iceledoar
Off Grid, Off Grid. Not even sometimes.
Update, after a few Week-ends of normal use, running the inverter during daylight hours and as wanted in the evenings. It appears that my research and this forums help, I was able to size and install a very stable, safe, and usable system. Our cabin is on a north facing slope so we don't see "direct" sunlight until about 11:30cst. But the batteries have been getting back up to a full SOC, and going into float, by that time. Not too bad for LA. We are not even tapping the full potential of the batteries. I have even run the AC for short periods, mostly out of curiosity.
I did experience an anomaly during a nighttime storm, with a lot of high altitude lightning. The panels seemed to kick on and wake up the MPP. I installed a breaker inside the cabin so I can shutdown the panels and prevent this from happening in the future...at least when I am there... and before you ask, I have the panels 75' feet away on a ground mount and bonded to a solid #6 copper wire with a 7' copper rod driven in the ground next to the ground mount. Maybe it took a couple light strikes... but no damage. I am used to having the system wake me up at the crack of dawn, but not at 2 or 3 am in the pitch black.
On a side note for those of you using the MPP's totally off grid, I have a 4300 watt, Cheap, Harbor Freight, non-inverter type generator, which I have tied to the 110 input. I was very tentative about attaching it, because the manual states that an inverter type generator is required. After speaking with Ian, he told me that the MPP's are not as voltage sensitive as they are frequency sensitive. So the work around is to place a load on the generator first, I use a 60W incandescent light, plugged directly into the generator, then kick the breaker on to the MPP. With the MPP in Util mode, the load bypasses the batteries, but still charges... as advertised. I chose not to hard wire the generator into the cabin beyond a dedicated outlet that has a male plug on the outside to attach the gen. Totally not up to code.. but where this cabin is at there is no code enforcement officer, more likely to see a zombie.
Cheers!!! from Iceledo.
I did experience an anomaly during a nighttime storm, with a lot of high altitude lightning. The panels seemed to kick on and wake up the MPP. I installed a breaker inside the cabin so I can shutdown the panels and prevent this from happening in the future...at least when I am there... and before you ask, I have the panels 75' feet away on a ground mount and bonded to a solid #6 copper wire with a 7' copper rod driven in the ground next to the ground mount. Maybe it took a couple light strikes... but no damage. I am used to having the system wake me up at the crack of dawn, but not at 2 or 3 am in the pitch black.
On a side note for those of you using the MPP's totally off grid, I have a 4300 watt, Cheap, Harbor Freight, non-inverter type generator, which I have tied to the 110 input. I was very tentative about attaching it, because the manual states that an inverter type generator is required. After speaking with Ian, he told me that the MPP's are not as voltage sensitive as they are frequency sensitive. So the work around is to place a load on the generator first, I use a 60W incandescent light, plugged directly into the generator, then kick the breaker on to the MPP. With the MPP in Util mode, the load bypasses the batteries, but still charges... as advertised. I chose not to hard wire the generator into the cabin beyond a dedicated outlet that has a male plug on the outside to attach the gen. Totally not up to code.. but where this cabin is at there is no code enforcement officer, more likely to see a zombie.
Cheers!!! from Iceledo.
