Solar Panel Setup for a Fahrenheat FUH54 240-volt Garage Heater, 2500-5000-watt

gwpguy
gwpguy Registered Users Posts: 1
I am extremely new to the Solar energy technology.   So excuse me in advance for my lack of knowledge.   
I am considering buying this heater for my garage.   I am contemplating using solar to help keep the energy costs down.   I don't even know where to start.    What size panels?  Batteries? Inverter?  This would not be on 24 x 7.   Probably just on the weekend while I am in the garage and a few nights out of the week.   Any insights you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

Here are the specs on the heater.
https://www.marleymep.com/system/files/node/file/field-file//5200-11195-000.pdf

Comments

  • NANOcontrol
    NANOcontrol Registered Users Posts: 260 ✭✭✭
    How may panels are you thinking about buying??????  I consider that heater undesirable as it requires a fan.  Best performance would be from baseboard heaters with natural convection.  A guy on youtube has a liquid floor heating system for his garage using a hot water tank and pump.  That would provide some storage for the weekend.  If using an inverter, that is delusional.  A pulsed DC system is the best for resistive heating. I heat all my hot water with PV solar which is now cheaper than direct solar.  No one here has more experience heating with PV and given that all the electronics is custom it seems you will have little success with this idea.
  • Photowhit
    Photowhit Solar Expert Posts: 6,002 ✭✭✭✭✭
    gwpguy said:
    I am contemplating using solar to help keep the energy costs down.   
    Solar will almost always be more expensive than grid energy. Even in spots where it can be cost effective, solar energy is much more costly when you don't have even energy use profile as the sun's energy is spread somewhat evenly in daily doses and using it only on weekends requires larger storage.
    Home system 4000 watt (Evergreen) array standing, with 2 Midnite Classic Lites,  Midnite E-panel, Magnum MS4024, Prosine 1800(now backup) and Exeltech 1100(former backup...lol), 660 ah 24v Forklift battery(now 10 years old). Off grid for 20 years (if I include 8 months on a bicycle).
    - Assorted other systems, pieces and to many panels in the closet to not do more projects.
  • oil pan 4
    oil pan 4 Solar Expert Posts: 767 ✭✭✭✭
    You do realize it's almost always cheaper to save power than it is to generate it right?
    So instead of buying that piece of crap electrical resistance heater, maybe put in a good mini split heat pump?
    You get 3 or 4 times the heat for the same amount of electrical power used.

    Solar hybrid gasoline generator, 7kw gas, 180 watts of solar, Morningstar 15 amp MPPT, group 31 AGM, 900 watt kisae inverter.

    Solar roof top GMC suburban, a normal 3/4 ton suburban with 180 watts of panels on the roof and 10 amp genasun MPPT, 2000w samlex pure sine wave inverter, 12v gast and ARB air compressors.

  • andrewfoster
    andrewfoster Registered Users, Users Awaiting Email Confirmation Posts: 1
    In my opinion it is not a good idea. Powering FUH54 with solar power won't be effective as it is a powerful garage heater. You can get more info about it at Garageaxs
  • papab
    papab Registered Users Posts: 66 ✭✭
    You might also consider a propane radiant heater
  • mike95490
    mike95490 Solar Expert Posts: 9,583 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Solar power is not going to help much at nights.   To offset the power you use, you could install a Grid-Inter-Tie system and unwind your meter daytime and use that to offset your bill.
     And mini-split heat pumps and propane heaters are good too
    Powerfab top of pole PV mount | Listeroid 6/1 w/st5 gen head | XW6048 inverter/chgr | Iota 48V/15A charger | Morningstar 60A MPPT | 48V, 800A NiFe Battery (in series)| 15, Evergreen 205w "12V" PV array on pole | Midnight ePanel | Grundfos 10 SO5-9 with 3 wire Franklin Electric motor (1/2hp 240V 1ph ) on a timer for 3 hr noontime run - Runs off PV ||
    || Midnight Classic 200 | 10, Evergreen 200w in a 160VOC array ||
    || VEC1093 12V Charger | Maha C401 aa/aaa Charger | SureSine | Sunsaver MPPT 15A

    solar: http://tinyurl.com/LMR-Solar
    gen: http://tinyurl.com/LMR-Lister ,

  • icarus
    icarus Solar Expert Posts: 5,436 ✭✭✭✭
    X2 on the mini split.  Running a 2-5 kw resistance heater from PV is crazy when you can get more heat (net) by a factor of ~3 from a heat pump (more depending on temp).  

    Battery based solar is going to come at twice the cost and half the efficiency of grid tie (maybe more than twice the cost as grid tied PV has gotten so cheap). If you have the grid, go grid tie to “save energy”, couple that with heat pump and you are no track.  Failing that, consider a propane or nat. Gas heater with a blower.    A radiant propane or nat gas just for doing shop work might be the best plan.

    tony
  • 706jim
    706jim Solar Expert Posts: 514 ✭✭✭✭
    My suggestion is a forced air propane heater for your garage. Fast and will work at night or when cloudy.

    Plus you can stand under the heated airstream and pretend you are in Hawaii.

    Others here may suggest a radiant propane heater which is also a good choice.

    Even with panels costing less than $1/watt, your cash outlay will be a lot less with propane.
    Island cottage solar system with 2500 watts of panels, 1kw facing southeast 1.3kw facing southwest 170watt ancient Arco's facing south. All panels in parallel for a 24 volt system. Trace DR1524 MSW inverter, Outback Flexmax 80 MPPT charge controller 8 Trojan L16's. Insignia 11.5 cubic foot electric fridge. My 30th year.