Recent content by Bri from IA

The PV wire is UV rated (i.e. direct sun-exposure), which common building wire isn't. Also common buiding wire is rated for 600V AC systems. A series-connected PV system is up to 500VDC. I'm pretty sure the PV wire is rated up to 1000VDC.

I've been very happy with the Sol-Ark 12k, and I'm not familiar with the other brands you listed. My main criteria was UL listed and rated for series-connected panels. It supports up to 500VDC of panels in series, 4 strings total. I'm using 9 panels in 3 strings, could have been 10 or 11...

My experience with a Sol-Ark 12K in an off-grid setup is that it can run pretty much all the small house and heat-pump AC and microwaves, dish washer, coffee pots, four fridges/freezers. But throw in an electric drier or electric stove (oven) and we're over the limit and the inverter will shut...

You might enjoy checking out the SolArk-8K and 12K equipment. It's UL listed and built for parallel utility situations. I'm using my Sol-Ark in off-grid mode, but it has many parallel-utility and load management modes. You would need to check with your utility if it will be allowed, as they...

Perhaps you should reach out to the person who wrote the post. I'm not able to follow the logic of his calculations. That said, 1.25 and 80% (i.e. 0.8) are recipricals of each other. That amount is commonly used in sizing fuses and circuit breakers. For example, if an appliance requires...

I'm a month late to the party, but sharing info just in case. I have an off-grid system and use a SolArk 12k, all in one inverter/charge controller. It has max PV voltage of 500V, so more panels in series and less wiring runs. Output is also 240/120V split phase 50Amps. Max input/output is...

I've had pretty good experience with my SolArk 12k. There's a built-in generator input to make everything managed by the one box. Tech support in Texas has been very good, called them a couple times. I has free cloud-based web interface and historical data, a very cool benefit. I even had...

For the UP, you'll want to tilt your panels up to nearly vertical, i.e. 75 degrees or so, just guessing. Snow shouldn't accumulate too much. I had mine at 60 degrees all winter and snow sluffed off within a day without intervention.

If you want electric heat via solar, you'll need to deal with enough battery to pull you through an extended period of overcast skies. Around here (Iowa) that can be 2-3 weeks straight. And/or enough solar panels to oversize the array. I get between 5-20% panel output on overcast skies, so it...

FWIW, I use a JBD BMS (Xiaoxiang App) with the balance function turned off. It only balances in the low milliamps, 20mA max. And I also have a JK active balancer in parrell. It doesn't provide any BMS protective fuctions, but does provide 2amps, i.e. 2000mA of balancing current from the...

Plus 1 on the Sol-Ark 12k system. Grid tie with battery backup UL listed and 500VDC max PV input. Need a 48V battery to run off-grid to handle starting surges for motors (fridge's and such). I used 4 lead acid deep cycle marines for a time prior to my LFP's ariving.

To directly answer the question, the charge controller will "open circuit" the solar panels when the battery is full and if there is no AC load through the inverter. The voltage in the panels will climb a little higher, but no current will flow, and as a result no power will flow. Power =...

Units are everything. Blaise, when you mention "11kw a day" I pretty sure that means 11kWH per day. If you had 11kW in panels, and the sun shined on them for one hour, that would get you 11kWH. If there were 5.5kW in panels, at 2 hours, you'd end up with the same 11kWH. With the predicted...

Maybe little late to comment, but LFP batteries cannot be charged below 32F. In the UP, you'll certainly get below freezing, maybe straight through the winter. Maybe that means different battery type, or a heated structure.

I know others have said they have done it repeatedly, but I would be at least a little concerned about the affect on your fridge's compressor motor by fast-switching out-of-phase. The transfer from a dead (or nearly dead) utility to solar inverter isn't much of a concern. Switching from...