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One valuable part of the DIY Solar forum is the Resource Section. This has many valuable links to Papers, Manuals and websites having to do with Solar and Batteries. https://diysolarforum.com/resources/ A sub-section of the resources is dedicated to resources for beginners that has a series...

A new phase in my solar journey Anyone who has followed me on the forum knows I have a passion for moving DIY solar forward and for helping people learn. I have had my frustrated rants (for which I apologize) but my intent has always been to be helpful and move the DIY solar space forward in a...

[RANT MODE ON] I can understand when people don't understand the terminology. I can understand when people don't understand the technology. I can understand when people ask questions that show they are clueless about solar & batteries. I would even say I enjoy helping these people...

There has been a lot of discussion about ‘Zero Export’ on the 18Kpv and I would like to summarize what is going on. General Points: The term ‘Zero Export’ is used throughout the industry to talk about preventing power from being exported to the grid. The reality is that Zero Export is a bit...

After Will's review of the Trophy server rack batteries, I looked up US pricing on several different 48V server rack batteries. Edit: Corrected it to Wh (Not KWh) EG4 LiFePower4 48V 100Ah – 5.12KWH (Feb 13 '22: $1499 + shipping - $0.29/Wh) Jackiper 48V 100Ah – 5.12KWH (Feb 13 '22: $1699 +...

Folks, When setting up an inverter, one of the more important safety things to get correct is the grounding and the neutral-Ground bond. All of the inverters have a grounding lug All of the inverters have a ground connection on the AC out. Some inverters have an AC in and when they do they...

I did not like the thin buss bars that came with a set of cells I purchased, so I decided to make my own. I purchased .25" x .75" copper bar from a local metal supplier, cut and drilled them and then electroplated them with tin (They are destined for a boat). I had never done...

Here is an interesting chart on Cycle Life: Look at the charge and discharge rate. 1C for both and they still lasted over 4000 cycles before they hit 80%. In a typical solar installation, the charge and discharge rate won't be anywhere near that high. I can easily imagine a cycle...

Warning: I go full propeller head on this post!!! ? @Will Prowse just released a couple of videos about hooking parallel batteries together. One commenter claimed 4 batteries in parallel but hooked up 'Diaganaly' would stay balanced. 2 batteries in parallel with diagonal connections is...

I am seeing posts of people wanting to build 48V systems with 5 or 6KW inverters and server rack batteries. This is a nice, clean way to build a system, but be aware of the current limits on a lot of the server rack batteries. I just saw this for the Pylontec batteries: A 5000W inverter...

NOTE: After learning more about the PowerPro battery and its capabilities, I have updated this and the follow-on posts for clarity and correctness. There has been a bit of discussion on paralleling the EG4 PowerPro battery. This and the following posts show many of the most common...

EDIT: The Audit & Sizing spreadsheet can now be found in the "Resource" section of the fourm: https://diysolarforum.com/resources/system-energy-audit-and-sizing-spread-sheet.12/ In order to avoid any confusion, I will change the links in this thread to point to the resource rather than the...

I saw a cute trick for manipulating Ohm's law on one of Mike Holt's video. It can also be used with Watt's law. To remember the circles easier, drop the math operators from the circles and view it spatially:

Folks, There have been many discusions about run-away cells and I have fielded a few questions about them so I though a resource about the subject might be a good idea. I wrote something up for a resource but would like a review before posting it. The following are the 7 pages of the...

Electrons do not carry energy!!! ???

The busbars that China sends all seem to have the Bend/Hump in them. I have always installed them with the hump up. But I recently saw a pic of someone that put the hump down. That got me wondering..... is one-way better than the other? (Yes.... I am on lock down and getting board). I...

I have been investigating Rapid Shutdown on the 18Kpv and would like to offer some clarity on the capabilities and situation. 1) The 18Kpv can do rapid shutdown out of the box using the integrated Rapid Shutdown Initiator. When triggered, the inverter will shut down the AC output and the...

Why do we use a PV disconnect that breaks both the positive and negative of a PV circuit? The flippant answer is that the NEC requires it...... but that does not really explain why. What the NEC actually requires is the disconnect breaks all conductors that are not solidly grounded. Since...

Folks, I am working with the Electrodacus SBMS0 for the first time and it took me a while to figure out all the I/O pins on the green connector. Since the manual is not very clear on some of it, I thought I would share it here: If any of you see any errors or clarifications, please comment...

This high level analysis of the costs and engineering problems renewable energy presents for reliable grid power in California. Even though it is specific to CA... the problems will be the same world wide. I liken using renewable energy to a 3 legged stool. The legs being: Generation...

With Tesla deal set, Chinese battery maker CATL makes plans to quadruple output https://electrek.co/2020/02/28/with-tesla-deal-set-chinese-battery-maker-catl-makes-plans-to-quadruple-output/ In the long run this will be very good news for DIYers

I just saw an announcement from SolArk that the SolArk 15K it made it on the California-approved list: https://www.sol-ark.com/sol-ark-15k-hybrid-inverter-on-cec-list/ Note: I am in no way affiliated with SolArk

Does this explain us?

