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I just came into a small windfall of cash, and rather than spend it on hookers and booze, I think I may expand my battery bank. I have a pretty small bank (30kwh) currently and want to significantly expand it because I have huge solar array and I am basically crazy. With the recent posts on...

I've been eyeing these.. https://steffes.com/ets/room-unit/ I have a lot of periodic excess solar, and this seemed like a painless way to harness them for my power shack to keep my equipment/batteries warm and give me a warmer place to work..

Was wondering what a fair price for VERY lightly used unit is to ask. I only used it very briefly when I was installing my main system .

I’m sure this is obvious to most folks, ( at least those who still feel it’s okay to publicly discuss Christmas), but now that I have solar/batteries i pay a lot more attention to these things., I measured my old Christmas tree lights and discovered that the string was using over 175 watts for...

After two full, cold winters (heading into a third) my renogy heated 12v battery has been working like a champ as starter for my Honda 7000is generator. Previous to this, the starter battery on the generator would drain and not recharge when the generator ran. Now I have a 100 watt panel...

These integrated units targeted at DIY are interesting https://kilovault.com/products/uniti-ecofreedom/ This would be perfect for me if it just had heaters…

This is sort of a joke at this point, but as more people adopt EV’s how knows: I have a very large (too large for my actual usage, (but I overbuild everything) solar array at my off grid location that is far from gas stations and recharging locations. I recently helped a hiker recharge his Tesla...

I've got 6 server rack 120ah (Trophy) batteries that have been running great for over year now. I've been wondering if these are more likely to just diminish in capacity or fail outright as the years go by. I guess nobody really can say, but is it likely that I could just add new batteries to...

I noticed in the Sol Ark App (I have a 12K) there is a setting named "LowPowerMode" I don't recall seeing this before, or documented. Maybe something relevant to another model?

Has anyone bought/used one of these? Are these a new thing? https://www.electricgeneratorsdirect.com/Kohler-6VSG-QS18-Standby-Generator/p121124.html

One of Sol Ark’s much touted features is the ability use small, dirty voltage, generators (albeit 240 volt only). Ive been charging my batteries with it happily at 5500 watts with a small honda gas generator. Some folks might want to consider this feature, if it’s useful to them..

I have been toying with the idea of using a 240Volt water heater powered with the excess PV from my inverter dump load to store and release heat(more slowly than a resistive heater) in my workshed/power house. My idea is to fill the system with propylene glycol and heat and pump that through a...

My server rack manufacturer told me that their batteries do not measure power (SOC) if it is below .5A. What this means, is if you have large battery bank and extended periods of low energy usage, the SOC will never update off 100%. Is this a common thing with all BMSs? What good is closed loop...

I have a Honda 7000is gasoline generator connected to my Sol Ark 12k (via Grid inputs) and I have been noticing recently that (at least this is my best guess) that my starter battery is getting drained since I hooked it up to the Sol Ark. I recently connected Solar Assistant to the inverter and...

I have a Sol Ark 12k (off grid only) connected to 6-48 volt Trophy 120ah batteries (listed as 110ah, but actually 120ah). I have the Sol Ark set to use voltage to estimate battery SOC since I don't have closed loop communication working with my battery. I can monitor my batteries using the...

I'm dreaming here (assuming current chemistry tech): Built-in wifi/web server, management software that can communicate with all batteries in bank and expose a REST API for remote monitoring Remotely programmable heaters (allow to self-preheat even if not recieving PV) Configurable terminal...

I have an off grid cabin in Northern NH in the mountains that i visit a lot, but leave unheated. I redesigned the plumbing several years ago to plumb a drain back valve and a small compressor to blow out the lines when I left in winter months, Although this ok, small amount residual water...

I've been curious how State of Health (SOH) is calculated in LiFePO4 batteries by BMS's. Is this just a fancy count of charge cycles, or is measuring some other electrical/physical characteristic of the battery? Have these SOH values been empirically validated by any independent group? Sounds...

