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Installing for my sister, 32 panel array 455w per panel, Sinclair Sky Rack ground mount. The posts are made to be driven about 7 feet into the ground, but not where we live. Backhoe and concrete is our solution. Recommended 24"x60" concrete footing per post, if you can auger that size of a...

I put this system in June 2019, my first. We have great grid tie laws in Arkansas. Full credit for any excess that goes onto the grid. I get $$ credit on my account monthly with monthly energy cost adjustment. This credit pays for my monthly service access fee and a bit more. I oversized...

Not sure how old you are Dzl, but it is rarely too late to start learning. I have a 3D printer less than one year. The design software I use is Fusion 360, free for home/non business use. Previously my 3D CAD skills were limited to cylinders and cutting holes in existing designs, but after a...

I just drove a ground rod into the ground under my array and bonded copper wire to that and then to the panel frames.

I am almost to retirement and my power bill (total electric) is my meter service fee of less than $23 per month. I had the money on the bank for my install, got some tax break from US government, and my R.O.I. is just over 7 years from my June 2019 install date. Avoiding $200 or so per month...

I see now why Amazon is sold out on shunts! Welcome.

"The last thing I learned is, that there are new alternative microinverters that are UL Listed, CA Rule 21 approved, and are less than half the price of Enphase. They are very user-friendly for DIYers and practically plug-n-play." Please share what you learned.

HP laptop power supplies can be used for charger power sources. I put a more friendly cable end on them as the first step. They output about 19v DC. The cable has 3 conductors. The two outer layers are the power leads. The center is used for some signal between the computer and the power...

Just sharing some test information..... I have some 32700 cells and did a quick test on three different type/sourced cells. The test was not to prove capacity but to compare one type to the other for usable power, (without discharging too much). The data was collected using an iCharger x8 set...

One year update. Extra power is $$ credit on my bill to help pay the $22 per month meter service fee. My low credit over the winter was $4, so I just was able to not pay any out of pocket to the power company. I am closing the first year out with $95 credit on my account after paying my $22...

This was built with Battery Hookup's 32x650 LiFePo4 100ah cell packs, 2P4S. Overkill Solar type 120amp BMS. 1500w pure sine wave inverter. Kil-o-watt meter showed 2.51kwh with discharge to 2.80v per cell cutoff.

Shananigans1969, feel free to start a "conversation" with me using the little envelope icon at the top right, by your account name. I would be happy to devote time and effort to help you any way that I can. I understand you are trying to be ready for power outage because you have some critical...

If you put a volt meter at the battery and see 11v, you are seeing the battery's internal effective resistance causing this. If you put a volt meter at the inverter's terminals and it says 11v but measured right on the battery terminals you see (say) 12.3v, then your "drop" is in your wiring...

I have worked in the electric motor industry for 40+ years (engineering office not field work). When a customer needs to operate either at high altitude or at high ambient temperature we will do the math and de-rate a product to meet their needs. For example the customer might need to run a 10...

Maybe put everything in the bus and then plug it into the PV and AC for the barn, when parked. No AC for the barn when camping?

Read the battery specifications to see what they say, but somewhere around 3.2v per cell would be your bottom cutoff voltage for long life of the cells. I am building a similar but smaller bank and I am thinking I will charge only to 4.1 volts but 4.2 is typical for over the counter 18650...

I just started reading this thread, so someone might have mentioned this already...."When your compression spring application requires a high load in a small space, Lee Spring’s Belleville Washers can be the solution." I work for an electric motor MFG and for certain customers that want the...

3D printed some terminal covers.

Just an update on our "inspection" process. I am with the same power company as the O.P. The power company wants the inspection done by someone with a contractor's license and also master electrician license. We found a guy that will do it and he happens to own a generator installation and...

I broke down and spent the money for all Iron Ridge mounting hardware. All four fasteners that hold the panels are bonded to the rails and for each rail pair, I used one of those ground lugs like you have shown above. The bare #6 wire runs to a 8foot ground rod at each of my ground mounts. I...

