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I live about 2 hours from SS and could easily drive there for sales and support, but the horror stories I'm reading in these forum threads have given me serious pause. What else is out there that people tend to consider relatively reliable and affordable?

Simple question. If an inverter has 100W idle consumption, and the other loads amount to 4000W during peak hours, then: A) During peak hours, total consumption is 4000W. At night, when there are no other loads, minimum consumption is 100W. In this case, idle consumption is standby. B)...

I've been perusing threads where people talk about high AIO idle consumption versus component systems, and the threads typically devolve into people comparing the idle consumption between various AIO systems and inverters. One thing that I can't seem to get from the discussions (and I'm sure...

I've been doing a lot of research, and recently purchased a 12K btu mini-split. I'm puzzled by the indoor clearance requirements that were listed on all the brands I checked. They all want 6-8 inches on top of the indoor unit, and 6-14 inches on each side, which makes sense to me. However, they...

The subject pretty much says it all. Many all-in-ones can be configured to use PV first, then battery, then utility (generator), or some other sequence. The question is, if the inverter is sending power directly from the panels to the load, does the charger still send any unused power to the...

We're trying to go bargain basement on a mini-split. I know there are units that do 2 or 3 zones, but those are expensive and right now we just want to cool a bedroom. If we buy a cheap $750 12000 btu 110V 20 SEER mini split for the bedroom, and then later we decide to cool another part of the...

This is only tangentially related to solar, but it is relevant to off-grid living, so it is in the same orbit. Is it safe to drink the water that my Honeywell 9000 btu portable A/C unit emits from the de-humidifying process? Or our 12K mini-split, soon to be installed? Anybody know?

There will be 16 panels on my roof. However, the only place where I have space for the rest of the components--48V batteries, all-in-ones, etc--is in a shed about 40 feet away. So the power will go 40' from the roof to the shed, then another 40' back from the shed to the house. Is that a problem...

I'm having a hard time finding a good affordable AIO that won't eat too much power with idle consumption. Sol-Ark, Victron, and Midnite Solar have low idle, but are not in my budget. I can afford MPP, GroWatt, and EG4, but those are idle power hogs. So now I'm wondering, could I do better with a...

I know this is a stupid question, and there are many factors that go into a cooling design, way more than we could dig into here, so this is a Hail Mary play. Please be kind even if you think I'm an idiot. The downstairs is 800 ft^2, of which 180 ft^2 is the bedroom. The living room and kitchen...

Need advice right now. Just now I was planning to top off my batteries. I grabbed two gallons of purified water from the shed and went to work. The first couple of cells I checked were not as low as I thought. I poured maybe several tablespoons of what I thought was water into them, then...

Anybody know if the EG4 6500 EX48 AIO is high frequency or low frequency? If the answer is in the spec sheet, I don't see it, but I may not know what I'm looking for.

I'm thinking of stacking 4 x SignatureSolar EG4 LifePower 48V batteries. A year or two from now, I might need more capacity, and I might want to add 2 more batteries. Are there problems adding new batteries to an existing stack? From my reading so far, I am getting the impression that it should...

I live in a region where the temperature goes below freezing for a few weeks during winter and above 100 degrees for a few weeks during summer, and I am trying to figure out the optimal location for my solar components and battery bank. I'm considering Sig Solar’s EG4 6500EX-48 inverters and EG4...

I want to run my well pump off solar. The Inverter I have in mind has enough power, but it only outputs 1-Phase 120V. I can buy a converter to turn 1P 120V into 3P 240V for about $300. Wouldn't that be a lot more economical and space efficient than trying to parallel inverters? What am I missing?

We all know that manufacturers' specs are based on ideal test conditions and may also include a dose of wishful thinking, so I'm not going to quote any here. For those of you who are experienced with solar, what would you say is a realistic expectation for the useful lifetimes of components such...

We hired a guy to do a mini-split install. He worked quickly and confidently, and seemed to have a lot of experience, but he did not do a couple of things that I saw in all the instructional YouTube videos we watched. For one thing, he did not use a vacuum pump and gauge, like we saw in all the...