Advice on Solar Power Inverter

[BriansBrain]

The whole house solar systems usually have the inverter feeding back into the grid.

I'm NOT doing a whole house solar system
If you look at the original post I just want to power a 1000W TX

If you have a power cut even on the sunniest day of the year you still lose power completely.

I'm NOT interested if there is there is a power cut
The Studio that's in another part of the building and on another phase
would also have a power cut, so there would be no MPX feed for the TX anyway

Systems that operate independently of the mains still need the battery bank.

If you read thew first post again I am NOT looking to operate independently of the mains

[BriansBrain]

the advantages of using DC from batteries are worth the expense - you can't beat the perfection of the DC from a good quality battery.

H
I appreciate your suggestions - however - in my original post I mentioned

I need to keep all the costs down.

And as you said -
1)- batteries are worth the expense + good quality battery.
But - as you know good quality batteries are Expensive

Keeping costs down in my case this means -
As few a number of Solar Panels as possible which also means the minimum of expensive wiring
and an inverter that can handle the maximum solar power I require

Using an impossible 100% efficient system for an example.
If I installed the minimum number of solar panels of that could produce 1000W of power in the daytime.
This 1000W could power the TX in the daytime.
There would NOT be any power left to charge batteries if some were installed.

Conclusion.
If I installed any sort of system with batteries the costs would more than double
as I would need more panels, more wiring, a bigger inverter + the Expensive bloody batteries

[BriansBrain]

Seems like it wouldn't be too hard to combine solar and mains chargers to feed the one battery

Like I mentioned in the post above.....
1000W of power from the solar panels = 1000W to power the TX in the daytime

So... where would I get the power from to charge the one battery

[BriansBrain]

In my original post I asked...

I'm after some advice on the Type of Solar Inverter I need to Power the TX

And...

Look up the Huawei Sun2000 series. They are quite popular right now, and the battery is optional, plus it has all the necessary connectivity for power monitoring and administration.

Fantastic.......

Thank you very much for your advice

[yellowbeard]

OK I get the no batteries, but does your mains supplier allow you to sell excess electricity back to the grid? If they do, then extra solar panels might be worth the money - all the inverters discussed so far have excess capacity. In effect you'd be using the the grid itself as a battery to store your excess production for use at night etc. That level of sunshine you have is a wonderful resource, I would get about a third of that here in Ireland.

[BriansBrain]

OK I get the no batteries, but does your mains supplier allow you to sell excess electricity back to the grid?

Good idea but...
Not my house....... rented
Electricity not in my name
So = not possible

[sinus trouble]

From what i know of the Canary Islands?

Each Island is pretty tiny and only significantly populated on coastal areas? The centre of the Islands are just volcanic rocks everywhere!

The "Grid" i suspect is not what you would see in the UK! Certainly not a "Battersea" type installation!

There are various Professional wind turbines scattered around with each Hotel incorporating its own solar generation system! Solar panels are everywhere!!

The daytime sunshine is so intense that they even heat water systems throughout Hotel complexes!

I have never experienced any power outages whilst visiting?? But maybe a resident like Brian can elaborate on my description of the Islands?

[sinus trouble]

OK I get the no batteries, but does your mains supplier allow you to sell excess electricity back to the grid? If they do, then extra solar panels might be worth the money - all the inverters discussed so far have excess capacity. In effect you'd be using the the grid itself as a battery to store your excess production for use at night etc. That level of sunshine you have is a wonderful resource, I would get about a third of that here in Ireland.

You raise a good point YB!

Like Albert mentioned! Solar and wind energy has its inherent peaks and troughs! The use of batteries would equalise that energy and save hard earned cash in the long run!

That wasted energy can be stored so you dont need to rely on the Grid!

[sinus trouble]

Why sell it back to the energy companies when you can keep it for yourself!

[BriansBrain]

From what i know of the Canary Islands?

Each Island is pretty tiny and only significantly populated on coastal areas? The centre of the Islands are just volcanic rocks everywhere!

Perfect description of Gran Canaria which is the Island I live on

Brians Area-Bigger.jpg

[BriansBrain]

The "Grid" i suspect is not what you would see in the UK! Certainly not a "Battersea" type installation!

There are various Professional wind turbines scattered around with each Hotel incorporating its own solar generation system! Solar panels are everywhere!!

The daytime sunshine is so intense that they even heat water systems throughout Hotel complexes!

I have never experienced any power outages whilst visiting?? But maybe a resident like Brian can elaborate on my description of the Islands?

OK.......... on Gran Canaria...
We have a few diesel powered power stations + many wind farms
Daytime sunshine is so intense that hotels and private dwellings heat water with it
And we have very few power outages

[BriansBrain]

That wasted energy can be stored so you dont need to rely on the Grid!

OK........ Yes

BUT..... you only have wasted energy if you have NOT already used it all in the first place

[Electronically]

Or you could be wise to go for at least 24volt solar panel ,however you would need two 12volt car batteries, connect one lead of the 1st batterie negative to the positive of the 2nd batterie,but warning you should put a fuse in this lead from negative to positive recommended, however this is done in (series),now you have 24 volts , take your multimeter place your leads on the spare terminals (+ and - ),you should read 24volts ,now I recommend around 12volt with 150ah each on those two batteries, place leads on each terminal that doesn't have leads there to the spare terminals ,have a decent charger like say 24volts at 25amps at least to charge those two batteries up together , then once charged up disconnect the charger input your solar ,enjoy ,

[Albert H]

It's not as easy as it looks. Car batteries are useless for long charge / discharge cycles. They're not designed for that. You'd have to use "Leisure" (caravan) or Marine batteries for the kind of charge / discharge cycles you'd need. For reliability (and additional capacity for cloudy periods) you might need to use two battery banks.

The solar power controllers like the Huawei Sun2000 series are OK for domestic use, but the manufacturers do suggest that you go with the battery option, even though they will work without batteries (though rather less well, and the regulation suffers).

When I solar powered my Californian station, I used a homebrew solar controller and Leisure batteries. After a couple of premature shut-downs because of poor daytime sun, we added a couple of small wind turbines to help even out the available power and to keep topping up the batteries, even at night.

The real breakthrough came when we ran mains to our broadcasting tree. The City Council installed street lights a while after we started broadcasting, and we found it easy enough to tap into their supply, though we had to run the power a couple of hundred metres from the road to the tree! Even with mains available, I still had mains-charged batteries up there to power the gear in the event of mains failure. The location would have been easy to find if the rig went off in the event of street light supply failure!

[Electronically]

I've tried these with gel batterie chargers ,but the leads i use across the terminals is thick wiring to handle at least 600v due to heat of cables so was important to have thick cables,I got at least a good few hours out them before I had to recharge batteries ,street lights is away forward there Albert, I've never attempted this idea,but I have heard pirates trying it seems to work for them though .