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Wow! I think you are overthinking this... When designing my system, i put all the major appliances on a Kill a watt meter for 24 hours each and made a list of their consumption. Sized the inverters to deal with surges and high draw items (microwave, coffee maker) Sized batteries and solar to...

Move

One cycle is defined as fully charged to fully depleted to fully charged again. 100% to 0% to 100%. My 1st pack was commissioned 10/29/21. 2nd pack commissioned 1/15/22. Typically discharge to 55-60% over night. Pack 1 has accumulated 411 cycles. Pack 2 has accumulated 353 cycles. No...

5.9 kwp of used panels. Saw 5.2 briefly today near the equinox. 18 235/255 watt panels to a 6-1 combiner for one charger. 6 panels to a second charger. 4x4 posts 2 feet deep, no concrete. 2x8 with a ripped 2x4 as a stiffener and the rip is at an angle and gives me a bolting surface for the...

If you don't even know what the difference between bulk and float is, how can you say all your settings are correct?

Loose connection. You need a small torque wrench and screwdriver bit holder. I had the same issue with a PV combiner box circuit breaker. When I actually torqued the connections, I was amazed at how loose they really were. This after I had tightened them as tight as possible with a regular...

I almost went down this road. But then it occurred to me... $2600 worth of batteries, $1000 for various tools and parts, $1800 for inverters, et al. Why am I trying to save $30 or 40 on proper, FLAT busbars. Even experimented with several flavors of pipe. Hammered, used a vise. I was unable to...

Thank you @ghostwriter66 for sharing this supplier. Ordered 16 EVE 160's 10/21 There was no stock in Houston so had to be shipped from China. Fedex shipper printed 10/26. Tracking went live 12/24 when Fedex picked up from customs. 10 scans later, they were delivered today 1/2. Boxes in good...

Yep, yep, yep. You spent the money on the Schneider, buy a real 48 volt battery.

Well, I took the credit in multiple years. Originally for the base system. Following year for additional solar and batteries. I'll post here if Uncle Sugar comes knocking...

I just unrolled it in the street with my brother the whole spool and then doubled it back upon itself. Match the ends up, go back to the u-turn, stretch, cut. Didn't require $1,000 tool.

Nah . It's a midea

Originally had mine pointed the same direction also. Reoriented to half at 150⁰ and half at 210⁰. 3 panel strings, all to a 6 to 1 combiner box. Works great.

Fixed the nuisance CB trips due to heat in the box. Was tripping every day last summer. Hasn't tripped once since this change.

Remove one power supply lead from the battery. Adjust both current knobs to Max. Set volts to 3.65. Reconnect battery. Do not touch voltage knob on power supply. Should charge with a Max 10 amps until very nearly full. last 20 minutes will be above 3.45 volts. As long as you don't touch the...

One of two things. That cell is at a dramatically different SOC than the rest or most probably Inadequate connections. Remove, buff to a shine with Emory cloth and then clean with isopropyl alcohol each and every metal surface. Reassemble. ALSO, your bus bars are ramped from one cell to the...

I'm going to build a tilt a whirl for six panels. But the weather turned and I put it off till spring. So I had six panels leaning against the shed doing nothing and thought how could I put them to use temporarily for the winter. 2x4 tacked between the posts, pavers underneath, and two and a...

I had a similar issue at the breaker. Was getting hot enough to trip it . I THOUGHT I was able to 'torque' the screw down with just a screwdriver in my hand but went ahead and put a bit holder and bit on my torque wrench. More than half a turn later, the issue iwas fixed.

A more accurate comparison would be EG4 100 amp hour versus DIY 100 amp hour. EG4 =5120 wh $1499 +tax and shipping DIY = 5120 wh CALB 100ah $56*16= $896 + 155 for BMS + 100 extras +50 circuit breaker =1201. + lugs, crimper, wire, time, anxiety... EG4 $0.29 per wh. DIY $0.23 per wh. Do you just...

Tools are a permissible expense.

Truer with each passing year.

Why are you so bent on convincing readers of the beneficence of the electric companies? I'm still connected as a backup for low solar periods. I'm all self consumption. About a year and a half now. Electric bill went from $235 a month to $110 a month. Net of tax credit cost about $5k. ROI under...

Raise your balance turn on voltage to 3.4. 3.3 is too low

Combiner boxes go between the solar panels and the charge controller. What you need to combine the output of charge controllers are bus bars

Reject? You did it. We out here in DIY land are not equipped to compress these cells the way the manufacturer did. Computer controlled hydraulic press. I mean OSB? Really? You couldn't come up with something stiffer? I built boxes from ¾" spruce plywood to contain and fixate the cells so they...

