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  • Finally Installing our System (What Have I Done Wrong So Far?)

    Thought about putting this in Beginner's Corner, but I suppose it's more appropriate here. After years, we're finally putting things up on walls. Got our solar shed built this summer, put the 160 pound Quattro 15K on the wall along with one of our MPPTs. Since we could only afford the metal...
  • Got our first DIY 3.5KW Rotating Bi-facial 7-Panel Ground Mount in the ground (only six more to go)

    It has been years of posting on this forum, realizing I'm an idiot, learning something, then doing something else for a bit and forgetting everything I thought I previously learned, only to be an idiot again and have to re-learn what I thought I knew. Years, and all before we had actually built...
  • Just had the world's greatest assassin visit me

    Saw a big shadow of a bird fly right by us a few minutes ago and looked out a side window and saw him in a deadwood tree next to our cabin. I made a call and to my utter surprise he flew over and down from the side of the cabin and landed on our deck right in front of us. Maybe ten feet away...
  • Best way to run AC power 500 ft from array to cabin

    Hello DIY Solar folks, I'm MrsAlaskanNoob, borrowing his account. You may be familiar with AlaskanNoob's trials and tribulations trying to plan our system here: https://diysolarforum.com/threads/about-to-spend-a-lot-of-money-tomorrow-on-this-system-am-i-making-a-mistake.34259/ Before we go...
  • Just Learned: Most Victron Multiplus II's *Do Not* Support Parallel Operation

    About a year ago (or a little more) we bought equipment for a solar install we'd hoped to have installed last summer. But Alaska got record setting rain that Summer...it didn't stop. And it threw a big wrench in our off grid plans. Two of the components we ordered were two Victron Multiplus...
  • Anybody own a diesel PHEV in the USA?

    Would love to get one but they seem to be like unicorns. I would rather not buy a Mercedes, but they have the GLE 350de (diesel motor, small battery with about 40 miles of EV only range) but for whatever reason they don't seem to sell the diesel version in the U.S.A. and I don't want to try to...
  • Brown bear destroyed our yurt powered by Yeti 3000, so I'm designing solar for a cabin & a bit lost

    Hello all. The wife and I live very off grid in Alaska (helicopter has to deliver stuff) and for the last couple of years we have lived in our 20 foot yurt powered by 16 x 100 watt Renogy panels connected into two separate Yeti 3000s. Even though the yurt location is not great for solar, it...
  • Recommendations on Ground Source Heat Pump with soft start?

    The biggest draw on our off grid solar array is going to be our hoped for ground source heat pump. I've used a calculator provided to me from a guy who works for Alaska Center for Energy and Power and even though it's for an air source heat pump, he suggested it would give an idea of the energy...
  • Feasible to wire inverter AC out myself into a breaker box?

    I have no electrical skills and I'm not particularly bright, but I did manage to get the bus bar set up the MPPT, PV, Quattro and the batteries without blowing anything up. And I trenched the solar shed to the cabin 600 feet away and the fiber optic works so I assume the huge power cable will...
  • Okay to change cable thickness in a battery run?

    I've got a short cable from each battery to a fuse holder, and then the cable continues from the fuse holder to the bus. I may need to extend my cable lengths though and instead of having long smaller gauge cable for that longer run, I'm wondering if I can keep the smaller gauge short wire to...
  • 600V 20A C/B for my solar string to my MPPT -one pole or 2 pole?

    I had the impression that DC only required the positive to be wired into the C/B but a guy we hired as a consultant tells us that with voltage that high, we should use a 2 pole C/B and wire positive and negative through it. Of course we bought 7 single pole ones already for our 7 strings of...
  • Raspberry Pi between Cerbo Auto-Start relay and Generator...

    Unless there is an easier way, I plan to connect a Raspberry Pi to the Cerbo GX Relay #1 and hopefully provide the 5V of power it needs. The intent is: a) when Cerbo sees battery bank at 40% it will energize the generator auto start relay b) that relay will then power the Pi c) the Pi will...
  • It's like a jigsaw puzzle that could kill me (setting up my bus bar) - my thoughts make sense?

    Alright, maybe a 48V bus bar shouldn't kill me, but it's not out of the realm of possibility that I'd try wiring a solar string directly to it... Anyway, I'm trying to finalize the cable lengths for the Quattro and MPPT connecting to the bus bar before I put in the order. I set my Quattro 4"...
  • Bout to Break My Back Trying to Wall Mount Victron Quattro 15K, But Will Plywood Hold It?

    Finally putting these blue boxes on the wall. Precious little info on mounting this super heavy Quattro 15K though. It comes with some screws for the bracket (though we're missing one) and it has side bolts that bolt through side part of the bracket into the Quattro. I'm just wondering, with...
  • Odd claims, some electricians warning about using DC isolators with PV

    Apparently, at least in the UK, there is some concern about using DC isolators with solar panels as a fire risk despite isolators being required. Haven't looked much into this new development. I guess there has been a rash of fires lately and this is one of the new recommendations, to not have...
  • Reverse PV Combiner Box?

