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We had a good snow yesterday. I have 400 Watt Canadian Solar bifacial panels ground mounted. So far, this winter, if I see 2000 watts out of each string of 7, I am happy. With all this snow and reflection, I am seeing 2800+ watts out of each string. Cool.

This past November, I installed an 18KPV, 12Kw of panels and 60 kWh of batteries. This past month, I actually ran everything the way it should be run. I have 1 to 1 net metering, and previous months I was charging batteries from grid, then running from batteries, and basically costing myself...

This is why we have firmware updates. Users in real life have a way of finding how to break unbroken things.

I'll chime in here. I have an 18kpv set up as a UPS for the house until I get all permits, etc. My house is 2000 sq ft, 500' deep well, 3 ton geo heat/AC, and electric DWH. Yesterday, I ran all of this for 12 hours. Most of the time the load was around 2k, but there were times it was north...

Fwiw, I've spent well north of $40k with SS this year, over multiple orders, and haven't had a problem yet. Customer service and support has been very good

Ditto. My father is useless with his hands, his person and his mind. My least favorite person in the world. But I did use him to learn a lot, by doing the opposite of him Treat women well, don't beat them Stay off drugs, instead of dealing them and being addicted Take care of your...

It takes a lot of solar to charge an EV. Without too much detail, your 6 panels, on a great day, with all the right stuff, would probably add 20 miles of range, based on 3 mi per kwh. Welcome to the insanity

Whelp, today I crossed 4 mWh of solar on my 18, along with almost another mWh through my AC coupling. No issues and super happy. This months electric bill was $11 (fees) and banked 150 kWh.

Well as a test I put the 18 in place with just battery and load, going into my generator backfeed. Killed the mains, opened up the generator backfeed, and boom, 18 was feeding the whole house. Nifty. After a few minutes the fans are running like mad. Look on the panel and the house is...

Necro thread revival. Temp installed 8 of the NE panels yesterday and they are working great. Easy peasy with the EG Brightmount racks.

Here are 4 of them. They should have 8 panels, but I goofed on footer spacing. The rest are going up in the spring.

I'm facing almost due south

One of the reasons I purchased my EV is that, combined with solar, I will always be able to get some level of powered vehicle. You know in mini SHTF scenarios. Like when Sandy happened here in the northeast, and you couldn't get gas for like 2 weeks, and people were fist fighting at gas pumps...

Today I ran a test in an off-grid scenario. Main breaker off. Inverter feeding the generator breaker in main panel. Ran whole house, well pump, 3 ton geo unit, and HWH. It was bumping right up against the 12k limit at times, and ran fine. Most of the time it was running around 1-2 k, until...

Not a magic smoke post, but a newbie error I made, hope to educate other newbies. I went live with Solar and Batteries in November of 23. I had several thoughts in my head, re batteries. 1 - It's cool to run off batteries 2 - I need to fully cycle batteries, to keep them healthy 1 is...

Only challenge here is $. My EV, for example, has about 100 KWH battery. I commute about 90 miles per day, round it out to about 30 KWH. So for a typical day, I'd need a full rack of LifePower 4 to charge the EV overnight, and enough panels to charge that back during a normal day, so call it...

I have 6 Brightmounts. If I need more ground mounts, I will buy more brightmounts.

All of it, 2023 is my first time installing or having solar. I am very fond of my 18kpv, and Lifepower4 batteries. Have lost power several times, as is the norm, and life goes on, uninterrupted. Even with crappy December solar production, I'm running 4+ days before I need to charge from grid

I'm a happy customer, well over $30K with them.

No question, just a comment. Just went past 3 MWH on my 18 today, since November 23.

Holy cow. This thread is still going? I like turtles.

Put in a dual zone mini split. Pretty uneventful and straightforward. One zone is taking care of a humidity problem I had in a tall stair tower, and the other is taking the edge off the garage on hot days. Still have central HVAC, which I am replacing with a separate mini split and central unit.

Edited to correct mistake. edit is BOLD asking for a friend...... If this inverter was connected to the load panel through the load connection, and the main breaker on the load panel is off, it will run the loads on that panel. IF the main breaker got turned on, would the inverter sense this...

