Grid Tied Solar Setup (inc Batteries).

[Jenkins9039]

Hi all, attempting something new, currently we spend roughly 3-6,000 baht a month at home (Thailand) if in residence in country, and  Current : 12,000 Previous: 175,000 baht a month for our office (servers).

 

Currently we are downsizing and closing our operations in Thailand due to instability or cost increases making it a 'financial blackhole', having laid of 30 staff over 2019-2020, we are down to the last two, fortunately a engineer is included! - leaving everything else as remote access.

 

What we intend to do, is move part of the servers into our garage, but build a makeshift light server room, leaving the office un-manned and sedated for when the country sorts itself out (baht heads south, and political outlook is stable/democratic'ish),

 

Anyway less i digress... the Aim is to at the very least have the home powered by Solar (its free apparently), and hopefully also power the small stack server room that will be constructed in the garage over the next month, you are probably wondering why create a server room locally.

 

A) cancel the internet connections for the office.

B) AirCons at the office are industrial ones.

C) Infrastructure at the office is commercial (switches etc) whereas for the systems that will remain running they can hook in via API and process data and just update various db's, without the need for switches, industrial aircons etc.

 

So in a ideal world 8 servers, and a extra aircon for these servers. 

 

Currently building the racks for the aircons opposed to utilising roof tied (eventually want to switch tiles to cedar), approached a few companies and alas its similar to when we had all our power set up for the office, over-priced, and full of pitfalls, yet i continue to watch (youtube) and read about DIY, so this is what i am looking at.

 

Currently we have approx 50 x Sealed Lead Acid Batteries which we've decided to use as otherwise they need to go to a landfill site because they'd potentially be sitting there for a year or two or ten.

• (/c-2591-sealed-lead-acid-batteries.) → Vision 6FM75-X Battery 12V 75Ah Sealed Rechargeable Valve Regulated

Which is the starting point when speaking with companies, the moment you approach they inform you off their packages (170k approx) and you mention batteries and using your own batteries they loose interest pretty sharpish.

 

https://ibb.co/QDLb9nZ

 

 

Currently looking at 12 x 400w solar panels (half cut cells) x https://www.lazada.co.th/products/sunfree-blade-high-efficiency-half-cut-cell-400-i440508019-s816252034.html?exlaz=d_1:mm_150050845_51350205_2010350205::12:1498579383!58089999096!!!pla-296030489971!c!296030489971!816252034!140389202&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIn6y85M3v5wIVA6SzCh17ZQVZEAQYASABEgJUevD_BwE

 

ส่งฟรี] แผงโซล่าเซลล์ SUNFREE BLADE High-Efficiency Half-Cut Cell โมโน ขนาด 400 วัตต์

Which theoretically is 400w x 12 units x 7hrs = 33600 Watts per day.

 

 

 

 

I'm stuck on a few things if people want to advise... I will record the project also from A-B so it hopefully helps others, BTW i have 0 interest in selling to the state, but a interest in being grid tied, as in produce electricity, store it, and use it, but if it does not produce enough automatically supplement from the grid, which is another stumbling point seemingly when trying to ask companies etc for the setup we are after.

 

1) Would the following Charge Controller be ideal for the 12v 75ah batteries mentioned above and the solar panel shown above? https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LY1J9XO?tag=renewablerc-20&th=1&psc=1

 

2) How many (and what type/specs) inverters would be ideal for the requirements? 

 

3) Anything else needed? (do excuse me, i am following the internet - i just hope my home does not burn down at the end of it all ???? ) 

 

Obviously i think i will need a future proof the set up with:

• solar combiner box
• DC (PV) Disconnect
• Battery Bank Fuse Connect
• Charge Controller Isolation Switches (gee)
• DC Breaker Panel

 

All advice greatly received, i've seen some videos with multiple inverters connected to the batteries but am yet to see a chart with, i think people experiment which is where it gets confusing trying to figure out if you are on the right path, also any advice around battery banks greatly received with similar batteries.

 

 

 

[Metropolitian]

For your setup you need an hybride ongrid inverter.

 

Consider plain ongrid without the batteries, especially if electricity condition are good and steady. (not brownouts/blackouts in rural)

 

The batteries you still have you can use for:

* big UPS for the servers, I have converted two of them here they are connected to a bigger battery giving me at least 40 minutes instead of 15 to shutdown the pc.

* backup power bank charged by 2 solar panels. Use in case of power outage longer then the UPS can bridge.

   These batteries, charged during the day can be used for ventilation/cooling fans during nights. Saving the costs of the aircons for the day.

* spares.

Until the batteries are flat and worn.

 

 

 

[Jenkins9039]

Hi, yes i have the Emerson UPS (can't remember the spec), though with 50x batteries it makes sense to utilise in a solar array battery bank for overnight power, unless you are saying this is not achievable (yes it will wear them out quicker, reportedly within 5yrs, and at a 150$ a pop price tag, some may say this is madness, however they're instead sitting there and having no use, and going south, hence the reusing idea for solar).