I'm making some major improvements on what was already a pretty nice system. There'll be a lot more to come on this thread, but I've just bought another 2.5kw worth of panels that have to be mounted along with the other 2kw I've gotten recently that aren't mounted yet - but which work fairly well just leaned on the wall. This time, I've added some real charge controllers to replace the frankenstein knife switch I've been using manually, and another inverter, this one a new Schneider XW-4024. I'll have to add at least one more charge controller to what is shown here to actually get all the panels under control and logged, but you know how building a big system sometimes goes - you do some of it on the fly.
Here's some of the new electronics. I probably already had plenty of inverters, but this one integrates in the new data aq system and puts out 240v unlike the others. I had one SQ wave inverter (3524) driving my air compressor and used as a charger off a generator, and the main SW-4024 which will continue to run "everything else" for now. The new one is going to run my Volt charger (for quicker charges), the welders, the lathe, and the fusor, all of which like 240v - I was using a fairly cheezy autotransformer before on those, and it kind of stinks as a solution. Having a bunch of inverters is nice, actually, as they regulate better when one gets a huge load spike. The various electronics here, including a web gateway, all talk, and have a lot of nifty features indeed, like programmable logic outputs to control other stuff, the ability to grow almost without limit (though I think I'm probably near the limit of what I'll ever want, much less need, now) and just plain efficiency. These solar controllers can harvest about 30% more energy from the panels than a straight hookup to the batteries, by using a fancy switcher to "impedance match" the panel output at it's max power output voltage to whatever the batteries happen to be at the moment, for example - most "24V" panels for example might make peak power at something like 35v or more, while the batteries might be run down to 23V - there's a lot of extra energy to be had there by using a buck conveter that regulates its input voltage down the the panel array max power (panels act kind of like a constant current source up to a voltage that is determined by the temperature of the panels - they act like forward biased diodes when open circuited).
So, while wiring is almost as much fun as plumbing (not!), I'm enjoying doing this. Now I can run more nasty loads with less noise to the delicate ones, and charge my car faster too! It was already better than power company power in those regards, but there was a little more possible, so I'm going for it!