How does it work in general, what’s the difference between different wattages on a solar panel, what’s the difference between different amps on a battery, why is it important not to discharge your battery over 50%, if I currently use 650kWh in 1 month, how do I properly calculate a solar array and battery bank that would allow me to fuck off the hydro grid?
I desperately want to switch to solar but I feel like I have to get a degree in electrical engineering before I even call an installation company or else I (a) won’t get what I actually need and (b) will get screwed six ways from Sunday.
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General solar power and battery system concepts can be ELI5’d.
But asking how to size a system, and how to understand volts, amps, watts, watt-hours, amp-hours, battery chemistry, charge controllers etc. is not an ELI5 topic once you get to that level of detail.
You don’t need an EE degree but you do need a very good understanding of electricity and a general understanding of modern solar and inverter technology. I’d recommend watching Will Prowse on YouTube as another commenter mentioned. He covers the basics.
I suspect at 650 kWh/month you’d need a pretty large and expensive system if you’re trying to go completely off-grid.
You need to find a company who actually does consulting and can explain everything to you and figure out what’s practical and cost effective for you, instead of a company run by salesmen and installers that will just throw you an estimate and a bill. I don’t know where to even start that kind of search.
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