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diy solar

Sol-Ark Inverters 8 and 12K

Shawn Hayes said:
@solardad
Just curious if you (and others) will share more info on how folks do battery cabling, breakers & fusing? I know some people do things differently? This is the area where I’d like input on what’s best. Pictures are great or diagrams either...
I am thinking a high amp DC main switch or disconnect and/or high amp fuse between the batteries and Sol-Ark, closest to the batteries. So any experience with a higher amp & 48v battery setup would be greatly welcomed.
I know named brand items are more dependable than generic electronic parts.
Click to expand...
@Shawn Hayes I just followed examples that are already posted out there online or in forums. For the most part they all follow basic principles:

1. proper wire gauge (minimal voltage drop & support expected amps)
- - depending on length of run 3/0 or 4/0 should work, bigger is best but it will be $$$. Any welding wire, fine strand, should be good. Windy Nation or Temco

2. fuse(s) at the battery pack
-- I think I used little fuse but others have used bluesea.
3. breaker and/or disconnect
-- midnite is the default for most folks but there are others like Schneider (see ben's channel for some neat UL listed options)
4. (I am sure others will have relevant points to add)

For visuals I relied on this forum and others along with a few YT channels for my design:

Ronald W: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfONGGr_7sczY1fR388LJJQ/videos
David Poz: https://www.youtube.com/user/greasybrothers/videos
Ben: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKIySgKlPTGI_aQ_74LGhaQ/videos
(electrician and has a Sol-Ark 12k with various DIY / repurposed batteries for backup)
Gain Solar services: https://www.youtube.com/c/GainSolarServices7/videos
(has a couple good videos on critical load panel hookups with a Sol-Ark setup)

Also Will has a number of videos and I think diagrams of builds that outline so of the basic principles.
 
Shawn Hayes said:
@solardad
Just curious if you (and others) will share more info on how folks do battery cabling, breakers & fusing? I know some people do things differently? This is the area where I’d like input on what’s best. Pictures are great or diagrams either...
I am thinking a high amp DC main switch or disconnect and/or high amp fuse between the batteries and Sol-Ark, closest to the batteries. So any experience with a higher amp & 48v battery setup would be greatly welcomed.
I know named brand items are more dependable than generic electronic parts.
Click to expand...
If anyone goes the deye route the breakers used should be non polarized so the protection is there on line and load side( in and out of inverter)
 
I was showing my Electrician the Engineer775 Sol-ark setup with metal troughs for the wiring and his response was "Sure I can put that in but why? He said if a wire drops off it's going to short out on the Trough". He highly recommended using a plastic trough.
Your thoughts?
 
robby said:
I was showing my Electrician the Engineer775 Sol-ark setup with metal troughs for the wiring and his response was "Sure I can put that in but why? He said if a wire drops off it's going to short out on the Trough". He highly recommended using a plastic trough.
Your thoughts?
Click to expand...

Well in could happen but all EMT and boxes are grounded for that reason, so the short would be cleared with your breakers. I don't think is that usual, but its a possibility (Rodents, insects, bad assembly, overheating of cables, etc). With a good installation its pretty safe.

Having said that, i personally don't trust electricity at all and all my equipment is inside plastic boxes with DIN rails, and the cables aswell in slotted plastic ducts.

1621876838152.png

... Still need to cover the cables coming out of the inverter ;)
 
mrdavvv said:
Well in could happen but all EMT and boxes are grounded for that reason, so the short would be cleared with your breakers. I don't think is that usual, but its a possibility (Rodents, insects, bad assembly, overheating of cables, etc). With a good installation its pretty safe.

Having said that, i personally don't trust electricity at all and all my equipment is inside plastic boxes with DIN rails, and the cables aswell in slotted plastic ducts.

View attachment 50221

... Still need to cover the cables coming out of the inverter ;)
Click to expand...
Yeah I am looking at all those cables and thinking that if something goes wrong the chances of a short in PVC type plastic are 50/50 but in metal it's almost 100% chance that sparks are going to fly.
 
They will fly just for some miliseconds before all current its cut by your breakers, a lot of inverters have AFCI's integrated, so if they detect any electric arc in any point of your installation, the current will be stopped. You can install your own AFCI / GFCI if you want a safer installation.

There is thousands of projects with metal tubing and they are safe if installed by a good electrician and following NEC / Other codes.

One could argue that metal is safer since plastic can burn and melt, increasing your chances of having a fire, wich is one of the main worries in electrical installations (Apart from being electrocuted)
 
robby said:
Yeah I am looking at all those cables and thinking that if something goes wrong the chances of a short in PVC type plastic are 50/50 but in metal it's almost 100% chance that sparks are going to fly.
Click to expand...

And the flip side is that in an overheating situation PVC will fail way before metal.

