diy solar

diy solar

Very new to solar but started purchasing items, not sure of the final specs of the whole system.

Here's the usage for last month, not to bad considering the 3 ton and 1.5 ton was run everyday this month from sun up to sun down. Found some tinned copper 4/0 for 3.85ft for the expansion.
Inverter 1 has the dual hybrid water heaters both the 3 ton and 1.5t.
 

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Never done hvac before, it was not the sheet metal work, removing the old system etc that was hard. It was the wiring and getting that correct. I finally got to run it today the mr cool 3-ton unit it keeping the house temperature at the correct level. Currently 82 out but we get well into the 90's. Only load is the 3 ton running.
Very cool! I just installed the same setup but ran into an issue with the WYZE Thermostat, it isn't seeing my W1 wire even though it's connected. The watts you show while running is at what temp outside and what temp you set the thermostat? I also saw something about the phase being synchronized? I'm running on 240V single phase.
 
Here
Very cool! I just installed the same setup but ran into an issue with the WYZE Thermostat, it isn't seeing my W1 wire even though it's connected. The watts you show while running is at what temp outside and what temp you set the thermostat? I also saw something about the phase being synchronized? I'm running on 240V single phase.
Here's the current watts, 8:30pm no solar. its 79f outside, eco set on 75f. The wiring as the hardest part since I had a split system with two motors which all connected to a much larger wiring box.
 

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Wow! Here it's 110 degrees, hope 3500 is max watts. I have the Mr Cool Universal, same as yours. Have it set at 3 ton. Wyze support sucks. Also tried Ingrams where I bought the Mr Cool and their no better. I will figure it out. Going to check by wire jumping the red around to make sure unit is good.
 
Hayley has batteries in the usa now, and said to contact her for discounts. I have a bunch more coming and so far have been perfect. I will update when they arrive.

Eve



This is the link to CATL302Ah(320Ah)
https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/US-STOCK-4PCS-3-2V-Battery_1600296180622.html?spm=a2700.shop_oth.89.4.76f67b4b2EfLWj
 
Still interesting to watch the clouds slowly drop production to negative. Bulk of the panels were moved to the cooling side this summer.
I have 17kw worth of panels on inverter 2. The last 24 panels did make a tremendous improvement during clouds. I hope to fair much better this winter, if I can get them done.
 

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Every 4 days I cook 24 meals for clients, I have both large eyes on, dryer and the clothes washer running.
Just about all I can run at once but it handles it all just fine. It's been siting between 8 to 11k most of the morning.

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Here

Here's the current watts, 8:30pm no solar. its 79f outside, eco set on 75f. The wiring as the hardest part since I had a split system with two motors which all connected to a much larger wiring box.
Got the Mr Cool Universal going! Started at 3 ton (3600btu) but 1000 watts of other loads I was going over 5k which is my inverters limit. Dropped it to 2 ton (2400btu) and with the 700 watt misc load it sits at 2600 watts total so I imagine the A/C is pulling 2000 watts on 2 ton. It was 105 out and 100 inside the house so I figure it was using max load. I'm hooking up a separate 5k Inverter for the A/C and Water Heater (only one at a time) to take the load off my main inverter. Even at 3 ton in those conditions all the power came off my E 4500 and W 4500 arrays nothing off the batteries.

Almost forgot the issue with the Wyze Thermostat and the Mr Cool Universal. After it gave me an error on one of the wires I said skip. Then it went to the testing. Not hot air so it failed that but passed the cool air. After all that you go into the advanced settings and hit the "Swap heat and cool" button. Works great now.
 
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Got the Mr Cool Universal going! Started at 3 ton (3600btu) but 1000 watts of other loads I was going over 5k which is my inverters limit. Dropped it to 2 ton (2400btu) and with the 700 watt misc load it sits at 2600 watts total so I imagine the A/C is pulling 2000 watts on 2 ton. It was 105 out and 100 inside the house so I figure it was using max load. I'm hooking up a separate 5k Inverter for the A/C and Water Heater (only one at a time) to take the load off my main inverter. Even at 3 ton in those conditions all the power came off my E 4500 and W 4500 arrays nothing off the batteries.

Almost forgot the issue with the Wyze Thermostat and the Mr Cool Universal. After it gave me an error on one of the wires I said skip. Then it went to the testing. Not hot air so it failed that but passed the cool air. After all that you go into the advanced settings and hit the "Swap heat and cool" button. Works great now.
Congrats on getting it up and running, installing both units myself saved so much money. The wiring was the tuff part and doing duct work that I had never done before. I moved my fan to high but could not tell much difference.
 
