diy solar

diy solar

Off grid completely

ChillnGrill said:
Not that anyone would care but I thought I would share anyway. My wife and I just made the move to our off grid home I been working on for the last year. We are excited and very nervous. Pray everything works out for us. And we are selling our old house as soon as possible.
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We do care! It's always great to see success stories like yours, especially when so many of us followed the same path to get there. You have a nice setup - very similar to mine and a number of others on the forum. I know you didn't ask for input but I agree with the comment on adding a Class T fuse. And based on my own experience, add one that will cover you for adding future batteries if that's in the cards. I ended up buying then buying again when I decided to add more batteries. Looking at your DC breakers I can't see the model or anything, but they look a lot like the ones I originally had on my system from Amazon.

1687702109182.png

You may want to confirm the specs on those and look at something like this one from Ian at Watts247. It's designed specifically for this application.

DC 200A Circuit Breaker Battery/Solar Disconnect – Ships now – Watts247 Wholesale

watts247.com watts247.com

Congratulations on achieving such a major milestone, not only with solar but the whole thing! You have something to be proud of.
 
This is great! I'm using the same exact system as I'm building my off grid home in North Florida (close to Osceola National Forest). I'm probably 8-10 months from being move-in-ready. Building a barndominium instead of a manufactured home, but otherwise very similar setup.

We've had a ton of rain lately. I'd be interested to know which generator you went with and how it's working with the chargeverter.
 
ChillnGrill said:
Not that anyone would care but I thought I would share anyway. My wife and I just made the move to our off grid home I been working on for the last year. We are excited and very nervous. Pray everything works out for us. And we are selling our old house as soon as possible.
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Pretty wild isn't it. I look at the solar panles on half my roof and running 5 air conditioners, internet, tvs, big aquariums, and much more. All from the sun hitting one little spot. Elon musk said only need 100 miles x 100 miles in nevada to power all of USA. And 1 square mile of batteries. For sure is the future.
 
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ChillnGrill said:
Not that anyone would care but I thought I would share anyway. My wife and I just made the move to our off grid home I been working on for the last year. We are excited and very nervous. Pray everything works out for us. And we are selling our old house as soon as possible. View attachment 154283View attachment 154281View attachment 154282
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could you display the generator integration on you system. An tryely off-grid system must have one. I've never seen a successful install on the forums.
 
I connect the generator to the eg4 chargeverter. Chargeverter connects to the battery bank bus bar and charges entire pack. Manually start the generator when needed.
 
I was hoping for a automatic system that monitors the SOC and then starts the gen as required. For a truly smart off grid house.
 
virgomistrust said:
I was hoping for a automatic system that monitors the SOC and then starts the gen as required. For a truly smart off grid house.
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1) get a two wire start generator
2) Voltage level monitor that turns on at 48.0v (10%), and turns off at 51.5v (25%).
3) Add a button where it turns on the generator, and turns off at 53.5v (90%).

1&2 keeps the battery charged. Top off the fuel as needed.
#3 is if you expect an extended bad weather period, your battery is low, and you want to run the generator during the day (avoid running at night). Fill it up with fuel, and push the button.
 
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virgomistrust said:
I was hoping for a automatic system that monitors the SOC and then starts the gen as required. For a truly smart off grid house.
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Better to skip having a truly smart off grid home and go with a smart off grid person. Automatic start and run generators introduce complexity and point of failure that is not really needed. Having a generator that can be manually started and connected to your home is fairly easy.
 
virgomistrust said:
I was hoping for a automatic system that monitors the SOC and then starts the gen as required. For a truly smart off grid house.
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As others have notes, this is very easy with the right inverter. My Victron Multiplus has a relay that can be programmed to close a relay, thereby starting a generator at a certain battery voltage or state of charge, and that then turns off the generator when the battery has been recharged to a certain point. As long as the generator starts, works perfectly and is not much different than the way an automatic transfer switch works in a power outage, in concept.
 
Madcodger said:
As others have notes, this is very easy with the right inverter. My Victron Multiplus has a relay that can be programmed to close a relay, thereby starting a generator at a certain battery voltage or state of charge, and that then turns off the generator when the battery has been recharged to a certain point. As long as the generator starts, works perfectly and is not much different than the way an automatic transfer switch works in a power outage, in concept.
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Bringing up a generator and dropping the load onto it like it was a UPS can and does create issues. Ideally you want the generator to start with little or no load so that it has a chance reach full rpm and to stabilize. After up and running than loads can be introduced without putting as much stress on the generators ability to maintain voltage and frequency.

Batteries in a UPS have the speed of chemical reaction and require no time to be supplying power.

Yes auto start generators abound in emergency power setups. But they are built special with special switchgear as part of their design.
 
Mattb4 said:
Bringing up a generator and dropping the load onto it like it was a UPS can and does create issues. Ideally you want the generator to start with little or no load so that it has a chance reach full rpm and to stabilize.
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Very good point, I must admit. Here's one way to deal with that:

Place an automated switch between the generator output and the inverter-charger input, with the automation for that handled by a relatively inexpensive home automation controller. I use a device from Hubitat. Universal Devices and others also make good ones. When the generator start relay closes, it starts the generator AND notifies the automation controller, which starts a timer (let's say for two-minutes). As the timer counts down, the generator is warming up, without a load on it. When the timer expires, the automation controller closes the switch, and power flows from the warmed-up generator to the inverter-charger.

If you want to get really fancy, the automation controller could even use the timer delay to turn off or down loads, such as a running mini-split or other load-producing devices. These could then be turned on or up one at a time if necessary after the generator is up and running, to further ease the transition over to generator power.

Just an idea...
 
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