Always tradeoffs. ?
 
mrdavvv said:
They will fly just for some miliseconds before all current its cut by your breakers, a lot of inverters have AFCI's integrated, so if they detect any electric arc in any point of your installation, the current will be stopped. You can install your own AFCI / GFCI if you want a safer installation.

There is thousands of projects with metal tubing and they are safe if installed by a good electrician and following NEC / Other codes.

One could argue that metal is safer since plastic can burn and melt, increasing your chances of having a fire, wich is one of the main worries in electrical installations (Apart from being electrocuted)
Click to expand...
The guy I am working with is doing a 2800 Panel installation right now using multiple 25KW SMA inverters. He uses the same 6-8" metal troughs on those. He is doing mine as a side job because the COO of the company he is putting the system in for is a friend of mine and asked him to help me out with the utility side of things. He says he can put whatever I want, but for home installations he finds that the PVC type are better suited against accidents. PVC types used in electrical work do not catch fire, they will melt but they tend to just turn the heated spot into a black ash. I am open to metal but he seemed to think it was overkill for a home installation. I am not a Prepper, but I do know that Preppers often go way overboard on things just because they perceive them as being stronger or better.
 
Screen Shot 2021-06-03 at 6.40.07 AM.png

Figured out how to read the modbus register from the Sol-Ark 12k.
It is possible with the correct inverter settings. Basically followed the posts from @Sc00bs. You need to make sure that the inverter is set to '00' in the Lith Battery setting (the box does not have to be checked). I'll post more later.
 
robby said:
He says he can put whatever I want, but for home installations he finds that the PVC type are better suited against accidents.
Click to expand...

If you go the PVC route please provide a link or picture to what he used.
 
..coming together faster than I thought. The work that others did with the SunSynk for monitoring etc really paved the way.
data is raw and some spots missing since my laptop running Node-Red decided to 'go to sleep' a couple times. the possibilities now in having real time stats and future automations based on threshold/API triggers is real. maybe something akin to Tesla weather / storm alert feature. in the near feature i'll post a quick outline of the steps i took to integrate.

1622732276899.png
 
solardad said:
..coming together faster than I thought. The work that others did with the SunSynk for monitoring etc really paved the way.
data is raw and some spots missing since my laptop running Node-Red decided to 'go to sleep' a couple times. the possibilities now in having real time stats and future automations based on threshold/API triggers is real. maybe something akin to Tesla weather / storm alert feature. in the near feature i'll post a quick outline of the steps i took to integrate.

View attachment 51449
Click to expand...
Please keep us informed.
I Just have a personal critique on the screen shot that may improve it. I think the screen is getting a bit crowded!
Some of the info does not really need to be in real time, eg the graphs. I would just use the normal App for that kind of info. What I do like is the Solar production, Power consumption, SOC and Battery Load in real time.
Maybe also add in the Dally solar production.

To bad this cannot work without the Lithium battery being set to 00. I have Fortress eFlex batteries so I guess this will not work for me. Nice work anyway, I am eagerly waiting to see how it progresses.
 
Huayu New Energy-Simon said:
I recommend you a hybrid inverter with the same function as Sol-Ark. The price is half of it.
Click to expand...

Welcome!

That is quite a few models your company makes.
I see some mentions of the brand on the forum.


They appear to provide all the functions we would want, including battery backup, and zero export option.
I see you have U.S. offices. There is mention of certification for US and other markets, but the links to see that don't open.
Do your products now have UL certification, UL-1741SA as is needed for someone to get a permit to install and connect to grid?



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newbostonconst said:
Their load panel is not a requirement. This is DIY and individual breakers can be done for $100.

Gen start kit not required either. Most generators are just a contact closure and the generator controller starts and runs the generator which the GS4048 is capable of out of the box.

Mate 3 is required for setup....

Micro inverters are plugged into your critical loads panel and nothing else is needed but the firmware update.

This a lot cheaper 4k backup alternative if someone is interested and doesn't have $6k for the Sol-Ark....

The Sol-Ark is a great unit, but I couldn't justify that money for backup plus batteries.

You do have to have some batteries for the GS4048 to be able to run. I just did two Battle Born 24v in series.
Click to expand...
Big seller tho on sol ark it can backfeed without a net meter requirement . as it as ct senors on your main utility power and can measure the load to cover your panel main panel yet inverter is powering up your subpanel. move forward to time 36.30 on video
 
Just wanted to give an update and reach out with a question for anyone with Batrium BMS experience. I have ordered 64 LiFePo4 batteries (4p16s) and I am expecting them in the next couple of weeks. I ordered the Batrium Watchmon Core and 16 Blockmons M8’s and the Batrium arrived today.
I already know that based on my desired layout and battery spacing that I will have to lengthen some of the Blockmons M8 cabling. Just curious for those of you with Batrium experience, if you had to lengthen you’re Blockmon cables? If so, what your suggestions or recommendations would be based on your experience?
 
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