The PP can only put out 33 Amps at 240, I think. That might be the issue. Recommended discharge is 160 amps. 160*50 = 8,000. /240 = 33.

Things I don't believe: The check is in the mail. Santa Claus is real, lives on the North Pole and flies around the entire world in 1 day. Bigfoot is real. Insurance company doing something purely for the benefit of policyholders.

Guess it is time to provide some more info. Now I have the 18k running as whole house backup. 60kwh of batteries. 2 strings of 9, 2 strings of 7 400 watt panels. Also have a Growatt 11k inverter running as AC Coupled. Right now, that has 2 strings of 8 and one string of 4 370 watt panels...

As George Carlin said, the Earth will just shake us off like fleas, and continue on.

Two so far, neither catastrophic. Doing my ground mounts, I had 36 on center in my head, instead of 51. Ended up with 7 instead of 9 panels in each string. Wiring all my PV in the garage in PVC conduit. Nice, neat, hours of time and whump whump, had to rip it all out for metal conduit and boxes.

As an intro, I figured I would post my project. Background: A few months ago, we decided to go solar to try and remove our electric bill, and provide whole home UPS not relying on a generator. After getting quotes from some local solar companies, and looking into DIY, the price difference...

I had a vendor trying to sell me a firewall. I asked if it had LRF support. He assured me it did. I asked him for his definition of LRF. He didn't have an answer. He asked me what it meant. I told him Little Rubber Feet, so it wouldn't slip off the tray in the rack. Didn't buy from him.

Outdoor wood boiler is what I went with. Have 2 indoor stoves, but those haven't seen a single log since I got the boiler. It integrates with your regular forced air HVAC system, or with radiant heat, etc. Also heats hot water for free.

About half of my main solar panels are on a north facing roof, very shallow pitch. From September to April, they don't do a lot, but April through September, they rock. I live in a very wooded area, so my south facing panels get good sun for a lot of the day, but after 2 PM, they really drop...

Your ATS is your first means of disconnect, and I believe per NEC, that is where ground has to be. You would unbond at main panel.

Mine are scheduled to be delivered tomorrow. Exciting. Ground mounts getting delivered too. Saturday is last day of gun hunting season, but Sunday looks to be a busy one!

I've placed 9 orders, between March and December of this year. Total just a bit more than $40K. No complaints and customer service has been great. Sometimes there is a wait to get an answer, but many times I get right to a person and get my answer. I've had them have to research and get back...

I know I am late to the party, but these two arrays are identical. Same panels, same orientation, and about 14' apart (to account for shading), each goes into my 18 KPV. The difference is the angle, a difference of about 10-15 degrees. You can see the production difference.

Well I had a perfect storm of sorts last night. Yesterday was an almost zero solar day, so I had set my AC discharge higher than normal, to make sure i had battery juice in case of an outage. I set it to 60%. When I got home, since we were running on grid power, I decided to plug in my EV...

Batteries. But I'm a battery fool. I've got 60 kWh and I want moooorreeee

We got down to high single digits, a few days of low teens. Everything running as expected, nothing really of note. We heat with a wood boiler. One of the best decisions I've made.

Yeah my choice of batteries was 50% convenience, 25% cool factor, 25% tin foil hat SHTF.

I have on AC Coupled to my 18kpv. I like it, but the batteries for it are very very expensive, I do not have any. My batteries are connected to 18. No control panel or display. Directions are borderline useless, but setup is straightforward. I don't know if I would use it as my primary, but...

Here is most of this winters wood. Rented a big processor. I liked it so much I ended up buying a small processor. Ran it about 3 hours and made 2 chords.

Case 1 - On- Yes, you can draw from the grid, up to 200 Amps Case 1 - Down- You are at max, since AC Couple is only giving 3. 3+12 from 18 = 15, so you are OK. Case 2 - 8kw- Load is fed, excess goes to batteries. When batteries get to a set point you control, the AC Couple will be ramped...

Yes. must have missed that.. TY for it.

Careful, it gets addicting

Mine came today. Haven't opened the pallet, but looks good, fast delivery, and they followed up this AM to make sure trucking company had coordinated with me. Trucking company was a little late, so I emailed the vendor, she got back to me in a few minutes, she had called trucking company and...

I'm very happy with mine as well. I have 4 in place, and am adding a 5th this weekend.

