Location: Russia, Republic of Mari El, island, ~15 km from Volzhsk
Task: Autonomous power supply for a country house located on an island where there is no electricity
Type: Autonomous solar power plant
Installation time: 6 hours

About the object

A solar power plant project for autonomous power supply to a country house located on an island where there is no centralized power supply. The energy source was a gasoline generator, which, in addition to constant consumption of gasoline, also created a high level of background noise.

The country house is located in an open area, without any distance from trees, and is oriented to the southeast, therefore, to obtain the maximum possible energy production, an array of solar panels with a capacity of 1360 W was installed in combination with an MPPT charge controller. The system was assembled at 24V. The inverter also operates on 24V.

A video surveillance system was also installed based on 2 P2P video cameras with an intelligent people recognition system, complete with a 3G/4G-Wi-Fi modem.

What should work from solar panels:

• Double chamber refrigerator
• Two LCD TVs
• Video surveillance system
• Wi-Fi router
• Music Center
• Lighting
• Water pump
• Power tools
• Recharging smartphones, tablets, laptops and other gadgets

About equipment

• Solar panels: Delta BST 340-72P – 4 pcs., polycrystalline, power 340W
• Charge controller: Delta MPPT 4860, maximum charging current 60A
• Autonomous inverter: SibKontakt IS-24-3000U – autonomous inverter with an output power of 3000 W and a rated voltage of 24 V
• Batteries: Vektor GL 12-200 – 2 pcs., 12V, 200Ah, gel, sealed
• Mounting kit for 4 panels
• Parallel connector MC4-Y2
• Solar cable 2*6mm2
• Video camera – 2 pcs.
• 3G/4G Wi-Fi router – 1 pc.

To maintain the possibility of using a gasoline generator, for example, to operate a welding machine or during periods of severe battery drain on long cloudy days, a two-pole automatic transfer switch (ATS) was installed. When the generator starts, the ATS automatically turns off the power to the house from the inverter and transfers it to the generator. When the generator is turned off, power from the inverter is automatically restored. Using an automatic transfer switch allows you to avoid manual switching of power, the use of a “web” of extension cords, as well as the appearance of destructive counter voltage when, due to the accidental contact of ~220V from the generator with the output of the inverter, the latter fails in 95% of cases, followed by expensive repairs .

About the installation and installation of solar panels at the dacha

The slope of the roof of the dacha is directed to the southeast, the angle of inclination of the roof is 40 degrees, so an aluminum fastening system based on rails was used to fasten the panels. Solar panels were installed in one row. The panels were connected using a series-parallel circuit.