After reading hundreds of posts I'm down to a couple of simple questions.
I'm going to take one room, the master bedroom and run it off of solar. I already have that room and the living room setup on a battery backup system. The plan is to pull a couple of batteries from that and move to solar only.
This is my worksheet on power requirements:
Device Watts Hours Watt Hrs
Laptop 60 24
Network Devices 20 24 480
Master Bath Lights
(4 @ 14W) 56 2 112
Bedroom Light 14 1 14
Clock 1 24 24
Night Lights (2 @ 1W) 2 22 44
Outdoor Lights
( 3 @ 14W) 35 6 210
CPAP 25 7 175
Total Watt Hours
Max Load in watts 213
Tried to clean up the formatting, it is a cut and paste from my spreadsheet.
The laptop and network hub have to stay running 24x7. It is our system and ties into work. I'm always on call and have spotty cell service.
My batteries are 8D lead acid batteries. Basically big deep cycle RV batteries. They are rated at 220 AH @ 20 hrs. Would like a recommendation as to if I should use one or two. I have a good source for them at $100 each so the cost is not really an issue, just longevity.
I currently have a 400 watt MSW inverter. Everything seems to work fine with that. With max load being 50% it looks like that is good to go.
I'm at 47 degrees north. Summers have good sun, but winter is not so good. I'm near the water so I get good wind. I'm thinking that I should size the solar for summer now and add wind and maybe additional panels when winter comes in.
The problem is that I can't seem to figure out how much wattage I need in panels. I've read trough the site and I just get more confused. And should I consider the over 100 watt panels? The store front states that they are primarily used in grid tie systems. This will be stand alone.
Since this is still in hobby/learning stage budget and marital bliss are a consideration. I also don't want to go too cheap and wind up having to replace things later.
Thanks.
With competitive price and timely delivery, OMMO sincerely hope to be your supplier and partner.
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In this article, you are going to learn all about Solar Batteries.
You will understand what the differences are between the types of solar battery, how they fit into a Solar System, how many you&#;ll need and more.
Here&#;s the breakdown:
Let&#;s get started.
Lets start at the beginning
Solar Batteries store power, either solar power produced from your solar panels or grid-supplied power so that you have electricity supply when it is nighttime or when the grid fails.In short,, either solar power produced from your solar panels or grid-supplied power so that you have electricity supply when it is nighttime or when the grid fails.
However, solar batteries do not work on their own. They need other equipment to manage the charge and discharge rate, manage the overall health of your battery bank and convert DC stored power to AC power which we need to run our appliances.
You will typically use a solar battery in one of two instances, namely a Solar Power Kit or a Load Shedding Kit.
A Load Shedding Kit contains a Solar Inverter, a Battery Bank and peripherals like disconnect switches and wiring. There are no panels with a Load Shedding Kit. However, you can add panels later if you want to.
Solar Batteries store DC (Direct Current) power, but we use AC (Alternating Current) in our homes.
The inverter will convert the grid-supplied AC power to DC power when your battery is charging. And when using the power stored in your battery, the inverter will convert the DC power to usable AC power.
As the name suggests, a Solar Power Kit contains a Solar Inverter, Battery Bank, Peripherals and Solar Panels.
Solar Power Kits supplement your usage with freely produced solar power during the day and supply power during load shedding because you have a battery bank.
More often than not, your Solar Panels will charge your battery bank during the day so that you can use the stored solar power in the evenings and during grid failure.
Solar Power Kits will save you money on electricity where Load Shedding Kits will not.
Solar lingo explained
Understanding the terms used in this guide is very important as they&#;ll help you understand what to look out for when sizing your own battery bank. If you know the basics, skip to Chapter 3.
You will hear the term &#;Deep-Cycle&#;, what this refers to is the Depth Of Discharge. Deep-Cycle Solar Batteries are specifically designed to regularly discharge until it has used most of its capacity.
The depth of discharge will depend on the type of battery you choose.
DOD (Depth of Discharge) refers to how much of the battery can be used.
