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I'm using a 50ah Chins lifepo4 in my Prius. No problems so far, at least a year into it. There is a 130amp fuse installed by Toyota right before the battery. I've routinely seen greater than 50amps flowing through the 12v circuit on the Victron shunt I have installed along with the battery...

It was the friends we made along the way that made it all worth it.

In general I think people might be more tolerant of electrical grid failures if they had even the tiniest bit of local redundancy. If you can power your fridge/freezer, some box fans, and an electric blanket if it's cold that would help a bunch. Having a house with absolutely no power, and...

First you start sweating, then it zaps you and makes you tinkle, then it zaps you even harder for tinkling on it.

Yeah, solar panels and trees don't get along. I think they both envy each others awesome sunlight harvesting abilities a bit, and it makes them dislike one another.

That would be fun, but it's not really the type of thing that can you have many competitors on. Utility infrastructure isn't cheap and the installation is both ugly, time consuming and requires frequent maintenance. Some things are protected monopolies or run by the government for a reason.

The way they handled this situation, and the lack of a public response to it, has cemented my negative feelings towards Deye. The fact we are getting this information from you, instead of Deye directly, is bullcrap. That's certainly fair. Amazon or whomever, would owe you a refund in this...

Tell that to the European countries that allow grid tied balcony solar of 800 watts or more with no inspections or permits, or, at most requiring a simple form that says you have one dropped off in the post. Do you honestly think they aren't as concerned or more about lineman safety in Europe...

Answer to OP's question is don't do it. It's a bad idea. Don't sell electricity to neighbors.

I run a small business in Texas. I could give you many stories of fines and audits done by the state against me. It's not a California thing, it's a big guy vs little guy thing. They can get away with it, so they do. They give money and tax breaks to the large powerful corporations, and turd...

Maybe people could get the Sol-Ark controller board instead, turn a bricked Deye into a Sol-Ark with one easy step.

The backfeed only occurs when the power is working and the inverter is able to sync up to the grid. Once power goes down, so does the backfeed. The only reason 100% no backfeed is the goal, is to keep the power company from noticing you are generating some of your own power against the rules...

Not everybody measures success in life by the same metrics.

It was running an electric tankless water heater and it started that thing up? That's pretty impressive.

Yeah, you gotta void the warranty or it don't count. :LOL: @Will Prowse

Everything about our societies and economic systems require a growing influx of new people to prop it up. It will certainly get interesting when/if we don't have enough new people to prop it up for us anymore. Can only suck so much blood out (government or corporations), before there is no...

So it's an inverter compressor that varies it's output. That's cool. Either way, it's not using the full amount of available solar power at all times, and some solar power is wasted. Possibly a lot of solar power. We don't know without some sort of logging device though. It offends my inner...

Well that's what a nice, respectable company would do, historically. This is a new era my friend. You're going to own nothing, and you're going to like it!

@Sam Cho TX Calm down man, you're coming off looking all kinds of crazy.

What kind of question is that? Of course I would get the bigger water heater, do you think I'm stupid?

Yeah, heat also makes people angry.. cold just seems to kind of paralyze you and make you afraid to sit on the toilet.

Yeah, now comes the fussing over good and bad solar days. Even if it makes no difference, I just like to yell at the big yellow one.

The issue is that spurious feedback occurs regardless on many/all of these inverters if they are connected to the grid, UL1741 cert or not. Anything synced up with the grid for either UPS mode, power assist or intentional backfeed, leaks a tiny bit back onto it. UL1741 protects with...

@FilterGuy I have to commend you, your method of bringing it up for discussion is much better than how @EG4 Electronics James brought it up in his thread. I've enjoyed the thread James, so thank you regardless.

It's an out of sight out of mind sort of a thing. We are used to what we deal with regularly. I wouldn't ever think about trying to pass over a 200 mile mountain pass in the winter, because I don't want to die like that. :p Using special exceptions like that when we are dealing with overall...

We "know" that certain "LF" inverters have massive surge ability that lasts longer than me in bed. If you have a relatively small normal load, and an occasional need to start something big, an "LF" inverter can be pretty handy. Your alternative to handling surge load with most "HF" inverters...

You know you don't have to answer every question and be involved in every single thread, right?

Sol-Ark sure is arrogant.

This situation sounds like it might have been preventable by checking with a FLIR style temperature scanner. Could have checked for hot spots during operation after building and periodically thereafter. Might be worth getting one, like @Will Prowse said in one of his videos recently.