Do we all realize that this type of back and forth has gone on re solar power since the 80s, and here we all are with solar systems? Don't want or like an EV? Cool. Don't get one. Like them? Cool, get one. Love them? Cool, get 3. Hate them? Cool, buy a 1978 diesel pickup.

For my money, I'd go 1.5" for ease of pull. It's a couple extra bucks, but it will be a lot easier.

If you really wanted the extra 5 degrees, I'd just put some washers under the rear mounting holes of the brightmount and put in longer anchor bolts. But check the PV calculators for your area. When I did mine, the difference between "optimal" and 10 degrees +- was not a lot.

Just went and checked my bill from 2 years ago again. Use was 3,100 KWH. This month it was 275, net zero, with a credit. Bill could have been $550. So yeah, 98% savings. I'm happy.

Dudes and dudettes, it's a free tool to make our lives easier. Jeez. Updated all 12 of my batteries and the Hub (not using this tool). Was easy enough.

If this is your first means of disconnect, you would need to bond the ground and neutral, and the bond in main panel would have to be removed.

April started off crappy here in the northeast. Been raining for 5 days. I think I've produced about 15 kwh, less thand a third of a decent day's production normally.

This. To some people DIY, is 3 panels, a car battery and a $500 inverter/mppt running a fridge. Others spend tens of thousands on full on systems, that run their whole homes.

THWN, should be good

They were happy with what was provided, PA

Reason # 4,387 to hate raccoons.

Yeah, my panels were 70lbs each and big. Wrestling them on the roof solo was fun...... pause..... not!

I had a couple batteries that displayed this weirdness. What I did was just take the other batteries offline, then let the weird ones charge by themselves, they got to 100% SOC, then brought the others back online.

Go for the east west thing, if it fits you best. My north facing panels are useless 6 months out of hte year, but 6 months they give me tons of power, which is what I wanted.

Yes, not commenting on the car itself, just the charging. If charging at home, which is what I do vast majority of the time, it is a non issue. But if you will be relying on DC chargers, the time investment of sitting there is a lot.

It's looking like Victron 150/35 is probably where I would have to go. Now to find panels!

Oh boy, new rabbit hole. I have an outbuilding that I can make into an off grid setup with my mpp lv6048. If I am reading this stuff right, I could take the AC power from there and run it into the gen port on the 18kpv, enable AC coupling, and pull power from the outbuilding solar as AC. Is...

Yeah, I have some cheapo 2K inverter wired in to the SXS, to run tools, etc. Used it on a cement mixer last year, to pour the footers for my ground mounts. Circle of life.

Yes it can, yes you could, and more than you'd imagine. Just search YouTube, tons of useful vids

I actually have something like this as an absolute backup. My SXS is electric with 48 volt batteries. Total capacity is about 13 KWH. I have a BB175 Anderson connector into the batteries in the SXS. I have another BB175 that I can connect to my Inverter, worst case scenario. Worst case is...

Well, went with eco-worthy controller And 2 flexible panels. Using the 20% off coupon, ended up well under $300. By my calculations, in a good day, this will give me 3-5 extra miles, or charge cart from empty to full in 10 days, lol. Not that I ever drain battery all the way down. While I...

This month's bill was $-51, including fees. Same month, last year was $270, and I have added EVs to the mix since then, so it is even better.

Chargeverter

I am all for people making a living, but when I can build my system for $50k ish, including using an electrician for the heavy stuff, and the best quote I could get was $100K, then there is greed involved. Tell me $70K, and I'm good. That is still a 40% profit margin.

My understanding is that you can go over the 30 Amp, the system will limit the import to 30, however.

So I finally got around to bringing my Growatt 11 up as an AC Coupled addition to my 18 kpv. Today's project was putting up cement board, installing a 50 amp breaker/disconnect, mounting the Growatt, running 6 Gauge wire between 18, disconnect and Growatt. Took a couple hours, but the physical...

Well, I did the voltage instead of SOC thing. Did an AC charge overnight. Then went in and turned off all batteries except 1, it took a bit of a charge, and then went into standby. I repeated this with all 12 batteries, where each one was the only battery running. After that, turned them...

I used concrete sewer pipes, filled with concrete for mine.