I am fairly new to the forum and have noticed on several threads people that might need a little help understanding what is referred to as “split phase”. In fact is it just simply that the secondary winding of the power transformer has a wire connected in the middle of the winding so that it...

With forum communication it is often difficult to understand the tone of a person's writing. My reply here is why I think this way and I am not trying to say that you should think this way....but you are free to change your mind (as always). You see "lack of warranty" as a minus. I see "I...

It is all about the wire cross sectional area. 2 x 1/0 is the same as 1 x 4/0. 4 x #3 is the same as 4/0. 2 x 2/0 has more cross section (lower resistance per length) than 1 x 4/0 would have. Smaller diameter wire has some handling advantages. Here is a chart. Look at the mm2 column and...

You may want to have that switch anyway but I will also mention (for everyone), the BMS Bluetooth software will allow you to turn it off and on as well as that switch port.

I have been tinkering with an emergency battery/inverter system and part of the plan is to be able to charge from a generator if there is not much sunshine. If I could get enough charge in the battery to carry critical loads overnight, that would be great. I have a 24v battery and found you...

Added a 40A solar charger. There are molded holes in the stiffeners that are part of the lid. These holes will except 5/16" lag screws. I was able to mount the AL plate without drilling through the lid skin.

I had no specific interest in Solar about this time last year. I was interested in building a portable 115v AC power supply and being able to recharge it off of solar. I discovered that large commercial panels were a lot cheaper than 100w Amazon panels. During this process I discovered the...

Some more food for thought. Without a speed control the speed is a result of motor torque (amp related) and fan load (speed and fan shape/size related). The motor torque curve crosses the fan load curve as the speed where the fan runs under some specific air conditions. If you increase the...

Have you noticed the thread about putting pressure on these type cells, to stop them from swelling on the large side? (you should look at that concern).

Yes

If you are running less than 100w, maybe something smaller than 1000w would make more sense. Just being "on" causes some power consumption and larger inverters tend to use more power just being on. I like the Giandel brand. Here is a 500w offering. Note, cheap inverters will work until they...

If you know what you are doing, mixing them could work for you. I would keep the Li-ion cells inside the normal discharge curve of the LiFePo4s. I did it (for testing) with a 24v setup, 8 LiFePo4s in series paralleled with 7 Li-Ion in series. I did a test and posted a report on this forum...

Unless someone has studied series and parallel circuits the auto-transormer to create the neutral not easy to understand. It would be worth your time to study and try to understand it. I will try to explain but I am not sure it will be clear. Suppose you have a 2000w, 240v load on the output...

Have you done any temp adjusted Voc calculations? If you live where it gets cold, you have to take that into account. I would check with Growatt if the document contradicts itself.

This is more typical of a 60cell panel, Open circuit voltage (VOC): 37.4 V Max power voltage (VMP): 30.2 V These numbers are too bit high to put 4 in series on a 150v max input, but your panels are just enough lower Voc that you can get by with it. Interesting:)

If you could put your power switching (remote) at the pump site and could put a small 12v battery at the site, in parallel with your main battery, during pump operations the local battery could keep the voltage up. It would then "recharge" when the pump was off. Your main power run wouldn't...

1. get a Walmart deep cycle 12v battery 2. get an inverter, 500 watts. It can be a modified sine wave type. 3. get a solar panel and solar charger to recharge the battery during the day. Make sure to use LED lighting and be aware of how much power you have in the battery and how much you...

The inverter or MPPT charger create a load that the panels are expected to deliver. When the inverter is drawing max power from the panels, it would be pulling no more than the 18.1 amps. If the solar array can only deliver 15 amps, then the inverter can only get 15 amps. If the solar array...

Trouble shooting..... 1. Disconnect the balance connector from the BMS. 2. Using a DC meter connect the black meter lead to the negative of the battery and keep it there. 3. Using the positive meter lead, probe/voltage test the pins at the end of the disconnected balance connector... a...

