diy solar

diy solar

It ain’t pretty but…

Jim1033

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Jan 27, 2021
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So here is the start of my baby. I had a lot of things so used some of them before I spend more money to make it pretty. I got a 5500kw AliExpress hybrid then realized the no 120 volts so got a SolarEdge transformer. It hums but seems to work fine. I bought 100 amp hour worth of new (or should I say not used) prismatic cells from battery hookup… I have another 300 amp hours 48volt coming from AliExpress. I also bought 4 x 310 watt panels from a local surplus store for $60 each. They seem to be working fine. Manufactured 2014 so should be ok for a while. Some breakers and Daly BMS’s wire a little blood and a tribal luck dance and here you go. I charged the batteries up. Hooked up the fridge and freezer 235 watts… and ran it all night and still at about 50 percent charge. Will see how well it charges today. And of course how long it will last before we see the pretty blue smoke… I wanted to put it on a hand truck but way to heavy. I have a external power plug ready but have not plugged it in to the house yet. Will see how it goes but I really think that with 2 more hybrids, at least one more transformer and well way more batteries, I might be able to power most of the house. ( I know and a lot more solar) I actually have 10kw of solar on the roof with older 10 kw SolarEdge gridtie inverter. I still would love to have a legit whole house setup for emergency but not in the budget anytime soon. Also none of the technologies seem to do what I really need / want ( in a budget, that works well). My biggest concern now is cleaning up and protecting the wires and battery terminals. Then I can play with a stand for the panels. I was able to get about 950 peak for 1200 worth of panels. They were a little dirty then might be able to get a little better now. Really want at least another 1200 or more. If I had too I could switch some roof panels around in a pinch. Oh yea and I bought a 9500 HarborFreight inverter generator and it seems to work great, So far… I know, I know, stop buying cheap crap… I live in Florida so power outages is a real concern for me if we have a bad hurricane. I want a way to mitigate it as best as possible.

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I have added some other batteries I had. They are used with about 30 AH capacity. The green ones where 25 AH with 4 parallel 16s for 100AH. The other thing was I made buss bars out of copper and the terminals for the 35 AH are 1/4” copper tubing L thickness. I have been running a fridge and a small freezer for a couple of weeks straight. It is only 240-340 watts so everything is pretty cool. I am not sure how it will do with a higher wattage. I have 4 x 315 watt solar panels. I do have to supplement with some utility. Especially with some cloudy days lately. One thing I am not crazy about with the inverter is that the set points are to the nearest volt. The low voltage back to utility only goes up to 51 volts tops. That puts me at about 16% charge on the batteries. Going the other way it is either 53 or 54 volts which about 80% or up to 99+%. Rather have it go to the nearest 0.5 volt for both.
 

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So I have added a batch of what are supposed to be 310 AH Varicore batteries see picture. I have tested them 2 times. The first time I got about 277 AH and the second I got 283 AH but I pushed them way up to 3.5 +/- V and took them down to about 2.85 or so. The BMS said I had about 7.5 % left my inverter did not want to go that low. So that would be about 304 AH theoretical. While not 310 I can live with it. Of course now I will throttle them back to a more reasonable voltage range. Maybe 3.325 to 3.2 or so. I should test them to see what that gets me. Should be around 230AH. I guess that is not terrible. I also have the other 130 AH worth of batteries. 95 AH at the same V range. That should be around 325 AH total. Just think that is about 17kw or 2 almost power walls… lol. I will start cleaning things up as far as wiring now. Thanks.
 

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Should be around 230AH. I guess that is not terrible. I also have the other 130 AH worth of batteries. 95 AH at the same V range.
You're planning on combining three different sized battery banks (304 ah, 25 ah, 30 ah_?
 
Uuummmm…. ??…. Yes… the 25 amp hours are 2p x 2 banks to make 100 amp hour. I thought of leaving the 30 ah ones out as they are actually K2’s and used… I mean I am not using them with lead acid… they are all Lifepo4. I did not think it was that bad a thing to do. It is not an everyday use system. Mainly emergency. Please let me know your thoughts or something I can read to sway me? Thanks.
 
Sounds good. Before it is over you will really like that decision. Be sure not to use both lead acid and lithium batteries together. But I am sure you knew that. Good luck!
 
So I received my 2 batteries today. They say 300 AH but at 26 lbs I do not see how that’s possible. I have some pictures and stats I will post later. I am also charging it right now for a capacity test. I am betting they are closer to 100 AH but at $383 should I expect more other that what it says? They are $434 now. Still not a horrible amount even if the discharge rate is low 100 AH. Is that because it is a 100 AH battery or just a bad bms… lol.
 

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