I have been working with photovoltaics since last year. After my first attempts, I am almost a little disappointed that I discovered solar energy so late. Electricity from the sun really makes sense and is easy to implement. No matter what the focus of your own system is:
- Sell electricity
- Do not sell electricity, but store it and consume it, e.g. at night.
- complete self-sufficiency
There is even an advantage to getting involved with PV only now: The technology is more mature. In the past, solar panels with a maximum output of about 120 watts were available, but today solar modules with up to 500 watts are cheap. This means that you can achieve a lot with far fewer modules and increase the total output that can be mounted on the roof.
What were my first experiments with photovoltaics?
In September 2020, I bought a complete photovoltaic set. It consists of a few solar modules, an inverter and the necessary installation material. The system was ready for operation within a few hours. After that, I started measuring the generated electricity with a Shelly and visualising it as a diagram. Although there is less yield from the sun in the winter months, I was still impressed by how easily the system was installed and how much electricity it generated. So the decision was quickly made to enlarge the system.
What does my new photovoltaic system look like?
After the first PV system was only an experiment, the second system should be a "real" system. The following points were important to me:
- 3 phase
- With memory
- Inverter with limiter
I have decided to design the system modularly. So I start with one phase and expand the system gradually with further phases. It is important that the solar modules, the charge controllers and the storage tank can grow accordingly. Don't forget that all this requires space, both on the wall and in the fuse box.
The two circuit breakers in the top row are for the PV modules. I currently have two solar module arrays, so one fuse for each array.
The two circuit breakers in the middle are for the inverters. Since I have only installed one inverter at the moment, only one of the two is fully connected. The second circuit breaker is prepared so far that only a second inverter needs to be connected there. The circuit breaker for the third phase is still missing.
On the lowest rail are the two circuit breakers via which the two charge controllers charge the storage tank.
Unfortunately, I am still missing the storage tank at the moment. As soon as it arrives, the system will go into operation in the first expansion phase, single-phase.
It then has 4.2kw of PV power, 6kw of storage and feeds in with up to 1kw on one phase.
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