Most reacted posts

I've not posted much lately because I've been spending all my free time on my build. The weather has been terrible so getting on the roof to install the mounts has been a pain but I've made a lot of progress on the batteries. I have my first battery pack assembled and the BMS works! Got the...

I ditched my 3D printed face plates and used some a guy in town laser cut for me. They turned out awesome!!!

I got the BMS and Sol-Ark talking with the BMS in parallel. It turned out to be super easy, just set the master dipswitch to 0 and the first to 1 and it worked. It reports up to the Sol-Ark everything that's needed. I got my roof mounted transition panel and the conduit up to it ran but I...

Well that wasn't a fun process but it's done! The ATS is now my primary N-G bonding point and all the grounds have been separated from the neutrals at my main panel. At the same time, pulled new 2/0 copper to my inverter and I would say the cleaning up the N/G issue took longer than pulling...

My batteries came yesterday!

Hello Everyone! I'm working on my first solar install / design and wanted a place to document it. I've got about 3/4 of my parts in and am eager to get started. Parts Overview - Inverter: Sol-Ark 15k Battery: Custom 4 x 16S EVE LF280k with JK BMS battery packs Panels: 54 Q.PEAK DUO BLK-G6+...

My inverter came today! Woohooo!! 😁

Well, I decided to just rip the bandaid off. I did some quick measurements and the panels I've been watching at Santan fit my roof nicely in 3 rows so I ordered them today! Model: Q.PEAK DUO BLK-G6+ 340W

18650 Battery Store (https://www.18650batterystore.com/products/eve-lf280k) The shipping was expensive but they arrived in under 2 weeks from the time I ordered them.

2nd battery pack up and running! Got the JK BMS and the Sol-Ark to talk over CAN. Still need to figure out how to get the BMS's to talk in Parallel but I can actually test it now.

The plot thickens a bit... I ran my new ground rods already and am going to hook them to my main for a total of 4 rods. I looked a little more closely at the grounding of the ATS and it has wires going to the ground lugs but none of them connect to anything grounded! There is a large ground...

Yep, it's the 2601-3S-95. The thing was expensive. I ended up putting on cinder blocks as well to elevate it in the room. We have our water treatment in the same room so I wanted to give it a little extra safety factor.

Thanks! We're about an hour or so south of Toledo. From what I understand, the epicenter is supposed to be in Forest and I'm about 25 min from there. We've only heard a little about it but from what I've heard, people said it'll be a big deal.

Thanks! Your assumption about the top is north is correct. There's a little chance of shade across everything. The bottom row of panels will get hit the worst. The tree that's in question will most likely get a hair cut if that happens. My gut feeling was the 3x3 array.

First, thanks for all the replies!! My property is bordered on 3 sides by trees, then our front lawn (south facing) has a bunch of mature maples. I'm living in the house I grew up in so I saw them when they were planted. There are a few dead branches than I know I can thin out. From...

Oh, I forgot to address the RDS item. Both the optimizers I'm looking at have RSD built in. That's part of the reason I'm looking at adding them.

It's been terrible! The only days it turns out to be nice, it shows rain a few days ahead so I schedule something else. I'm about 1.5 hrs south of you! Thanks from 45814!

I just had a thought and it's not something I've researched. Would it be better to have 9 panels with one being partially shaded occasionally or 8 panels?

That looks like a TON of fun!!! :D

I'm looking forward to it! My in-laws are coming out for the event and I took the day off work.

Thanks for posting this! I'm just getting ready to wire my JKBMS up to my Sol-Ark and this is great information to have.

I tested last night and got my JK talking to the Sol-Ark 15k. A straight through cable would have probably worked but I swapped one pin for the GND connection.

Finished my 3rd battery pack!

Hello Everyone, I'm a solar newbie from NW Ohio, looking to design and build my first solar system. I have a friend who has installed a decently sized system and I'm looking at doing something similar. I'm looking to build a grid tied / hybrid system. I want to try to lower my total energy...

Hello Everyone, I'm in the final stages of designing my solar system. I've got nearly everything picked out except for the panels. I have a basic idea what I want but I'm really struggling on making a decision. Here's what I have so far: Inverter: Sol-Ark 15k Storage: Custom EVE LF280...

The factory installed wire is large, at least a #6 but I didn't look that closely. I'll work towards removing the N-G bond on my main panel. I'm adding more ground rods to my installation so I'll make sure the ATS has a good ground as well. They have a larger green coated wire that...

Hello Everyone, I'm in the process of ordering everything for my first solar install. I'm a DIY kinda guy so I'm doing nearly everything myself. A year or so ago, I had the generator that came with my house replaced. It was a "half house" and I upgraded to a "whole house." The main...

Yes, it's got a disconnect. My panel does have a few shared ground/neutral bars. Thankfully most of my breakers are GFCI/AFCI so most of the neutrals are wired there.

There's a basic idea of it. Basically the ATS has a factory installed N-G bond that I believe should be removed. My main panel has the N-G Bond that I think should be kept.

So far I'm pretty impressed with the 15k, it's been easy to work with so far. Saturday is supposed to be nice so I'm hoping to finish up getting my mounting rails on the roof and start working on some of the wiring. I'm really looking forward to throwing some PV power at the Sol-Ark.