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Just ask them what their ROI is for that $82K truck they got sitting in the driveway with a $1300/mo payment. Or that $30K Razor. Or that $100K RV. Or that airplane sitting in the hangar at the airport. Debt free at 38, off-grid at 51. Love it.

I do HVAC for a living. I repair heat pumps all the time. Guess which one I bought? $2K more in solar panels. I'm keeping my 80 gallon and 5000W resistive elements. I have a timer that turns the water heater on at noon and off at 6 PM. Add 4 inches of insulation to the water heater and you'll...

$0 to power company since March. ?

About 210kWh total, all but a Trophy 220aH are diy. 10kWh diy in my work van with 26 ga sheet metal cases. I like to know how it’s built, how to troubleshoot, repair-ability is important to me so NO welded cells, easier to take apart if I need to move it, better cooling, easy to check for hot...

19 months. No regrets with two Sol-Ark 12K’s, 32kWpv, 150kWh of diy LFP. I’m glad that I didn’t choose EG4-Anything” for my house. My 6500ex’s for the shop are getting replaced with Schneider xwpro system, after 3 months of troublesome operation.

I needed 60-80kWh/daily. Two 12K, 20,640W pv, 143kWh LFE and 10kW Honeywell LP Gen did the trick. Off-grid completely for five months. Power shed cooled to 68-75F with my Fujitsu 9K 33 SEER. No problems other than learning the proper settings and a bad wifi dongle. Sol-Ark has excellent customer...

I don’t have the time for troubleshooting these junk 6500ex’s for Travis, Brent and Colt. These units should have never left the factory and shipped without thorough testing by the factory and Signature Solar. I should’ve known when I pulled up the last year of firmware updates that I was going...

We do this for a living. Do you know how many times a customer reset the breaker and it started working perfectly again? 1 out of 10, usually due to brownouts. Do you know how many times they called me back two days later saying it was broke again? 9 out of 10. Do not reset a tripped breaker...

I can usually make it until Dec1-15 before I need to use my wood burner to supplement HP’s. I added 11kWpv, up to 32kW, so we’ll see how it goes this winter.

Our $2-240 Million Dollar CEO’s in the USA have put the extra company profits into their own pockets for the last 40 years. See how many fly bizjets, drive eight luxury cars and own three homes. They didn’t get there by paying their workers an honest living, keeping manufacturing in the USA and...

Our clothes are hung up on inside retractable clothes lines in the winter with a wood burner drying them. They are hung outside in the spring summer and fall. We rarely use ours. Even when we do it’s only a 22.5A resistive load at 240V or 2.5-4kWh.

Where's the before pics of the installation, so we can all learn from each other? That is why I did a ground mount, power shed is 50' from house, everything is mounted on cement board, oversized wiring, undersized breakers/fuses, RF smoke detectors, liquid CO2 fire extinguishing tubes over...

I have 50kWpv on PT lumber. 18 mo. It’s handled 60mph. Staining it like your deck will help it last longer. I’ll let you know how it worked out in 20 years. It’s 1/3 the cost and no shipping.

I have over 3,750 pounds of LFP or 210 kWh of DIY and 1 ea nice Trophy 220aH. I don’t tinker with any of them. I built them out of Grade A cells or the best I could find and they just work…Like my two Sol Ark 12 K‘s. I use JK 200A BMS’s…they just work too. I’ve scrapped a lot of Chinese junk in...

Buy 20+ kW of PV, then tell your power company to go pound sand. I have 6.25 tons. I set them all between 66-72F!?

80% is my limit on anything electronic from China.

Why do you think Mechanical Aptitude is a dying trait? Maybe because too many people look down on those of us in career fields with two years of tech school. Why would anyone want to be a shop/school teacher? So they can make less money and get berated by their 4 yr degree holding peers? The...

The first diy 100kWh with JK BMS’s $17.5k from Aliblabla. Try over $30k and no repair-ability if you go with SS, with about the same warranty and customer service.

Search “the digital mermaid” on YouTube for a lot of information.

Their 105 and 304 grade A cells require no top balancing, build, take them to 3.60V (my OVP), JK goes to 100%, the 2A balance current does it’s job. Then I absorb at 55.7, float at 53.7V from then on out.

