I had been putting off building a solar battery while I learned more about the options available, costs, and all the nitty gritty details. Wills videos helped a LOT in learning about things I never even thought about before.
I had considered the Blueti 2000watt solar generator due to the low cost but I was really put off by it's proprietary nature, reliance on a single LCD screen to control critical functions, and the fact it was 1 bad firmware update away from being a brick. If I'm putting down 2 grand I want to be able to repair/replace parts. Plus I thought I could build something better.
Lets go through the list of what I purchased, not having anything to start with.
3000watt Growat Solar Inverter 24v with 80A MPPT charger.
2x Amperetime 200Ah LFP batteries for 24v with 4800Wh of capacity
GE 6 outlet surge protector to cut in half to feed growatt in, and give outlets on AC output.
WFI 4AWG welding wire 25ft
25W030 Ceramic wire wound resistor for charging caps
Tocas 200 amp circuit breaker with manual reset.
Seloky 38pc copper lug assortment.
Klein CL380 Clamp Meter with DC amp reading
Ginsco 3:1 heat shrink with adhesive
Klein J63050 Journeyman insulated cable cutter
Jokari 10270 cable stripper
Tuffiom Hydraulic terminal crimping tool 12T
PT Polyimide tape
total cost $2868 on Amazon.com with all US shipping. That works out to $.59 a watt hour vs $.91 for the Bluetti. That price and cost per watt hour includes all the tools I had to buy, wires, everything.
My goal was to build a system capable of recharging off solar or AC/GEN, with enough capacity to run a window air conditioner or electric heater, and a computer for several hours during power outages. I live in Texas and I've had way too many power outages the last few years, but most of them are under 2 hours so it should be more than enough to keep me comfortable even in the dead of winter or heat of summer, and if things go out longer than that, I can recharge from solar or a generator.
I plan to install the cells in a plastic storage container with the Growat mounted to the lid. If the power goes out even for short periods, it will be very easy to run a few extension cords to my window unit and computer, or fridge if it lasts longer. If things work well I will add another 4800W/hr in parallel at a later date which should be enough to run my master bedroom overnight during an extended outage.
The Growatt Inverter is a one stop shop. It is an inverter. It's an AC battery charger. It's a MPPT Solar charger. It is also fairly slim for what it does, and seems to be a reliable unit. It's less portable than I wanted, being made for wall mounting, but that is minor. The use case is inside use, in case of power outages, mostly being recharged by AC power, but by 400 watts of panels in an emergency.
I had considered the Blueti 2000watt solar generator due to the low cost but I was really put off by it's proprietary nature, reliance on a single LCD screen to control critical functions, and the fact it was 1 bad firmware update away from being a brick. If I'm putting down 2 grand I want to be able to repair/replace parts. Plus I thought I could build something better.
Lets go through the list of what I purchased, not having anything to start with.
3000watt Growat Solar Inverter 24v with 80A MPPT charger.
2x Amperetime 200Ah LFP batteries for 24v with 4800Wh of capacity
GE 6 outlet surge protector to cut in half to feed growatt in, and give outlets on AC output.
WFI 4AWG welding wire 25ft
25W030 Ceramic wire wound resistor for charging caps
Tocas 200 amp circuit breaker with manual reset.
Seloky 38pc copper lug assortment.
Klein CL380 Clamp Meter with DC amp reading
Ginsco 3:1 heat shrink with adhesive
Klein J63050 Journeyman insulated cable cutter
Jokari 10270 cable stripper
Tuffiom Hydraulic terminal crimping tool 12T
PT Polyimide tape
total cost $2868 on Amazon.com with all US shipping. That works out to $.59 a watt hour vs $.91 for the Bluetti. That price and cost per watt hour includes all the tools I had to buy, wires, everything.
My goal was to build a system capable of recharging off solar or AC/GEN, with enough capacity to run a window air conditioner or electric heater, and a computer for several hours during power outages. I live in Texas and I've had way too many power outages the last few years, but most of them are under 2 hours so it should be more than enough to keep me comfortable even in the dead of winter or heat of summer, and if things go out longer than that, I can recharge from solar or a generator.
I plan to install the cells in a plastic storage container with the Growat mounted to the lid. If the power goes out even for short periods, it will be very easy to run a few extension cords to my window unit and computer, or fridge if it lasts longer. If things work well I will add another 4800W/hr in parallel at a later date which should be enough to run my master bedroom overnight during an extended outage.
The Growatt Inverter is a one stop shop. It is an inverter. It's an AC battery charger. It's a MPPT Solar charger. It is also fairly slim for what it does, and seems to be a reliable unit. It's less portable than I wanted, being made for wall mounting, but that is minor. The use case is inside use, in case of power outages, mostly being recharged by AC power, but by 400 watts of panels in an emergency.
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