High Tide Aquatics

Solar to run aquarium

Have any of you guys ever built a off the grid solar system ? I’m running around 2000-2500 watts on my aquarium. Im a noobie to solar. I think I can build one for 3000 dollars. Maybe.
Since I’m a noobie. I thought I would ask.
 
Eh, you'd have to have some seriously insider like connections to get something for $3k. Could you build a 2500 watt solar setup for that price, sure with an asterisk next to it but sure. But if you want it off grid you'd want it to be probably 4x that size which I would say you probably couldn't do at all, the reason being is you're only going to get 3-4 hours on average every day of peak solar (i.e. what your system is rated at) so you're going to need much more than that to power it throughout the day, and while you probably can find salvaged panels for cheap, the inverter of that size won't be cheap and neither will the battery storage.
 
Tanks need consistent power 24/7, including at night and when there’s no sun for a few days. An off-grid system to do that would be several times more expensive and difficult than just getting solar panels the normal way with some whole-house battery backup. I think your cost estimate is low by about an order of magnitude, probably more.
 
Other thing to consider is you will likely need enough battery capacity to cover for cloudy / rainy days.

All said and done, it'll probably be closer to 10 -13K.

Most efficient panels outputting 435W runs about $500 each..assuming you maximize sun exposure to get this. You'll need at least 6 panels. This alone is $3K.

Inverter that's battery capable, $2K

Battery ... probably $8K.

There are off grid kits for $4K but likely not enough to sustain you aquatic friends...
 
I think you guys are right. I get carried away with YouTube videos. Lol.
Thanks for the input.
That said -- if you run portions of your tank that are non-essential to sustaining life like PH and lights on the solar system... and power all crititcal life support items on grid, you'd get the best of both worlds... :). just enabling here.... ha
 
I think you guys are right. I get carried away with YouTube videos. Lol.
Thanks for the input.
If you're really that curious, slap a couple Kill-a-watt meters on all the electrical going into your tank for a week and see how much power it will really take to run, then you can find the total energy in kWh. Or you can manually calculate everything that is on for fixed periods of time, e.g. lights, pumps, etc, and just put a kill-a-watt meter on your heaters since those are typically the biggest unknown with how much they really will be on.

Now that said, you could set up solar to offset the costs and just have it grid tied, although you'll probably need to pull a permit to get the final interconnection with PG&E. Sure PG&E screws solar customers now but you wouldn't need batteries, but if can do all the electrical yourself it very well could be worth it.
 
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