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I use Tape & Chalk version 2.01....

I did not think I'd ever end up here, in a solar forum showing off my stuff. But the CV-19 scare made me realize my energy dependence and I started collecting components a couple months ago. My initial plan was something portable and it worked out well. You can see some details in my 10kWh...

Like many here I've just started dabbling in solar. My first purchase was the two Tesla batteries for about $1,100 each shipped. I grabbed the REC 260W panels on Ebay for $60 each. To that I added a cheap 2kW Pure Sine wave inverter and a 40A MPPT charge controller. A couple of 250A breakers to...

I hear this so often, as an insurance agent I can say that's 100% false. Your home insurance covers stupidity completely. As long as you don't purposely burn your house down, you're covered!

Some of us put extra effort into making our solar install look neat and tidy. Maybe it's OCD or pride of workmanship or something else. If you think your install looks good I'd like to see it. Show it off with pride and show it off for inspiration. I'll go first.

I've had days in a row where my 1040 watts of panels output only 30-50% of there rated capacity. Then a clear sunny day comes along and I get 950 watts, reminding me all is well with my panels ?

Thanks! Thank you. The first one I hauled up on my back with a strap! It was breezy out and I thought they're must be a safer way to do this. The rails are Unistrut from Home Depot which they call Superstrut. The mounts and flashings and stand offs I fabbed up myself. I made some...

Here is the basic mounting idea for my batteries. The bracket is fixed to the wall with four simple drywall anchors. The batteries rest on the bracket and then a single screw holds the top of each firmly to the wall. I'm going to paint the bracket some color and apply a Tesla decal to my...

Okay, more wiring to do and still waiting on my LV2424 Hybrid but I've got the breaker boxes up. When I stand back and look I see room for expansion; maybe another battery or inverter is in the cards for the future. First I'll need more panels.

Nope. 265 volts is greater than 250 volts. Never over volt your controller, it goes poof! Not sure what you mean about battery voltage being added in? It's not added in to any calculation. You could do 5S4P for 221 volts and 30 amps instead. Edit to add: I see why you want to add 48 volts...

I found a small windows tablet I wasn't using and installed MPP's Solarpower software.

I put the finishing touches on last night, painted the battery frame and applied a decal.

I went with a Square D box ($13) and Nader 400vdc breakers ($15) and a din rail from Grainger ($3.50).

I wish! Oklahoma is ruled by the oil and gas companies so anything that offers them competition is a big no-no. The net metering here is a joke too. So is permitting and inspection which is why I skipped that too. Leave it to the government to make honest people into criminals. Here in OKC it is...

AC out will go thru a 20amp breaker to my critical loads panel. My original plan was just to have some solar stored in batteries for emergencies, that was my portable Tesla generator. That idea evolved into using some solar to offset my utility bill. That idea evolved into charging my...

Time to install a critical loads panel! My initial hesitation was finding 2k worth of constant loads. It's a real balancing act, finding circuits that will use all of the 2400 watts my inverter can provide but not go over. I've settled on 4 circuits; front fridge, back fridge, kitchen lights and...

I picked up one of Will's recommended coulometers off Amazon. His paid link: https://amzn.to/2XKZby4 I struggled over where and how to place it. Eventually I just removed the shunt from its case and bolted straight to my battery terminal. And I'm going to start my first capacity test...

In progress. All done. So now my inverter goes to a 20 amp breaker, that feeds my critical loads panel. If the grid goes down I'll have power to my critical loads, I also tied my critical loads panel into my main panel with a double pole breaker. I am still trying to figure out a safe way...

That's a good idea and what I plan to do. I don't need all 2kw to be used I just want to maximize the inverters potential.

You must have misquoted me or not understood me or not read the whole thread. Edit: I think you misunderstood me, I wasn't meaning that wire size and cost and panel location weren't important, they are but that's not what I was getting at. I was worried that MBR was encouraging undersize wire...

Well good news, this cheap active balancer seems to be doing the trick. After 48 hours the cells have gone from about .5v difference between highest and lowest to about .2v difference. I figure another couple of days and they'll be perfect. As to the cause? I was right to suspect the...

I've started to collect cells to build some battery packs.

You bet. I did have to order the breakers and had them delivered to the store. Took about a week. Here's the box I used, $13 :) and it has a $10 breaker inside! https://www.homedepot.com/p/Square-D-QO-60-Amp-240-Volt-7-4-kW-Non-Fuse-AC-Disconnect-QO200TRCP/202353314

Painted, hung, next up wires!

Thank you. I'm going with 24v also, just doubling the capacity with two batteries in parallel. At least I think I am, all my initial battery planning was for that cheap inverter at 24v. Now that you got me thinking, maybe the LV2424 Hybrid can do more? I'll have to go look at the specs. Edit...

I can't answer your question, but your user name is hilarious!

Thanks! I'm researching Chargery stuff but I'm doing without a BMS for now. I've only got 1k panels so about 5kWh a day. I'm going to be using the LVC in my MPPT to drive a relay. I'm going to use the load as a timer (5 hours at night) and as my LVC. For now.

You guys are getting way off track. He said cheap and DIY friendly.

Off topic but I saw someone mention in another thread that Tesla offers a price match. You might consider getting a price from them. https://www.tesla.com/support/energy/solar-panels/learn/solar-price-match-guarantee

I think Will or someone said the Daly can be ordered with custom upper and lower voltage limits. So you could send them specs (an upper and lower voltage) and they flash the ROM to whatever you like. As such you can request values that cycle your battery from say 95%-10% for that 85% DoD (depth...