In the month of September we produced over 1.1MWh (Megawatt hours) on the farm. This month was quite active with tropical storms coming through the area, so we had much less sunlight than average. Living in the south east that does tend to happen some months, tropical storms can be quite active coming from the Atlantic ocean traveling inland.
One passed right over the farm dropping over 7.5 inches in a single day. And a few others passed by but mostly just gave us overcast skies.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Atlantic_hurricane_season
Because of this September was quite overcast. Maybe October will have more clear skies, time will tell.
Array A production stats:
PV: 483 kWh
Load: 1396.2 kWh
Grid Import: 964.4 kWh
Battery Charge: 218 kWh
Battery Discharge: 213.5 kWh
Array A build:
System Size = 5.5 kWp DC
Panels = Sungoldpower Monocryalline 60 cell (12 Panels, 450 Watts each)
Mounting System = Brightmount EG4 screwed into 6x6 timbers
Wiring: 1x 8 AWG 19 strand PV direct bury wire pair
Inverters = Sol-Ark 15k all-in-one (240V)
Estimated First Year Production
7,408 kWh
Battery Backup = 48 3.2v EVE LF280 LiFePO4 280AH batteries
Battery Management system = Daly Smart BMS 16S 48V 500A
Battery Capacity = 45.696 kWh (840AH)
Propane Generator = Briggs and Stratton Power Protect 26kw
Array B production stats:
PV: 715.8 kWh
Load: 1250.8 kWh
Grid Import: 628.6 kWh
Battery Charge: 301.8 kWh
Battery Discharge: 271.6 kWh
Array B build:
System Size = 9 kWp DC
Panels = Sungoldpower Monocryalline 60 cell (20 Panels, 450 Watts each)
Mounting System = Brightmount EG4 screwed into 6x6 timbers
Wiring: 2x 8 AWG 19 strand PV direct bury wire pair
Inverters = Sol-Ark 15k all-in-one (240V)
Estimated First Year Production
14,815 kWh
Battery Backup = 48 3.2v LiFePO4 290AH batteries (unknown brand)
Battery Management system = Daly Smart BMS 16S 48V 250A
Battery Capacity = 47.328 kWh (870AH)
Propane Generator = Briggs and Stratton Power Protect 22kw
Totals combined for all arrays:
1198.8 kWh (1.1 Mwh) produce for the month of September
Things you can do with 1198 kilowatt hours of power in a month:
You can have a LAN party every day 24 hours a day with three computers. Or 12 hours a day with six computers.
I can run over 25,000 Hive witness servers 24 hours a day.
I can run 0 ASIC Bitcoin miners.
I can run 3 1000w grow tents.
I can brew 119,800 cups of coffee. (required to run 25,000 Hive witness servers).
I can bake 399 meat loafs in an electric oven.
I can charge a hoverboard 479 times.
I can produce over 2396 pounds of marshmallows.
Notes: In October I am going through an overhaul of one of the arrays and will be adding a second 15k sol-ark inverter. This will allow me to balance loads better and will give me access to more solar power if I wanted to add panels.
We have also started adding agricultural limestone around the panels to help suppress weed growth. That is what that white stuff around the panels is.. not snow, too early for that lol.
Previous posts on production stats:
https://peakd.com/hive-163521/@solominer/solos-solar-array-production-stats-august
Wow, that is so great, you constantly amaze me with your knowledge. Nice work my friend.
Ah thank you, hopefully I can inspire others to also build out solar projects.. maybe not as big but still useful for many.. Just having solar for a water pump in the garden can be life changing.
Yes very great job my friend @solominer success is always brother
Thank you
You are my brother
We got pretty cold here last night. Snow might be coming sooner rather than later! I'm glad things weren't too bad for you with the storms.
Oh man I am looking forward to firing up the wood furnace.. I actually had a dream about putting firewood in the furnace recently.
Maybe in a month or so it will be time to fire up ours, and snow should shortly after for us.
Yeah the storms did not do any damage to my farm, we did lose power for about 6-8 hours but the solar / propane generator kept us up.
That's awesome about your backup system. My wife and I are heading camping this weekend and I think it is going to be quite chilly. Probably one of those trips where we have a fire going the whole weekend.
I wish I could be able to generate that much solar power 😊 Mine only supply a few volts
Oh well you can always scale up until you have more power.. that is the cool thing about solar.. you can always add more.
Nice setup!
48, that's a lot of batteries and wiring for 870 AH! They must be physically small. Why did you go that way as opposed to say 8 100AH 48V batteries, or 24V batteries?
I'd probably go with 8 of these:
thanks man, long time no see @joshman hope you have been doing well :-)
Yeah they are quite small, and need lots of bus bars.
I went with these types because my solar installer recommended the smaller ones. Honestly I did not think about going with bigger batteries and just less of them. I see no reason why it would be good to go one way or the other if the chemistry is the same. And the costs are around the same...
I think the inside of the large batteries has those inside of them. I'm guessing the reason is the small ones don't have a BMS, and he wanted you to run an external BMS for whatever reason.
Oh maybe, no the small ones do not have a BMS.
I am running an Daly open loop BMS for them.
Tnx!
yeah
Ecency vote♥️
thank you
Do those have to be connected to the power grid or are they off it?
Mine are connected to the grid, so when we do not pull in enough power I can use the remainder of the demand from the grid.
Do you have to choose between the above options...?!?
No, those are two different homes. On my farm I have two dwellings, each has a its own independent solar array.
Nice!
@tipu curate
Upvoted 👌 (Mana: 0/58) Liquid rewards.
thank you
Wow, this is so great, you had a nice skill, good work, more grace and knowledge to you.
Ah thanks, but I paid someone to set most of it up. So I cannot claim this is something I made myself.
Wow, wow, wow, great and amazing work, this is a great knowledge in you, good work, welldone.
Ah thank you
Amazing work my friend, you always show us something new, success continues for you and your family there my friend.
Hopefully others get interested into solar too.. thank you
Hello @solominer
you did very well to invest in this equipment and generate your own energy, it's great to see these statistics
Ah thank you, I see my return on investment eventually.
Glad you like them, will post another update in a month.
This is quite impressive!
ah glad you liked it
Gawd damn 7.5 inches... thats a thick slab of rain right there bruh
yeah too much