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I am an EE and a few years ago I moved from the USA to the Island of Jamaica to take over a management job at a Data center our company runs.
At this point I am thinking of staying for several more years as my wife is not keen on going back to the cold weather and likes it down here.
One of the only annoying problems with this place is the Electric bills! They keep rising and rising with no end in sight. We recently got a 20% increase in our bills and we have been told that in another 3 months another is coming. At this point power costs .44 cents per KW. It is actually more expensive than Hawaii and is only going to go up higher as companies and the wealthy move to solar and LPG generators. Yes it is actually 40% cheaper to use a large LPG generator on a company than to use the utility service. MY current bill is averaging nearly $500 US a month!
I kind of have my mind set on the SMA product line because several people over here have told me they work well and don't blow out under the brown outs and other issues we have over here. The problem is finding a competent designer. I have found one company that deals with SMA industrial inverters but the guy has little experience with home system that meets all my requirements.
Requirements: (The voltage here is 115V / 230V at 50Hz.)
The system must have batteries, I do have a small Honda Eu3000Si wired into another panel to help with the numerous power outages but we are told that they are about to put that next 20% hike onto peak hours which laughingly is between 6pm and 10pm.
1) System must be able to shift power to batteries during peak time.
2) System must work during a power outages, so I need a Micro-grid.
3) Load sharing in the days between solar and batteries is also needed.
I first thought of using all EU based 230V 50HZ SMA equipment and feeding the Sunny Boy output into the EU Sunny Islands AC1 input. Then taking the 230V form the Sunny Island and then sending the 230V into a Victron Autotransformer to get a split phase 115V 50Hz line voltage that would be tied to the grid.
I finally got through to a tech at SMA and he said that I did not need to use a EU based Sunny Boy but I did need an EU based Sunny Island as the US one cannot do 50 HZ in a grid tie.
I am starting to formulate a rough wiring diagram and would love some input.
Here is the basic design. Please go easy on me, I am not a solar engineer, but the guy who does the industrial stuff can work with any diagram I hand him and he knows all the local electrical codes etc.
BTW I am not looking to get off the grid completely, I just need to cut 50-60% of the power being consumed daily.
12 panels will move to 24 after I see how it works out.
Thanks for any help
Solar System 120-240V_50HZ_Garth-SMA.jpg
At this point I am thinking of staying for several more years as my wife is not keen on going back to the cold weather and likes it down here.
One of the only annoying problems with this place is the Electric bills! They keep rising and rising with no end in sight. We recently got a 20% increase in our bills and we have been told that in another 3 months another is coming. At this point power costs .44 cents per KW. It is actually more expensive than Hawaii and is only going to go up higher as companies and the wealthy move to solar and LPG generators. Yes it is actually 40% cheaper to use a large LPG generator on a company than to use the utility service. MY current bill is averaging nearly $500 US a month!
I kind of have my mind set on the SMA product line because several people over here have told me they work well and don't blow out under the brown outs and other issues we have over here. The problem is finding a competent designer. I have found one company that deals with SMA industrial inverters but the guy has little experience with home system that meets all my requirements.
Requirements: (The voltage here is 115V / 230V at 50Hz.)
The system must have batteries, I do have a small Honda Eu3000Si wired into another panel to help with the numerous power outages but we are told that they are about to put that next 20% hike onto peak hours which laughingly is between 6pm and 10pm.
1) System must be able to shift power to batteries during peak time.
2) System must work during a power outages, so I need a Micro-grid.
3) Load sharing in the days between solar and batteries is also needed.
I first thought of using all EU based 230V 50HZ SMA equipment and feeding the Sunny Boy output into the EU Sunny Islands AC1 input. Then taking the 230V form the Sunny Island and then sending the 230V into a Victron Autotransformer to get a split phase 115V 50Hz line voltage that would be tied to the grid.
I finally got through to a tech at SMA and he said that I did not need to use a EU based Sunny Boy but I did need an EU based Sunny Island as the US one cannot do 50 HZ in a grid tie.
I am starting to formulate a rough wiring diagram and would love some input.
Here is the basic design. Please go easy on me, I am not a solar engineer, but the guy who does the industrial stuff can work with any diagram I hand him and he knows all the local electrical codes etc.
BTW I am not looking to get off the grid completely, I just need to cut 50-60% of the power being consumed daily.
12 panels will move to 24 after I see how it works out.
Thanks for any help
Solar System 120-240V_50HZ_Garth-SMA.jpg
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