I built a small rooftop photovoltaic power station at home, with three solar panels generating about 4 kWh per day.
Two 350 W monocrystalline silicon photovoltaic panels + one 350 W polycrystalline silicon photovoltaic panel, all three panels wired in parallel, connected to an MPPT solar charge controller and a grid-tied inverter. Four 12V20Ah lead-acid batteries (2 in series × 2 in parallel) provide energy storage. The grid-tied inverter is set to a fixed output of 400 W (the home network cabinet usually consumes around 400 W, so this offset nicely balances that load).
No anti-backflow protection was installed, because installing it would require running wiring from the roof down to the first-floor breaker panel, which is rather cumbersome.
On sunny days, the daily output is around 4 kWh; on cloudy or overcast days, it's about 2 kWh.
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- Open-source Type-C expansion dock with four 10 Gbps USB-A ports + 2.5 G network card + card reader: https://blog.zeruns.com/archives/868.html
Purchase links for equipment:
- Monocrystalline silicon solar panels: https://s.click.taobao.com/8wxoRdr
- MPPT solar charge controller: https://s.click.taobao.com/h4nYnor
- Photovoltaic inverter: https://s.click.taobao.com/tvASnor
- 12V20Ah lead-acid battery: https://s.click.taobao.com/FBURnor
- Photovoltaic cable with MC4 connectors: https://s.click.taobao.com/q0RYRdr
Photos
Three solar panels:
MPPT controller and photovoltaic inverter:
A screenshot from the MPPT controller's app, showing a combined peak power of about 707W from the three panels in parallel:
The web management page of the photovoltaic inverter:
I added a current transformer on the inverter's AC output cable; the data collected is shown below:
The waveform of the household's total power consumption—note how Phase B's load visibly dips during daytime:
- I open-sourced a three-phase energy meter for easy home power monitoring: https://blog.zeruns.com/archives/771.html
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