I found some on Craig's list. Most larger cities, someone has some from a solar farm that have been replaced. Most are well used and only make about 80% but if you can mount them cheaply and have enough room, they work. Santan Solar is good to business with but their used inventory has been...

Great reply but "standard car battery" maybe should be a deep cycle.

I found this box with cell holders on Ebay. I put some salvaged cells in it (about 2300mah ea). It tested 16.5ah. The third image shows my build (1170grams) beside a lead acid 7ah (2490 grams). More than twice the power and less than half the weight.

I have some old HP laptop power supplies that I like to use to power CC/CV charger boards. The rating on this type of power supply are commonly 120 watts up to 230 watts. I found a boost converter/charger that will take the 19volts from the power supply up to the voltage needed for a 24v...

Power distribution between the source and the load is not something obvious. The source's internal resistance, the wiring/connector resistance, and the internal resistance of the charger(load) create a series circuit. Your panel will only produce the watts that the load is demanding. If you...

https://store.santansolar.com/product-category/solar-panels/ Sells used panels and new panels that they were able to get a deal on. I bought some new panels that were about 3 year old technology=less cost. I think they have stock that may not appear on their web site. If you are ready to...

Look for the term "stackable" when shopping. Those of the same model that are stackable, can be put in parallel. They have a way to allow one to be the master and set the base AC waveform and then the others sync to the master.

Grid tied inverter should try to get max power, for current solar conditions. For a vertical wall type mount, this time of year is about the worse.

The things that I build, I understand. I enjoy building things. If I built and it fails, I learn (maybe) but I also know what it takes to fix it. Packaging something you build is one of the real challenges. 3D printers have really helped in packaging as a person can make mounting spacers...

Your subject says, "Dump Heater". You can have a DC heater. I have been using an oil filled 120v AC radiator type heater, turned on to max so the thermostat will not switch off and on. I run 6, 60cell panels in a 3p2s configuration. The heater runs about 70% of its rated power, based on the...

I have one of those solar (remote panel) motion security lights on my porch with a 5 cell Ni-Cad battery that has died for the second time. 5x1.25v would be in the range of 2x3.25v (LiFePo4) but you don't see 2 cell LiFePo4 BMS around. This system had a 11v open circuit solar panel on it and...

It might be confusing but it is not hard to learn. Knowledge is power....to make the correct choice for yourself. Amps is current flow Amp Hours is current flow over time Power (watts) is amps times voltage Watt hours or Watt hours x 1000 (KWH) is Power over time My little coffee maker uses...

Yes the capacitors will bleed down. Maybe only a few minutes if they have a bleed resister inside. You don't have to unbolt the cables. You just need to somehow jumper some power to the capacitors. Some clip leads and a resistor. You can also use a small battery pack made from something...

A meter is your friend. I put a meter on pretty much everything as a practice, for initial connection work.

An AIO that can pass grid AC when solar/battery conditions are not to your liking and also run off the solar/battery when there is no grid, would seem to make sense to run your critical loads. They have internal switching and some are pretty flexible about their profiles. Others are less than...

It is common that someone wants to run an AC well pump off an inverter but the starting current is a problem. Often soft starters or variable speed starter/pump solutions will solve the problem. I stumbled across this video on Youtube and it has a lot of good basic lessons in addition to...

Total electric and my bill is $23 a month (meter/grid service fee). We do have considerable heating and cooling demand. Our bill was in the $120-$150 per month when we installed solar in 2019. Self installed for about $14k with a ROI of just over 7 years. Planning to retire next year with a...

Maybe just butt them up and seal the joints. Example.

Just my thoughts........I would consider the questions.... 1. Do I want to keep it running (saving my bill) without interruption? 2. Do I want to increase the size so that it would take my electric bill down to near zero? If the answer to both question was, Yes, then consider expanding the...

