Solar Off Grid and Emergency Battery Backup
Be prepared when storms hit and Never be without power again. Be independent from the electric company. Sun City Solar offers residential custom design services for your residential solar power off grid or battery backup system as well as FREE technical support for the life of your system. This has made us the regions’ most trusted off-grid and emergency solar battery backup designer and installer.
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Become Your Own Power Plant
Sun City Solar Off Grid Install
Decide what critical appliances you need during a power outage and how many hours a day each appliance will run. Sun City Solar recommends the use of energy-efficient alternatives when using battery solar systems such as designing or retrofitting your whole house for low energy uses and carefully selecting LED lights and energy efficient appliances.
Keep electrical loads small for a smaller investment
Running heating and cooling with a solar power battery system will require several more batteries, adding to your solar system investment. Common appliances found on solar power battery backup systems are a few lights, a television and computer, refrigerator/freezer, microwave and perhaps the fan to run a gas or propane furnace. Solar Power Off-Grid systems should always have a back-up generator for assurance that you will always have power during very bad weather.
Use Real Data, Not “Best Guess” Assumptions
If the solar site analyst states you will receive 5.2 hours of sun hours in your area, believe it. Daylight hours are not the same as full sun hours, which is equivalent to Kilowatts per meter squared per day. Be as accurate as possible when calculating your power consumption for the same reason. Miscalculations here can be disappointing and expensive.
Allow For Later Expansion of Your System
Life styles change and so do energy requirements. It is important when designing your system to allow for later expansion. Over sizing inverters or allowing for duplicates later on can save you money in the long run.
Keep Batteries Warm
Batteries perform best at 70 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit. You will get the maximum amp hour capacity out of your batteries if they are operated at room temperature or slightly higher. Since batteries have a natural self-discharge rate, the rate of discharge can be reduced by storing unused, charged batteries in a cool environment at about 40 degrees Fahrenheit.
Size Battery Banks for Several Days Operation
Once you have calculated your daily power consumption, Sun City Solar will size your battery bank to give you about 3 days of operation without any charging source (sun) available. We typically use 3 days of autonomy as our design figure. This would roughly calculate to 17% discharge per day with the ideal circumstance being the battery bank would be fully recharged by the renewable energy system the following day. In extremely sunny or windy locations we can reduce the size of the battery bank by as much as 20% to 30% because there is less fluctuation in the day-to-day recharge cycle. However, if the 3-day rule is followed and the batteries are discharged by 17% per day, we can expect longer life out of the battery bank than if the batteries are discharging 20% or more per day for 3 days autonomy.
Avoid Long, Low Voltage, DC Wire Runs
The lower the voltage of the circuit and the more amperage we need to carry over a circuit the larger the wire needs to be. For this reason, we need to keep the battery-charging source as close as possible to the battery bank. Under 150 feet is preferred.
Products
Sun City specializes in Schneider Electric battery systems. Their revolutionary “new” 2014 inverters allow you to stack 12 inverters together. The XW5548 and XW6848 have the highest efficiency AND the highest surge capability on the market today. The inverters also have a switch for lithium ion battery capability as well as AGM or Gel.
The Process
The process is simple for you. Please call us and ask for the the load consumption chart. Together we will determine the amps and watts you need. Then, we design and order your system and you become energy independent!
