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15 Feb ’12
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original idea was to add on to front of barn, my friend is trying to convince me to offset it about 16 feet and have it separate.
15 Feb ’12
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pork, what size pipe and wire should I lay down in the driveway for future solar panels from the barn roof? I want to do it before we pour the slab, plans might change but I don't want to kick myself in the ass for not doing it.
5 Mar ’12
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K, that is a big question. There is a lot to think about. Distances for wiring to limit loss, permits, on-grid vs off-grid, etc.
If I had to shoot from the hip I would say go 2" pipe, with 2-2-2-4 mobile home feeder cable (aluminum), and place 2 or 3 ethernet cables (you can reuse the wiring for other purposes). It's hard because you don't have your equipment yet, you don't know how many panels (or do you?), if you will be grid tied, etc.
Do you need water to the barn? You could bury that, too. What about running power to the shop? To birds one stone with trenching and other work?
15 Feb ’12
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Water is going to be really difficult. Only outside source is the spigot we put in last year and we would have to cut out through the retaining wall and berm. The whole berm is exploded ledge with a loam cover. That would be a bear to get through. I'll get some measurements. We would need a 4.8 kw system to replace what we use now. Off grid.
5 Mar ’12
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4.8 KW is pretty big. Mine was 2.8 KW. So you would need ~24 panels or less. What is the distance?
15 Feb ’12
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roughly 150 feet from the current barn
Talked with my power company to get the last 12 months of usage, saw a huge spike in the last 3 months, was trying to figure out why. Mentioned it to my dad, he said he hasn't used propane all winter, he decided to use a electric heater instead and was running a power cord from the house.
*sigh*
so before my dad decided to plug in our average usage was 587 a month
587/30/4.2 average hours gives me 4.65 kw system
This is my thoughts, we have an interlock kit in our panel
we run that out to our side shed with 10/2 shielded wire I think?
we have our generator plug wired into that
when we lose power, we just flip the switch and start the generator which runs our whole house
it's a 5000 husky, 6500 peak
my thought is extending that wire down to the workshop with battery banks and panels, should work shouldn't it?
5 Mar ’12
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Oh my.
OK, first thoughts -- will your local gov and power company let you shut off power? There are ordinances in some places to not let you do that for extended periods of time. You can easily buy a grid-tie inverter and hooking it up to with fees is usually only $100 or so.
Another question is do you *want* to be offgrid? Maybe being offgrid and having a completely separate system would save you from a bunch of permitting hassle, but I'm not sure because I don't know your local conditions.
If your primary goal is to offset your bill than you can save the battery bank costs and just roll with grid-tie and keep the generator for times when your power goes out. If you want to be offgrid then you will need the battery bank and some other questions come into play (e.g. do you want to be able to charge your battery bank from the grid? I would want to, and it saves gas/generator time).
Whatever you go with I would upgrade use something bigger to feed the house than 10/2.
15 Feb ’12
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Yes, we can disconnect
Just talked to my electrician who helped with the build, he said it's 10/4 ufb rated for 30 amps and direct burial
He suggested for temporary grid power, removing the generator cord, removing the disconnect and making it live here in the panel and running wire down to the workshop from the box in the side shed and putting a subpanel there with a 30 amp breaker that way I could just use power from the panel
I'd rather just use the generator down there and not worry about it till we switch to solar, just wondering if that 30 amp wire will be fine with a solar tie in
I would prefer to be totally off grid and just use the generator to float the batteries, I converted our generator to propane and through our business I buy that at 1.39 a gallon
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