That Thermoking unit should not be part of the conversion. I would remove it and sell it. Then your conversion can begin with a well insulated box. Add a human rated air conditioner.

Actually, no, it's not leaving much capacity on the table. 46.5/16= 2.9 volts. Less than 8% remaining.

The point is that you are basing the need for an alternative on here say. A couple of guys on a board somewhere said it doesn't work. Try it first, and if it in fact doesn't work, then consider the alternative. Just begin the experiment with charging current restricted in the inverter. Hook it...

Agreed. But for me SOC is always a moving Target. My system is never still. So the difference between 28% and 24% on the discharge at any given point in time or the difference between 76% and 80% on the charge is irrelevant to me.

Karen

Open the manual for your inverter charger. Go to the place where the settings are for to grid voltage and back to battery voltage. Set back to battery voltage to a lower number! The way you're doing it is interrupting a process. Sort of like powering off and back on your PC when it's in the...

There are NO cell manufacturers making 320Ah cells. And there are no REPUTABLE sellers selling cells labelled as 320 ah.

Charge to 3.45 and hold there for Max 2 hours while balancing, then reduce voltage to 335

No. There is a shunt in the Overkill BMS that does a fair job of SOC calculations. I have 2 that I have been watching in Solar Assistant for over 2 years. They work well.

Combiner box. https://watts247.com/product/solar-panel-combiner-box-6-circuits-to-1/

My MPPs don't work like that. There is an on/off switch that only controls the inverter circuit. That is the circuit burning idle power. You can't turn off the solar input except with an external switch/breaker. Panels connected, SCC is live

Agree with sunshine. But, your expectation of reliability and your decision to buy a knockoff Daly contradict one another.

3.3 volts per cell is NOT top balanced. Ignore the SOC percentage indicator while top balancing. 100% is above 3.45 volts per cell for a period of time. Imbalance is only visible above 3.45 volts And balancing is only effective above 3.45 volts.

150 bucks, 2 weeks delivery, three or four settings, done. I don't know how it could be easier.

Loosen the outside nut. Also, CLEAN those surfaces.

Come on. You guys are smarter than to think this care is "free". Glad you're feeling better Steve.

Put your multimeter across the inverter input wires and turn on the heater. See what the voltage does.

Once you get the load of the mppt turned on, the voltage won't wander around as much with varying conditions. And actually, my pv voltage is lower in bright sun. The mppt's job is to maximize current. It does that by minimizing voltage required for itself. Today was a perfect example. Crystal...

My pair of MPP 3048LV MK's in split phase consume 34-38 watts each. My underlying load thru the night (tv standby, network gear, microwave clock etc) is about 200 watts. Daytime with lights 2 computers, TV's, fridge, mini fridge, freezer, etc is about 900 watts. If you are going to run inverter...

Hmm. A clue. Go back over everything you touched and touch it again and verify it.

But when you reinstall the bus bars... Do not put them on the cells sequentially. When you do that, they don't lay flat against the terminal. They lay there like a ramp. Connect cell 2 to 3, 4 to 5, THEN 3 to 4.

Oh my.. call out the Air Force... Ridiculous hyperbole.

Both of my Overkill/JBD reset on full charge. They hit 100%, absorption current still flowing. Current tapers, SOC stays at 100. Falls to float voltage, SOC maybe drops to 99. Works fine for me.

Oy ve. Just LOOK at them. At the very bottom of the ramp is the only connection to the adjacent bus bar or the cell terminal that you have. This is not good practice. Do you want the battery to work correctly or do you want to continue chasing guesses?

I used 4x4s and 2x8s. 2x4 ripped at 51⁰ to give me a mounting surf for strut channel at my latitude tilt of 39⁰.

Wrong. These have forced air cooling that blows from the top of the case and vents at the bottom of the case. Explained in an earlier post.

Do what you did but do it while the MPPT is in absorption (constant voltage). Set the mppt to 56 volts charging and say 4 hours absorption time. Then, while the mppt is holding the pack at 56 volts, and while you are monitoring the cell voltages in the BMS, apply your light bulb loads to pull...

4x4 posts, 2x8 beams with a ripped 2x4, super strut.

Yes. When connected in parallel, the cells act as one huge 3.2 volt battery. You bring them all up to the same state of charge at the top end together. Then, when you assemble the cells in series, they are each acting as individual cells. That have been matched in state of charge to one another...

Top balance... There are reasons why almost EVERYONE says to perform a proper top balance BEFORE serially attaching the cells... Ignore these entreaties at your own risk and experience what you are experiencing.... Top balance...

A pair of DIY with Overkill BMS. Above 95%

Sodium batteries have a very wide voltage range. Accessing the capacity with the current hardware on the market is difficult. One of nine videos from about 5 months ago.