    I see combiner boxes that will take strings of PV and combine them, in parallel, onto one wire. Is there a box on the other side that can split that back into several wires per string to plug into several MPPTs?
  • Fire risk if I leave these lithium batteries discharging in super cold weather?

    About to leave the homestead for a bit and I'm going to shut down the system because I haven't yet insulated the shed where my batteries are in. But I had the bright idea of connecting my Cerbo (everything else off) to this string of 4 x 12V lithium wired up in series for a 48V bank, just so I...
  • Think I'm gonna buy this Perkins 8.5KW diesel generator

    Pour a little slab, build a little shed over it, and plumb a 500 gallon diesel tank into it. Maybe have the big diesel tank gravity feed into a smaller buried tank so that the earth warms it up or something. Probably won't do that initially and we'll see how it goes. Only gets to about -10F...
  • Cables should be same length....but one is a half inch off (problem or no?)

    Guy who made my negative cables for our MPPT that will deliver 200A at 48V to the bus ended up a little short on one of them. Half inch shorter than the other. He said it wouldn't be a big deal. I'm going to end up taking one back and getting it replaced because he put the lugs 180 out on the...
  • DC generator tied into DC bus...will batteries demand more current than the generator can deliver?

    Right now I have an AC generator powering an EG4 chargeverter which is wired into the DC bus. The chargeverter allows setting the voltage and amperage. I'm thinking about replacing this with a DC generator tied directly into the DC bus. The load on it (outside the inverter demand) will be 8 x...
  • Grounding Quattro, MPPT RS, and AutoTransformer

    I am completely off grid with no generator hooked up to the inverter. I have a Quattro 15K and an MPPT RS 450/200 in my solar shed, and the Quattro AC output goes to an AutoTransformer and from there to the AC distribution panel. The AC side of things is grounded (the electrician did it). But...
  • Breakers for 48V lithium batteries that get up to 54V of current?

    I've got an MPPT that can push 200A to my 48V lithium batteries. But it will push at higher than 48V to charge the batteries, so I'm assuming the breaker between my MPPT and batteries should be rated for 60VDC? Local solar shop sold me 48V 200A breakers and I only realized it after the fact...
  • Pylontech 8 x US5000 wired into 2 x Lynx Distributors -- Would this work?

    Apparently the cables supplied by Pylontech for their batteries are only rated for about 100 amp and the terminal connectors for about 130amp. I'm going to have 400 amp going into the batteries from the Lynx Distributors for charging (2 SCCs that put out 200 amp each). Apparently a solution to...
  • 14 EnjoyBot 200AH batteries & a Victron 450/200 -- pass the smell test?

    Saw Will's video on these dirt cheap batteries. The 300AH ones are out of stock, so I'm looking at 12 of the 200AH ones to be charged by a Victron 450/200. I just want to make sure I could wire these up into a 48V battery bank and charge them efficiently with the SCC. Any issues if I connect...
  • Where does the PV power go when a MPPT doesn't need it?

    I'm assuming PV puts out whatever power it can put out to the MPPT (and that it's not based on a demand set by the MPPT) and the MPPT then clips power it doesn't need (if the batteries are full and there is no inverter demand). If that assumption is correct, where does the extra power go that...
  • Anybody use a hitch receiver on their excavator to haul a trailer?

    Saw a couple videos of people welding receivers on the blades of their mini-ex to haul trailers. Anybody done something like this? If so, how did you calculate trailer size for your excavator?
  • EG4 Chargeverter display, does it show current drop as BMS throttles charge?

    I see the chargeverter shows battery voltage and that increases as the battery is being charged and it shows current (you set what current you want to go to the battery). My question is...if I'm charging a battery with a BMS that starts to limit the current as it gets full, will that be...
  • Blue Seas 125A t-fuse....stud torque really 3/8" pounds? Finger tight only?

    I'm trying to put my t-fuses in the t-fuse holder and if I'm reading this spec sheet correctly, I'm supposed to only torque the t-fuse to .34NM? My torque wrench min torque is 60 inch pounds, so if this is really the number I'm going to have to figure something out. That number seems so low...
  • What is powering my AC/DC loads in this Victron Remote Console view?

    Batteries just charged up to full and the MPPT went from throttling from 6KW coming in to just a few watts as the batteries requested less, and then it stopped charging and started showing -16W for some reason. If we turn on a bigger AC load the MPPT then starts supplying power. But I'm trying...
  • Super noob question - are amps going to battery split between + and - cables?

    MPPT puts out 100A to a single battery connected to the bus with a positive and negative cable. Is it 100A going through both cables, or 50A going through each to the battery?
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