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Home Solar Project - Round 2

Fresh start at the new house in 2026. Where the original solar project was a smaller, learn-as-I-go build constrained by the fact that we were already planning to move, this round is designed to be the long-haul system for the house I intend to stay in.

Goals

  • ~20kw of PV — large enough to comfortably cover the 120-160 Kwh/day summer cooling load.
  • ~54kwh of battery storage — enough to actually carry the house overnight.
  • 85% off-grid capable — with a backup generator for the remaining 15% (snow cover, week-long rain).
  • ROI inside the decade — done by reusing hardware from the old build and skipping the contractor markup.

Timeline

  • Round 2. Starting Over at the New House (2026-05-17)
    • Project kickoff. Goals, hardware selection (EG4 FlexBoss21, YIXIANG 32kwh pack, 40 used panels), wiring plan, panel-placement / 300ft wire run, and budget/ROI math.

Hardware

Carried over from the previous build:

  • 200 Amp Eaton automatic transfer switch
  • Eaton outdoor critical-loads panel
  • Tigo optimizers
  • 5kw of solar panels
  • 20kwh of EG4-LL / EG4-LLv2 server-rack batteries

New for this build:

  • EG4 FlexBoss21 inverter (replaces the Solark 12k)
  • YIXIANG 32kwh battery pack
  • ~40 used PV panels picked up locally (~$40 each)
  • 2,500 ft of 12 AWG THWN-2 + 1" PVC conduit for the 300ft run to the back field