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Two 200s?

Progress photo. Not all lined up yet, just getting them up there to start with

I sell computer parts, I can confidently say that's still possible. Had more than 1 customer take it upon themselves to use either a drill or razor blade to make a SAS drive fit their SATA connector, or force DDR4 to fit in their DDR3 DIMM slot for their "upgrade" lol

Well....at least the lake doesn't have to get renamed 😬

That wasn't a blue Victron pill you took, just FYI

Well, more progress. My dad and I got all these up the other day - it was a long day. 30 down...10 more to go...

I'd choose #1, with wife and kids, but I'm a glutton for punishment But if you can't afford to get running water out there, and dont see that changung soon, that's a pretty big drawback to say the least

Yeah, we're 50.5c/kWh here haha. If you can get on an EV plan at 0.02/kWh, and that's not something that expires soon, my 2c (pun intended?) is skip the solar, get as many batteries as you can afford, charge them during those hours and use them to power the home the rest of the day. I'll also...

I've never drowned, i dont beleive in it. I've swam plenty of times, and I drink lots of water, every day. I even have a pool so I'm pretty much an expert on the subject. If you disagree, prove it. I will only accept personal experience from those who have drowned and were not revived as actual...

Yeah, i didnt cut down my 8' boards so my 8'5" walls didnt fit the 8' siding 😂 Inspector made us add support on the inside where it meets and let us call it a day

I think I've got a relatively simple fix for you that will make everyone happy Just build a second array to the left and leave the bottom right panel missing and you've got perfect symmetry 👍

Yeah, I think $57.90ea but after shipping and customs it was about $81/ea. About 3 months to the day for delivery so gotta plan ahead I haven't tested anything yet beyond initial voltage, arrived 3.29-3.30v as stated, looks to all to be manufactured Jan 22, 2024

Sucks, sorry. Offered to look at the item and help, you didn't take it. Just FYI you can appeal just about everything with eBay once. Try the contact us - live chat will work, people on the phone tend to be more competent and speak better English but sometimes they make you run in a circle...

Hasn't been much picture-worthy to upload recently. How come no one on here told me this would be a lot of work??? Solar conduit is finally all done, battery shed has 120v wiring and a door, dad did all the siding, getting started on the insulation. The plan is hardie board siding on the...

This thread took a turn. Most interesting has been this sad little lemon tree and the lyrics of Jingle Bells presented as definitive proof we are in the end times NASA says 2 degrees F average since 1850, mostly recently. Some places will be 1 degree, others might be 5. But it's not near as...

Alright, I'd say the build is finally far enough along to start posting stuff. No exciting electrical yet, but the structure is there...definitely past the point of no return. I installed my current solar system on our current house maybe 6-7 years ago, just the racking on the house and ~8kw...

Technically I got approved permits with all the equipment on the plans already. I had it stamped by an electrical engineer, which was 1 requirement of theirs, and from things others have said on the forum - that might be the reason they let it pass. I'm going to leave it at that for now and will...

Solar poles held above the ground by these contraptions - plans called for 7.5ft deep hole, 3" schedule 40 galvanized only went 5' down so had to suspend them level in a way that didn't move a ton once concrete was poured. Pain in the butt, but did the job. I'm sure there was an easier way

And this is where most of the time has been spent lately. Don't judge me. Not an expert on any of this and its a work in progress

10 days from now our lows drop from 45 to 43...if there are any epic blizzards, I'll swing by Dairy Queen so I can be with you in spirit

Add 1 to the "fool column" for myself as someone getting into it this late in as DIY 😀 I will say going into it, I did not realize cells would only be half the cost. However, I think I'm still falling around $2600/14.3kWh unit, which I still consider significant savings. I know my cells came...

I probably read 500 threads on this forum, maybe started 2. As a new user, I can say there's TONS of good info on here, been really enjoying it 👍

Yeah, this is all off-grid, no NEM, no export, no power pole on the property They did make me get a CA licensed Engineer stamped approval on the electrical. I think that was their way of saying "we don't fully get this, but if someone with a license will take some level of responsibility for...

New house, this will be the only electric to the home so permitting is required for occupancy

Nothing a little moderate amount of super glue cant fix...

We included a generator in ours to start with because we don't actually know our power needs. New house, sq footage is growing 50% from current home, but also going from gas heater/water heater to electric, going from hollow walls (1940s home) to heavy insulation. A generator helps smooth out...

Of course! Rails aren't locked in the right spot yet so don't judge me for 1 u-bolt side being an inch higher than the other 😆

I'm amazed UPS even ships panels. I guess someone has to do it We used to ship some 32" curved monitors, packed the heck out of those guys, still, 25% broke in transit. We tried everything, eventually made a fun "team thing" of it - packed them up, grabbed some beers, dropped them from 11ft...