Folks, (Sorry, this got to be a long post) I recently wrote and posted this resource on over-paneling. https://diysolarforum.com/resources/overview-of-over-paneling-an-mppt-controller.229/ A reviewer pointed out the Victron Max Isc Spec on the Victron controllers and another forum member...

It speaks for itself

Another nice video from Mike Holt. Auxilary grounding rods are not required but there is a rule that states there are no requirements on an auxiliary ground e;ectrodes. At one point in the video, he talks about CAT 5 wires and 10 penny nails for the auxiliary grounding electrode. :ROFLMAO...

Do any of you have experience with Progressive Dynamics Lithium battery Chargers?? I was about to purchase a Progressive Dynamics Lithium Charger so I could charge from AC, but when I read the spec, I did not see anything about charge profile... All I could find was the output voltage. I...

I have an off-grid mountain cabin being powered by a micro-hydros system. The turbine is called a Watter Buddy. https://microhydropower.com/our-products/watter-buddy/ I get a continuous 120 Watt at nominal 24V out of this little turbine (2880 Whr/Day). (I estimate I am using 1300 W-hr/day so...

I am starting this thread to discuss Fuse/Circuit Breaker Sizing and placement. Edit: Updated the rule of thumb based on feedback in a later post from @JoeHam My rule of thumb is the protection Device should be the lower of 1) The capacity of the power source or 2) 1.25 x the expected current...

I was working on a design and came across an 'interesting' :( change around PV arc fault protection in the 2023 NEC. In the 2020 code, you could have PV circuits going to your house without arc fault protection if the circuits were in metallic raceways (Conduits), In the 2023 code they seem...

The Growatt inverter (and a few others) use a 7 segment numeric display for both letters and numbers. The result is that for some letters they had to get very creative. Most of the letters are easy to read, but a few of them took me a bit to figure out: In addition, some of their acronyms...

Hi folks, I designed this system for someone and I thought I would put it here for others to comment on and/or use. (It is intended to go on a full-sized Schoolie) One aspect to be aware of is that the DC loads have no low voltage disconnect. The only line of defense is the BMS in the...

I know I am a nerd when getting a copy of the 2023 NEC is exciting

This video has a very interesting discussion about moving the vehicle industry to 48V systems (The 48 discussion started at about 19:00) If the transition happens, it will be a big boon for us DIYers because more 48V devices and components will become available.

Does anyone know a good test to ensure a crimping process is creating a good cold-weld? I have always used a crimper and just assumed I was getting a good crimp. I have also cut a few crimps in half to check that it looks like solid copper. However, is that sufficient? Is there something...

@Will Prowse just did a video warning folks about 120V showing up on the PV lines. There have been several threads where people reported seeing voltage on the PV out. I always thought it was failed units, but Will reports it is normal on a lot of units. I can kinda understand if the 120V...

In a separate thread about inverter efficiency, @mandrews44 brought up the point that there is often a lot of power savings to be had by doing power factor correction on our equipment. We were getting way off topic on that thread so I thought I would start a new thread. @Mandrews also...

Does anyone have any experience with this: https://www.ebay.com/itm/HoldPeak-Clamp-Multimeter-Auto-Range-AC-DC-Clamp-meter-6000-Counts-Amperemeter-/384395846463 It is clearly in the 'value' market, but sometimes that can be good enough. I used a cheapo clamp-on for a few years before I...

I found this series of videos about the basics of boat wiring. This is the first of 6 videos and each is an hour long. A lot of what he talks about was not new to me, but enough of it was useful that I watched all 6 hours. I particularly liked what he had to say about the proper way to...

Both the MPP and Growatt line of inverters have a few aspects that make me wonder if it is possible to make an NEC-compliant implementation. 1) Are they UL listed? It looks to me that many (most?, all?) of the Growatt and MPP inverters to not have the proper UL ratings to meet the code. This...

As many of you know, The value-priced inverter manufacturers provide horrible documentation so I have been on a mission to understand the grounding and bonding of the popular value-priced inverters. Edit: Corrected Ground to Neutral. As part of this, the question of 'common Neutral' has come up...

It is generally accepted that if you have shading on some of the solar panels, it is better to put them in parallel so the shaded panels don't impact the unshaded panels. However, with modern panels that have two or 3 bypass diodes and MPPT controllers, is parallel really better? I am not sure...

Where is @Will Prowse ? I have not seen a new video in nearly a month!!! I am not in withdrawal yet but......

Folks, I am curious what batteries people are using with the 18Kpv? Obviously, a lot of folks (Most people?) are using EG4 batteries, but the inverter supports a wide selection of battery protocols, so I wonder what other people are doing. (Beyond my curiosity, It might also be helpful...

True story: My son's dog shit on the carpet while my son was out of his house..... and then the Rumba decided it was time to go to work. Think about it. :poop: + ?

Folks, I recently did an upgrade on a 2015 Winnebego where I had to learn a lot about their 'Battery Interconnect Manager' and 'Boost button' I thought I would share what I learned here in case any of you run into this. (From what I can tell, Winnebego had the same setup for several...

This video gives some interesting history on the history that left the US with 120V. It is in line with what I had heard before, but it gives more detail than I had heard before.