For me on 10 batteries/2800aH...Power house 50' away from house, cooled to 70F, 40A charge/discharge max per battery, 2ga wiring rated for 115A, BMS's rated for 200A - set to 100A for 5 sec max, 100A 2p dc breaker, 125A class T between cell 8 & 9 to break battery in half, 1/4" ceramic fiber mat...

I sell HVAC products. No way would I sell or install something then ask a customer to pay shipping under my one year warranty. I charge enough that I can eat a little bit of shipping and provide after hours service if needed once in a while. If it becomes a constant problem, then I will not sell...

James at 18650 Battery always does well. I get the 304aH (or 100aH for my work van 24V) grade A cells on the last 100kWh or so. I wouldn’t go anywhere else. No communication necessary. Grade B’s from Aliblabla 280’s, 304’s, all work fine together. Those with higher IR, charge and discharge...

We have what we have because we started at 17/18 yrs old and worked to become debt free by 38. We built our home and will stay in it for life or as long as we’re able. We only buy a new base model vehicle when we have cash saved and the old one is 15-20 years old. We rarely dine out. Credit card...

My system is all in my head. My replacement can figure it out. Good luck.? ?

Most of us can only check Capacity (at 1A-40A, affordably), IR and Self Discharge over time. You are the second forum member asking for proof of capacity testing with pics. We are hobbyists, enthusiasts, experimenters, tinkerers. We likely wouldn’t be on a DIY’er forum if we had professional...

I had the first version of the 220aH Trophy battery. Dan swapped it out after some issues and absolutely no problems with this second version. I would recommend Trophy and SOK/Current Connected. I’ll never buy anything again from SS.

Our two 12K’s brought in 72kWh yesterday on December 1, in eastern Kentucky, 38 deg Lat. Note: Most of my 12kW goes into my battery. If you’re doing the opposite, then your battery bank is too small. I can run my 80 gallon electric water heater, all four 16-33 SEER heat pumps rated at a total...

I have two Sol-Ark 12 maxxed out on PV 26K+. 18K a/c output total. Each one can charge at 185A, so 370A total and is plenty. The 159kWh LFP always gets recharged fast unless it’s cloudy. We are all electric, 6.25T of hp capacity, 80Gal hwh. No struggling, you just can’t run aux electric heat...

Once you go to JK BMS with 2 A of balance current, True Grade A cells, you’ll never go back to the others.

I could power three efficient homes in the summer. On the darkest cloudy days of winter the production is about 4%. If I came close to using my 10kW LP Gen, then I added more PV. It’s really their for emergency repairs on the system. Heat pumps in the winter are used until the outdoor temps get...

I said the same thing 14 months ago. There is no comparison from my two 12K’s running my home to the two 6500ex that halfway run my shop. They are getting replaced with Schneider equipment soon. Good luck and hope it works out better for you. ???????????????????There’s a bunch more for you!?

I wouldn’t expect anything more out of SS.

We have finally got what it takes to survive on all electric through the winter months. 30-60kWh daily. The online calculators said 16kWpv. Not even close. Total: 52kWpv, 230kWh of LFP. You don’t need need endless money, but you’ll have to do without that new $80,000 pick up truck. I wouldn’t...

James at 18650 always sends a nice container of grade A 304 cells. No top balancing needed. My JK BMS takes care of that on two charge/discharge cycles.

We consume between 1000kWh and 1500kWh/month. About 500 kWh less than we were being charged by the power company. (Sol-Ark 12K shunt vs fancy electric meter shunt) We would not make it without our free standing indoor wood burner below 30°F- messy but toasty warm. You need the large PV for those...

I have a one string 3.6kW going in now at 165°/60° angled and a two string 7.2kW at 215°/60° angled array- just finished. Let’s just say, REC405 (215°) panels out performed my QCells430 (180°/45° angled) from noon on yesterday after the sun popped out. The steeper angle with the 405’s does not...

I knew this was coming and turned grid power off in early March 2022. They can pound sand. $50K in the last 20 years has overpaid their greedy execs. No contributions from me anymore.

Gentlemen: This is why it’s called a 12K. If you have enough new solar panels, even on November 18, 2022, you can max it out. ☀️??. It’s sunny and 35F. I had to turn the Fujitsu mini hp off, open the power shed and cool it down. Internal temps on ac side: 33C, DC: 64C. If we had anymore dark...