I was all set to install my own, but when I realized that I could pay someone to do it... I hired a firm that only does ground mounts. It was a bit expensive, because of my location, but definitely worth it. I'm glad I didn't do it myself. I could of, but these guys did in 4 hours.. It would...

I was curious if anyone has firsthand experience with an ocpd actually protecting your inverter/home from a lightning strike? I've had lightning strike a tree near me once and I can't believe a little electronic gizmo could dissipate and shunt that amount of energy.... I just installed them on...

The Unique brand of off-grid propane refrigerators have an options to use them with 120volt AC. Does anyone run one of these this way? How much power do they consume? The manual says 300 watts… is that continuous ??

I have my Bluetti AC200p connected to the dump load on my Sol Ark 12K. The Bluetti runs my Starlink and routers. With my size system, the bluetti is pretty much always fully charge (90-100). It’s this bad for the bluetti to always have the chargers plugged in (i have two bluetti AC chargers)?

Does anyone have any experience with the Sol Ark 12K and using a small generator to supplement the PV? I have my Honda 65000 240v generator connected to the Sol Ark's Grid terminals and the configured to use Gen to Grid setting. Using the latest firmware from SA. The generator charges the...

I have an off grid cabin built in 1900 and probably wired in the 80’s (generator, now solar) and I think the chipmunks have gnawed wires in wall behind pine tongue and groove paneling. I know approximately where the short is. Are there any inexpensive tracers that will locate a shorted wire...

I got these 48 volt strip lights connected directly to my server rack batteries. It works great. I’m using a remote control 48 volt switch I got off amazon. This is in my power house with the inverter and battery bank. These lights draw almost nothing in current, and are extremely bright. It was...

These new server batteries and big inverters are heavy, and since I take the 'Y" in DIY seriously, I thought I'd better spend my money on some mechanical advantage, rather than an orthopedic surgeon. I bought this cabinet lifter and it was way better than I expected at lifting batteries/inverters.

I have 5 acres and an excavator and decided it would fun to try a low-tech geothermal heating and cooling system by burying 600 feet of plastic water pipe down 8 feet and connecting to radiator/pump/fan in my shed that has my lifepo/inverters. I'm in a cold region and I figure I can stabilize...

There seems to be a national (US) panel shortage now. Have others seen this? I was fortunate I bought my panels early this year, but I tried to order a few more to fill out my ground mount and the distributors are rationing them....

Does anyone have any experience/advice/cautions about using a secondary charge controller on the same battery bank as the Sol-Ark? I was hoping that it would be possible to connect something like a Schneider 100A mppt to the same bus bar as the Sol Ark. I know they would need to both be...

This is probably a dumb question, and I'm sure it's been asked in different contexts, but I couldn't seem to fine an answer. I have a Sol Ark 12k and am planning my array (currently, at least) so that under summer temps would be about 485 volts on each of the two MPPT controllers (at 11amps)...

(non-electrician asking naively..) I'm planning an off-grid system around a Sol-Ark 12k which I would normally plan to have connected to the Sol-Ark 'grid' breaker to my generator (240v split phase) with autostart. What kind of bypass switch should I get to bypass the inverter and feed my cabin...

Just received 6-48v 110ah server batteries from Trophy. Bit of a risk buying from a new vendor, but several things sold me on them: The owner, Dan, seems like to stand-up guy (but I’m a pushover) The batteries have heaters! My cabin is at elevation and gets pretty cold and unattended They had...

I've seen some posts here that make we wonder. I'm always very suspicious of overly negative or positive posts anyway, unless from Will that is ;)

I'm looking for an inverter for my off grid cabin (mountains, cold) and have narrowed my choices to either the Solark 12k or Growatt SPF1200. Both are 240 volt split phase, which I need. After watching a very recent Signature Solar video, they emphasized not to use the inverter under 32 degrees...