Best solar & wind power inverters according to redditors

Quick comment : I've also seen those listed, and yes they may be illegal. However, "suicide plug" is a misnomer. The ones I have seen use UL rated microinverters, which means they are rated to disconnect their output the moment they lose sync with the 60 hz AC sine wave from the power company. Hence, the plug would not be energized were you to pull it from the wall.

Also, the instructions state to use a dedicated circuit and plug, for the reasons you just outlined, where you could overload the wiring in theory by injecting, say, 15 amps and then withdrawing 30 amps from an appliance somewhere. The breaker would only see 15 amps and would not blow, while the wiring would see 30 amps.

Although you could easily fix this by installing a smaller breaker, where (solar + breaker rating) <= (wiring ampacity), that isn't allowed per the code.

I have been interested in one of these because it saves thousands of dollars in installation fees. I have not been able to find a definite source on how legal they are anywhere.

For example the linked article says Each inverter circuit must terminate to a dedicated circuit breaker or fusible disconnect [690.64].

So technically if you found a branch circuit in your house and removed all the plugs from it, except for one plug that you downgrade to a single receptacle, it would meet this particular code requirement. Or ran a new breaker and a new plug. There's also a formula given for the maximum ampacity allowed. To be on the safe side, it would just be (main breaker * 0.2). So if you have a 150 A main breaker, you are allowed 30 amps of solar. (which is 7.2 kW, big enough for almost anyone). There are plugs that can handle 30 amps if all the micro-inverters were on the same string, and you'd need to use #10 conductor solar wire.

Additional info : https://www.amazon.com/PluggedSolar-Inverter-Solar-Included-Breakthough/dp/B008AQS4AY

The FAQ says it's legal and you just send the UL listing datasheets for the inverters and the panels to the utility company with your application for interconnect. Technically if you just have the panels in your yard, plugged into the wall, the city can't demand a permit either because no new construction was done...

Also it occurs to me that you could probably pick up the microinverters and the other stuff cheaper buying it all yourself, for $1.50 a watt or less, and be in business.

>I want to start small with just enough to charge phones and laptops and eventually add enough to run a small AC unit and TV.

So, keep in mind that you will end up throwing away / getting rid of the equipment you start with in this case. Essentially all at once, too. :( Super small solar doesn't scale to medium-size at all really.

You definitely can't start with one panel and one battery and work your way up to levels to run air conditioning by adding onto the existing system. You'd have to replace it all, at once.

If you want 200 Watts of solar for your cabin, so you can charge your laptops and phones and have lights, it'll cost you ~$900 to do right.

If you want 1000 Watts of solar for the cabin and be able to keep the same equipment (some of it anyways) as you add to it, up to your end goal... it'll cost you ~$1800 and you won't have to throw away everything when you upgrade to your end goal, which will likely be around 5000 Watts of solar from what you're saying your goal is.

If you must start small, I recommend at least doing a 24 or 48 volt system starting out, so you can buy one inverter and keep it. Inverters are expensive, at least good ones. And it's not possible to parallel random little ones.

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You can do a 24 volt or 48 volt system starting out for just a little more than a 12 volt.

AIMS makes some nice 24 volt and 48 volt input models. There's a 2000 Watt one with a 6000 Watt 30 second surge, which is plenty for a small window unit Air Conditioner, as well as other auxiliary loads, all at the same time. :) It's also got a generator start relay built in. :)

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You could start with just ~500 Watts of solar, a good MPPT controller like the Midnite Classic 150, an AIMS 48 volt, 2000 Watt inverter, and four 100 Ah, 12-volt AGM batteries. It'd be around $1500 if you get some good deals on your batteries and such. And you could add on a substantial amount of panels without replacing anything.

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EDIT: Where are you geographically?

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EDIT 2:

Solar panels:

2 x 250 Watt, 72 cell panels OR 3 x 200 Watt, 60 cell panels.

Sometimes, deals pop up on ebay and/or craigslist for some big panels with shipping that won't kill the price, or close enough you can go pick them up.

Charge Controller:

Midnite Classic 150

https://www.altestore.com/store/charge-controllers/solar-charge-controllers/mppt-solar-charge-controllers/midnite-solar-charge-controllers/midnite-solar-classic-150-mppt-charge-controller-150v-96a-p8753/

Batteries:

4 x 100 Ah, 12-Volt AGM batteries

Check your local distributors, shipping on batteries can suck. You DO NOT WANT 'marine' batteries. They're not designed for what you are doing. Deep cycle batteries only. Not a starter battery or 'marine' type.

Inverter:

AIMS Power 2000 Watt 48 VDC Pure Sine Inverter Charger w/ 6000W Surge

https://www.amazon.com/Power-Inverter-Charger-6000W-Surge/dp/B00IRKZPE6/

I'm not the electrician for our offgrid project, but I wanted to try and understand a little more of how this is all working. We have the panels, a MPPT inverter/controller, and some SLA batteries. We also plan to have a failover switch that can charge the batteries via generator if not enough sunlight and they get low.

My question is, would we be running off the batteries at all times, and the solar panels are keeping them topped up?

Or is there a setting that we can flip back and forth to use the solar directly?? If there is such a switch, would that mean the batteries aren't being charged?

this is the controller/inverter we got

Grid Ties, yes yes, sorry for not including that detail;

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B077GFX63T/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

There are rumours of Sunmax being discontinued. A 325 watt panel will cost $300 bucks so you aren't going to get much for $300. You want some type of microinverter system like Enphase.
Most utilities/townships will require permits to install the system even if it is only 1 panel so you will be going through a lot of trouble to install a very small system.

