Living Off-grid

Feb 07, 2023 7:01 am

This Married Couple Lives Completely Off-Grid Using Solar

3 min read

Husband and wife, Riley and Courtney, live in an off-grid home on an 8-hectare plot of land in the US. Their solar PV system consists of:

12 5kWh lithium batteries, making the total battery capacity 60kWh,
2 10kW inverters, creating a 240V split-phase output of 20kW,
2 100A charge controllers for the solar panels,
24 445W bifacial solar panels, adding up to a total of over 10kW of solar array.

All of this equipment (except for the solar panels) is housed inside a 6,06 × 2,35 × 2,44m shipping container which the couple purchased second hand. This is because the building that the solar PV system powers is a pole barn, which is not very ideal for rooftop solar. The pole barn contains their dream workshop with an apartment upstairs, which the couple live in.

The couple made their own racking system, upon which the solar panels are mounted. The racking system is fixed on the top of the shipping container, which saved them space, time and money. The solar panels also shade the shipping container, keeping all the equipment inside it cool. This racking system allows them to tilt all the solar panels together, maximising the sunlight that the solar array receives in both summer and winter. Tilting the system downwards also allows them to shed snow off the panels more easily.

The solar panels are bifacial, meaning that they absorb sunlight from the front and the back. According to the couple, during summer, the solar array can fully charge the batteries before noon and are confident that there will be enough power generated during the cold and cloudy winters.

The solar PV system’s equipment comes with a 10-year warranty, but the couple expects it all to last for 20+ years. They have only been using about 20% of their batteries’ capacity, which does much to prolong the life of the batteries.

The couple spent $50 000 on the solar PV system, which they say was cheaper than the $60 000 they were quoted to bring power onto their property. Their biggest cost by far was the batteries, at $22 175, almost half of their entire spend.

The couple also has a 240V 3-phase diesel generator which they store next to the shipping container. They intend to use it as a backup in case they need to charge their system if there is a lack of sun or if they have to carry out maintenance on the solar PV system.

Problems they faced after installing solar

The couple said that the tall pine trees on their property provided too much shade, subsequently blocking some valuable sun rays from reaching their solar panels from all angles. They found this out through an app called the Sun Track App which shows them where the sun is at all times of the day even if the sun is behind clouds. This app helped them see which trees it was worth cutting and which trees it was not, in order to increase the sun exposure on their solar array.

During winter, when their solar array tilts to let the snow fall off the panels, the snow would form a pile at the bottom of the solar array and eventually reach high enough to block the panels. The couple had to dig up the soil underneath the solar array so that the snow would fall so far below the array that it would not be able to block it. They also left a little slope, so that the snow would not pile up at all but slide down the slope. Doing this allows them to tilt the solar array more, earning them an extra 600W, and gaining 8% efficiency.

Watch the video Courtney and Riley uploaded explaining everything here: (45) TOTAL COST Of Our Off-Grid Solar Power System | Powering Our Mountain Home - YouTube

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