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    Can An MPPT Fix Itself?

    TLDR: troubleshooted MPPT remotely with an engineer from this website last year. Conclusion: unit bad/miscalibrated, send to distributor for warranty replacement. Instead of doing this, I just bought a new unit and stuck the old one in a box for ten months. Recently, I sent the old unit to a...
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    What Would You Recommend as an Alternative to this System to Pressurize House's Plumbing?

    I'm getting tired of this setup: https://diysolarforum.com/threads/what-is-this-setup-called.35716/ I went to change the filter for our rainwater tank yesterday and by swapping the old filter for the new one, we had to re calibrate the entire pressure switch. The simple act of swapping out a...
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    Caution Before Purchasing Victron from XYZ Distributor!

    If I get the resolution I'm looking for, I will delete this post. Currently the Victron sales rep for our region and our distributor are gaslighting us. My Victron MPPT stopped working properly about one year ago. This reflected as a battery bank that could not charge to 100%. I didn't know...
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    Can I Use a Smaller Charge Controller on this System?

    I currently have a victron 250/100 on my system. The unit needs replacement. Was thinking about downsizing until I can get a replacement 250/100. PV array is 4s4p. Highest PV voltage I've ever seen is 190V. Unfortunately, I think the PV array is the limiting factor here. Since each string is...
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    Please Define a Battery Cycle

    Let's say I have a LiFePO4 battery bank connected to a charge controller and a solar panel array and an off-grid inverter, and I turn on an electric oven that uses 4000w but my mppt is only outputing 3000w from the solar panel array, resulting in a net draw from the battery bank of 1000w. I...
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    What Causes Batteries to Not Even Charge to 50% Capacity?

    I've been dealing with some LiFePO4 battery problems for months now. The first twelve months following initial off-grid system installation everything was fine. Not a single problem. Then somewhere around the 12-13 month mark I noticed the battery bank would consistently top out at 88% according...
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    Using a Multi-tester rated for 5000v to test electric fencing

    Can you use a multi-tester rated for 5000v to test the voltage pulse of electric wire livestock fencing that outputs more than 5000V? Say 8000v? Or does anything more than 5000V destroy the multi-tester?
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    LENR - Low Energy Nuclear Reaction - A Real Alternative Energy?

    I found it extremely difficult to pay attention to what these guys were saying in this podcast. How long until this stuff is mainstream? I want to power my house for 80 years with some copper pipes and other knick-knacks from the hardware store...
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    Pylontech Batteries

    I might post some photos of their printed warranty policy that comes with the US3000 battery. Under "Exclusions of Warranty" it actually says, "normal wear and tear" I knew the outlook was abysmal when the only two options in this country for LiFePo4 were Chinese and only one of them had a...
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    Should I Send My Battery for Warranty Service? Don't Want to Be without Electricity!

    We're living off grid in a remote part of Peru, and one of our four batteries has been acting up. Actually I hope it's just one. This one battery is the only one to show an erroneous low temperature alarm. First, the entire stack limited itself to about 89% charge, and progressively over the...
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    Why Does My Battery Bank Now Top Out at Only 88% Capacity?

    I've had this off-grid system up and running succesfully for about a year now. I used all new components. Here are the components and wiring diagram if you're curious... https://diysolarforum.com/threads/is-my-installation-plan-ok-pictorial.22812/ Looks like I've encountered my first hiccup. I...
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    Advice for Shopping on AliExpress Please

    Can anyone experienced with AliExpress please give me some advice. I'm really not sure how it works. I've read that the sellers on there aren't allowed to sell name brands like Nike, gucci, rolex, Sony, etc. Is that true for every product category? What if it's a brand with a good reputation...
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    Thanks to all the Helpful People on Here

    I'm very grateful for this forum and for all the smart people on here who have helped me along the way. I'm happy with the way that my solar system turned out, and this website was a huge resource for me when learning enought to pull of the installation myself. Another recent example is with my...
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    Internet Options for less EMF Exposure?

    In the other thread talking about off-grid internet, it sounded like everything involved wireless, which is understandable for obvious reasons. Which setups would expose you to the least amount of EMF radiation?
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    Ripped Off by Well Installer

    Long story short, we had a guy who runs his own well-installation company come out and see about installing a tubular well for us to get clean groundwater for our home. He said there was definitely water, and for an agreed upon price, they'd try "as many times as it would take" to acheive our...
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    LOUD Bang! On the roof last night.

    Last night about 2am, my wife and I woke up, and then heard our dog howling like a wolf. He does that sometimes in response to something that might be going on with our neighbor's dogs. A moment later a loud bang! Something hard hit our corrugated metal roof. And/or our solar panels! The sound...
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    What Should I Do With Excess Power Off-Grid?

    Most days I top out my 14kwh battery bank before 11am. I thought about doing crypto mining, but my internet is abysmal. Any other ideas?
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    What is this Setup Called?