A typical Lead-Acid Battery will have a DOD of 50%. Whereas with the Lithium-ion Solar Batteries have a DOD of between 80-100%, this is important to understand when calculating your solar battery needs.
In short, there are 2 main types of Solar Batteries, Lead Acid and Lithium-ion
An upgrade to the flooded version, Sealed Lead Acid eliminates the maintenance required compared to its counter partner.
It&#;s not without its drawbacks, however, a very short lifespan compared to that of the Lithium-ion Battery and they end up being more expensive in the long run due to the fact that they will need to be replaced in about 3 years time.
AGM (Absorbent Glass Mat) are capable of handling higher temperatures with a lower self-discharge when they are idle. The cells have a lower resistance compared to conventional cells, they don&#;t leak and they don&#;t need to be in an upright position.
New AGM batteries cannot be connected in series to existing, older batteries as this will damage the newest addition.
The most efficient battery on the market Lithium-ion battery technology is the future of solar storage. They waste significantly less power when charging and discharging. The cycle is deeper using more of their capacity with a long lifespan.
Completely maintenance-free they are lighter, smaller and they don&#;t produce as much heat as Lead Acid batteries and are perfect for setups that have space restrictions.
Lithium-ion batteries come in a number of sizes and are easily installed. Should you need to add new batteries later, you&#;d simply need to add them to your existing battery pack.
Furthermore, you are able to choose how and where you&#;d like to install them. Lithium-ion batteries are available in wall-mounted, floor-mounted and rack-mounted options which give you the freedom of choice. For rack-mounted batteries, you also have the choice of a cabinet.
View our Lithium-ion Range &#;
In 3 easy steps
To begin, it&#;s a good idea to check the power ratings of your appliances. You have to make sure you have a large enough battery to accommodate your needs.
Now to work out what size solar battery bank you&#;ll need, you&#;ll need to work out what you want to run off your battery and for how long you need to run these appliances.
There are three main questions you need to answer:
Whatever your answer is, you&#;ll be able to work out your kWh needs by following the steps in this section.
I&#;ll refer to load shedding, evenings, nights and mornings as &#;downtime(s)&#; as this is the period you&#;ll not be producing solar power.
Add the power ratings of all the appliances you&#;d like to run off your solar battery bank.
As I have said, it is a good idea to check each of your appliances for their ratings to get an exact idea of your usage.
Next, we&#;ll need to work out the amount of time you typically use these appliances.
You&#;ll use your appliances for varying amounts of time throughout the down phases. Like a TV might be on for 4 hours while your microwave is only on for 3 minutes.
Want more information on W Storage Battery? Feel free to contact us.
This section is entirely reliant on your usage.
How will you use your solar battery? Load shedding? Non-production time? Both?
Below are some guidelines for figuring out how many hours you&#;d like to run your appliances off your battery bank.
In some areas, they can expect 2.5 hours of load shedding, and in other areas, they can have up to 4 hours of load shedding. It&#;s essential to consider these times.
The average evening usage is around 4 hours for appliances that we use when we&#;re awake from when we come home from work till the time we go to bed. We&#;ll work from 18:00 to 22:00.
Say you&#;re getting in a good night sleep at the recommended 8 hours a night. Most of us still run a few essential appliances like fridges, alarms etc.
We use a lot of power in the mornings because we use appliances like kettles, toasters, microwaves and hairdryers. All of these appliances pull large amounts of power.
Usually, between 06:00 and 10:00, we don&#;t produce enough solar power to supplement our load. Therefore, it is beneficial to have a big enough battery to cover as much of our usage in the morning as possible.
As a rule of thumb, we suggest being mindful of what you are running off your battery bank, but mornings are different because who wants to start their day de-caffeinated with a severe case of bedhead?
In the next section, we&#;ll take a look at a case study of my home to show you exactly how to work out your battery needs.
Now we get to the fun part: working out our usage!
Below, I&#;ll give you an example based on my home and the appliances we own with their ratings, how many times we use them, and how long we use them in 16 hours.
I have broken them down into three sections.
