I finally got my house off grid

[automatikdonn]

Hey I just wanted to share my setup. I have posted my plans on here, received critical feedback and made corrections based on that. Thank you all so much for helping. I made this overview video I figured you all would enjoy. Feedback welcome. I would rather know if I have done something wrong now before it burns down my house or kills someone.

 

[1201]

very nice. you have a BEEFY system

 

[cj5orion]

I'm curious...
Did you NEED 63 panels ?
Or just overkill to be sure/safe/future ?

 

[OffGridForGood]

That is a huge set up. (wow the $$!)
Curious about all the Critical Loads Panels, I see five of these (?)
Did you consider a dedicated smart electrical panel - basically a full panel CLP combined typically these have wifi controls available.

 

[Gruic]

Hey I just wanted to share my setup. I have posted my plans on here, received critical feedback and made corrections based on that. Thank you all so much for helping. I made this overview video I figured you all would enjoy. Feedback welcome. I would rather know if I have done something wrong now before it burns down my house or kills someone.

Cha-Ching Cha-Ching! That's one expensive set up you got there. Nice looking professional installation too! It's be great if you could provide a parts list for everything, specifically interested in your ability to easily move circuits between grid and solar and then back again. I could definitely use something like that in my house.

 

[solar8484]

Nice install. Why did you pick Sungold 12K?

 

[RV10flyer]

Looking great. It’s a wonderful feeling isn’t it. I don’t mind driving a $20k work van and one $10k personal vehicle. That’s it. EV’s next. 210kWh LFP, 52kWpv finishing up last of the pv. Off grid 18 months. I want to thank everyone on here for all of their knowledge and expertise. I am pretty handy and skilled, but knew nothing about this wonderful SOLAR hobby two years ago. So far, only some molten aluminum and copper blown around the dining room due to mistaking the brown/black plastic terminal rings on my first emergency use of Chinese 280aH cells at night. I now carry my wife’s hot red fingernail polish when tinkering with solar. Everything positive gets marked.

 

[automatikdonn]

I'm curious...
Did you NEED 63 panels ?
Or just overkill to be sure/safe/future ?

I absolutely need every single one of them

 

[automatikdonn]

Nice install. Why did you pick Sungold 12K?

The are UL listed and are great work horses.
Better options have come on the market since I bought them though.

 

[automatikdonn]

Cha-Ching Cha-Ching! That's one expensive set up you got there. Nice looking professional installation too! It's be great if you could provide a parts list for everything, specifically interested in your ability to easily move circuits between grid and solar and then back again. I could definitely use something like that in my house.

It's just a reliance controls emergency generator panel.

 

[automatikdonn]

That is a huge set up. (wow the $$!)
Curious about all the Critical Loads Panels, I see five of these (?)
Did you consider a dedicated smart electrical panel - basically a full panel CLP combined typically these have wifi controls available.

I did, but it's more $$$

I am working at cleaning that up next. Does it work? Yea, but it's not exactly pretty

 

[automatikdonn]

very nice. you have a BEEFY system

Thank you. This house is a PIG

 

[automatikdonn]

Looking great. It’s a wonderful feeling isn’t it. I don’t mind driving a $20k work van and one $10k personal vehicle. That’s it. EV’s next. 210kWh LFP, 52kWpv finishing up last of the pv. Off grid 18 months. I want to thank everyone on here for all of their knowledge and expertise. I am pretty handy and skilled, but knew nothing about this wonderful SOLAR hobby two years ago. So far, only some molten aluminum and copper blown around the dining room due to mistaking the brown/black plastic terminal rings on my first emergency use of Chinese 280aH cells at night. I now carry my wife’s hot red fingernail polish when tinkering with solar. Everything positive gets marked.

I couldn't have gotten here without this community. No doubts at all about that.

 

[1201]

Thank you. This house is a PIG

Well you have both a house and shop so it's understandable. How much power do you consume per month if I may ask

 

[Vigo]

I have a small shop about 800 ft away from my small house. If i had to power them both with my solar system i'd have to almost double the solar system. But that's mostly because my shop is intentionally small enough to air condition. If i wasn't trying to air condition it i could have a HUGE shop with very little power draw other than the large blips from the 60 gal compressor and the welder occasionally.

Hats off to you from a fellow Texan.

 

[solar8484]

The are UL listed and are great work horses.
Better options have come on the market since I bought them though.

Do they actually provide high surge power?
They look good on paper except for the idle power consumption at 180W.

 

[automatikdonn]

Do they actually provide high surge power?
They look good on paper except for the idle power consumption at 180W.

36kw of surge is what they say, but for my needs these units will never see more than 80% for an extended period of time.

Is that number real? TBH I have no idea and no real way to test it. None of the big loads I have would ever surge like that, they just click on and stay on. (Oven, Water Heater, HVAC).

I got them on a pretty good sale and that was the primary driver for selecting these particular units beside the UL listing at the time. Mind you, when I bought them the number of off grid inverters that were listed was a very small pool. That has since changed drastically.

 

[automatikdonn]

Well you have both a house and shop so it's understandable. How much power do you consume per month if I may ask

High load peak of summer was 4500kwh a month when I started this project. During a cold snap in February of 22(I think), I hit 5000 kwh.

It was at that point I knew I needed to do something, anything to make this house more sustainable. That number is just crazy. I had old R22 based units for HVAC and I have 2 full sized hot water heaters.

When the hail storm took out my outdoor HVAC units, I replaced the whole system (because insurance money) with more modern mini splits. Those drove my peaks down to just 3500kwh.

Right now between both the hanger and the house my big days are 120kwh a day. This solar system just barely eeks out 125 a day when its 109 out.

The rest of the year, well I just have a massive excess of energy that I will find a use for.

Hope that answers your question. Thanks for watching!

 

[Bossrox]

I absolutely need every single one of them

63 is marginal. I have 75 & eventually will be 83 300+ watt panels & need every bit of it for just my tiny house & 10x20 shed. It's more than I need for on demand power but it's sure nice to have them all on bleak days & still get plenty of power where I'd otherwise be taxing the batteries heavy.

 

[automatikdonn]

63 is marginal. I have 75 & eventually will be 83 300+ watt panels & need every bit of it for just my tiny house & 10x20 shed. It's more than I need for on demand power but it's sure nice to have them all on bleak days & still get plenty of power where I'd otherwise be taxing the batteries heavy.

I actually did some bad maths in my video. I don't script my videos or anything like that.

I actually have 40 370w panels and 32 460w panels... so 72 in total. 29.5kw between all of them.