Ok .. You need to either read the manual yourself, CAREFULLY, and change the charge voltage ( bulk/absorption to 56, float to 54) OR contact the manufacturer and ask how to change these settings. The all-in-one is not overcharging your batteries because it wants to. It's being told to.

Then do that. Especially series connecting pre-made batteries.

Wrong

D I Y Solar Power Forum... In my opinion, if they are used but still produce AND are cheap to acquire, go for it.

To maximize capacity, flexibility and cell visibility, build 2 separate batteries with separate BMS and then parallel those. 8S2P.

Make sure you disconnect one lead of the power supply before changing the voltage. Adjusting the power supply while connected is a sure fire way to overcharge.

Wow, lashing out Sad ... Now I don't give a f*** what the outcome is. Here's a tissue.

MPPSolar PIP3048LV-MK pair in split phase. 48 volt 3000 watts each 34-38 watts each no load

The SOC indicator is a secondary gauge. It's a calculated value, not a direct measurement. So, even though this value says 100%, the battery might not be at 100%. 53.29v is 3.33 per cell. Possibly just under float. Near full. What charge voltage and absorption time is set in your Growatt? Open...

Better to actually measure the appliances rather than just use spec sheet data. Get a Kill-a-watt meter, plug in, plug the fridge in to the meter and come back 24 hours later to see what it actually consumes. Use this process with all the major appliances you wish to power with your solar...

See post 2. But if you want to try it, please make sure to set up the video camera first. We'd love to see the result 😁.

This is a nicely balanced battery. There is no reason to regularly charge so high.

HUH? Parallel. If you're trying to sound like a know-it-all at least try to know it all.

Wow! That IS the best thread hijack I think I've ever seen. Congratulations.

YOU STILL HAVEN'T POSTED YOUR SETTINGS!!! Waste of time. I'm out.

Based on what we can clearly SEE in YOUR photo? Yes

Resolving this question would be my first priority.

Nowhere near as hot as TX but... I put a kill a watt on my Frigidaire 6k btu window unit for 24 hours. 350 square feet room but with an open door to the house which is central air. 95⁰ outside. Decently insulated. 6.4kwh.

Buy one. If you can afford to buy the cells and the bms, and the scc, and the inverter, you can afford the $50-60 for a critical piece of test equipment.

Umm... No.

I think many of you are too kind in your interpretation. I think he has a fundamental misunderstanding of electricity. Current is on demand. Pulled, not pushed. Should be flipping burgers, not selling electronic equipment.

Yes. And if you didn't already know this you really should not be inside the breaker box. You can seriously hurt yourself in there.

Buy used solar panels vs new.

I prefer a more polished approach than webcams aimed at meters. Visible anywhere. Rich data. Change settings. https://solar-assistant.io/

Familiarity breeds complacency. No matter how many times you've performed a process, you can always f it up.

Expensive. $410 per Kwh. My diy $158 per Kwh.

Mine do have a power switch for the inverter. PIP 3048 LV-MK. x2 in split phase. I never turn them off. Their consumption was just another line item on the power budget.

Given the choice I would use the AGM settings.

I think you need at least five. You need to be comfortably in the range for the mppt to reliably operate.

Good video also. Watch the other one first. In this one, if your in a rush, see minute 8 to minute 11.

It can't. What?

Actually that top voltage and bottom voltage are adjustable in JBD. Mine are 3.500 and 3.125.. Mine hit 0% at 50 volts.

No. Less is better.

It will go faster if you replace the black and red wires that came with the power supply. Heavier gauge wire and ring terminals. What capacity cells?

With this chemistry, voltage is not indicative of state of charge. 3.3 volts could be anywhere from 50 to 80% state of charge. You will only see imbalance at a higher state of charge, as previously stated, above 3.45 or so.

I will choose free will. If I want the cheapest thing I can buy that is my choice, not government's. Conversely, if I choose to buy top of the line, that also is my choice. You just don't seem to want to acknowledge that this topic is beyond your ability to design or engineer. Give me lots of...

Free? I guess because we can't touch software we think it shouldn't cost anything. What did you pay for that inverter? Crack open your wallet and buy Solar Assistant. It will do everything you're looking for and then some. I love it

My MPPSolar units also work that way. The on-off switch is only for the inverter

At -15⁰ C your Voc will be above 44v. x6 = 264v. Poof. White smoke. Edit. I wouldn't go more than 5s.

Connect batteries first always.

Had to wait until this morning to see what actual time the sun clears my horizon. 7:30 is when the first rays of sunshine actually begin hitting the panels. Everything prior to that is over the horizon dawn. This is my first ever solar system so I don't have any prior reference for the little...

If it were mine 53.6 to 54