Kansas Solar and Inverter Information Please

 

Anywhere I can go look at solar panels near the KC area? Second question is
how does a grid tie inverter NOT try to supply power to something more than
it can handle such as the A/C unit kicking on? Thanks, Tracy Spring Hill, KS

 

Tracy Viles wrote:

I'm not a KC resident so I can't help with that question. You might
try looking in a phone book for Solar or look for home improvement
stores, electronics or RV stores. There is an outfit here in California
called Frys that sells PV panels.

Grid tied inverters try to power the entire grid. That includes your
home, your neighbors, the house down the street, the school half a
mile away, etc. It's all one grid. It can only supply as much power
as it can so anything more comes from the rest of the grid.

Anthony

 

So if I were to get a Sunny Boy Grid Tie inverter (2100 watt)  and a couple
of 150 to 200 watt solar panels (Sharp) I could tie it right into the grid
and expand later? This would cost about 3100.00 am I on the right track?

 

Tracy Viles wrote:

I don't know which track you want to be on so I can't say.

Yes, you can buy a 2KW Grid Tie inverter and hook up 400 to 500
Watts of solar PV and add more later. You need to make sure you
hook things up right way around and comply with whatever rules
your local grid has for hooking up PV.

For example, the SB2100U doesn't start producing power until it
gets at least 300V (Maximum 600V). Say you're using normal 12V
nominal panels. They produce around, say, 15V. You would need
20 of these in series to produce 300V. If you wanted to add just
200W then you would be using 20 panels rated 10W.

It's easier to do "later upgrades" on inverters that take 12V
or 24V compared to 300V. :)

Anthony

 

SHARP 200W SOLAR PANELS - ND-200U1

Sorry about the large print copy and paste. So the above panel would produce
about 28vdc and I would need  almost 8 of these panels just to make the
Sunny Boy kick on?  That's over 7000.00 dollars for just the panels.  But it
would make a nice system and I would still have room to add a small wind
generator for the winter time when sunlight is less and the wind blows in
Kansas. Now if I could just start to figure out what the system would
produce in dollars off my electric bill.
I do appreciate all your input. Without help I don't see how the average
homeowner can justify this although I am going to try.