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The What was your most interesting recent non solar has some great posts about food & drink so I thought we could put stuff on here instead? We bake sourdough bread in our rocket oven once a week but if we need extra in between we make Irish Sodabread in the wood stove. The recipe is organic...

I haven't been on this forum long, but I have noticed that almost any thread can be turned towards the subject of gun ownership & then quickly descends into a fractious debate about freedom, communism, immigration or any other contentious subjects that this sub forum was created for. So is the...

Ive been asked to price some construction work for a friend at their holiday property. It has solar but also a Aurora AGi6500SDE, a 400 cc single cylinder diesel, which would mean not having to bring my own on to site. The problem is that it's been sitting for almost 10 years without a start...

Hola Tod@s , my first post to this forum, ive done some reading & browsing here but there's so much to look at. . Can you believe that ? Swapping batteries over for power. Our next upgrade was a gift of 2 Sonnenschein 6v gel batteries from a mate who worked in telecoms & some old, odd 12v...

Im in the thinking about it stage for a new project & have been looking at panels from my supplier, trying to compare what's on offer with regard to price & performance. As with wine, I thought its best not to buy the cheapest on the list, so next up is a Tensite EM-600-PH 144 cell mono at €115...

Despite being off grid for years, having bodged together several tiny 12 V systems, I realise that I am, in fact, a beginner. Im in the learning & thinking about it phase of planning a new system, the main objective being to retire our propane fridge/freezer. What ive sketched out so far is our...

As markets yo-yo with some of the biggest movements in history Trump moves on to the next distraction with another impossible demand, this time from Ukraine. To say this in the kindest way possible Trump is increasingly looking like he’s completely out of his depth as the support from the MAGA...

Maybe this should have gone in the up in smoke/ learn from my mistake section? Our backup/charging generator was a Honda EC 3600 with the GX 270 engine. Over the course of 12 years, it was faultless - until the day that the automatic decompression mechanism detached itself from the camshaft...

A good friend of mine has 70 Wurth CIS thin film panels that have been replaced. They are 56w, 40.2 V VOC & 2.5 ISC. They measure 1.2 M x 0.6 M. To my mind, they are worthless, given that new, bifacial panels are €0.20 per W delivered. I am loath to recommend that they are recycled, but they've...

China issues bonds in US dollars This is the downside of having the Dollar as a global reserve currency, you have to allow corporations, individuals & countries to trade & issue debt in USD without restrictions.

Ive spotted a used Flexmax FM 60 for €220 (250 USD) ive no idea how old it is but there is a photo of it wired up & working. New here, they're 760 USD if you can get them, or 450 USD from ebay UK. What are theses units like ? I know they have a good reputation. Im looking at using it with a...

I'm in the process of thinking about our next system & have come up with some ideas about priorities. Longevity and durability are top of the list for me and then budget, although this doesn't need to be a low cost set up, I just don't want to throw money at problems. I'm looking at around...

LiTime 500A battery monitor with LCD display and shunt. Looking at the various Li Time websites, I've found that certain items are only available in certain countries & more confusing still, the Li Time Germany site offer free shipping to Spain ? The battery monitor with shunt seems absurdly...

During the first few days of the recent disaster in Valencia, Spain many of the villages were only accessible on foot or by bicycle. Pretty soon, folks were loading up bicycles & pushing them along as they were too laden to ride. The first responders were the people who lived in the villages &...

I've bought a second hand Morningstar TS 45 & was wondering how to test it, apart from the obvious. What would just putting a battery on tell me ? I dont have bench power supply, just a basic multimeter. I shoud get it today or tomorrow & I have a short window to confirm the purchase or reject...

I’ve been given some cable & I’m wondering if it’s worth it to buy a crimper, maybe a hammer one ? My upcoming project will need some short runs from the panels, at max about 4 M & then battery cables to the busbars & inverter. Spanish panels come fitted with mc4 connections & cutting them will...

Im planing to replace our current 12V system with a 24 V set up that is installed in an outbuilding - we have lots of shade around the cabin. Its semi open but also built into the earth completely on the north side & partly buried on the east. Its an old stone construction open to the south...

This would appear to be a cheapskate alternative to a smart shunt, although saving €30 isn’t my top priority. Just looking at it, it seems to be for a single battery so could it work on 2 batteries in parallel? Edit. It can be connected to any battery in the bank. Has anyone tried this?

By most standards our current 12 Volt system is miniscule with 460 W of panels and 1 Trojan 1275 T battery , 134 AH/10 hr. But it does the business for us, we run led lights, a laptop & satellite internet modem, charge mobile phones, the odd cordless power tool battery, a Cetek trickle charger &...

I bought a second hand TriStar TS 45 for €70, mostly as a backup for our main system but also for a possible expansion on our yurt system, one that's up & running about 6 months of the year. The yurt has a propane fridge & a tiny 12 V system that's powers 4 LED bulbs & charges phones, we would...

My understanding of start up or inrush currents is that between 2.5 and 3 x the rated power is sufficient, except in the case of compressors.So what do folks make of this from Victron ? 6x nominal current ? Im trying to size an inverter without knowing the nominal current of the item - it's a...