Recent content by ToadHarbor

short answer is wire them in series to get past 48V. I bought 6 panels from SanTan Solar, shipping wasn't too bad, I should have gotten 8 panels though.

Depends on where you're sourcing your batteries. If you're going with AliExpress or AliBaba, the shipping is just as much or more than the batteries. 100AH seems to be a popular size for beginning systems.

I tried to get 4x 280AH cells using that Luyan link. Awesome price, but Alibaba is refusing to accept my Credit Card. There's an error and I can't even dispute it (the appeal screen won't populate my CC #) and try for CC verification. Maybe China is mad at the US right now?

oh wow. I totally got his question wrong. kinda wish i could delete my previous post. Thanks for the info.

battery protect is for DC loads, put it inline to the dc fuse box. putting it inline to the inverter is NOT GOOD and can in fact destroy the battery protect. Will updated his diagrams to NOT include the battery protect.

Fuses protect wiring/components and are a last line of defense against fires. I would add fuses to the Solar Panel outputs and the battery.

Some advice. Plan to make your first system a smallish 2Kwatt inverter based 12VDC system with something like 100AH batteries. That way you can make it semi-portable and build what you really want a 5KW inverter 48VDc system with 840Ah of batteries. :)

There seems to be some voodoo involved. Series to provide more voltage for low light conditions and line loss and then parallel to reduce current on the wiring. For instance I have a system of 6 panels and plan to do 3 in series into 2 MPPT controllers because I don't want to spend $$$ on a...

Okay, So I do blacksmithing and I have a thick leather Apron, steel toed shoes and fireman's gloves. That's why seeing your outfit amazed me. I've been burned plenty, have a few hole in my clothes, including one in my right boot.

I saw David Poz use this stuff for his huge DIY BYD battery packs. I got it myself. it's very messy...

yes

Here is a 12 page manual. https://www.isdt.co/down/pdf/BG-8S_en.pdf Don't see it saying it takes forever to balance 100AH cells with 1.2A of charging current. I did read it somewhere. But if you think about it. Pushing 1.2A of charging into cells of a 100AH battery isnt much, isn't going to...

AMAZING ... just AMAZING you're wearing shorts. I'm glad it all ended well.

The Manual says 1.2A, and it says that on anything larger than 100AH it will take FOREVER TO BALANCE.

That BattGo BG-8S is quite nice. It's easy to read in the sun and it's cheap.