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  1. V

    the rapidly changing inverter landscape

    That's the main reason i went with 2x Growatt 5ks and an autotransformer back when i built my setup. My transformer is a little undersize so i put cooling fans on it and definitely well exceeded 3kw of 120vac load on numerous occasions. All i would need to do up to 10kw of 120vac loads is a...
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    EV battery output connected to inverter solar input

    Rectifying 220vac will give you something more like 350vdc so your components have to be designed around that. I dont know anything about an auto changeover switch but i do know that the timing of dark hours is highly predictable so you could simply run it off a programmable timer switch...
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    Bluetti - Solar + alternator input into one port?

    Ok, sounds like your idea works. I had forgotten about the 8a limit as i typed most of my last post anyway, because even if the Bluetti knew to pull the circuit down to <13v, it would still only be 100w at that point, so a whole paragraph was sort of wasted there.. :ROFLMAO: If you're talking...
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    Bluetti - Solar + alternator input into one port?

    There's nothing wrong with paralleling the solar and 12v from the truck together as far as hurting anything.. the solar panel has diodes and will not act as a 'drain' on the truck just because they are hooked together. So it's perfectly SAFE. The issue will be whether it's effective. If your...
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    Will PV panels get any cheaper?

    I think new ones will continue to be better value per dollar for a while longer at least, but what i really worry about is politics and competition driving up the cost of used panels massively. I think we're still in an era where people find it hard to believe that a used panel could be...
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    Midea U 12k power from DC (IT WORKS!!!)

    As far as i know, anything that has a rectifier section and actually runs on DC, you could put DC straight through the AC cord and it would function, you would just be eating some pointless diode losses from passing through the rectifier section. But your way is nicer!
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    Midea U 12k power from DC (IT WORKS!!!)

    Dunno how i missed this the whole time. I missed my chance to contribute anything since i had opened one of mine last year and identified the voltage doubler circuit and thus the rough operating voltage etc, but a lot of the rest of this is over my head. Mine has been sitting dormant since i...
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    My First DIY Solar RV Project

    One general thing i can say: Fuses should be sized to protect the conductors from overheating, so can the wire from your battery bank to your fusebox handle 200a continuous without melting the insulation off? If not, that fuse needs to be smaller.
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    12v Lithium to replace 12v LA-Deep in RV with constant feed from 48->12 Converter

    The lifepo4 batteries that are 8D size are 280ah, BUT they are now making 300ah "mini" that are even narrower than the 8D 280ah. So if you buy 2 8D-sized prebuilt batteries that's 560ah and should fit your battery trays exactly (if you already have an area setup for 8Ds). If you buy two 300ah...
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    12v Lithium to replace 12v LA-Deep in RV with constant feed from 48->12 Converter

    If you dont need 100% of the available capacity and dont care about the charge rate then 13.4 is fine. The only caveat is that you may want to occassionally bring it to a higher voltage so the bms will balance. I read that trying to balance at only 13.4 is either ineffective or...
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    Victron Orion DC-DC strange interaction with alternator

    Some devices are configurable as to whether they 'auto-restart' after a low voltage shutdown, but some aren't.. If the Victron doesn't have a setting for that then you have no choice but to try to avoid low-voltage shutdown so you don't accidentally waste a whole 'engine running trip' worth of...
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    12v Lithium to replace 12v LA-Deep in RV with constant feed from 48->12 Converter

    So im guessing the 48>12v step down converter you have is adjustable? Do you have a link or model number (just my curiosity)? I have heard that the 'safe to leave hooked up forever' voltage for lifepo4 is 3.37v/cell. That works out to ~13.48v. The question is, can your BMS effectively balance...
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    Does Growatt make stackable inverters?

    I think the reason why the larger capacity split phase inverters are not parallelable is because they are already essentially two inverters in parallel inside one box, and the low frequency models which include a transformer probably are not intended for parallel because any unequal wiring would...
  14. V

    calpha 11kpv, 10k inverter $1700

    Looks interesting. It would directly replace my two Growatt 5000s & autotransformer, but i also don't see a benefit to doing so, other than a small fringe benefit of it accepting 120v input from smaller generators vs my setup only accepting 240v which sort of limits you to ~5000w+ generators...
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    MPPT Battery Charging - AC component during high PV loads

    I hope you have patience for the skepticism.. it just seems like if it were a big issue it would already be widely discussed. But then again i found the ac on both my PV and battery circuits 'the hard way' and then the PV issue did become heavily discussed here afterward so maybe it's real and...
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    Cheapest 48v 50ah battery I've found so far. $409.99 free shipping

    Totally get that! Said i wouldnt buy more spurious batteries this year but i did and this most recent one is still sitting on the counter in my house hooked to nothing for the past probably 2 weeks. :ROFLMAO:
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    MPPT Battery Charging - AC component during high PV loads