If the batteries are at the same voltage, there will be no current flow. I use the JBD BMS with bluetooth. You can turn each of the batteries off with the BMS software. You can load or charge one of the batteries until it matches the other and then turn the second one on.

Have you considered something like this?

Please report when operational.

Use my example. I put in a 60amp sub panel. I pulled 4 critical house circuits out of my main panel and moved them to the sub panel. The sub panel came with two 60 "main breakers", but only one can be on at a time. Actually they are not "main breakers" but the input feed. Under normal...

The O.P. says he sees the moon icon. If the battery was charged and PV was present, he should be seeing the SunPanel and battery icon.....if I understand correctly.

I am thinking of ways to perform some troubleshooting that will give additional information. If the inverter is on but there is no load on the inverter, when you apply power from the generator, the battery should charge. Have you tested like this with no load on the inverter? Also, many all...

Looks good. You might ask yourself, "How often will I disconnect my battery from my inverter?" I got mine hooked up and have not disconnect it yet. I take that back, I disassembled everything and painted the garage floor, then put it all back. When I connect my battery to the inverter, I...

I think I would be canceling the order if the delivery time was not to my liking. The delivery should be as stated in the listing.

The UPS for a computer, would that work for your application? Some are pretty small.

Trying to think about the phase angle just makes one's head hurt and can be confusing. If you looked at the two ends of a transformer secondary winding, you would never start talking about the phase angle difference of those two ends. It is just the two ends and you have a voltage across those...

If you have your inverter already, 12v or 24v is no longer a question.

Get 3 or 6 of these cells. (3 in series for 12v, parallel 3 more for more power, longer run) Get a couple of these charger boards. (one per battery pack) 18v solar panels (one per charger board, unless you want to charge faster) Some BMS boards (one per battery pack) That will get your battery...

The Bluetti (and other similar devices) have the battery and inverter build in. You need to charge the battery by plugging it into the wall outlet. If you have the need to charge it from solar or from a car alternator (not ideal) you will need to get more questions answered, learn more. Also...

I think the answer will be based on voltage of the 410' run. If (for example) you compare 400v DC with 240v AC, the DC will win. If however you compare 400v DC with 480v AC, the AC will win.....in regards to amps and wire size. I think it will be easier to deal with higher voltage DC than...

If you load the inverter to 5000watts with a 48v battery, you will need a little more than 100amps. So your BMS would need to be rated at more than 100 amps if you want to carry the full 5000 watt load. Is that what you are asking?

Multiple parallel batteries can be serviced/removed and the system still be operational. In the case of this thread, 2p16s x 2 might be my best choice, trying to get the best of both worlds.

You don't say where in the UK but Greenwich is about 50 degrees latitude, so your panels should be about 50 degrees, ideally. So you will be hurt from that angle difference. I am at 35 degrees with my panels at 35 degrees. My last good day was 3 Dec. I was peaking at 8900w. Other times of...

Sorry but "You should connect the leads to the Inverter while it is powered off (and no sparks should result!)." is not correct at all. The power switch does not switch the high current feeding in from the battery. The DC from the battery charges up some large capacitors to the battery...

I will step back to the beginning to help this make good sense. I first studied tilt information to see what angle I needed. I looked at the previous 2 years power bills to see what my typical power consumption was. I then ran the PV Watts Calculator to see what size system I needed to get...

Do you have a way to see a record of the power output by the inverter over a period of time? It would be helpful to see what the inverter load is doing overnight. You can also search your house for any power load that you might not be taking into consideration. Maybe a freezer that has a...

If the Victron is charging the batteries, the voltage will drop to be close to the Vmax (series) number. I would not expect it to be cut in half, but if it is not full sun, any percent can be correct for that given lighting conditions. Assuming your Victron is a MPPT type.