Congrats on getting it up and running, installing both units myself saved so much money. The wiring was the tuff part and doing duct work that I had never done before. I moved my fan to high but could not tell much difference.
Had a quick question for you. Mr. Cool says the 2-3 ton Universal is 20-18 seer. The way you calculate seer is btu's divided watts give you the seer rating. Well 20 seer on the 2 ton setting should be 1200 watts and on the 3 ton with 18 seer should be 2000 watts. On the 2 ton setting I'm pulling between 1880-2052 watts, that gives me a pretty crappy 11-12 seer rating. It's 106 out and in this setting can only cool the house to 85-87 degrees. What is your end seer calculations for your setup. Mr. Cool says 2t/20 seer,3t/18, 4t/18 and 5t/17 seer.
For reference my on grid 2003 Goodman 5 ton is rated at 11 seer. It uses 5400 watts running and is true to it's seer rating (60,000 btu's divide by 5400 watts get almost on the money at 11.11 seer rating. That's also in 106 degrees set at 80 which it maintains.
 
Had a quick question for you. Mr. Cool says the 2-3 ton Universal is 20-18 seer. The way you calculate seer is btu's divided watts give you the seer rating. Well 20 seer on the 2 ton setting should be 1200 watts and on the 3 ton with 18 seer should be 2000 watts. On the 2 ton setting I'm pulling between 1880-2052 watts, that gives me a pretty crappy 11-12 seer rating. It's 106 out and in this setting can only cool the house to 85-87 degrees. What is your end seer calculations for your setup. Mr. Cool says 2t/20 seer,3t/18, 4t/18 and 5t/17 seer.
For reference my on grid 2003 Goodman 5 ton is rated at 11 seer. It uses 5400 watts running and is true to it's seer rating (60,000 btu's divide by 5400 watts get almost on the money at 11.11 seer rating. That's also in 106 degrees set at 80 which it maintains.
Just gave it a quick run and here's loads before and after, my older unit was right around about the same watts as yours.
 

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Just gave it a quick run and here's loads before and after, my older unit was right around about the same watts as yours.
I'm guessing after looking at the convoluted formula utilizing the EER to come up with the SEER rating that the EER rating is more inline as it uses an ideal temp of 95 degrees. Still happy with the Mr. Cool Universal, just have to put it on the Growatt 5000ES. Will run the relay to shut it down and not drain batteries if I forget. https://diysolarforum.com/threads/r...tery-low-voltage-condition.43122/#post-544741.

You have a hell of a system there! Pretty soon I'll start my on grid (no sellback) setup. Have 20k of 315 watt panels, 30k of SS server rack batteries and a couple of LVX6048's. Got a flat roof to work with this time. Even the Utility guy who changed the meter said if it was him, he would just put them up since I'm not feeding back.
 
Power Consumption chart for Mr. Cool 2-3 ton and 4-5 ton. Now it makes sense, lol. They hide these charts! They totally screwed up the 4-5 ton chart. Looks like they forgot what row the numbers went to!
Do you know how I can get the fan to run on high? Is this a 2 speed setup?
mrcool_11.jpgmrcool_2.jpg
 

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You have a hell of a system there! Pretty soon I'll start my on grid (no sellback) setup. Have 20k of 315 watt panels, 30k of SS server rack batteries and a couple of LVX6048's. Got a flat roof to work with this time. Even the Utility guy who changed the meter said if it was him, he would just put them up since I'm not feeding back.
From a sizing perspective it took way more than I imagined it would for off grid. Are you working towards running everything via solar?
 
From a sizing perspective it took way more than I imagined it would for off grid. Are you working towards running everything via solar?
You have what amounts to a small commercial setup, pretty huge from my perspective. Got to hand it to you getting it done in such a relatively short time span. What's nice now is prices are lower and more availability that I experienced in the early 80's. I was pretty much on my own.

The off grid I've been on since 79 with no utilities for 20 miles but have a spring we dug out for water. Had to make my own panels etc. I've upgraded to what my sig line says. Raised 7 kids, operated my shop via 2 way radio phone patch then duplex radio phone patch. Now Starlink enables my cell with WiFi assist since there is no cell coverage out here. Built a 3000 sf 2 story house and a 2 story shop. To facilitate the Mr Cool and the Water Heater I'm adding 40 panels on the house roof as the shop roof is full with the 38 on it. An interesting journey! As for the on grid I'd like it self sufficient. It's pretty rural on an acre and walled in with a gate. Haul water with my M923A2 as the well is crap, 900 feet deep and can only do 150 gal a day. Have several MEP military generators but as in the off grid probably won't use them if the solar is sufficient. Have 20kw of panels to put on the on grid and 2 LVX6048's which should do it.
 
You have what amounts to a small commercial setup, pretty huge from my perspective. Got to hand it to you getting it done in such a relatively short time span. What's nice now is prices are lower and more availability that I experienced in the early 80's. I was pretty much on my own.
The biggest fear going in for me was the batteries and worrying about balance runners etc. That is terrible for a 900ft well, I had planned to try and do my own using a boremaster that runs off my tractor. But several well drillers said there is too much rock in the area and would not get through. I do have a spring that is running but it was long abandoned and needs lots of cleaning. Sadly its guarded by yellow jackets that I have not found yet. The LVX6048 looks very nice with the pv voltage input.
 
Spoke with Hayley and the batteries are supposed to arrive at the port on the 5th. Copper from online metals finally arrived and will get started on the busbars. Even with all the panels cloudy days really impact the charging, somewhat sunny today and make some decent amps.
 

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