Installing My Solar System at Stony Oasis Farms

The Last Job to Get Done at SOF in Preparation to Move There...The Solar System

I am close to getting my solar system installed, and operating. Got the 9 panels or 4000 watts of bi-facial panels installed. Will be adding some white landscape rock to help take advantage of the bi-facial aspect of these solar panels.

I will also be experimenting with using some other reflective surfaces to produce the most power possible. With there app, and the ability to know exactly what the panels are generating at any point in time, it will be easy to find the best balance to produce the most electricity.

This is the breaker/disconnect, complete with a surge control that goes straight to earth ground on the right.

This is mostly for lightning strikes, but will handle any spikes in power that could affect performance.

My electrical room is taking shape. You might notice the concrete board behind the components...this is for fire protection. The unit on the left is a 125 amp sub-panel...which will hold the breakers, the Sun Gold inverter in the middle, heavy duty busbars...both negative and positive. This keeps the batteries equal, and consolidates all the neutrals. And the box on the right will hold the breaker/disconnect for the incoming solar power (redundancy for shut downs is a good thing) which goes straight into the inverter.

It seems I am always needing another part to complete the install, but think I may be turning this all on next trip up there.

This system will start out with only about 10 KWH of storage. I do not think this will be enough, but I will start out with it and see what I can power...what it is like to live with that much power. I will likley update the battery to a 16 KWH battery, and down the road and perhaps two of them for 32 KWH of power which should be more then I will ever use.

I want a trouble free system that will supply all the power I could ever need. Even if someone comes to visit and brings their RV...I want them to be able to run their AC if it is hot.

This is one of my other solar arrays up at Stony Oasis...this one runs my well pump solar direct. When the sun shines the pump pumps. I am wanting to make this array charge batteries, and have the ability to run my well pump 24/7...then I could pump about 10,000 gals of water every sunny day.

With the possibility of building a 30,000 cistern on top of my little hill. I would love to have that to be able to fight fire a bit when the next one burns through. Thing about fires in this country is now if a fire will burn through...but WHEN a fire will burn through. I will also be creating a 2 or 3oo ft fire break, and all my roofs will be metal.

So...before snow flies I will be living there, and I cannot wait....been a long time coming!

Are you living off grid? Own property and thinking about it? Please leave me a comment and tell me about it, I would love to hear from you!