Solar what would you do

[Sammy7]

Well having dipped my toe into the interweb, and been left even more confused. I thought it might be a good idea to ask the community. Basically I have the kit shown below.
Batteries (ex mobile phone mast)
2 solar panels
Inverter thing.
How would you use it. What else do I need?

 

[Dieselman 63]

If you’re asking how to install it, I’d recommend getting a registered electrician in. Insurance won’t pay out if you have an electrical fire from equipment you installed yourself.

 

[Sammy7]

Fair comment. Initially just pondering if the kit is any use and what else would be needed.

 

[drjim]

Batteries might be interesting to connect to a hybrid inverter or victron type stuff. The panel is only 75w barely worth the effort of mounting it, you can get 450w for 60 quid at city plumbing. If you just have the one enphase inverter you can just wire it to a 240v spur and it will feed a bit of power in. However 150w of panels won't do much.

You can find 250w panels for about 40 quid on ebay etc, one of those would fire the inverter up nicely.

 

[Sammy7]

@drjim thanks just the kind of info I was looking for

 

[MetalMonkey]

What are you intending on using it for?

 

[Sammy7]

That’s a good question, it’s for the garage, and intended to reduce mains electricity consumption. I hoped to utilise what I have. I now realise I will need new solar panels, and a hybrid inverter ( thanks to @drjim) to make use of the batteries.

 

[drjim]

Connect the two panels you have in series, pointing at the sun of course, connect to the enphase inverter, wire the enphase to 240v, you can just use a plug for this much current. you should get 100 or so watts off your bill while you are thinking about doing more.

I have 2.4 kw of panels on a shed, 2kw of old 250w panels on another shed, a few on walls and currently have some lads on my roof fitting 2.6kw which will go to my hybrid inverter along with shed 1. It gets a bit addictive this solar stuff. Something to do with the price of electricity I think!

 

[julianf]

You need to match the panel output to the inverter input range -

The inverter will have a voltage range in which it operates. If you have too few panels in the string, and dont meed the minimum input voltage threshold, it will do nothing. Similarly, if you exceed the range, something (i guess) not good happens.


Get the datasheet for your inverter, and check the input range. Then look at your panels, and see if they work with that.

 

[MetalMonkey]

That’s a good question, it’s for the garage, and intended to reduce mains electricity consumption. I hoped to utilise what I have. I now realise I will need new solar panels, and a hybrid inverter ( thanks to @drjim) to make use of the batteries.

The thing to be aware of then is whether you plan to use it entirely off-grid, or if it will have any form of tie in to the grid - in which case even if you aren't exporting you may need to apply to the DNO.
It will also be notifiable work to your LA either way.

 

[Sammy7]

Cheers guys, more to think about!

 

[drjim]

That 215 enphase will probably fire up with the two 75w panels.

As to DNO, you can submit a G98 form for up to 3.6 but for plugging a 215w microinverter in it's not worth the time.

Reminds me I should send off a G99 for my 4.6 growatt that might already be fitted. Not exporting any significant power though, so the G98 they know about covers it really.

 

[Sammy7]

@drjim thanks again. Picture of micro inverter data plate, and plug. 4 pins one does not look populated. +ve, -ve, earth ?

 

[drjim]

They have a connector cable (Q cable they call it) or you could cut the plug off and see what colour the wires inside are. Probably American cable colours so black for live yellow/white neutral and green earth - or that's what the enecsys microinverters I tried a couple of years ago had.

 

[drjim]

Oh and you would need to parallel the panels looking at the vmax on the enphase.

 

[Sammy7]

@drjim many thanks. I’ll have a play. Safely obviously.