudy days, but can orient your panels better.
I think you'd need at least 8kW to get 20 kWh on average (i.e. more in summer and much less in winter).
That's 40 200 W panels...!

Then the batteries. Buying them in the form factor you have is far more expensive than buying one 10 kWh home battery.

Your approach is fine for some things. Fridge, modem, tv, microwave. Not for (eventual) whole house.