I’ve had issues with my two shop 6500ex since startup three or four weeks ago. I thought I would give Tier2 and SS a try. Never again. Getting Schneider XW Pro 6548’s and 100A SCC from Ben at AltE. Similar price and 2X the customer service. Third times a charm. My two home 12k’s worked right...

I have all 10 of my 16S 280aH batteries with 125A JJN Class T fuses, mounted using two standard bus bars with ss hardware, between cell 8+ and Cell 9-. Wrapped in Polyamide tape. Typ max current= 37A. I've test blown one fuse. A little pop. That's it. Now you have two 24V batteries. Turn 100A...

I have a Tripp-Lite hospital grade SMART2500XLHG UPS, 2200VA output. It can run off of my 48 V battery bank. It has 4 small 12V, 9aH SLA batteries inside or a 50A Anderson plug. I made a cable to go from my battery bank. It has a 16 amp 120 VAC output. My Dewalt circular saw would not run off...

Charge work van. Then make money repairing HVAC equipment in your EV. Manufacture your own 200-400 pound 120V power supplies to load on the truck with a liftgate. Monitor power outages in your area online, then drive around and drop them off for a minimum 24 hr or two day rental fee. Pick them...

I have a 132kWh battery bank. Three out of four of Amy's - Schenzen Luyuan "Grade A" 280aH 16S batteries do not have runners when I charge above 55.7V. One out of four of Hayley's - Dongguan Lightning do not have runners above 55.7V. Sanben's 320aH (really 304aH) and Trophy 220 aH both have...

When I use three different load testers showing LiitoKala’s 280’s and Sanben’s 320 batches below what is advertised, then test Dongguan’s and Shenzhen Luyuan’s 280’s and all were over advertised. That’s all of the accuracy I need to tell me which vendors not to buy from.

I just spent two months after work, installing 20,600w or 48 ea QCells at 45° PV array angle on a shale/clay 36° slope, using 48 ea 4x4 post (8’-16’ L), sprayed termite spray, dried them sealed all posts with Black synthetic rubber, dug with post hole diggers/chisel as deep as possible, for...

I install JK BMS, double pole dc breaker, t class fuse between cell 8 & 9. You are right on price. About $2850 for my 304aH 16S.

Consider yourself lucky. 9/26/23. Edit: Signature Solar provided great customer service, tech support and we arrived at a fair resolution. I highly recommend them now and what a stress relief! Thank you!

I have a calibrated elbow after years of using torque wrenches on aircraft. I never use one now on anything. I just know how it feels. Starting out, use a torque wrench.

My Fujitsu 33 seer can output, 125% of its rated heating capacity all the way down to -15°F.

I saw this coming 17 years ago and started preparing, becoming debt-free, saving up for a solar system. Our power lines in eastern Kentucky are 70+ years old. They do not maintain them properly or keep the ROW cleared. But they don’t have any problem putting the money into OVERPAID execs, lavish...

At least they have a 2 pack of fire extinguishing spray right next to the solar panel. Some diy’ers may just need it.

My two Chinese Sol-Ark 12K hybrids have been powering my all electric home since Mar 4, 2022, producing 40-125 kWh/day. Not one glitch. Grid turned off at meter by power co. No electric bills, added taxes, padding fat execs pockets.

18650BatteryStore, order yourself some grade cells plus 10% extra and a JK BMS. DIY! Cheaper and then you’ll know how to repair it. 19 mo, built over 220kWh with zero issues.

The US has lied in the churches and history books. That is why few trust either now.

I bought 134kWh DIY LFE battery and told the power co to turn it off and send my final bill. Off-grid since 3/4/22.

So glad I am off grid in Kentucky. Adding another 13.3 kW right now. No inspections no BS.

Probably 1220F+. The cells should be between 0.15-0.25 milliohms or 2.5E-10 MΩ. If that is your 12kW Growatt, you need about 1200aH of battery or at least twice what you have. What is your max discharge amperage? I'm pushing 18000W out of two Sol-Ark 12K's with 2800aH. About 37A per battery. It...

I absorb at 56.0, float at 54.0V. OVP at 3.60V.

How about stopping by and asking him how he is doing and how he is liking his new solar system. Maybe he will ask you for a little help. Refer him to our nice forum or give him some good advice to help him get lined out properly. I was very fortunate to have an HVAC, mechanical, electrical...

I wrapped a standard 80 gallon water heater with two more inches of insulation. I have it turned on from 3-8 PM, off the rest of the time. Works pretty well on our off grid solar system. I would like to get around to building my heat pump water heater but haven’t had time.

