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Just joining, wish I had discovered this forum a year or so previous! We are in the process of permitting an off-grid cabin build on land we purchased in Virginia. Two years ago we purchased a Renogy package consisting of 320 Watt panels, a Renogy 3500 watt 48 volt inverter, and 4 - 200ah acid...

Having lived through the first summer we might not need an AC unit for the final build as it does get cooler at this elevation at night and the airflow makes it very tolerable. However, humidity might be a factor. My parents have a log home in Massachusetts and they were shocked to find mildew...

Thanks! Luckily just a few things to disconnect.

Hydro would be a cool addition, but we get less than 1 gpm over most of the seasons from this spring. That is plenty for our meager needs (hey, who says you need a shower daily?)

I dodged a bullet! I went back out to the solar panels and checked every connection and found one of the connectors pulled out! It must have been one of our three dogs running thru the area. I have the panels low to the ground because we are on the side of a mountain and the wind can be a bit...

I appreciate all your help on this system over the past year! When I build the main cabin (this is a temporary one while we pursue our dream log home) I think I will do more planning from the start and maybe a different system. Building inspector will approve 100% off-grid on the new cabin...

Thanks for the quick replies! It does sound like this could be a bad battery or possible bad connection in the series (slowly checking in between work obligations). As an update, in order to prepare all our devices for the next day I ran the generator to be sure all laptops and cell phones...

Adding, first paragraph typo, Tuesday night batteries were at 49 volts, certainly not 59 vokts!

So, the good news is that the majority of items we use in our off grid cabin are 240 volt capable (laptops for work, external monitors, Starlink satellite and TV) so I'm thinking we stick with this configuration (in the US) until we build our permanent cabin. At this point I assume that the...

We are off gird with solar and generator. We purchased the Growatt 5000 ES a few months ago, connected to 4 Renogy 200ah 12 volt batteries and it has been working fine until recently. This past week I've noticed that even with decent to good solar input 200-275 volt PV input, the LCD display...

I have a similar system (i.e. Growatt spf 5000 es) that has been working for months now (although not consistently charging the batteries well). I currently have 7 Renogy panels RNG-320D through a combiner panel. However, today while sitting here working remotely I looked over to keep an eye...

I purchased a Growatt 5000 ES from Signature Solar in Jan 2024 so, based on other threads I have read, this should be a "US" version of the unit as this is all that Signature Solar has been selling? The application I am using is 100% off grid meaning a cabin in the woods that is only powered...

....and I just checked that it will take line voltage from the generator and is charging the batteries. They were being charged earlier today with full sun and now show 0 volt PV input. If I apply logic, knowing that this was all working earlier today, I'm thinking that one of our dogs or...

The oil has been changed twice, but not a bad idea to check the carburetor. We had a 4x4 sent to a local mechanic to have the carburetor cleaned and adjusted two years ago. They charged almost $500 and then told us they think the block was cracked - would not run (it was running when we...

We use a Firman generator that produces 7500 watts (9500 peak) connected to the Growatt 5000ES with 240volt as the line input for supplemental during the winter when solar input is limited. I had been using a smaller Champion 4000W/5000W peak generator for over a year, but recently during this...

That's probably the case if it was charging the 48volt batteries and running a heater at the same time. I had never scrolled thru the display until last night and saw how much that inverter pushes while charging. Time to educate myself more on this.

OK - something I hadn't thought of. I have a generator wired in to inverter/charger utility input for cloudy days when the solar does not charge the batteries enough. My first inverter/charger was smaller and 120 only, so I had a setup with a 30 amp RV plug wired to that older inverter that...

We just switched from a Renogy 48v 3500 watt all in one inverter to a Growatt 48v 5000w ES inverter over the weekend. We have 8 Renogy solar panels that are rated for max 40 VOC with 32 volt typical output. With the Renogy inverter, we were limited to a maximum of 140 volt input so we ran...

This is an awesome comparison! Sounds like a good plan to go with the electric model. Of course, I have heard some horror stories on long term reliability of the newer appliances - currently running a vintage 1990s RV fridge off propane and you are right on the money about the propane...