Oasis Montana Solar Electric Power Systems
Spring 2026 Newsletter
Time for back-up power? Here are some options.The uncertainties of the world make us want to prepare for what the future may hold. There are desirables and necessities; me, I love dark chocolate (which is at a premium right now!) so I manage to keep some in the house most of the time. But in terms of necessities, the list gets shorter -- and more critical. Water and food is pretty much at the top of the list; that may mean keeping a pump and a refrigerator going. Everyone has different needs. In this issue we are offering what components could make up a battery-based solar power system and basic costs (before shipping and installation). Here we go. | This system quoted offers a 3.75KW solar array (so, 3750 watts of solar modules); we will assume this is in full sun, and this will have a flush roof mount; and will be for a grid-tied system:
System size= 3.75kW, Roof mounted, facing 180° S, no shading issues, battery size= 10kWhr (two Enphase IQ 5P (5kWhr), 2 day approximately back-up for critical loads, Annual production at 46°N = 4870kWhr, Monthly consumption matched at average ~406kWhr, Daily use of about 13kWhr. Here are the components: 10–375W solar modules
1 - Enphase IQ System Controller 3
2 – Enphase IQ5P Battery Kit LFP
11–Enphase IQ-Q Cables
1 – Retaining CB Hold Down Kit
1 – Enphase Circuit Breaker -
20A 2 Pole
1 - IronRidge 2X5 Flush Roof Mount
Rack | 2 - Enphase Battery Handle Lifting
10-Enphase IQ8A-72-M-US Micro
Inverters
2 – Enphase Q Cable End Caps,
1 termination, 1 female sealing
10–Enphase Control Cables
1 – Circuit Breaker, 100A Main | Total equipment cost: $18,463You will likely get less electrical production in a northerly climate,
and more in a southerly one.
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| For a 5.77KW array, similar to the above system, utilizing Enphase Micros and fifteen 375W modules (and related components), you’re looking at a cost of $26,175 before shipping and installation. |
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Roof mounted solar array
| Oasis Montana sales technician Larry Keogh doesn’t just talk the talk, he is now walking the walk; his solar array, Enphase micro-inverters and batteries provide back-up power when the utility fails. And curiously, the day after his system was installed, the power went out in the neighborhood! But not at Larry’s house! 
BOS (Balanance Of System) components
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LFP
Batteries
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| ************ THIS system will work as a straight grid-tie system (but can have batteries added later), with a 5.77KW solar array and Sol-Ark inverter; A-frame ground mount. Annual production at 46° N=8100kWhr, Monthly consumption matched at 665kWhr, Daily use of approx. 22kWhr. – but no battery back-up. Components: 15 – 375W solar modules
1 – combiner enclosure, MNPV6
3 – 30’ MC4 panel output cables | Iron Ridge Mount, 3 x 5
3 – circuit breakers, 20A 2 pole
1 – Sol-Ark 12K-P inverter |
Total equipment cost: $12,824NOW, if you want this for back-up power or as an off-grid system, you would need to add the following components (which could be done at a later date): 20 – PYTES E-Box 48100R LFP BATTERIES
20 – PYTES Battery Brackets, plus 1 – Battery Hub …for an additional cost of $27,666, and a total system equipment cost of $40,490, before shipping, installation and those damnable taxes. | |
************ We do still offer and sell quite a few FLA (flooded lead-acid) and AGM (absorbed glass matt) batteries. The LFP (lithium ferrophosphate or lithium iron phosphate) batteries do generally need to be kept from excessive cold temperatures (well, in general, batteries like the same temperatures as we do – not too hot and not too cold). Some of these batteries have a built-in heating system for extremely cold temps. Many of these batteries are sold with their own BMS – battery maintenance system. Tell us about your site situation and we’ll figure out what works best for your system needs. | Energy Dependence vs. Energy Independence
One shipload of solar modules can deliver as much electricity
as 100 shiploads of coal. | Renewable Energy News +https://cleantechnica.com/2026/01/26/landfill-panic-vs-system-reality-what-wind-solar-actually-displace/ Interested in agrivoltaics?
- Solar Builder Rising Home-Heating Costs Hitting Reptile Families Hardest
- The Onion New Energy Storage Systems Are Killing Trump's Coal Dreams
- CleanTechnica.com Electricity prices decreased in south australia because of clean renewables
- CleanTechnica.com How to safely dispose of batteries.
- batterysafetynow.org Balcony Solar Is Spreading Across The US Now will our legislators have the political will to let a good idea work?
- CleanTechnica.com This friendly robot just installed 100 MW of solar power
- electrek.co Climate Degradation Will Have Consequences For "Hundreds And Thousands Of Years"
- CleanTechnica.com | Quotable QuotesNo one is useless in the world who lightens the burdens of another.
– Charles Dickens
The older I get, the greater power I seem to have to help the world; I am like a snowball – the further I am rolled the more I gain.
– Susan B. Anthony
Before I build a wall, I’d like to know what I was walling in or walling out, and to whom I was like to give offense.
– Robert Frost
The trouble with referees is that they just don’t care which side wins.
– Tommy Docherty
If I had been present at creation, I would have given some useful hints.
– Alfonso the Wise (1221-1284)
Too many people spend money they haven’t earned, to buy things they don’t want, to impress people they don’t like.
-- Will Rogers
It’s income tax time again. Americans: time to gather up those receipts, get out those tax forms, sharpen up that pencil, and stab yourself in the aorta.
-- Dave Barry
The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin.
-- Mark Twain
A democracy can survive only until the people find they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From this time on they will vote for the candidate promising the most largesse with the inevitable result that the democracy will fall due to fiscal irresponsibility.
-- Alexander Fraser Tyler
No one could be so foolish as to prefer war to peace; in peace sons bury fathers, in war fathers bury sons.
– Herodotus
If you hear a voice within you say, ‘you cannot paint’, then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.
– Vincent van Gogh
The human mind treats a new idea the way the body treats a strange protein; it rejects it.
-- P.B. Medawar (biologist)
It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations.
-- Winston Churchill
Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.
-- Maya Angelou
There are two ways of exerting one’s strength; one is pushing down, the other is pulling up.
-- Booker T. Washington
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