I installed a 4kw SolarEdge system on my house and the permitting fees were about $300 plus I had to pay $700 for an engineer to ok my roof. It would have been the same cost if I installed one panel.

You could get something like this and hook up a panel or 2:

https://www.amazon.com/SolarEpic-Inverter-Stackable-22-60V-Output/dp/B01A93QUH4/

However, it will not be a legal permanant install and it would only offset your usage because you wouldn't be able to get net metering with it.

a grid tie inverter like this?

Well there is no complete set on amazon.com, but you can assemble it yourself just like this:

https://www.amazon.com/Renogy-Monocrystalline-Solar-Starter-Wanderer/dp/B00BCRG22A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1468309528&sr=8-1&keywords=solar+panel+200w

https://www.amazon.com/SolarEpic-Inverter-Stackable-10-8-30V-90V-140V/dp/B00XJCVC44/ref=sr_1_5?s=lawn-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1468310171&sr=1-5&keywords=solar+inverter

https://www.amazon.com/Cycle-Battery-Solar-Energy-Storage/dp/B018R8BRCG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1468309743&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=AGM+battery+100ah&psc=1

You can scale with the numbers of solar panels, but then you probably have to consider a different controller. It depends on how much wattage your desired fridge has. You probably have to consider a powerful fridge with a good insulation, if it stays in the hot sun the whole day. You maybe have to scale the batteries, depends on how much "sun downtime" you have in your region.

You really need to research this a bit further, as I dont have any experience with your 115/120v grid/appliances and not much practical experience with solar panels and its combination with fridges.

And you need to consider if its worth the 600+ Dollar for a cold beer in the middle of nowhere. Those solar panels do have more uses, but I guess you know what I mean.

Мы выясняли, может ли децентрализованная возобновляемая энергетика заменить нынешнюю. Я не говорил, что именно ветряком можно за день теслу зарядить. Ветряки для дома тоже вариант в принципе, вот двухкилловатный, вот трех. Но солнечных мест больше чем ветренных. А про остальные проценты забыл написать, сейчас добавлю в предыдущий коммент.

I'd just put the biggest marine deep cycle battery I can fit as my starting battery, (probably group 31) and get a $100 lithium jump pack in case I ran it down.

Or

You can build your own goal zero type portable battery setup for$200-400. The Yeti 400 is a 33ah 12v AGM deep cycle battery with 300w sine wave inverter and a 12v plug in. It also has features like low battery alarm, displays power usage, and comes with an AC charger. You won't save much $ making it smaller/less powerful, but it will weigh less if you'd like to use a smaller than 33ah battery.

$50-150 for an AGM deep cycle 12v battery, 33ah

$75-150 for a 300w pure sine wave inveter, you can save more money if you don't need pure sine wave or 300w, or don't mind an always on fan

$25-50 for a 12v trickle charger to charge the battery up at home, if you don't have a charger already

$15 for a male to male 12v adapter to charge it from your car, or use your jumper cables.

$10-20 for a 12v socket or two, or a USB charger socket

$10-50 for a battery case to hold the battery and mount the inverter and sockets on

$30 on misc parts like voltage display, wire, and fuses

Glad the info helped! Let's say you're using 100 watts (Xbox with TV). It sounds like you may be using only 90 watts, but we want to allow for electrical inefficiencies so we add 10% to your usage, so in this case that's 99 watts. Let's say 100 watts for simplicity and for a little extra margin.

The GoalZero website says their battery has 280.8 amp hours (Ah). You don't want to discharge a lithium battery more than 90%, so your real capacity is 252.7 Ah (280.8 * 0.9). Your system uses 8.34 amps (100 watts / 12 volts = 8.34 amps). To find out how many hours you can power your system on this, divide your Ah by amps, so 252.7Ah / 8.34A = 30.3 hours...which means your math is correct :) Keep in mind that it will take around 9 hours to recharge this battery.

A little more math: You can get a 100Ah lithium battery for $950, a 600 watt pure sine inverter for $220, and a lithium battery charger for $175. Throw in $20 for cabling and you're up to $1,365, so let's say $1,400 if there's any extra shipping. That's less than half the cost of the GoalZero and you'd get 10.8 hours of play from it, and recharge time would be 3.3 hours.

If you get two batteries, your numbers would be $2,315, 21.6 hours of use, with a recharge time of 6.6 hours.

I'm not saying you shouldn't get the GoalZero since it may be the perfect solution for your needs. Just trying to show you other possible choices.

Two Panels: https://www.amazon.com/ALLPOWERS-Bendable-SunPower-Resistant-Irregular/dp/B013E07FNM/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1495643866&sr=8-4&keywords=solar+panel+flexible

Four Batteries: https://www.amazon.com/Vmaxtanks-Vmaxslr125-rechargeable-Solar-Inverters/dp/B00ACNO2AO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1495643913&sr=8-1&keywords=battery+vmax

Charge Controller: https://www.amazon.com/CoZroom-Charge-Controller-Regulator-Intelligent/dp/B01ERF0LHA/ref=sr_1_6?s=lawn-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1495643961&sr=1-6&keywords=charge+controller

Inverter: https://www.amazon.com/Samlex-Solar-PST-2000-12-Pure-Inverter/dp/B00AYH69UE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1495644314&sr=8-1&keywords=samlex+solar+pst-2000

well they sell them...

http://www.amazon.com/PluggedSolar-Inverter-Solar-Included-Breakthough/dp/B008AQS4AY

http://cleantechnica.com/2014/03/14/plug-solar-panel-kit-truly-diy/

So perhaps you should talk to them.