Most reacted posts

Great, it'll have to be one BMS then. Cheers

Great stuff, sounds easy, I don't know why some people had negative reviews regarding setup and changing settings. They seemed knowledgeable, but then I'm a beginner myself. @Rocketman , you said above all "except solar inverters", what would I need to configure an inverter and how? Would the...

I was looking to buy wires for my system, hard to find proper good ones here in the UK, especially larger ones. On this website, which has a selection of marine cables, it says " Suitable for 12v and 24v systems (maximum 60v)." Why not 48v systems as well, if max is 60v? Very confusing...

Solar diy market is very small in the UK and components are not easy to find, that includes wires. For example, finding good quality 120mm2 wire in red is harder than anything. Finding T-Class fuses is as hard as getting a ticket to the moon... :( Anyways, I had a thought, it seems a bit...

Thank you very much for sharing! I'll have to look a bit more in depth to understand it.

Quite interesting that a snow fence would help so much.... Haven't thought of it...

Invert only would try to draw energy from the batteries, so that would very probably disconnect the power when the batteries are disconnected. If the inverter is on pasthru mode, that means grid enabled, but charge disabled.

Hi! Victron MPPTs need to be powered by the battery - by that, I mean you are meant to turn on the battery, after which you can turn on the solar PVs in the system. When you turn off the system you do it the other way around, turn off PV power and then battery power. Having the MPPTs powered by...

Hi DennisB, Thank you for that! Really appreciate your input. I've asked guidance on a different post on the forum with regards to the design I did - and am ready to order once I get some feedback: https://diysolarforum.com/threads/victron-quick-check-before-ordering-please.38372/ You can see...

Hello fellow solar enthusiasts! My system is working like a charm. I charge the pack of 16 Eve lf280k to 55.2V in absorption, and they are all fairly balanced. I've never seen the delta above 0.020 V. Each cell voltage never goes above 3.5, 99% of the time stays in the 3.45V area when fully...

Hi, I'm getting close to installing my off-grid system. There are only some wires and fuses left to purchase. Anyone with experience, please have a look and let me know if the grounding / earth schematics are safe. Earth rod 1 is for lightning protection, while earth rod 2 is for general...

Hi, I'm looking at voltacon combiner box here: https://voltaconsolar.com/solar-string-box-4way-in-2way-out-1000v.html It gives me an option for fuses and an option for voltage... For fuses it is easy: 1.25 X ISC, or simply go by the panel's suggestion on its sticker for "max series fuse size"...

As you can see in the schematics posted initially regarding the combiner box.

As far as I know, the basic order is turn on the battery switch, which should turn on equipment such as inverter & mppts, them turn the switch for the panels. When you want to turn off, do it in reverse.

Thank you sir, glad to hear this . And to double-check that I understood everything right (I'm a DIY-er learning every day), in the breaker, the positive has to come in in the up right hand side and negative up left hand side? Load (i.e.: MPPT) comes at the bottom of it.

Hi, The neverending grounding confusion... Sorry if this was asked before, I searched but couldn't find a fitting answer. Looking to finalise the grounding of my system, Wiring Unlimited by Victron says to ground closer to the battery negative - makes sense. Here is the schematics they attach...

Hello! Controversy everywhere I look for grounding advice... lots of debate, never reaching a consensus... for an off-grid setup, is it ok to have it all (equipment + panels and frames) connected to one earth ground rod only?

All ground wires to a bus bar with one bonding with system neutral and then from the bus bar to the earth rod. Or is it advised to take the panels' ground wire straight to the earth rod?

Yes, that's right! I've done it multiple times.

Ciao! The manuals of Victron equipment, like inverters or MPPTs state that these should not be mounted over the batteries. I suspect this is because acid batteries release corrosive gases that would damage and even provoke a fire with the equipment. However, I am not aware of LiFePo4 batteries...

Not trying to hijack the thread, but I've seen Andy from the OffGrid garage YouTube channel using Noark breakers and no class T fuses at each battery bank. Any reason why would that not be suitable? Cheers.

Same here, I've done this via the Windows app.

Hello again! I've been searching for the best backer board for solar equipment, such as inverters, MPPTs, bus bars, etc... Victron manuals state to mount on non-flamable surfaces. This must be a sort of lawyer's text in there, right? ... Nevertheless, what are people using? I was looking at...

I've been using the newer jkbms since August without any issues whatsoever. This is the one with the heating pad port, but I'm not making use of it.

Hi! This has been frustrating me for a while now ... The 48v system is all Victron, with the exception of battery cells and the BMS. The BMS SOC is always off compared to the Victron Smart Shunt. The thing is, that for my settings in Victron Smart Shunt, I have set as fully charged voltage to...

Hi, I've got Kraus & Naimer switch disconnectors. I doubt that it matters, but just to double-check: does anyone know if the wires from the panels are expected on 1,3 or 2,4? The model on the box is KGD40 TD102 . They have no manual coming with them... Thank you!

I liked how you consider some devices like the BMS, shunt, busbar to be like wires - "wire like devices". Protecting the wire you protect those as well. A proper inverter or mppt won't need protection since it has this in-built.

That's right, I've read so on the forum and it makes sense for large currents over the small wires, but hear me out... I need to extend most of the balance wires and thought of doing it using dinkle connectors. But then I found similar connectors that can house cartridge fuses and thought why...

Thank you my friend! :) I'm in the UK, they seem to block access to that URL, but I'll seacb for Hardie backer locally here.

The URL doesn't work anymore :( , I get back site can't be reached.

Salut! Welcome to the forum and hope your journey goes well! Not an answer to your question, but thought it is good to mention now that you're still in the opening phase that I've used Victron equipment and it's brilliant!

Cheers, thank you!

This may come in handy for someone in an off-grid installation: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/174747808433?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=04-w5mzvqf2&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=D218Z0xNRaO&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY There are other models as well, but thought to share. Still...

Can I then ask how did you set up your inverter? Is it based in SoC or voltage: i.e.: cutout, grid coming in, etc... (If you have such a set-up).

Hi fellow solar brains, I've been toying with the idea to add a secondary battery bank in parallel to the current one I have - 16s LifePo4 EVE lf280k. I may add a CATL bank, if I can't find the same EVE ones, or "storage grade" Eve ones... :) However, I'm aware that the banks should have...

How's that a point of failure? Other people think otherwise. For example Andy from the off grid garage on YouTube has fuses as well.