PAC DAY PRESENTATION

Hi I'm Dylan thankyou for taking the time to read these key notes from my PAC day presentation.

If you are thinking about creating a solar setup firstly you need to know your requirements.

some of the key aspects for deciding this are

#1 are you wanting something portable

#2 what do you want to power and for how long

#3 what is your budget

#4 do you want a grid tied system or offgrid system

#5 battery type lead acid gel cell or lithium

#1 battery technology has rapidly changed in the last few years if you wanted 240v power in your 4x4 or camper van a 12v system with a deep cycle lead acid battery used to be the go to, it can still have its advantages as often you can connect it directly to your vehicles charging system or dc-dc charger and there are plenty of things that use 12v dc, the main draw back is that you only get to use %30 of the battery capacity before you start to reduce the life of the battery. also for 12v systems you will be limited to lower power applications. we now have a great range of lithium lifepo4 batteries at 12v-24v-48v. they are becoming more affordable and unlike lead acid you can get 90%-100% of the battery capacity without significantly reducing the battery heath. this means for the same battery capacity a lifepo4 battery will likely have 2-3 times the usable capacity compared with a lead acid/agm battery.

#2 if you want to power a 2000w ac load from a 12v dc battery you will be drawing around 180amps, that amount of current will need at least 2 gauge wire and will like get very warm and not be efficient. 24v dc will be around 90 amps depending on the length of the run and wire type 2-4 gauge wire should work, for 48v it will be around 45 amps 4-6 gauge wire depending on run length.

budget wise a 12v lead acid battery will likely be the cheapest if it fits your needs, offgrid will likely be cheaper then grid tied depending on battery storage and the rebate you are given for selling your power back to the grid, grid tied needs to be isolated from the grid in the event of a power cut you may not be able to use the power you are generating.

My current setup

currently I have a budget friendly setup, 2x330w monocrystalline solar panels mounted at 30 degrees facing north west, connected in series these panels give good output even in partial shade, I have seen 40amps at 14.4v

connected via a 60amp circuit breaker is my 50amp mppt charge controller (maximum power point tracking) set to 14.4v bulk charge with a 13.5v float when batteries are near full

connected via a 50 amp circuit breaker I have 6x 2v 300ah vision batteries from the Auckland airport data center these are gel cells and can be orientated standing up or lying down. connected in series they sit at 13.2v fully charged

from here I draw 12v for led lighting and a diesel heater, a 2000w pure sinewave inverter is connected via 4 gauge wire and a 250amp fuse which is not ideal, I have come to terms with the fact I wont be running any loads of more then 1000w on a 12v system the amp draw gets ridiculous.

I have learned a lot building this system and will keep it for 12v draws such as led lighting and a 12v diesel heater,

my next system is a while away yet and I only know one thing for sure it will likely use a 48v lifepo4 battery the other components (panels controller inverter) with largely depend on what is available at the time.

thankyou for taking the time to read my take on solar hopefully you will still be awake after my pac day speech :)