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Comment by driverdan | Hacker News Reader

As this article touches on the solar panels are the cheap part of a solar setup. If you want to run off grid the costs skyrocket.

I live in an off grid bus. My whole electrical system cost in the US$9-10000 range with only 810W of solar. The other components cost a lot more:

* ~$900 for 3x 270W Renogy solar panels

* $1500 for 3.6kWh of LiFePO4 batteries (12 100A 3.6V cells)

* $1600 for a Victron 3kW inverter / charger

* $2000 for a Honda EU3000is generator to run my AC

The rest was the Victron solar controller, color control panel (that runs Linux!), breakers, relays, transfer switch, fuses, cable, and all the other stuff you need to hook it together.

This isn't at house scale either. The cost would go up significantly to support a house scale system.

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That Honda EU3000is is an 3 kW ICE-based generator, that is, it's not a part of "solar" setup proper.

OTOH not having a combustion-based backup is likely not very wise if you live off-grid. I wonder how often do you need to run it? That is, what part of your energy budget is covered by the solar energy?

What does ICE mean?

The generator is part of the whole power system. In most implementations solar is not reliable enough on its own. You need a backup. In my case that's the generator and the bus' alternator.

Right now I'm running the generator all day to power my AC. I'm not running it most nights. It could be cycled on and off but I haven't setup an auto start system for it yet.

ICE = Internal Combustion Engine

Initial cost might be high but this cost would be slowly return as you save on electricity bills. Also, all this equipment is not perishable and you can still re-sell at good price after your retirement or sell them along with house. Its no different than investing in house upgrades which adds to the house value.

Both the solar cells and the batteries have a finite lifespan, and will eventually need to be replaced.

Especially the batteries.

Inverters have to be replaced as well.

The solar controller, control panel and miscellaneous cost you $3-4k?

Having just done similar at a smaller scale, that's plausible. A solar charge controller for that capacity is $600-1000 on its own, and the Victron control panel mentioned is north of $500.

The controller was more than $200, the control panel is around $550.

I didn't itemize the rest because I don't have the time to list it all. The roof rack and hardware cost around $1000. There are a lot of individual items that cost around $100, (eg starter battery isolator relay, breaker panel + breakers). Heavy gauge cables are necessary and expensive. All the small things add up.

ICE bus ?

ICE?

Internal combustion engine

There are no practical electric buses. The bus itself is on the Chevy C4500 chassis with a diesel engine.

jehu garcia made an electric VW van, but i don't know much about it.

a couple also made a solar powered van, but as people say, it's probably very short on mileage (basically move a bit and rest while it charges.

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