Search results

It’s good exercise and helps get the fallen trees cleaned up. I went from 20.6 last year, to 32kWpv this year. I can recharge in less than two hours of full sun usually. Until now, it takes all day and sometimes three days to get back to 100%. Atmospheric moisture and bomb/dust particle?

I wrapped a standard 80 gallon water heater with two more inches of insulation. I have it turned on from 3-8 PM, off the rest of the time. Works pretty well on our off grid solar system. I would like to get around to building my heat pump water heater but haven’t had time.

I have Aluminum QCells G6 430W, G10 475W and then Black REC 405’s. The 405’s can outperform my 430’s but not the 475’s. Heat doesn’t seem to affect the REC’s as much as QCells.

I have one of extendable window washer aluminum poles with the 20” wide soft squeegee. Works good for cleaning them and brushing snow off. Didn’t have enough last winter to worry with.

Yes it did a few miles east too.

Well, today (Mon 12/4, we harvested 37 kWh with our 32 kWpv (Up from 20.6kWpv last winter). Just barely enough to recharge to 100% today. Very little sun from 2-4 PM. Low last night 32F. Still able to heat 2000 sqft with 16 & 20 SEER HP’s. 15 cords of firewood ready to go. How was your kWh today?

For me at 38° latitude, we are just getting into the short, cloudy, colder days where we have to watch our power consumption, hp thermostat set-points (67°F day, 64°F night), water heater timer settings (3-8 pm on), shorter showers, no porch/security lights left on, etc. The worry ends by Mar 1.

I have a calibrated elbow after years of using torque wrenches on aircraft. I never use one now on anything. I just know how it feels. Starting out, use a torque wrench.

I’ve only bought their grade A 304 and 105’s. A bunch of them. No top balance needed. Hook up the 200A JK and done. I can take them to 3.65VPC with 50mV max differential. I charge and discharge them at 50A max current, all normal.

19 mo old QCells, 5 month old REC’s and the SolArks really bring in the power.

Not if it is enclosed/sealed inside my four sheet metal boxes. Some of it I’ve used in aircraft firewalls has binders but it’s still best to cover with another layer of sheet stainless or steel. I build outdoors with a fan blowing across work area and mask on.

What I meant was, a dry parcel of air in the desert cools off and heats up faster than a moist one in our southeast United States.

Moist air holds a tremendous amount of heat energy. The desert is usually void of this. If we prevent convection by enclosing and insulating “our desert” or sand battery then that stored energy can be used all night long.

My 24VDC van system is all mounted to and surrounded by 1/8” aluminum diamond plate, is isolated from the chassis 12V system. Smoke detector with RF transmitter to five more detectors in my home, including my home/shop power sheds and MBR. My DIY 10kWh of batteries (4 x 2.5) are surrounded by...

We’re too greedy for those high profit margins, high salaries/benefits packages for execs to spend anymore than we have to on customer service or shipping departments in the USA. We’ll even continue purchasing goods from our enemies if it means another big Christmas bonus, a new bizjet and a few...

Back up to 100% today. Ready for three cloudy cooler days ahead. Not much sun, but still brought in 65kWh with 32kWpv. Mostly south facing at 45deg. One string SE, two strings SW, both arrays at 60deg for better winter production. Works great for supper, top off water heater and sometimes a...

1.5T 16 SEER d/s, 2T 20 SEER u/s. My 80 gal wh uses 10-15kWh daily. I have 32 kW of pv. Consume about 30kWh daily. I don’t run the power shed mini until it gets below 20F. Plenty of heat losses and R-9 walls in power shed. House R-19 walls, R-30 ceiling. Set temps to 67F day, 64F night, that...

30kWh typical daily consumption on these warmer days above 20F. Consumption goes up drastically below 20F.

It got down to 11F last week, with three dark cloudy days. Still running heat pumps for now. I can do fine on the dark warmer days above 20F at night. Wood burner is locked and loaded though.

17kWh from 32kWpv today. Last week was worse. I had some 7-10 kWh days. I’ve been getting the dust knocked off of those old 100W Renogy. Desperate times when you’re putting 20 in series.

I’ve been running almost two years without comms or problems with two 12K’s and a ton of diy LFP.

27V float, 28V bulk or absorb works for me in the winter. Less in the summer. You don’t equalize LFP.

I think $66,000 was enough for 21 years.

I ask the power company to turn the power off from their office. $0 for the last 20 months. If I croak and wife needs the grid, one phone call, $40 turn-on fee, move the manual 200A xfer switch handle up and she’s back on the grid.

My Fujitsu 33SEER 9K was putting out 110°F supply air temperature at 11°F outside air temperature. It was 70°F inside. Running full speed, total amps: 8.4@240VAC.

I have at least six GFCI breakers in my SQ D QO panel that are 23 years old and I have never had one issue. I went with breakers instead of outlets because of the large amount of failures at my customer’s homes. If one installs a sensitive outlet or any cheap electronics in a high humidity...

My MS 600V 60A SCC is doing fantastic. I would highly recommend them. The only noise from it is a light chirping when current limiting. No fans are great. Yes, great, efficient customer service. Sure, it cost more, but I don’t have time to deal with half tested, poorly built equipment from other...

SA12K x2, 20 mo off grid, no problems. All 32kWpv grounded at arrays along with MS SPD’s.

18650BatteryStore, order yourself some grade cells plus 10% extra and a JK BMS. DIY! Cheaper and then you’ll know how to repair it. 19 mo, built over 220kWh with zero issues.

19 months. No regrets with two Sol-Ark 12K’s, 32kWpv, 150kWh of diy LFP. I’m glad that I didn’t choose EG4-Anything” for my house. My 6500ex’s for the shop are getting replaced with Schneider xwpro system, after 3 months of troublesome operation.

Two 12k’s still purring along after 19 mo off grid.

Write it off as a learning experience. We get what we paid for.

2 ea 1” cargo straps with 1” oak end boards for light compression. Over 200kWh like that. Off grid 19+ Mo. No problems.

PV output is my limiting factor 80% of the time. 150kWh battery, 32kWpv, MPPT SCC output amps total= 490A. My batteries could handle a lot more than 45A per battery typical.

I bought it separately.