question

brandon1711 avatar image
brandon1711 asked

solar design

Hi,

im an apprentice for a electronics company and have been tasked with designing a solar site to bring down the cost of our bills at a radio site. this has all been done with my own research and very little background knowledge.

here is my design with some missing information but was wondering if anyone has any advice on how it looks and how i can make it better.

the site consumes 24kWh per day.

Four Lanes Solar Plan 20220613.pdf

thank you in advance.

victron community
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3 Answers
kevgermany avatar image
kevgermany answered ·

Probably best you discuss with a victron dealer who will be familiar with local conditions.

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sharpener avatar image
sharpener answered ·

Meanwhile here are a few system design considerations you might think about:

Do you need to cope with grid failure and if so for how long? OTOH I see the Four Lanes radio site already has lots of kit so maybe the grid supply is robust enough (or is duplicated or has a stand-by generator)

With an average consumption of 1kW why do you show a 5kVA Multi, are there massive peak loads? If the grid is reliable then cheaper to leave it to handle the peaks and size the inverter for the steady state.

Charging through an MPPT avoids double conversion DC - AC - DC so will have slightly higher efficiency than using the Fronius you show, you can't do both at the same time.

2kW of panels (sic) won't give you 24kWh/day even in Cornwall on midsummer's day, so you will still use some grid power even on the best days. But it will probably not be economic to have enough capacity to run purely from solar PV year round so a balance has to be found.

Likewise sizing batteries is always tricky, ideally you would model the running cost savings with various capacities at various times of year to see what will give you the greatest reduction in running cost per pound of capital expenditure.

HTH and good luck!


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adrian-isp avatar image
adrian-isp answered ·

I see you are on-grid scenario. Why dont you save yourself some time and money and go with an hybrid inverter? You can keep with Victron + Pylontech maybe? Not sure whats your budget. I also think 2kwp in pv modules its too little for the system you designed. As pv modules, have a look at Longi Solar Hi-Mo6 Scientists. Very good efficiency and price point. I will suggest running some simulations. if you dont have access to PVSol or other paid pv designers, you can try app.opensolar.com and do free simulations with it.

<<moderated: this is a victron community, please don't use it to sell other solutions. As a new member consulte the t's and C's, Design topics are not encouraged, for various reasons>>


2 comments
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nickdb avatar image nickdb ♦♦ commented ·
@Adrian_ISP kindly observe our community T's and C's, thank you.
1 Like 1 ·
adrian-isp avatar image adrian-isp nickdb ♦♦ commented ·

wow.. ok got it. so you want us not to give solutions. only talk about Victron products. great! I recommend you suggest they make the T&C Pinned banner post on the login page in a different colour (red, yellow, or blue Victron colour) I searched for almost 5 minutes for it to find it. Definitely for a new user doesn't jump in its face. With regards to system design i think people have a valid point to ask as there is no Victron designer tool like almost any other brands out there. I hope you understand im just pointing out rooms of improvement as they could sell so much more if they had a design tool and an open community discussing on system design. Anyhow, duly noted.

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