Needs some help with my solar

Hey guys just joined the site I'm a Canadian guy but I noticed the forum looks very helpful in figuring out my needs .
I have recently built a smaller homestead style cabin on my 5 acre lot in Nova Scotia, and i would like to erect a solar aray to power the place .and i am trying to size up the solar system i will need to get. And also what some of the best products to purchase are and which ones are bad . Also would like to know exactly which components i will need for sure and which ones are optional. As well as any other pointers when starting a solar system.
Thanks
I have recently built a smaller homestead style cabin on my 5 acre lot in Nova Scotia, and i would like to erect a solar aray to power the place .and i am trying to size up the solar system i will need to get. And also what some of the best products to purchase are and which ones are bad . Also would like to know exactly which components i will need for sure and which ones are optional. As well as any other pointers when starting a solar system.
Thanks
Comments
Backup genset (especially winter usage)?
More or less, solar power will cost around $1 to $2+ per kwatt*hour. Or almost 10x the cost of utility power.
So picking very efficient loads, conservation, and such is very helpful too.
Bill
You will need:
Panels
Charge Controller
Inverter
Batteries
Wiring and battery cables
Safety Gear like fuses and grounds
Are you sure grid power is not an option? Solar really is pretty expensive.
Second system 1890W 3 × 300W No name brand poly, 3×330 Sunsolar Poly panels, Morningstar TS 60 PWM controller, no name 2000W inverter 400Ah LFP 24V nominal battery with Daly BMS, used for water pumping and day time air conditioning.
5Kw Yanmar clone single cylinder air cooled diesel generator for rare emergency charging and welding.
Cost is one aspect of off grid . Being in charge of your own power can be interesting . Where i am i look down a valley , and for the people who are on grid , there are many power-cuts. All lights out except for my house. I've so far never had a power-cut , only a few planed outages for maintenance , battery replacements etc. .
I think you'l find it interesting , and this site has a lot a great helpful people to advise .
Second system 1890W 3 × 300W No name brand poly, 3×330 Sunsolar Poly panels, Morningstar TS 60 PWM controller, no name 2000W inverter 400Ah LFP 24V nominal battery with Daly BMS, used for water pumping and day time air conditioning.
5Kw Yanmar clone single cylinder air cooled diesel generator for rare emergency charging and welding.
2.1 Kw Suntech 175 mono, Classic 200, Trace SW 4024 ( 15 years old but brand new out of sealed factory box Jan. 2015), Bogart Tri-metric, 460 Ah. 24 volt LiFePo4 battery bank. Plenty of Baja Sea of Cortez sunshine.
Second system 1890W 3 × 300W No name brand poly, 3×330 Sunsolar Poly panels, Morningstar TS 60 PWM controller, no name 2000W inverter 400Ah LFP 24V nominal battery with Daly BMS, used for water pumping and day time air conditioning.
5Kw Yanmar clone single cylinder air cooled diesel generator for rare emergency charging and welding.
IMO, most of the gear sold by our hosts would be considered quality, well supported product, provided it's used in an appropriate way in a properly designed system.
I have a couple of the Motomaster inverters. They work well for incandescent lights, and maybe charging phones etc in a pinch, but not much else. I have found they make pretty much anything other than purely resistive loads run hot.
What is your source of water? Often it's stuff like pumps that ends up driving some of the design decisions (along with total daily watt-hours and desired days of autonomy with no sun).
Main daytime system ~4kw panels into 2xMNClassic150 370ah 48v bank 2xOutback 3548 inverter 120v + 240v autotransformer
Night system ~1kw panels into 1xMNClassic150 700ah 12v bank morningstar 300w inverter
|| 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 ,