    We had someone set this up in Peru, and it seems to be acting up. This is the setup to pump water from our rainwater storage tank to the plumbing of the house everytime we open a tap. I don't know what it's called in English, and I'm not sure in Spanish either. The blue pump is called a bomba...
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    First Solar Installation - What went wrong? Please solve the Enigma

    This is my first solar installation, but I'm working with a technician. It's a 4s4p array. The first 3 strings are with 4 400W Mono PERC panels in series, and the last string is composed of 4 410W Mono PERC panels in series. The STC of both panels is almost exactly the same, and some...
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    Configuring Victron Multiplus with MK3-USB

    I can't get my Multiplus to be recognized in VEConfigure. I've got an MK3-USB, dowloaded the drivers, restarted the computer, reinstalled VEconfigure. My USB drivers are working OK, computer is fine, but for whatever reason I can't get my Multiplus recognized on VEConfigure3. It also won't show...
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    Is My Multimeter a Dud for Amps?

    I bought a Prasek PR-54 recently, and watched a video tutorial. The volts seem spot on, which you measure with the diodes. I tested a 9V battery, the wall outlet, and my solar MC4 strings. The first two measurements were spot on. The last one, measuring VOC on a partly cloudy day, seemed also...
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    Can We Get Will to do a Pylontech Teardown?

    Not trying to be a shill here, but that brand might just be the best distributed LiFePO4 brand at an international level. We're talking about this batteries with distribution channels in even some remote 3rd world countries. They're approved by victron as compatible. It would certainly help...
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    CHINGLISH Battery Bank Setup

    I have 4 Pylontech US3000 batteries that I'd like to set up in parallel, so I'm reading the manual, but don't understand. I guess I'm going to have to use google translate for Chinglish - English. Also it's hard because I don't know battery lexicon either. The way I understand is that 1 of my 4...
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    How to Know AC Wire Negative vs. Positive

    Long before starting our off-grid solar power installation, we had an electrician wire the house for outlets, lights, switches, breakers, etc. He left a couple loose wires sticking out of the floor to attach to my inverter to feed the house. How do I know which cable is positive vs negative...
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    Is My Installation Plan OK? (Pictorial)

    Is this ok? What's the correct order of the installation? Only thing I'm really sure is that I hook up to the mppt first with the batteries, and at some later point to the PV array. my PV array is already wired and so is my string box...ready to plug in to the mppt. Oh and the batteries have...
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    Off-Grid Adventure in the High Jungle

    I'm going to post this ongoing solar diary. Please feel free to interrupt at any time to point something out if I'm doing something wrong. It feels like a gauntlet just to get this point. I haven't even started the installation yet, and I have absolutely zero background in electronics. I first...
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    How to tell if a circuit breaker is in the ON or OFF position?

    Is this photo showing a circuit breaker in the On position or in the Off position?
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    Wiring Panel to Panel When There is Distance

    Let's say I want to wire Panel A to Panel B to Panel C to Panel D in series and the middle of each panel is a distance of 4 meters apart, Panel A has a negative (female) MC4 integrated, but it will not reach all the way to the positive (male) MC4 of Panel B. What is the proper order of...
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    How To Wire Panels to Ground?

    Hello, How do you attach the ground wires to the panel array? Do you need to attach a separate wire for each support rail? or just attach a ground wire to one of the two support rails for each row of panels? Let me ask with a picture. Here are the accesories I have to attach ground wires to...
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    Should I Pre-Wire Panels Before Putting on Roof?

    This is international, and US codes don't apply, but that said, all the youtube videos from the USA say that you can't have your PV cables touching the roof. Why not? Is the roof going to heat up to the point to fry them? How would you keep them from touching the roof? It sounds like a tall...
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    What wire size to connect to a 5/8" copper ground rod?

    I've got a copper ground rod that's 5/8" thick, and I want to connect all my solar components: panels, cabinet, charge controller, inverter, 4 batteries, etc to this copper ground rod via a common copper cable. The threads on the ground rod's bolt connector measure 1cm in diameter. What size of...
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    I'm about to place an order - please help

    I want to build a string box to parallel a 4s4p array. Does this look like the right components that I should buy to get the job done? I already have these components: So, I just need another fuse and fuse holder, one more of the gray squares where the negatives connect (I'm not sure what...
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    Why connect a ground cable from cabinet to door of cabinet?

    Am I missing something here? Was it really necessary to do this?
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    Is it Worth it ($$) to be an Installer in the 3rd World?$

    I'm going to invest in a drill, wire cutters, wire strippers, wrenches, multi-meter, MC4 crimper, and a couple other small tools, since the tools will cost me less than paying what the installers are asking for here in Rioja, Peru. What I'm curious about is if I should keep investing in my...
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    Combining Fuses and Fuseholders of DiFfeReNt brands?

    I'm redesigning my string box, which was built for 4s3p. It's going to be for 4s4p. Right now it has three fuseholders of the ETI brand. Inside are 15A, 1000VDC fuses of the brand "Littlefuse" The new distributor I'm working with has FEEO fuseholders with FEEO fuses inside also 15A, 1000VDC. I...
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