They tested the included ethernet cable. They flipped it around both ways, it worked. They didn't rummage through their grandpa's pile of old cables and plug those in though. :ROFLMAO:

Do you have proof that Sol-Ark played a significant role in the design of the inverter before this exclusive rights agreement took place? I think it far more likely they just negotiated distribution rights to an existing Chinese inverter design. Nothing about Sol-Arks early beginnings make it...

If you're up on a roof, attempting to connect two ring terminals together with a bolt and nut, you are much more likely to drop them, have them roll down the roof, and curse your very existence. If on the ground, you will have to search through the grass. Either way, potentially not fun.

Just have to torch the screws first before removing them.. :ROFLMAO:

I see no solar panels in that picture!

Sounds about right. The company that could clear the whole situation up instantly, Deye, isn't saying squat. Which is of course, suspicious.

The colors are clearly different.

Why withhold the name of the vendor? We all want to know good places to buy things.

Time to up your game!

They've got them for people using 230vac hot to neutral European style. In 12/24/48vdc formats. Just not for us Americans.

There is a big difference between Texas (rural) and Texas (city). You people that live outside of the cities in Texas are smoking crack if you think Texas cities are any better than any other states cities. It's more of a rural/city divide, not a state vs other state divide. I've lived in...

Maybe stealth panels might be useful to hide your installation from roaming bands of thugs during the apocalypse. They likely would not be using satellites, but plain vision or binoculars. :ROFLMAO: I reckon that in a world without electricity, property with working solar systems and all the...

Are you for real? That doesn't need sources. There is absolutely no debating that the China monster was created by the US corporations outsourcing pretty much everything they could to them. If they spoke better English, they probably would have got the call centers too, but Indians grabbed...

@jrcromer But what is the idle consumption? I don't see it in the specs. :ROFLMAO:

Pricing isn't likely to be what's going to end the party. I would think it's going to be the regulations combined with local/state government tomfoolery.

Yeah, he's growing on me. I wish he would stop saying that the 30watt consumption isn't really consumption when it's being supplied by the solar panels during the day though. He's saying that you should have so much excess solar that 720watts per day, per battery, (not counting cabling losses...

@Solar Guppy Quit making excuses for Fortress and blaming this poor lady. We've already been through this on the other thread. Fortress had a representative hear spouting nonsense about how great his batteries are. I believe he is very high up in Fortress, possibly CTO level. He pointed...

I know it's just temporary wiring, but when you really wire it up, it's advisable to have the positive from one of the batteries going to the inverter, and the negative of the other battery going to the inverter.. that way it has to pass through both batteries equally.

It seems if low idle is the concern, you need to separate your high draw items from your low ones on your breaker panels. Use a large inverter for the big loads, but make sure it has some sort of "green", low idle mode where it goes to sleep and scans for activity. Then use a smaller more...

What's the age requirement to be able to claim elder abuse? I like that one.

Your generator, or your gender?

My internet was down for much of the day, and I come back to find you guys conspiring against me with new off topic and dislike emojis!

I'm a peasant, like most of you. For many of us peasants, things are pretty good. Let's not pretend like the upper crust doesn't have it better though, and often through nothing more than privilege of birth. The problem with capitalism (and life in general) is that we are born into a game...

Do they seem to be connected to the BMS, and just not attached to the battery? If they are connected to the BMS, why do you keep -40C or colder at your place? Turn on the heat, cheapskate!

Don't carve out the plastic on the battery.. EG4 might try to deny you any warranty claim in the future, saying that's what possibly killed it. :ROFLMAO:

I'm with you on the sticking to offgrid lifepo4 systems. Use the grid to charge the batteries maybe, otherwise keep it separate. I hadn't thought of securing them with a stainless steel cable, I like it, wouldn't meet any type of ground mount code requirement, but if anchored securely it would...

Even with the "working" firmware that OP had, he still had weirdness like delayed start/stop times.. +/- 8 minutes is pretty extreme. That would imply either really inept programming, or a really overloaded / locked up processor. A few ms here and then, sure.. a few seconds.. ok, maybe.. but 8...

A few of the smaller Victron Multiplus inverters have UL 1741. https://www.amazon.com/Victron-Energy-MultiPlus-II-Inverter-35A-50A/dp/B0BZV8J6Q3

Looks about like the comments I see on most any article / video on a site like say "Yahoo" or "YouTube" about any subject imaginable. Makes you wonder about any preconceived notions one might have about a subject they haven't researched as much as some of y'all have solar panels. How much do...

I'm lazy. I like the thought of DIY, but the rules for installation of solar equipment make me a sad panda.

So they get to UPrate like that, whereas we have to DErate everything. Gotcha. :ROFLMAO:

"Read my lips, no new taxes."

You're allowed to tell us who the other business was. We need to know where to get things.

It generates more sales tax revenue for your local city/county/state when you purchase it maybe?