Now that we have totals for each time frame, we can determine my family&#;s overall usage and battery needs to cover 100% of our load using our solar battery bank.
We&#;ll add all three totals together: W or 8.61kW.
To choose a battery, I&#;ll need to consider the battery&#;s DOD (Depth of Discharge). If I choose a battery with 80% DOD, I&#;ll need to subtract 20% from the overall rating of the battery.
I could consider these options from PylonTech or a Dyness to cover my usage completely:
3 x PylonTech USC Batteries giving me 9.975kWh @ 95% DOD
3 x Dyness 3.6kWh Batteries giving me 8.645kWh @ 80% DOD
Here&#;s a selection of brands which we recommend
As with the other components, the brand of the battery is closely related to the quality of the product, Solar Batteries are no different in this regard.
Pylon Technologies, Co. Ltd founded in is regarded as the pioneer for LFP (lithium iron phosphate) battery deployed in ESS (energy storage system).
Pylontech&#;s battery products and solutions have been used for high-end vehicles, cloud computing systems and telecom power backups, new energy storage systems and electric vehicles.
Top features:
View PylonTech website
Browse our PylonTech Range &#;
A relatively new player in the market Dyness have made an impressive start by rivaling the mightly PylonTech by creating similar spec lithium-ion batteries.
They have a sophisticated team of Lithium-ion experts with a specialist R&D team.
Also used in various sectors the Dyness range suits Solar applications like a glove, their PowerBox module is a big hit due to its aesthetically pleasing design at a fantastic price point.
Top features:
View Dyness website
Browse our Dyness Range &#;
What you can expect to pay
We all know that the initial solar battery prices in South Africa are pretty high. But if you&#;re cycling a battery bank once a day and have cycles, that gives you over 16 years of battery life.
Lithium-ion Battery prices range from just under R17,000 for a single modular battery and upwards of R53,000 for large battery banks with multiple batteries.
Below is a comparison table of lithium-ion and lead-acid 9.6kWh / 200Ah solar battery prices:
You would need to replace your AGM battery bank 3 times to match the number of years that the Lithium-ion batteries give you. You will eventually spend R76,400.00 on your AGM batteries in total.
While a lithium battery price may be a significant amount to front initially, as you can see, the cost per cycle is highly affordable. And if you&#;re storing and using solar power rather than the grid, you&#;ll be saving money.
Frequently Asked Questions
A lithium-ion battery is the best solar battery available because it has a longer life span and a greater depth of discharge than the AGM / gel battery variety.
When it comes to brand, stick to reputable brands like PylonTech, Dyness, Greenrich and Hubble. These brands are some of South Africa&#;s favourites because they are of excellent quality.
How long a solar battery will last depends on the size of your battery and what you are running off of it.
The kWh rating is how many hours you have to run 1kW worth of appliances.
Here is how long a 4.8kWh battery (3.84kWh at 80% DOD) will last running 500W, 750W, 1kW and 2kW:
500W &#; 7.6 hours
750W &#; 5 hours
1kW &#; 3.8 hours
2kW &#; 1.9 hours
Solar batteries are charged using either solar power or grid power. The power from these sources is fed through the inverter and then into your battery bank.
When you are ready to use the stored power, it is fed back through the inverter and into your distribution board, where it will be used to power your essential appliances.[endfaqmicro]
The number of solar batteries needed to run a house depends on your essential appliances list, and the amount of time you will run these appliances.
Below is a list of battery sizes and the sized homes they suit.
3.5kWh &#; 4.8kWh &#; Small to medium
4.8kWh &#; 5.8kWh &#; Medium
5.8kWh &#; 10.1kWh+ &#; Large to extra large[endfaqmicro]
Solar batteries range in price from around R for a 100Ah AGM battery and upwards of R50,000 for singular 9.6kWh &#; 10.1kWh batteries, as your add more batteries to a battery bank, the price increases.[endfaqmicro]
If you have a question feel free to add a comment below or contact us directly.
If you are looking for more details, kindly visit Solar Lithium Battery Storage.