Everyone is getting tired of me checking the panel to see how many watts we're bringing in.
Next project, install a shunt and get a Raspberry Pi talking to it over USB. And then I'll be able to build a Grafana dashboard. :)
What people figure out to do with actually free energy will be exciting. There are a lot of extremely "inefficient" things that might suddenly become commonplace.
Proto-replicator technology where you dump your garbage into a barrel and it gets decomposed and recomposed into something similar to crude oil, blocks of metal, pure gasses, etc? Hydrocarbon fuel from air? Flying cars? You name it.
I doubt that it ends up being actually better due to efficiency losses but it’d be really cool!!
To make electric energy I would have to make a small steam plant to run a turbine.
Or a hydrogen fuel cell: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_cell
The round-trip efficiency is of course abysmal compared to batteries, but if the input energy is "free", the increased density could pay off.
Check out https://m.youtube.com/c/WillProwse and https://diysolarforum.com/
Ideally you dont buy the all in one batteries as they usually have anemic solar inputs.
It’s not clear what device you’re referring to in this context.
MidNite has a sizing tool for this: https://www.midnitesolar.com/sizingTool/
It’s not too hard to actually do the computations. But there is a ton to learn. I installed my own 14.85 kW system last year, with batteries, and I spent hundreds of hours just researching everything. I know I went overkill, but the hardest part of the project was just getting up to speed on all the requirements to meet code.
Someday I’ll write up my entire experience and share my site plan I used for permitting in the hopes it will help someone else. But doing solar right is a nontrivial investment for a newbie (like me).
They will all tell you maximum input volts and amperage. You can calculate watts by multiplying those two and just need to wire your panels in a way that doesn't exceed either value.
My main issue was ensuring wire gauges were correct. One's intuition about dealing with house wiring @15A changes when you're dealing with 50A circuits. Also you need to pay attention to things like equal cable lengths between battery banks so you don't overcharge one battery in a series.
However, I'm dealing with an off-grid cabin so I don't need to deal with any grid-tie circuitry, which would make it much more difficult and I'd definitely get an electrician for that.
I think the biggest gotcha we dealt with was that you can't (or shouldn't) just wire solar into your house and call it a day. You have to let your electrical company know, there are permits and inspections that need to be done before you wire your solar into the public grid. There may also be some relevant bylaws you should know about, or if you live in an HOA you should check their policy first so you don't start a fight.
It's like a lot of things. Conceptually easy, but bureaucracy makes it complicated
Globally, this of course varies.
I just upgraded our hybrid caravan to 24V LFP (2x 300Ah 12V), roof solar + extra MPPT for external solar, shunt, inverter-charger, 24V->12V converter for existing circuity (lights, pump, etc), DCDC charger from car, battery balancer, a little touchscreen interface inside (all victron gear with renogy batteries). It was as a lot of fun and it's amazing how much power we have off grid now! The system would work excellent for a little cabin exactly how it is (minus DCDC).
Right now we're limited by the charging capacity of the inverter/charger. It can only do 50A in from an external solar controller. In hindsight I should have gone with a 48V inverter/charger to get twice the power going in. On a sunny day we're maxing it out at 1200W for several hours at a time.