diy solar

diy solar

This is my baby!

THERED117 said:
I am in God's contry. Being 1/2 mile past any infrastructure.
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Same here, but Colorado forced my hand and I had to get it inspected in order to build my home. Glad you don't require an inspection though b/c there are all sorts of considerations to account for if you have to get regulation involved. Regulation = $$$. Given your answer, I don't really have any comment other than...great job!
 
meager said:
Same here, but Colorado forced my hand and I had to get it inspected in order to build my home. Glad you don't require an inspection though b/c there are all sorts of considerations to account for if you have to get regulation involved. Regulation = $$$. Given your answer, I don't really have any comment other than...great job!
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Hank Williams jr said it best. I grew up in the woods and after 2020 we sold our house in town and moved.
 
THERED117 said:
The joke is I was going to build an off grid "HOBBY" cabin in the property. Funny how it all works out. I now live off grid and it doesn't feel much like a hobby lol
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It is funny how it all works out indeed. I'm so ready to get through this regulation BS and just be me. After I have the state off of my back, I'm going full cowboy and doing whatever the heck I want. So ridiculous that an individual has to deal with all of this when this is exactly what I'm trying to get away from by living off grid.
 
meager said:
It is funny how it all works out indeed. I'm so ready to get through this regulation BS and just be me. After I have the state off of my back, I'm going full cowboy and doing whatever the heck I want. So ridiculous that an individual has to deal with all of this when this is exactly what I'm trying to get away from by living off grid.
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I love my 245' well now that is some great water. Did not like the cost.
 
THERED117 said:
The new issue I'm dealing with is Hot Water. My 40 gal tank is my biggest hog on the system. I usually turn it on with the breaker for an hour mid day to heat up. I have enough for a hot shower and washing dishes and such. Still have warm to hot rhe next morning.

A thought is to put piping on the roof to heat water and gravity feed to a storage tank/ accumulator. I will have to use some electronic valves for flow and I'm thinking of a mini air compressor to charge and discharge the accumulator tank so the hot water can feed in, then feed thru the house from the pressurized tank. Thoughts? This is still just an idea at this point.:)
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I have found that a number of people are removing their solar hot water panels from the roof when they do a roof job. They are listed on craigslist or marketplace for a very cheap price. They work very well for providing domestic hot water. I have two of them and can get a 80 gallon tank to 150 deg f on a sunny day.
 

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THERED117 said:
Just got a quote from Alabama power. 100K for overhead 28K for underground. I'm about to put another 8 K in my solar. Should be less then 20K total on all of my equipment.
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I'm in the $120k ballpark if I want to hook into grid and it is only a 1600ft (0.3 mile) run. Ummm...no thank you. For 120k, I could build a fairly robust power plant to power the entire surrounding ranches :)
 
I am running into issue with having solar. The control board in my AC/Furnace is bad. I think is was bad when the home was delivered. The tech told me today that my solar voided my warranty "because of unstable voltages and the control board is sensitive" what a load of crap. I unloaded on my salesman and they are covering the cost. I'll do the swap.
 
THERED117 said:
I am running into issue with having solar. The control board in my AC/Furnace is bad. I think is was bad when the home was delivered. The tech told me today that my solar voided my warranty "because of unstable voltages and the control board is sensitive" what a load of crap. I unloaded on my salesman and they are covering the cost. I'll do the swap.
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I can't comment on the stability of the EG4 equipment as I have no experience with it, but I can say that the power coming out of my Victron inverter is dramatically more stable than the AC power from our utility (Central Maine Power). The Victron never seems to care what the weather is as it just balances things out between the solar and the batteries, perfectly. When we do need to turn on the AC input to recharge batteries in winter it doesn't seem to care whether I do that with utility power or a generator (I can select from either outside the inverter). When we get a storm, the utility power goes on and off repeatedly, and often rapidly, with brownouts as well. My wife and I often look at each other and say, "There's no way that can be good for appliances." We keep all computer/office/ communications equipment in the house and guest house on a UPS, as much to help guard against the utility as to keep things powered. None of that happens with the buildings supplied by the Victron equipment. It just sits there, smooth and stable, never varying a bit. We're trying to decide whether we even want to connect to the grid in the new house. Our power sure seems a lot cleaner than the utility company's!
 
Madcodger said:
I can't comment on the stability of the EG4 equipment as I have no experience with it, but I can say that the power coming out of my Victron inverter is dramatically more stable than the AC power from our utility (Central Maine Power). The Victron never seems to care what the weather is as it just balances things out between the solar and the batteries, perfectly. When we do need to turn on the AC input to recharge batteries in winter it doesn't seem to care whether I do that with utility power or a generator (I can select from either outside the inverter). When we get a storm, the utility power goes on and off repeatedly, and often rapidly, with brownouts as well. My wife and I often look at each other and say, "There's no way that can be good for appliances." We keep all computer/office/ communications equipment in the house and guest house on a UPS, as much to help guard against the utility as to keep things powered. None of that happens with the buildings supplied by the Victron equipment. It just sits there, smooth and stable, never varying a bit. We're trying to decide whether we even want to connect to the grid in the new house. Our power sure seems a lot cleaner than the utility company's!
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My thoughts exactly. I believe when we are talking about quality, we are talking about a nice smooth and steady frequency (Hz), right? I've been under the impression that inverters are superior to utility in that regard. The largest variance I've seen from my EG4 inverters is 59.9 and 60.1, but 99% of the time it is a steady 60Hz. Looking at 30 days worth of history, I see one instance where the voltage dropped to 119v for a split second, but otherwise it is a steady 120v per inverter. I'd say that is of very high quality IMO. Within that 30 day history, we've had all sorts of weather variants...mostly massive thunderstorms with tons and tons of lightening.

I call BS on the manufacturers claim of voiding the AC/Furnace warranty.
 
THERED117 said:
I am running into issue with having solar. The control board in my AC/Furnace is bad. I think is was bad when the home was delivered. The tech told me today that my solar voided my warranty "because of unstable voltages and the control board is sensitive" what a load of crap. I unloaded on my salesman and they are covering the cost. I'll do the swap.
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I've been told by a generac dealer that having solar voids their warranty too. Sounds like it time for a good class action lawsuit. The gov is pushing clean energy ( not my circus) and companies are punishing the consumer. Thoughts
 
I guess I'd want to see the language of their warranty. Solar is becoming so common, companies that exclude it are going to see a customer base that's shrinking might fast. That tends to cure that sort of stupidity.
 
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