    Im sorry, but just to be clear you are measuring this on the battery circuit, correct? I cant imagine a capacitor would have better longevity than the battery bank if it were flowing 300a in and out 120 times a second. I guess id want to know whether that was true before i bothered trying to...
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    Victron Orion DC-DC strange interaction with alternator

    Technically yes but since most pickups are about 20ft long i think going up to the 6awg is a good idea here. Truck is still chassis ground so don't need to run a pair, just a short 6awg ground wire bolted to the frame near the rear bumper would suffice. I think it's fine to run the power and...
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    Homemade lithium Jump Box or battery booster...whatever name tickles your fancy

    Not against the idea but if you were trying to fit a lifepo4 replacement battery into the existing case of a jump box that used to have an SLA in it, you'd probably end up putting one of the many lifepo4 motorcycle starter batteries into it such as what i was playing with here: motorcycle...
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    Bus bar location and size

    I guess you're saying a 150a copper busbar from a better vendor would have been cheaper? I suspect the Amazon unit is capable of much more than 150a, but i also think it's overpriced for what it is, so i guess we're just valuing different things here. I dont like the Amazon unit because i think...
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    Victron Orion DC-DC strange interaction with alternator

    Justinm001 has got it, i think. You are causing enough voltage drop through the undersized wiring that input voltage (at the Victron) falls below the minimum and the unit shuts off. Voltage drop is proportional to current flow so once the current stops, the voltage drop disappears and you are...
  22. V

    Mx power and rated power

    So the max AC current an inverter would accept would be while it doing its maximum possible battery charging current, PLUS whatever AC loads are being powered. This can be a MUCH higher number than the actual inverter wattage since in 'ac passthrough' you are not actually limited to what the...
  23. V

    Bus bar location and size

    It's all well and good to minimize losses with oversized components but 3000w @ ~50v = ~60amps and if your connections between each battery and the inverter are remotely equal that's only 30-something amps a piece. That amazon bus bar could be made out of cast iron and still have no trouble...
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    Mx power and rated power

    Have you considered rewiring just that item to be powered only from the grid?
  25. V

    Additional batteries (timeline)?

    So i THINK that in general the difference in internal resistance between new and old lifepo4 is still small enough to be outweighed by resistances in cabling/connections, so even though 2 batteries of different age might not cycle 'evenly' if they were hooked through absolutely identical...
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    Hi! I just got my first EV (toyota proace) and i am wondering about the DC charging possibilities.

    So it looks like a Proace has a 400v nominal system, 108s3p li ion. I dont know what it actually limits discharge to but if it were to allow it to drop to 3v/cell that would be 324v on the low end. Anything that rectifies from or inverts to 220-240v ac has a ~330-370v DC bus you could tap...
  27. V

    100Ah 12v Sodium Battery (Specifications Sheet Supplied)

    Not this exact unit, but 1 older version of it, and one clone from a different brand: PowMr 12v AIO
  28. V

    Mx power and rated power

    Is this a tankless water heater? I agree that it would be easier to change how the heater gets its power, than to buy an entirely different inverter if the existing one works well in every other way.
  29. V

    Charging lead acid from lithium no alternator

    You could make your own 'dc-dc charger' using a boost converter and a cheap PWM solar controller, but... You have to kinda use the cheapest of the cheap before it just makes more sense to buy an actual pre-built charger. So for example you could use a $15 boost converter and a $15 pwm solar...
  30. V

    Build a variable current limiter for lead-acid battery charging

    What is the current charge controller? Given the fairly small numbers involved here it would not be that expensive to just install a charge controller with a current setting built in.
  31. V

    how do some AIOs increase inverting power with pv available

    The battery has to go through a boost converter to raise voltage high enough to invert from. The MPPT should be outputting at exactly the voltage the DC bus is already at, im guessing. So, the MPPT bypasses the 'limit' of the step-up/boost converter. The limit of the boost converter is...
  32. V

    Step up + mppt better than battery to battery charger system?

    I think you're right that the non-isolated ones would be more efficient, but i don't really see the efficiency difference as a big deal in the context of alternator charging because using a 'huge' engine to power a relatively inefficient alternator into a 12v system is a really inefficient thing...
  33. V

    100Ah 12v Sodium Battery (Specifications Sheet Supplied)

    The 2 12v AIOs i own will not go below 10.0 or over 15.0. I know that's anecdotal..
  34. V

    Whats values of Max Charge and Discharge for 3 lithium 100Ah,48V batteries(Setting for Inverter)

    If you are starting from empty, and then after 2 hours at 180amps all 3 batteries disconnect, they are probably severely out of balance internally and need to be held at 'full' voltage for possibly days as they internally rebalance themselves. BUT, that is a pretty weak conclusion with no other...
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