My scrap electric heat kits work great when coonecting batteries with dissimilar voltages. Instead of 300+ amps, I can make it 15-60A.

Purchase the highest efficiency mini split heat pump you can afford. Any of them are better than a resistance heater as far as efficiency goes. Now cost, simplicity and reliability are another story.

$30,000 would have gotten you about 143kWh of DIY battery.

I waited 5-6 minutes for Nick today. My only time calling tech support. He answered my question quickly about Setting #28. Hooked up some PV, so that it would remain in Standby mode, made the change and now it’s producing 240V instead of 207V. Very nice to see they have been working on tech...

My two Sol-Ark12k’s run in my conditioned power shed with ambient temperature of 20C summer, 15C winter. My internal temps run 50-70C and never derate the output. Humidity is less than 60% at all times.

HVAC up 32%. Panels up 50%. Gas, food, automobiles. It's all around the world.

This is why we recommend using non-combustible materials near these batteries.

I reported LiitoKala and Sanben’s poor cell quality on here and got questioned on my capacity testing procedures. I found out that it’s better to spend a lot of time researching before purchasing. Thankfully they were my first two small test orders.

$23K in my 120 kWh bank. I guess one could blow that on a jacked up 4wd $80-90K truck or bass boat or RV or 8 vacations. I’ll enjoy my 22.2 kw solar system every minute of the day and especially when I tell the power company I don’t need them anymore in a month or so. It may take 20+ years of my...

I didn’t realize that either when I spoke to them in 2021. I didn’t know enough to ask, but they did know I was going to be completely off the grid. I decided to DIY due to price, enjoyment of building things and I wanted to be able to keep spares of everything and fix it myself. Happy as a lark.

17MWh in last year off grid. No power bill. No generator needed.

I have two 12K's. Max power consumption in my all-electric home has been (edit to)10,000 Watts. 6.25 Tons of 16-33 SEER heat pumps with heat kits disabled with a toggle switch-spst installed on low voltage 24vac circuit to heat contactor. I also added a defrost disable switch on the one heat...

Well, we all know if we get strange codes and no fans what to look for. Also glad they have some reverse polarity protection, although not ideal for diyers. Glad it worked out for you. I've got in the habit of using my meter, red fingernail polish and red electrical tape as soon as I get...

Looking great. It’s a wonderful feeling isn’t it. I don’t mind driving a $20k work van and one $10k personal vehicle. That’s it. EV’s next. 210kWh LFP, 52kWpv finishing up last of the pv. Off grid 18 months. I want to thank everyone on here for all of their knowledge and expertise. I am pretty...

Same here on my 132 kWh. Three dark cloudy days. No gen necessary. I will have more pv and batteries for next Dec-Feb.

If you refer to someone as a shill, you mean that they are paid to sell something or to participate in an activity in order to persuade others to buy or participate. No, we’re not paid anything. If you had came to us before January 5, we would’ve told you which vendors and cells we had...

I hauled some scrap off in my old dirty work clothes, old rusty Chevy. After finished getting paid, I ask them if they had any battery cables 2 ga+ for a “little” solar project (108 kWh battery bank/20.6 kw pv). They took me back and showed me a bunch of 18”-24” 2 ga cables with 1/4” holes. They...

Dan drove from SC to KY and replaced my 220C with the newer 220E with EVE cells. It's working awsome now. Just to test it...Took it up to 57.0V and the highest cell was 3.630V with a differential of 130mV. No shutting down. Different BMS and cabinet size. I am very happy with Dan at Trophy for...

My first batch of 16ea LF-280K cells from 18650 in Atlanta, Ga. No Top Balance performed. Installed JK BMS B2A20S20P and 4.3" LCD (from Hankzor Store)with 2A bal current. Discharged to 2.506V/cell, Volt Diff: 270mV@14.6A discharge rate. Re-Charged to PackV: 57.6V. Highest cell reached 3.660V...

Make your home, HVAC and water heater efficiency top priority first. Downsize where you can. My power bill was $200-$300 a month. I consumed 1600 to 2600 kWh every single month. You can see below on my signature what I have installed. It is still insufficient during those long cold dark days of...

$0 for the last 15 months?.

They both look correct to me, pos is on the left. Same as mine.

