So, I already have solar (an older FITS installation) and it's been particularly successful so I want to extend this.
I'd like to do two things at this point. 1) Add more panels in a couple of locations. 2) Add battery storage to provide some backup (power regularly drops for us) but mainly to make better use of generated energy and make use of overnight tariffs for grid supplied power.
I will get the professionals in at the right point to design and install as our power requirements are nowhere near average, so it needs to be done right.
One set of panels will be on top of a new garden building that isn't being built for at least 6 months and the battery location will be another bit of building work that's not due until end of year.
However - the route of the cabling to the new building is about 18 inches under 20m of a path that I'm going to have to complete in the next couple of months. So I have to select the SWA cable(s) now to bury them until they are needed.
Assumptions:
The building as proposed will have a roof area about 9 x 2.5 m, I reckon I should be able to get up to 12/13 panels in that depending on the units chosen at the time. Don't think anyone actually supplies domestic 500W panels ATM so I'm assuming total capacity will be of the order of 4-5KW but it may be more and if so I don't want to scupper that option by not making the cable large enough.
I'd like to use "built in" panels (as the roof is new) and my plan is to use micro inverters on these as the location means that over time there will be the odd large tree branch shading a 2 or 3 of the panels until such time as they are removed in the winter.
Total distance from inside the new building to the inside location for the battery storage will be approx 45m
So, two questions:
1) Not understanding how storage battery control works to provide storage of generated power I've assumed that In order to be able to measure and control power coming in from two sources while it may be simultaneously being used it's going to need separate connections for supply and drawdown. This would mean two cables to the new building - one for the generated power back to the house battery location and one for the supply of electric for light and heat to the building. Is this a correct assumption?
2) In terms of sizing, the building will have lights, a couple of sockets and probably some form of electric heating in the enclosed room, so I am assuming that 2.5mm 3 core would be sufficient for that. I need guidance though on whether to use 2.5 or 4mm for the cable feeding generated power to the storage system. I've also spotted that there are now EV cables with Cat 6 armoured ethernet embedded for intelligent charge points. might be an option but it doen't look like the combined ones are particularly cheap and certainly at the house end they go to different points so maybe not that useful.
Thanks.
I'd like to do two things at this point. 1) Add more panels in a couple of locations. 2) Add battery storage to provide some backup (power regularly drops for us) but mainly to make better use of generated energy and make use of overnight tariffs for grid supplied power.
I will get the professionals in at the right point to design and install as our power requirements are nowhere near average, so it needs to be done right.
One set of panels will be on top of a new garden building that isn't being built for at least 6 months and the battery location will be another bit of building work that's not due until end of year.
However - the route of the cabling to the new building is about 18 inches under 20m of a path that I'm going to have to complete in the next couple of months. So I have to select the SWA cable(s) now to bury them until they are needed.
Assumptions:
The building as proposed will have a roof area about 9 x 2.5 m, I reckon I should be able to get up to 12/13 panels in that depending on the units chosen at the time. Don't think anyone actually supplies domestic 500W panels ATM so I'm assuming total capacity will be of the order of 4-5KW but it may be more and if so I don't want to scupper that option by not making the cable large enough.
I'd like to use "built in" panels (as the roof is new) and my plan is to use micro inverters on these as the location means that over time there will be the odd large tree branch shading a 2 or 3 of the panels until such time as they are removed in the winter.
Total distance from inside the new building to the inside location for the battery storage will be approx 45m
So, two questions:
1) Not understanding how storage battery control works to provide storage of generated power I've assumed that In order to be able to measure and control power coming in from two sources while it may be simultaneously being used it's going to need separate connections for supply and drawdown. This would mean two cables to the new building - one for the generated power back to the house battery location and one for the supply of electric for light and heat to the building. Is this a correct assumption?
2) In terms of sizing, the building will have lights, a couple of sockets and probably some form of electric heating in the enclosed room, so I am assuming that 2.5mm 3 core would be sufficient for that. I need guidance though on whether to use 2.5 or 4mm for the cable feeding generated power to the storage system. I've also spotted that there are now EV cables with Cat 6 armoured ethernet embedded for intelligent charge points. might be an option but it doen't look like the combined ones are particularly cheap and certainly at the house end they go to different points so maybe not that useful.
Thanks.
