Supply for 60 amp shore power connection

mcgivor said:

dennis461 said:

 if you have 4 panels. 285 watts each, the most you will ever get is 1,140 watts,
You cannot run a 3000 watt AC unit, right?

The 1140 watts is theoretical, the actual would more than likely be in the 800 watt range, with reasonable mounting and good sun, without shading. 
The best place to start is with an accurate audit of loads over time, using a device such as a Kill-a-watt to determine actual figures, select an inverter to support the loads, include the inverter self consumption to overall loads, size the battery to loads, then determine the array required.
Being this is not a full time use off grid use, it's stated how long it's used but not how often, has to be taken into consideration.

dennis461 said:

 if you have 4 panels. 285 watts each, the most you will ever get is 1,140 watts,
You cannot run a 3000 watt AC unit, right?
Is it not possible to run off the battery's power and then recharge the batteries from the array?
The AC cycles on and off, it's mostly off in the climate there I would think. I cannot check that without having the AC and power first though. With an outside temp of 80 and inside set to 75 it shouldn't have to do a lot of work.

Photowhit said:

You need to calculate the load the best you can, a 3000 watt A/C in a hot environment, might have a 100% duty cycle the first hour and then a 60% or better there after. So for the sake of expediting this I'll say 3000 watt hours for the first hour and 5000 watt hours for the next 3 hours. That's 8000 watt hours, on a 24 volt system that would be 333 amps, for a battery to run the A/C for the first 4 hours, depleting only to 50%, You would need a 665 Amp hour 24 volt battery bank. I have one it weights 1100 lbs!

Photowhit said:

There is not enough info about the first inverter and the second says "Aims" enough info that I would run away. Look through this list for some quality inverters;

https://www.solar-electric.com/residential/inverters/off-grid-inverters.html?nav_inv_input_voltage=48+Volts

Also you appear to be getting more and more out of balance than pulling into balance this system. In general, quit talking about how many batteries rather talk about how many Kwh's of storage. If you have 8 - 6v -225ah batteries, you will have about 8x (6v x 225ah)= 10.8 Kwh of storage. A 5000 watt inverter can use more than half of that in an hour! Batteries are rated at a 20 hr discharge rate, at a rate of 2 hr they will have seriously reduced capacity.

An "every other week" would pretty much be the same as living around the clock, the system will have no time to recover, so plan on running the generator often.

As a load a fridge left in a hot trailer will want over 1Kwh per day to run, much of that stored energy at night. Your panels if 5 at 285 watts, will produce about 5 x 285 = 1425 watts x .75 (for normal conditions) = 1068 watts per average hour of sun light...

BB. said:

A "typical" efficient 120 VAC refrigerator freezer uses around 1,000 to 1,500 WH per day (depending on specific model, size, weather, how clean the coils are, age, how often you open the door, freezing ice cubes, etc.)... Usually around 120 Watts and 50% duty cycle (120w * 0.50 * 24 hours per day = 1,440 WH per day). Note--Starting surge for an induction motor capacitor can be as high as 5x running power (i.e., 600 VA starting surge). Also a frost free fridge/freezer has a ~600 Watt evaporator defrost heater). Nominally, a 1,200 to 1,500 Watt AC inverter minimum is good for running a full size energy start fridge + lighting, RV water pump, laptop, etc..

And there are other options. Get a 7-10 cuft chest freezer and an external thermostat. Still a 120 Watt compressor, but ~250 WH per day (0.25 kWH per day). And still need a ~1,200 to 1,500 Watt AC inverter minimum.

Or, there are DC compressor fridge/freezers--As a fridge, they can run near 250 WH per day too (and no AC inverter)--However, DC refrigerator/freezers are typically quite expensive--Over all, they may not save you much money.

Note that AC inverters do use energy just to turn on. A 300 Watt unit may use 6 Watts. A 5,000 Watt unit may use 20-40 Watts or more (40 watts * 24 hours per day = 960 WH per day--Almost as much as a fridge).

With flooded cell lead acid batteries (the least expensive, and fairly forgiving, but require maintenance), there are two criteria that set the size of the battery bank (AH and voltage).

First is--Usually the optimum price/performance battery bank is 2 days of storage and 50% maximum discharge (or 4x daily load) (1-3 days of storage is the typical min/max range).

The second is sizing the battery bank to support your peak loads. A lead acid battery bank is typically sized for 20 hour discharge rate (5 hours per night, 2 nights, 50% maximum discharge). The maximum continuous current is typically an 8 hour discharge rate (remember that the apparent capacity of a battery drops the faster you discharge it--But these numbers are close enough for us at the moment).

And the fastest you would discharge the battery bank would be a few minutes to an hour so at a 5 hour discharge rate. And for a few seconds of surge, 2.5 hour discharge rate. There are other battery chemistries that have higher surge current, but cost more, and have "other issues" that need to be addressed.

In general, you want to pick as small as loads as you can--It it almost always cheaper to conserve energy than it is to generate the energy.

Roughly, 1,000 WH (1 kWH) per day--Good for a cabin with LED lights, RV water pump, cell charger, laptop computer.

3,300 WH per day--Add refrigerator, well pump, washing machine, LED TV... Basically a near normal electrical life for a very efficient off grid home.

Get up to 10,000 WH per day--300 kWH per month--A relatively efficient on-grid home. And a very large for an off grid power system.

While you pay around $0.10 to $0.30 per kWH (North American) for utility power--It is very easy to spend $1.00 to $2.00+ per kWH for off grid power (one member here has his off grid power down towards $0.50 per kWH--But that takes work).

For lower cost AC inverter, Cotek and Samlex (same mfg., different sales channels?) would be a place to start.

In any case, define your loads first, then design a system to support the loads.

An alternative, if you have limitations (space for batteries, space for panels, how much you want to spend, etc.)--We can figure out a system that will (hopefully) meet the limitations but still support your loads.

Of grid solar is not cheap.

-Bill