Greetings,
Finished the install and turned it on yesterday!
Merry Christmas to ME!!!

nice but how do you get 200vdc out of 4 24vdc panels?

I'm guessing the 'TechLuck.com Hybrid Solar Controller' is a 2000w 200v (per his specs) DC boost inverter - for $319

That's kinda pricy - these are easy to make - or even buy (ebay) like this 100v 1500w one for $25 on ebay - https://www.ebay.com/itm/203685547837
(I'll update link if I can find the 200v one on ebay)


cool concept - if you've got $1200 in solar panels lying around.....

They are in series and I measured 197VDC open (unloaded) voltage during polarity testing.
24v is nominal rating, they make max power(Pmax) at 30.3 and open circuit voltage is 37.6 but will go higher under intense sunlight.



There is a bit more involved than a buck or boost converter can handle - there are plenty of pictures of their charred remains on DIY solar and wind forums.
This has been around for 5+ years, is made in the USA and has proven safe and reliable.
If you shop a little, you can get good used panels like these for $75 each locally (14 miles) and look at them at the same time.
Since they are designed to live 25 years outside, 5 year old panels still have a lot of life in them and I've used them on projects before.

Any way you slice it, it will be a max of 1000 watts of heat. Less than optimal sun angle plus controller/inverter losses...Maybe he averages 800 watts\hour for 6 hours a day. That is 4800 watts of heating per day max(during the winter)

The 'typical" electric water heater element is 4500 - 5500 watts, so the heating rate on solar is 1/4 to 1/5 that of the utility. It will save some money if water use patterns are planned out right...to potential to piss off the women in his house is very high.

He as a 25 degree difference. with 50 gallons, he needs about 3000 watts of energy to get it back to 130 degrees before the next night. So not counting any incremental water use during the day....

He saves 3 KWh/ day.at $0.10/Kwh is 30 cents a day he saves. $9/month in the winter. Maybe $15/month in the summer.

Wonder what the entire setup cost and how much his wife will bitch about luke warm water?

i understand Vern1. how is the young one in the racecar doing? i like those posts better, happy new year to yall! if ya aint first yur last! lol!

Greetings Poppa,
3rd overall in EMod at Texana Raceway Park in Edna, Tx for 2021 season.
Ran at Texana, in Edna, South Texas Speedway in Corpus, I37 in Pleasanton and Heart of Texas in Waco and did reasonable for first time at the new tracks.

Plan to run EMod at Texana and South Texas as schedule allows in existing car after a gentle dent massage.
Building a new car for her to run Jr. Limited at Heart of Texas Speedway in Waco, Tx and Kennedale Speedway in Kennedale, Tx.
Jr. Limited will be main focus this season as she only gets one year before she will be too old at 17!

Here is the spreadsheet of the cost since you asked - labor was free as I'm practicing my 11th year of retirement.
ROI should be 2.5 years but remains to be seen.


Give me a few months and I will let you know how it works.
Your winter/summer guesses are backwards.
Solar generally makes more in spring/winter/fall on the cool clear days when the panels are cool and work at max efficiency.
Summer will be close due to long exposure time and more intense radiation but performance falls off as the panels heat up.

I can tell you about my grid tie system that has made 47.2Mwh of electricity since I turned it on in August 2016.
Or my homemade powerwall that cools and heats(I do have a fairly high efficiency fireplace that provides most of the heat) my house on a mere 2450watts.....in addition to motion sensing LED lights throughout the house so if I stump my toe, it's my own fault, the full size refrigerator, the full size freezer, the routers and internet radios, the rokus, a couple of laptops and has AC coupling so it can turn on the grid tie system in the event of a grid down situation AND IT CHARGES THE TESLA TOO - for free - but that's a whole other story.

Very cool. I always enjoy your solar posts Vern.

I'd like to hear more about your storage and what, if any, load management you do?

I'm opposed to putting panes on the roof of our home, but we are in the process of having a metal building erected behind our house. The roof is
facing the right way to mount panels on the entire south face. I have room for about 6 KW and I *may* have an opportunity to get some used solar panels very cheap ( A business installed them on rented space and is being forced to remove them)...I may even get the grid tie inverter as part of the deal..

I'm very interested in adding some storage. Not a huge amount...maybe just enough to ride through the night with AC.

8.6Kwh LiFePO4 battery bank consisting of 16 180ah CALB batteries arranged in 2P8S to give 360ah@24VDC charged by 2450watts of panels thru an Electrodacus active Battery Management System.
It's basically an emergency backup system that I put to work and use the excess power to run ACs and heaters.
After the batteries reach 100 percent, the panels just sit there - I load the system and use that.
I have 4 more 250watt panels I plan to add to this shortly to bring it up closer to the 3600watt max.

Do a search for solar panels on Facebook Marketplace - there are used panels all over Texas for reasonable prices.
I got these for $75 each and they were very close to me in Dale - if you buy 10, the price drops to 70 and even less by pallet of 20.
I see some good deals on bigger wattage 72 cell panels in Pflugerville area on there to.
I would like to get 2 of those and add on my existing grid tie system - it has 6800 now and the inverter can take 7700

There is a battery warehouse in Houston area that imports directly and has some of the best prices I have seen and are getting good reviews on quite a few DIY solar/wind forums.
http://www.powerwholesale.net/Wholesale-Discount-battery-lifepo4-battery_c34.html
I plan to go 25-30Kwh on next battery system.

Hope that helps!

cool! i gonna see yall next year somehow!