Chudleigh, Tasmania, Australia: Home Hybrid Power System

[smanners]

Hi All,

This is my home hybrid system which I have just finished installing, still needs a little bit of cable tidy up and few tweaks here and there. Overall very happy with the Classic 150, it is an impressive charge controller and I would recommend it to anyone looking at such equipment. Anyway this is what my system is made up of:

Solar: 5 x 200Watt Giant Power Panels (uses Kyocera cells)

Wind: Primus Windpower AirMax Marine (200w)

Battery: 4 x 280AH AGM Deep Cycle, Giant Power connected in 12V parallel array

Charging Controller: 1 x Midnite Solar Classic 150 with shunt and WBJr

Inverters: 1 x Giant Power 1500w Pure Sine Wave (good quality), 1 x GenPower 1500w Pure Sine Wave (not so good quality but does the job)
DC Breakers: 1 x Solar Array, 1 x 12V Feed to 12V distribution board (house lighting).

Fuses: 1 x Bussman containing 1x 80 Amp (output of charging controller to battery), 2 x 160 AMP (to inverters)

Relay: 1 x Intervolt Programmable 150Amp relay (controls power on/off to good quality pure sine wave inverter).

ATS: 1 x 240V 20Amp Invertek Automatic Transfer Switch

12V Distribution Board: 1 x Blue Sea Systems (8 switch with fuses)

So what does all this do?

Pretty much all of my house lighting I have replaced with 12v Marine grade LED lighting. This all runs off new high grade double sheathed and tinned marine wiring.
New Narva stainless steel blue LED lit push button light switches.

Specific GPOS in house have been converted over to run from one of the inverters which is an always connected always on. This runs small appliances like:

1. Pellet Fire
2. Wireless access points (Ubiquiti)
3. Internet Equipment
4. Other computer equipment and miscellaneous low consumption devices.

Other specific GPOs in the house have been wired into the Automatic Transfer Switch. This has feed from the other inverter and is what you would term the "Master" input. A circuit from the house 240V is wired into the ATS as a "slave". So what happens is the Intervolt programmable voltage sensing relay is configured for power on off at specific battery terminal voltages. So when batteries are all but full the relay lets power through to the inverter and the ATS will automatically switch power input to "Master". This then powers my fridge, air-circulation/heat recovery and a few other odds and ends. When voltage drops to about 12.5V it disconnects and ATS switches back to "slave" (<10ms switch over). What I am trying to do is tweak the system to make use of the excess power. I could have used AUX1 out of the classic but I have other plans for it.

The whole idea is to manage the power distribution as efficiently as possible and allow for summer/winter scenarios.

I threw in a picture of the system installation supervisor, as its installed in my roof space the supervisor spent a lot of time with me "helping".

Cheers,

Simon

[Doug]

Nice,

Here is my Supervisor.
MidNite the cat.

[Jacotenente]

And here is our Midnite Cat...the Commander "Clyde". 9 yrs/22 lbs. Lean.

[smanners]

That's some quality supervision...

[Doug]

It has laser eyes. Nice.

[Jacotenente]

His two most favorite days. Today (Friday the 13th) and Halloween.