Just let it all out. Don't let the man hold you back. "To deny our own impulses is to deny the very thing that makes us human." Mouse

Those were the days. I long for that sort of optimism.

Nothing as serious as all that. :) I'm glad you were able to escape the situation without slaughtering multiple people. Even if you got away with it, it might weigh on you in the future as being unnecessarily rough.

I thought my post count went down, now I know why.

You sure do appear quick on any Victron thread. Do you have an alarm set on your phone or something? :ROFLMAO:

Anybody taking bets on when Enphase starts requiring a monthly subscription with some of their equipment? They make nice stuff, already charge a premium, have government rules protecting their market from cheap knock off competitors, and yet they still want to charge extra to allow a generator...

Nothing wrong with being odd/eccentric. Celebrate your wild self.

Just contact an insurance company and ask them how much to insure against a particular event. They'll use the most updated statistics. Be really worried if they won't cover it.

I've seen some vehicles have fake temperature gauges now.. they are essentially lights, they always go to a certain point and don't register any real changes in between that state except for overheated or off.

Sounds like you had a good opportunity to improve on the situation. 🤔

He might be charging the batteries with one of those treadmill or elliptical battery charger setups.. hopefully his grow operation is highly efficient to supply the calories he will need to "run" it.

It does. Be sure to connect the batteries up like this.. Positive on one battery to the inverter, negative on the other battery to the inverter. This way current has to flow through both batteries equally.

I just wish Victron would throw us Americans some more bones. They know we have NEC and UL nonsense we have to deal with over here.

Yes. You will want something like this to help keep each 12v battery in sync with the other 12v batteries in your 48v series pack.

I'm fine with that. One caveat being it should have been clearly labeled at the point of sale that it will *absolutely* not work in the US due to artificial software scumbaggery. Just because something isn't designed for the US market, doesn't mean it won't work in the US market under certain...

With sensitive meters, comes sensitive meter readers, unfortunately.

You will and you'll like it!

Sounds like a way to repurpose some possibly soon out of a job federal workers. Alternatively, don't repurpose any of them, and let customs run super slow. That might actually cause those proposed tarrifs to work to bring back manufacturing. If you can't get anything through customs, what...

I certainly won't deny that from a pure cost standpoint, a cheap gas generator is hard to beat and is probably the best thing to deploy in a large emergency situation. Portable gas generators should ideally be used to charge batteries and run inverters. Letting them idle with non optimized...

Check it out. I somehow got the first view! @Will Prowse I just had to brag.. not every day you get first view on a Will video.

Got 10 of them in today. Opened the one with the most beat up box.. they are packaged really well, no damage visible. Getting 60watts out of it plugged into my bluetti, with the solar panel just sitting on the hood of one of my vans, the sun isn't even overhead, it's behind it, roughly 15-25...

I was "asked rhetorically" if I was a communist earlier in the thread. I'm thinking about electricity for everybody, what's best for the overall system, not just what's best for one individual household. I appreciate your streak of rugged individualism though.

@Badbyte

I've disliked them both for a long time, my post history doesn't lie! I have had my eye on some EG4 equipment though. That Chargeverter is a pretty good deal.

Be sure to start a new thread with your findings of the verified Made in America panels / solar equipment when you are finished. Assuming you haven't already. It might be a popular thread.

Because the roof is a good place for it if you don't mind dealing with all the nonsense required to put them there, which they don't, because they're getting $paid$ ! Plus, their business insurance will cover them if there is a fire because of a faulty product and you die / lose everything...

I don't even like my own code when I look at it, and if it's code that I wrote some time ago.. oh my goodness! If you still have some of them, go back and read emails or other things you wrote 20 or 30 years ago.. it's disturbing.

Out of all the many regulations I've seen since looking into solar stuff.. the UL9540 pairing requirements are my most disliked ones. They feel like the largest overstepping of bounds. It just reeks of regulatory capture.

He looks good on paper. Why won't he talk to us anymore. :cry:

Your point? The manufacturers know many people aren't going to follow those rules on DIY products/installs. Maybe they should just make clear there is no support if they don't and lose some potential sales. Otherwise, they could change the language from something like "zero export", which is...

At least the OEM for EG4 has not intentionally, as of yet, to the best of my knowledge, remotely disabled their customers private property.

Remitting sales tax for just a single state is awful. I can only imagine the horror of trying to do it for all 50 states. All businesses having to deal with it have my condolences.

True, but the listing has nothing to do with warranty. The listing and legality is between you and the electrical provider / AHJ. There needs to be a HUGE disclaimer on their website or on the phone when purchasing these products, not tucked away in a warranty document, that says you can only...