Do you need the distributor. Heard it truly doesn’t offer much without the Lynx BMS with Victron batteries. People modify the Lynx Power in by just adding bolts.
Victron is Over-priced Eurotrash. Why would anybody buy Victron over an AiO?
- Thread starter sunshine_eggo
- Start date
A lot of folks seem to be buying a Lynx setup . . .I’m sure it’s a great device as it’s Blue Stuff.
But …
I have been watching videos for along time on peoples installs and yet I still have the same question…Other than save some room ( as in a boat or sprinter type build) what does it do better than having true components of exactly what one needs for their particular system..??
I have never messed with one , but it seems a bit tight in space, it limits what fuses can be used and customizing would seem to be a challenge , but it must do a lot right.. many people seem to have or want one…
thx, J.
Brucey
Solar Wizard
Ok .. cool….thx…
Kiwi2000
Solar Enthusiast
You can add fuses to the Power In.
AZ Solar Junkie
Maricopa, AZ
I’m not a Victron guy (yet) but got the Lynx Power In for two reasons: 1) with the limited space I have for my equipment it saves space on the wall vs having positive and negative bus bars mounted separately. 2) one thing I really like about it is better protection from accidentally touching the bus bars. My setup is in my office in my house and I have little kids and all the other bus bars have only marginal protection with the covers they provide - still very easy for a little kid to reach through openings and touch the shiny metal. The Lynx provides much better protection in my opinion anyway.
Partimewages
Solar Addict
I like it because it makes for a clean install.
wattmatters
Solar Wizard
Inside my Lynx Power In:
And with the lid on:
The secondary lower bus bar is for my lead acid bank (used as reserve capacity), which has its own fuses/disconnect.
When I priced up making my own busbar arrangement from individual components, the Power In was actually pretty good value, had more carrying capacity than I needed, used less room (I have a tight space) and looks half decent.
Horsefly
Solar Wizard
The Lynx Distributor is an absolutely awesome pair of 1000A bus bars. With the built-in fuse holders, it's hard to match with non-Victron choices. As @Kiwi2000 pointed out, you can hack a Lynx Power In (which is cheaper than the distributor) to be essentially like the Lynx Distributor. The Distributor provides LED status indicators for the fuses, but that part requires that the distributor is connected to either the Lynx BMS or the Lynx Shunt, or you do the hack that Explorist Life has shown on his YouTube channel. In my opinion, the Lynx BMS and Lynx Shunt are NOT worth buying. I've done the hack and it works great to provide the LED status of the fuses.
Kiwi2000
Solar Enthusiast
A Power In was the first Victron component I ever purchased. Seeing how well engineered and made it was got me switched on to Victron.
AZ Solar Junkie
Maricopa, AZ
Ha - like a drug dealer’s free sample ?
Cleaning out inventory for new stuff that can't be talked about yet??
SenileOldGit
Solar Enthusiast
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2022
- Messages
- 324
Isn't it incredible how this thread has descended into anything BUT actually discussing the topic itself... The last ten pages are basically nonsense and I wonder why the posters here are wasting other people's time, if you want to have private discussion about your garage/kitchen/anything but Victron - start a new thread?
Because Victron owners know they have spent far more than they should have, and could have doubled their solar panel array for the extra money they spent on Victron components.
By the way, I have a Victron Lynx Power In and a Victron Lynx Distributor - very nice and high quality, not ridiculously expensive and they do the job perfectly.
But all in ones are now around £500 - £700 for a 5kW inverter, which you can parallel up to 45kW (99.9% of houses are not going to need more than 15kW, probably 95% of houses won't need more than 10kW.)
Because Victron owners know they have spent far more than they should have, and could have doubled their solar panel array for the extra money they spent on Victron components.
By the way, I have a Victron Lynx Power In and a Victron Lynx Distributor - very nice and high quality, not ridiculously expensive and they do the job perfectly.
But all in ones are now around £500 - £700 for a 5kW inverter, which you can parallel up to 45kW (99.9% of houses are not going to need more than 15kW, probably 95% of houses won't need more than 10kW.)
Precisely …..Cleaning out inventory for new stuff that can't be talked about yet??
sunshine_eggo
Happy Breffast!
It's pretty clear that you haven't bothered to read anything and are just regurgitating your prior stated bias (you were among my muses for this thread). The past two pages have been almost exclusively about Victron.