Sorry for lack of clarification. You said the inverter can cause pitting at the bearings due to induced currents and a line filter would solve that. I hadn't heard this before and was just wondering if you could elaborate. Do you know why that would be caused by electricity coming out of an...

I have been issued permits, the datasheets were in the permit application and stamped approved, obviously not to the point of inspection yet though. Eve 280k themselves are UL listed (not BMS tho), and code does say they MAY allow similar standards but didnt require it to be allowed (I can dig...

They will, I bought some recently, and most things drop in price after I buy them. You're welcome :)

Our little slide setup. Tyvek stapled on the boards with simpson ties at thee top, and a little block to drag them up while i pushed...all my dad's creation. It made things a lot more manageable Panels are all up now 😁

Haha You started with "What do you think about 1/4 acre in town vs 2 acres without water" and 45 days later it's "I found an uninhabitable place with no other forms of life to deal with" haha How big is the property? Plenty trees can grow 5-6 feet a year if you want privacy and have the room...

Well, doesn't look like significant progress but it took a long time so I'm posting a stinking picture....ran some conduit to clean up some of the wires on the back, since the back of the panels will be facing our house/backyard. Generator has propane hooked up too now, so hopefully test that...

Correct, eBay has really good protection now, it's not like 20 years ago. If they see the tracking of the original package updating and going back towards the seller, they will cover you if the seller doesn't. They'll sometimes even pay out of pocket, refund the buyer and let the seller keep...

Those CS panels are 74lbs ea and nearly 8ft long. Just installed slightly smaller ones on ground mount. I could be wrong but I don't think those are often used on roof mount due to size/weight. I assume you're doing this all yourself? If you don't want to get your skinny ass on the roof to...

That is a heavy duty mount! I can't imagine designing a giant sail in a way so that it doesn't move when the next tornado comes through 😂 Great job! I ran into the same thing designing mine with the iron ridge length, thought about adding a splice, but ultimately decided to go 4 tall, 10 wide...

Don, We're in a similar boat, new construction (smaller), other side of the country, same family size, ~1yr ahead, so I can't tell you what works yet or give honest recommendations on your solar compared to the experience of others. But a couple of things you mentioned we also looked into, so...

Yup, same valley as Lodi, we're within an hour or so drive from there I followed your build a lot, as I'm planning to use lots of similar equipment, so thank you for that! Wish I had bought the 10k 120v Quattros like you did, but I already bought the 15k 230v ones back in May before I realized...

Ah, ok. I had heard about the torque issue, I ordered TR and received MC4 with that explanation lol. Didn't know about the corrosion, thanks

Glad I'm not the only one too then haha

I saw that post. I have searched hundreds of pages of Title24/NEC code in the past when trying to dispute the county, and I wish I had thought of using GPT at the time. There was another one on here not too long ago on here where people tried to use it to design an off-grid system. It was very...

I ran this through PVWatts with the "hourly" csv for my location. Basically a 10kwh system facing due west and 10kwh system facing due east, vs a single 20kwh system facing due south. All were 35 degree tilt (and maybe that's the flaw?). What the numbers gave was that production was about 10%...

Yeah, we'll have 200a 120v service, split across 2 legs. They did mention I think wanting 100a minimum, and wanted to make sure basically that we would be able to power the well to run the fire sprinklers in case of a fire. Sorry, I didn't elaborate much on the battery. It's 5 Batteries, each...

That one doesn't because I am dumb :) I was mobile, clicked the wrong thing, and sent over the wrong link. Was trying to help, not send you down the wrong rabbit hole, sorry. From Victron's Wiring Unlimited page 54 - this is the bypass they mentioned for the generator example "Hager SF263 2...

On another note, I also paid $250ea for some years back to be put into a Crown Wav 😬 How's the charge on them? If they still work well, you might be able to find some alternative use like that for them like that, that would be useful to someone if you don't intend to use them for projects. Or...

Yeah, my wife was only OK with off-grid if she basically couldnt tell we had it. If I'm telling her to turn the toaster off because the AC is running, it wasn't going to fly. There were so many numbers I was guessing at, so I probably overestimated my overestimates to be on the safe side of my...

Yeah, I think it matters a lot where you are, I was just suggesting OP check out pvwatts for both if South was an option. It definitely isn't an option on that roof! Its awesome that you have a similar system so close to compare that data! For me on pvwatts (not building 2 systems to compare)...

Strings 3 and 6 i beleive are 6 panels each, 1, 2, 4, and 5 are 7 panels each. 540w CS panels, 49v each. Strings 1-3 will go to one RS450/200. Strings 4-6 will go to the other. SPDs...I might add them later, and probably in the shed, before the MPPTs, maybe leave myself some space. There's no...

That's a lot of concrete!