" maximum PV wattage production capability ", you have to trust the specifications of the panels or test them. What they can actually produce is very much temperature dependent. Actually getting the rated power doesn't happen very often, if ever. One of the panel ratings is voltage at max...

About 2 meters deep in the ground, the ground should be a lot cooler than the air (25C). You could make a liquid cooling loop and dump the heat into the ground. This is how a geothermal cooled air conditioner works. Pumps cool water in a pipe, the water It cools the Freon, and then circulates...

SanTan Solar has good deals on panels, new and used. I have no ties with SanTan but I am a repeat customer.

When you are all finished you should have your charger set to not charge to 3.65v per cell, something less. Also, you can adjust those BMS protection settings to be slightly higher than your charger to protect any cell that might want to run too far ahead.

Do the batteries have a BMS? If they have a BMS, almost any power source will work.

While your frig is running, amp are flowing from the battery to the inverter.....if there is a bad connections it will have voltage across that connection. You need to look for voltage across each connection, where your battery cables are inside the battery, bus bars, battery to battery cable...

A soft start is meant to spread the start over a longer period of time, reducing peak current (not reducing required work). The actual work of starting the load is roughly the same if it starts in 1 second, 5 seconds, or 10 seconds.

An inverter that doesn't require a battery like this one is needed. I think you would need to restrict the car to demand less than the current solar power was producing. A small battery to deliver power when a bird or small cloud passes over would seem to make sense. Then if the battery voltage...

You might consider replacing your charger to allow higher input volts.

I just ordered 8 of the 280ah Eve cells ($80 ea). Thanks for starting this thread.

The charger in the Growatt is a load on the PV panels that the Growatt controls. It will load the panels up to 18amps. The PV input volts is max volts for the input connection. The max amps is the amps that the Growatt will draw. This number is useful to size switches, wires, etc, so you...

I don't know what type of mounts you have but with more total panel power than SCC capacity, you can angle some of your panels a little for better morning sun and some for better evening sun, allowing you to hit your 40amps a bit earlier in the day and hold it for later in the day. The goal...

Last weekend I traveled to my brother's hunting land where they have a couple of shacks. We installed one large panel on a ground mount, a box with battery, inverter, etc to provide lighting for our hunting trips.

80%, I got some really good used ones (once) and some low 80% as well. I am all for those that are used and produce 95% or rating. Mounting costs are one factor, for sure. If you are going with name brand mounting hardware, extra panels are extra cost of that expensive hardware.

There is considerable time and work in a solar installation. The people are trying to make a living, so they need to profit. All installed systems seem expensive from a DIY point of view. I did mine myself. If you do some research you can find the information you need to know how to do it...

Answer....for example....I have about 4000watts of emergency solar panels and about 10kwh of batteries. I don't like to run down my batteries if not an emergency but on a sunny day, maybe use some of that solar. I can switch my "critical loads" panel over to the emergency inverter. If it is...

From memory....100% is full 2 axis tracking. 70% for fixed at ideal average angle, less than 74% if adjusted 4 times a year, something like 71.5-72% if adjusted 2 times a year. I made mine fixed and a little larger.

I keep thinking that is, if you want to do something with solar that asking "how much will it cost?" is sort of funny. Not that you can't do solar on a budget with a good plan, but that there are just so many decision points and options that continuous improvement turns my project into a money pit.

I apologize to the thread author for hijacking the thread and my goal is not to argue. My goal is to try to show a better understanding of split phase. There are many images of center tap transformer circuits in public view that show the two outputs being out of phase. BUT that is because the...

I have 2 Growatts and one EPEver charging one battery bank. Something you might consider is something like a Victron Smart Shunt. It will show sum of current into or out of battery. If both Growatts are charging, outputing, and the EPEver is charging the net sum of the current is going...

I have found the user manual to be fairly helpful. Some users don't know what they want to do in regards to how hard or easy they want to treat their batteries. Far be it from me to tell someone, "you should charge to 3.50v per cell" when they need to learn enough to decide for themselves. I...