This is laughable. Make sure you cover every other major brand - Schneider, Outback, Magnum, SMA, Midnite, Sol-Ark, etc.
OMG... you could have bought other bus bars for half as much! What kind of senile old git are you? Oh. Nevermind.
If you have no surge loads, and you're willing to bet that you'll never have a problem or need support, then go for it. Don't forget to buy extra battery and PV to compensate for the higher idle burn of those cheapo units. My 10kW of Victrons have lower idle burn than that single 5kW inverter.
I'm not willing to trust my main power source to cheap Chinese shit. My inverters have been "upgraded" with new features over the last four years simply because Victron actively supports their products and work to incorporate user requests.
I think they are mad…Yeow.
Attachments
There are people that buy Chromebooks and are happy with them and then there are those that purchase MacBook Pros/higher end Dells. Just don't expect that Chromebook to be of same quality, features., or capabilities. I sometimes get the impression some people don't think there is a difference between those or equivalent inverter/solar charge controller.
Zwy
Emperor Of Solar
Hedges
I See Electromagnetic Fields!
- Joined
- Mar 28, 2020
- Messages
- 21,803
Because AC is AC, and it doesn't matter whos transistors create it?
And it doesn't really matter to you if your furnace dies, because you saved money on the inverter?
EG4 18KPV frying furnace transformer when PV power is low
10X 370 watt PV panels, 18KPV, 2X Powerpro batteries, totally off grid. Battery state of charge ~70%. When the sun is coming up in the morning and the solar panels are putting out less than 100 watts, the inverter shows that it is charging the batteries and sending power to the house. When...
diysolarforum.com
Not incredible for a Solar General Discussion subject. However is is incredible that the Thread was not moved to Chit Chat long, long ago since typically that is what is done for similar discussions.
SenileOldGit
Solar Enthusiast
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2022
- Messages
- 324
No substantial arguments, yet again, from a Victron owner...
I can easily afford more PV and batteries to compensate for the "higher" idle burn (as you put it) - how much "higher" is it? Would you like to tell us? It's less than 5% more than a Victron's losses.
"cheap Chinese shit". Funny that - Voltronic inverters are by far the most widely used inverters in the world (I think) because of their price, how come this forum isn't full of people with faulty ones?
As usual, you haven't provided a single piece of evidence to back up your position that Victron inverters are worth the extra money...
SenileOldGit
Solar Enthusiast
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2022
- Messages
- 324
Because AC is AC, and it doesn't matter whos transistors create it?
And it doesn't really matter to you if your furnace dies, because you saved money on the inverter?
EG4 18KPV frying furnace transformer when PV power is low
10X 370 watt PV panels, 18KPV, 2X Powerpro batteries, totally off grid. Battery state of charge ~70%. When the sun is coming up in the morning and the solar panels are putting out less than 100 watts, the inverter shows that it is charging the batteries and sending power to the house. When...
So ONE case of a problem which nobody else on the entire planet has EVER had, somehows proves me wrong? LOL.
AZ Solar Junkie
Maricopa, AZ
This certainly reminds me of the “religious” debates re: Windows vs Mac vs Linux, etc. Seems like the people who feel Victron is worth the money and those who feel it is not have all made their points and counter points and no one is going to change their mind - lol.
Partimewages
Solar Addict
Yeah, but it's fun to argue with the other side!
sunshine_eggo
Happy Breffast!
I'm also a PowMr owner. I have the 24V/3kW unit that was cheap as shit. It's for an application where reliability is a non-concern.
I've also hands-on assisted in multiple installations of Growatt.
5% more? That's laughable. The aforementioned PowMr consumes 38W just sitting there. I'm literally looking at it on the bench right now. I've personally observed 24V/3kW Growatts burning between 40 and 50W each.
My 2X Victron 48V/5kVA burn 27W each. That's 54W. Measured.
The PowMr uses 235% more power per watt than Victron. Where do you get 5% more? Is it that you just don't understand?
Again, this is another issue that's been well documented on this site as well as in Will's videos. Multiple posts of folks wondering why their batteries depleted in half the time because they are running low loads and didn't account for the high idle burn.
Just because you don't pay enough attention doesn't mean it's not here.
LOL... Mr. "most widely used inverters in the world (I think)"
LOL!
Take some time to explore this site, and you'll see MANY instances of failures or erratic behavior with all "voltronics-type" brands.
@Adam De Lay swapped EG4 out for Victron due to unresolvable issues.
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