On Grid, Off Grid Project Results

Solar PowerHouse. the modules in the background are gridtied and some can be switched to DC

Battery wiring is a temporary set up to be upgraded

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Back on June 20th, I posted about a fairly simple yet sophisticated solar battery system. I finally got the last of the wiring done last week. In the top picture is the "PowerHouse" which I designed and had local Mennonites make as a prototype two years ago. The idea was to build finished solar systems either gridtied or offgrid battery. The slope of the roof is 38 degrees which is the latitude of southern West Virginia. It fits 6) 230 watt modules, although today you can get 250 watters at less price.
The next picture is inside the PowerHouse showing the batteries, charge controller, combiner and inverter. For a full description and a link for the schematic drawing go to my June 20th post "Sensible Solar Battery System".

Two of the three series relays. Note Enphase microinverter behind timber

On July 5th I posted a schematic of a method of switching gridtied modules to DC so additional power can be collected for the battery system. I was a bit concerned the points in the relays might get damaged by under-load switching. I saw no visible arcing switching back and forth, so I suppose it will work for a long time.
The relay and it's socket are under the middle of the PV module and well protected, None the less, I used silicon dielectric grease on the wires, blade slots, and around the base edge of the relay since it didn't look like it was hermetically sealed. Then on top of that, I sprayed an anti-corrosive into the wire sockets and clamp screws. Ought to last for a while. Please note: I used "touch safe" sockets for added safety.
Basically, I doubled my collection power from 1380 watts to 2760 watts. Theoretically, I could charge the battery pack in 4 sunny hours. So yea, now I'm thinking of another set of 4) 220 A/hr batteries for winter conditions. Cha Ching..but that's the nature of the beast and human nature.

Close up of DPDT relay, socket and wiring

Winding Down

After finishing the job described on the previous post, I thought there would be a quiet period while winter ramped up. To our surprise we started a job on a new home site by setting poles for a top of pole PV installation. We'll try to get all the conduit laid while the builder is there with excavation equipment. At some point he'll have to shut down during any severe weather. We'll pick it up again when the weather returns to bearable.
It's been unusually cold and cloudy for the past week and we're using our last couple hundred KWh's in credit on our meter. To our further surprise it looks promising for another PV job where the owner wants to spend the money this year for tax purposes. We'll work on that one as the weather opportunities arise.
In the photos above you can see the pole fabrication in progress. I want to thank Lola Alderman for helping and doing a fine job on finishing. By the way, that's my new forklift I got to unload trucks delivering pallets of PV modules. In fact, its only new to me, it has some hours on it and I had to rebuild some linkages and fit chains to the tires. We couldn't afford a forklift that didn't need fiddling, so I'm happy to do it. It runs well and we might even paint it.
The pic of the PV array is the one at our house after days of snow showers. The deep blue sky is a wonderful sight. I didn't brush off the snow so I could see how it melts and slips off with a little sunshine. It took 4 hours to clear itself that sunny morning.