Off grid house build thoughts

[NCislander]

Can we know what state this is? I like the way they look at things, though I'm not moving, just curious.

 

[seneysolar]

Oh that was determined a long time ago no permits are required for this

The house is permitted... And the city is aware that I'm building a completely off-grid house in fact they approved it

But my friend the mayor said nobody would be able to inspect it because they don't know anything about it

And the inspector said he would only inspect the electrical up to the breaker box

He said he would just treat my solar connection like he would treat a generator backfeed

He also mentioned that our electrical codes here are quite old and as a result there really is no mention of it therefore they can't inspect it

So it should be fairly easy

In fact I'm on our city's planning and zoning commission...

Where is this paradise you speak of???

you dont have to say, but dang you got it made.

 

[ericfx1984]

Can we know what state this is? I like the way they look at things, though I'm not moving, just curious.

I'll talk about that in private message

 

[ericfx1984]

Where is this paradise you speak of???

you dont have to say, but dang you got it made.

I'll talk about that in private message

 

[42OhmsPA]

Oh that was determined a long time ago no permits are required for this

The house is permitted... And the city is aware that I'm building a completely off-grid house in fact they approved it

But my friend the mayor said nobody would be able to inspect it because they don't know anything about it

And the inspector said he would only inspect the electrical up to the breaker box

He said he would just treat my solar connection like he would treat a generator backfeed

He also mentioned that our electrical codes here are quite old and as a result there really is no mention of it therefore they can't inspect it

So it should be fairly easy

In fact I'm on our city's planning and zoning commission...

I've been staying out of this thread but following along....
Figured I should offer up the SRNE ASF or HYP as a contender for you based on this post. HYP is stackable and will require 2 to get 120V/240v ASF split phase is not parallelable yet but is supposed to be available soon.

SRNE has been along a bit longer than Luxpower and has great popularity in other countries. I did a lot of research before buying my ASF and have 0 regrets.

I still have a TP6048 (LVX-6048) hanging on the wall from when I started, it was pretty solid with some quirks, the biggest being high idle consumption and light flicker.

The ASF idle consumption isn't spectacular but it's much better than the LVX, it's also handled surge loads better.

With research you can find the middle sweet spot.
Inexpensive and reliable.
I don't go cheap, but I always try to get the best value for my money.

Absolutely 100% agree.
If I had more expertise I'd likely be in the same boat as you with parallel Growatts and a transformer.

 

[NCislander]

Very much satisfied with my Carbon Copy Mini of @timselectric system. Very solid Off Grid. I also like how scalable it is.

 

[ericfx1984]

l have a TP6048 (LVX-6048) hanging on the wall from when I started, it was pretty solid with some quirks, the biggest being high idle consumption and light flicker.

Light flicker? As in with LEDs?

Did you ever solve the issue? Is it related to something that shared a circuit with the lights?

 

[42OhmsPA]

Light flicker? As in with LEDs?

Did you ever solve the issue? Is it related to something that shared a circuit with the lights?

Yes with LEDs.

It was mainly when my direct drive top load washer would agitate or the induction cook top was cycling on and off. From what I read it had to do with the response time of the inverter.

It solved itself when I installed the SRNE.

 

[ericfx1984]

Yes with LEDs.

It was mainly when my direct drive top load washer would agitate or the induction cook top was cycling on and off. From what I read it had to do with the response time of the inverter.

It solved itself when I installed the SRNE.

Damn

When I bought this thing nobody seemed to really talk about this being an issue

 

[Gttnsun]

Have been off-grid for over a decade ...

Started with generator, then inverter/charger/mppt (magnum 4024) and battery-bank, then panels. Magnum 4024 inverter (LF) has been running 5+ years. Generators have changed out, battery-banks have changed out, but the inverter keeps on ticking. In my opinion, if:

- you don't want to be in the business of fiddling with power production, then get a good LF inverter from Tier-1, and have a good backup generator.

- you don't mind fiddling with the inverter every so often, then get an HF, choose the vendor wisely (CurrentConnected or similar), and have a spare (not online, but nearline).

Many things off-grid can stand to be down for awhile, but unless you live all by yourself, the family won't understand why power isn't available, 24x7, either by inverter, or by generator. Panels reduce the amount of gen time, but don't do away with the need for backup power. AIO's are less expensive, but they don't do away with the need for spares.

Hope this helps ...

I have a Magnum 4448 that is 15 years old, I just retired it. Not because it was broken, only because I needed to upgrade to a larger system. It probably could last another 5-10 years. I replaced it with dual Schneider XW Pro which is a proven platform that can last up to 20 years.
My parents have dual outback inverters that are still working after 25 years.
I am off grid, the power lines are 1 mile away, I need a inverter that will just keep putting out power.
It will be interesting to see how many of these new model inverters are still around in 10 years.

 

[Ai4px]

So I'm still working on my house... The house would be completely off-grid

I thought I had it pretty well figured out but now I have some concerns

Originally I purchased the MPP solar LVX 6048

I thought this would be a great unit and then I could just keep adding to it

But lately I've been seeing some reviews of people having failures, especially if they start paralleling inverters

So I've been thinking... Maybe a better option would be to let the LVX 6048 run the house, (lights, refrigerator, tv, stereo, ham radios, etc)

And then for any large loads buying a cheap 48 volt inverter

So I might get a four or 5,000 watt inverter to run a pair of 12,000 BTU mini splits

Or I might get another inverter just for running an electric stove

Feel like the big advantage to this is that I could always offload things if I have one of the inverters fail

I suppose another option is to get rid of the LVX 6048 since it is still brand new in the box I should be able to get a pretty decent price for it and look at something from a different company...

Thoughts? Thanks in advance

I have a concern about the idle consumption on your inverter. I concur with the first response on this topic... the EG4 6000xp looks good. Low idle, stackable. A buddy got one and I used it on my golf cart to run some saws and grinders. It seems to be a really good "no surge" inverter. For my house I originaly started using SunnyIslands because the transformer allowed for tremendous surge and the toroid transformer keeps idle current down. The other inverter that impresses me is schneider 6.8kw.

 

[Steve_S]

When people ask for "Location" they don't want your address !
General Location ie Closest major City & State/Province and that's pretty much it...
Are you embarrassed where you found your little bit of Heaven ? Or just afeared that outsiders will come to wreck it up ?

 

[ericfx1984]

When people ask for "Location" they don't want your address !
General Location ie Closest major City & State/Province and that's pretty much it...
Are you embarrassed where you found your little bit of Heaven ? Or just afeared that outsiders will come to wreck it up ?

Triggered much? Lol

 

[Steve_S]

Triggered much? Lol

Whut ???
I don't give a shnootz, you're the paranoid one so don't flip you're being Triggered onto me... It's not MY PTSD in play here...
When people ask for my location, I use the closest landmark most could find (even with a simple search) so therefore I say Algonquin Park (which is massive BTW) but close enough to explain my remoteness & solar setup (angles etc).

If you need to know about PTSD... I can easily walk you down a Nasty Ugly Bloody Mess memory lane that would severely trigger me and ANYONE Else who went through the nigtmares... I could even trigger it bad enough to go into a blackout & full out reliving it with ALL senses.