This looks very very cool. Reading the guide now, this really seems to hit a lot of scenarios. Look forward to playing with it. Can't wait to hear about "Weather Optimize"

OK, so I am a nerd. I purchased a couple 25 watt solar panels, a controller and brackets from eco-worthy. I jury rigged the panels into 2p. Controller can handle 10 amps, each panel is 1.5 or so, so no issue. Terrible little pwm controller, but this is for fun, so I really don't care. Wires...

Its a cool idea and is fun, but not meaningful. I would guess the added complexity and parts, vs the micro savings is why MFGs don't do it. My EV gets 3 miles per kWh, give or take. The roof area would allow maybe 400 watts. On a good day, I would be adding 5 or 6 miles. Not nothing, but...

You basically need ot feed two panels, one at the house, one at the studio. You can feed them a variety of ways. One can be the main panel, and one a sub panel, fed from a breaker on the main panel. Or you can have a main panel, that feeds each of the other two as sub panels. Really will be...

As a former retailer I can tell you, the one thing you definitely don't want to get wrong is sales tax. They will come after you with a vengeance. So as a business, it is a lot safer to charge the tax. As a consumer, you can get remedy from your state if needed.

And sheep are notorious liars, especially the ones wearing garters

Yeah, or 6 by using two Victron Energy Lynx. Three into one, three into the other, and each Lynx going to the 18.

Just switched to AC yesterday, but wood is still burning for hot water. Going to need wood for heat again next week, as we won't get above 60.

I'd sell them on FB marketplace or Craigslist or wherever. in 10 years you will probably be able to replace the whole string for 50% of what it cost today, but from my understanding PV panels don't die, they just fade away slowly, over a long period of time.

Like Abraham Lincoln said, you can only believe 65% of what people say on the Internet related to Batteries, oil or politics.

So sorry to hear about your loss. Ive had 2 fires in my life, neither destroyed my home, and they were awful. Free advice, hire an independent adjuster when dealing with your insurance company. Well worth whatever they charge.

Sorry grammar my am bad. Fully cycle is somewhere around 100 to somewhere around 20 in my mind.

#6 will fit in most breakers, in my experience

I have 1 to 1 net metering, so using my batteries costs me money. That being said, it is my understanding that they don't like to sit at 100% charge. So I exercise mine from 85-100% daily.

Your assertions are on point, but there are other intangible factors. Same logic applies to paying off your house vs keeping a mortgage and investing instead. As long as rate of return is greater than interest, you are ahead. But I paid off my mortgage, because nothing can happen to my income...

Outside my wheelhouse, but a SWAG: Figure out load at each location, figure out wire size, and breaker size. 6 AWG is good for 50 amp circuit, if I remember correctly. You have a 3000 watt inverter, which at 240 is 12.5 Amps. That being said, I would future proof and probably put a 100 Amp...

Yes this is the case. Even if they approve the transaction. If the charge is fraudulent, the vendor eats it. I had a guy try that on me when I owned a paintball field. Luckily, we got his license when he rented from us the previous week. I went to his house and got the $1500 in merchandise...

No lie. I went live in November and good days since then have been few and far between. Today it is pounding, and I'm loving it.

I'll do it, just need EG4 to donate 56 of the 64 batteries

I agree with this, and kind of remember reading or seeing it somewhere. Basically, when it is inverting 6KW, fans come on.

I have almost the exact setup you describe here. Yes, as long as the grid is up, the 18KPV will handle it, it will draw as much as it can from solar and battery, up to 12K, then pass the rest through from the grid. I have had several instances where I was drawing above 20KW , and the inverter...

You are right, but code requires it. But as others have said, a lot of THHN is THWN. Just check the jacket.

I have looked at building them, the high end stuff, low end stuff and for the $, and IMHO, you can't beat the brightmount. Solid piece, relatively cheap, and anchored to some kind of concrete footer, it won't go anywhere. In my case, I have 4, and about to be 8 of these. The first 4 are...

Brondo!

I have a GEO system, but I use a wood boiler for heat. My GEO is open loop, and the well is very deep (500'), so there is a 2HP pump down there, and it EATS energy. The GEO itself is very efficient, the pump to get water to it, not so much. I will be making this into a closed loop system this...