The House Solar Array
When we bought the farm we only had a very small solar array so we ended up spending about $18,000 on a total new solar array. The array consists of 12-600AH Deep Cycle 2 volt sonnenschein batteries.
The inverter is a 2400 watt pure sinewave Selectronic Inverter with a 7 kw surge. This inverter has worked flawlessly for the last 4 years working 24/7.
The Maxumuim Power Point Tracker (MPPT) is an AERL 900B model and is considered top of the range and at a replacement cost of near $2,000 one would hope it was.
The
Backup Battery Charger is a 80 amp Staff & Stanbury Solid State charger
and the lcd shows the individual cell voltage and when it's chargeing I can
tell the state of battery charge by simply seeing how many amps are going
into the batteries. Once a month reguardless of the sun I run this charger
untill less than 5 amps are going in to ensure the batteries are floating
and thus extending the life of the batteries.
The
solar panels are Kaneka thin film 65 watt high voltage ones and there's 14
of them in the array. The solar array inputs around 110 volts into the mppt
which outputs a charging voltage. One
very handy feature on the inverter is the indoor keypad we have in the dining
room where we can see all the parameters like input current, voltage and total
AH in for day. As
you can see with the solar panels they are mounted on the roof in a fixed
state and maybe for 1 day a year they might be directed correctly at the sun
for about 10 minutes. Some advice for anyone who is going to purchase a solar
array, ENSURE YOUR PANELS ARE MOUNTED ON A TRACKER. 