Bingo. If we are buying 304’s for $135 and they tell you they are Grade B, we got what we paid for. Many sources on Aliblabla lie and told us they were Grade A, when they were really Grade B or “J for junk”. I’m just glad we finally have a good source in the USA.

Please read their user manual completely through. Most answers are in there and are to protect you, the equipment, the manufacturer, the distributor and property. You need 250aH (minimum) of battery for every EG4 6500ex. I have 500aH for my two EG4 6500ex. I have 2800aH for two Sol-Ark 12K. I...

I’ve just learned when dealing with China sourced junk, careless packagers/shippers, to always buy 10% more than I need. It will always get used. Then I take all of my krap stuff and make one krappy little Solar setup. Maybe for a shed, a gate opener, Christmas lights, security system, etc.

I’ve ordered a total of 128 ea, 280 aH cells (107.5 kWh). 64 ea from Amy at Shenzhen Luyuan Technologies and 64 ea from Hayley from Dongguan Lightning. Both on a Alibaba. Both vendors provided perfect, flat aluminum cases with NO bulging. All cells were under 0.22 mohms internal resistance (IR)...

I would recommend not installing your electrical system on or near any combustible materials. Also install radio interlinked smoke detectors in your power houses, your bedroom, your electrical compartments in your van or RV, over your garage test benches, or anywhere else a fire is most likely...

Are you sure you have a 4 ton??? What is model number? If you do, it’s a very high efficiency. 77A is more like a 2 ton, 14 seer or 3 ton 18 seer inrush. I do HVAC for a living. Install a soft start kit. MicroAir Easy Start makes some nice ones with BT. I put it on my two non inverter heat...

We're totally off-grid 3+ weeks. Two 12K's, 20.64kW pv, 132kWh diy LFE, Honeywell (Generac) 10K Gen- LP. Fijitsu 9K 33SEER VS Inverter for power shed, American Standard 20 SEER 2 Ton VS Inverter- Upstairs, Am Std 16 SEER 2 Ton Single Spd- Garage, Two Step with MicroAir, Goodman 1.5 Ton 16 SEER...

I have 18 MNS SPD’s. Two lightning strikes within 300’ blew one tree apart. PV circuit must have had some induced EMF causing trip of my SA12K for two minutes. All is good weeks later. All blue LED’s on.

I used 48 4x4 posts, 34 pcs 10' unistrut for my 20,640w PV. I found some thicker aluminum unistrut 20' for my standard height/length Chevy 3/4T Express work van with 1000w PV.

We made it from Friday night until Sunday (today) around 1 pm before the sun came out. Our 132 kWh bank was down to 15%. No woodburner. Living and powering everything normally. Brought in 100kWh today. Battery top off in the morning.

I installed an Earthx on an aircraft. Fist size lithium ion battery inside an Odyssey PC680 size plastic shell. It was lightweight! Started a 540cuin engine well. Burnt up the 60A alternator from over current during recharging and finally replaced with pc680 again. Cut the earthx apart. The...

What Darren above said, whatever you need in the summer, just double it at a minimum in these cloudy areas with an all electric home, totally off grid. 27kW brought in about 10-20kWh per day these last few days.

They have very competitive quotes. Ben Farmer is my sales rep. My unstable power producing, compressor pulsing, light flickering two EG6500ex are soon to be Ex’s…going to be replaced with Schneider XW Pro 6548’s and 100A SCC’s from AltE. About the only thing that I want power with the 6500ex are...

Totally off-grid and love it and our two DIY Sol-Ark 12K's, 20,640W PV, DIY wood/unistrut ground mount and 132kWh battery. We are running 3 split hp's (one vs and two with soft starts), 1 Fujitsu mini hp 9k, 80 gal elec wh, elec range, washer/dryer, more. No problems. I had a few flickers start...

Eventually you’ll want to have more batteries, so those can be your “spares” too. But yes, I keep spares of everything. Keep the ambient temp between 40-80F (5 to 27°C) and your electronics will last longer.

I fixed all of my Daly's. I yanked them out and installed JK 16S 200A with 4.3" LCD's from Hankzor store on AliExpress. Working flawlessly. Finally remaining balanced and displaying correct SOC's!

50k plus or minus. Woodburner and 10kW LP gen for backups. Shouldn’t need to use gen at all and wood burner below 20F. I’ll know the answer come Jan/Feb.