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diy solar

diy solar

What lessons have you learned working with solar?

yes, I am looking exactly at those, and am putting together a plan to use such and post on my thread for review and advice from others
I have several questions as to how configure them with shunts, wire, etcs for the XW Pros

thanks
If you need UL listing for ahj inspection then Lynx won't pass, for the 6848s there's the mini PDUs etc available for a compliant system etc
 
If you need UL listing for ahj inspection then Lynx won't pass, for the 6848s there's the mini PDUs etc available for a compliant system etc

my DIY battery doesn't pass anyway

here is my rack when I had 6 modules, now I have 14 - it is a bit more organized now

20210219_155010-jpg.37704


14 modules here, 70kwh

now I have 60"x2"x.25" copper bar for NEG and one for POS on the sides, covered by gray isolator


20221011_173053-jpg.115984


20221017_151705-jpg.116806


20221017_153050-jpg.116812






here is my 600 amp DC bus bars and 400 amp fuse - the 400 amp fuse would be for one battery bank each, if I add a second battery stack

this is where I want to install in the Power In and shunt, with a 800 amp CNN fuse for the entire system

20221110_160655-jpg.119785


so not so passable

Victrons would actually improve what I got
 
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I'm documenting as I go. But work has been crazy busy. Haven't had any free time to work on the system.
yeah, that is the good and bad of working: 1) you got money and 2) you have no time

good and bad of retired as I am: 1) got no money and 2) got lots of time - that is why I am doing so much to my system these days - until I need to buy something
 
10mm wrenches make GREAT conductors...

Ask my nephew how he knows. 😉
Yeah that is one way not to need another cup of coffee. I always remove my ring when working under the hood of cars and recently Solar after seeing what it did to a guys ring finger years ago, that he managed to short between the starter + post cable and a ground.
 
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Inverter efficiency or lack thereof :fp2

My inverter "loses" 7% converting PV to battery. It then loses another 7% converting battery to load. I read it before I pulled the trigger but for some reason I didn't absorb it. That's a lot of photons that gave up their life for nothing.
Your forefathers would give their best cow to see those numbers with their solar gear. Let's keep things in perspective. Those are "single" digits that in the old days would of been miracles.
 
If you do DIY then there is the likelihood that the magic smoke has been released at some time in the past. Hopefully when this happens, the pain on the wallet is not too much. Have sacrificed two BMS units in the past due to wiring errors. Most recently building a custom 12v. A great reason for checking, double checking and then triple checking before attaching connections.
 
I burned entry and exit wounds in the end of my finger to the first joint... got across the leads from a fly back transformer while working on an old school console TV ...made my whole arm vibrate for an hour...

That wasn't as bad as when I was using some safety wire to short two ping in a Cannon plug hunched over in the load center of an airplane...not sure what I touched but my arm perked back and hit the naked end of a breaker and perked forward... went back and forth between things several times in the blink of an eye......bloody knuckles and elbow with burn marks.... that 440v at 400Hz voltage bites hard.
 
1. If you start with a way to "save money" or "run the pool pump" during the summer, you will quickly see how close to off grid you can become.
2. Your wife will only use the high energy devices on the days with the lowest amount of sun, especially at the end of the month when you've used your lowest amount of kWh from the grid yet.
 
Back to one of my rules - should probably be number one if it isn't

If it seems to good to be true, it IS -- this goes double for Dumfume batteries
 
after seeing what it did to a guys ring finger years ago, that he managed to short
Melting the golden ring into the finger makes it a Gold Implant and follows interesting trends like Gold Flakes Champagne and Gold Flakes Chocolate and various gold inserts into the human body. Also makes an acceptable excuse for losing half of your wedding ring, the rest of it is still on your inside the finger.
However, excessive blood gold may look suspicious on the blood tests and eventually ask for a state-financed medical study perhaps some interviews from famous reporters.
Over time the body becomes a better conductor for electricity so with enough perseverance, one can use his fingers as temporary bridges during troubleshooting an electrical panel like Wolverine but much more conductive.
Jokes aside these things were not unusual during the early days of telecom installations in my region because 48V >300AH power plants with lead acid batteries had both bus bars behind the breaker panels and about an inch away from each other :(
Funniest mishap, two colleagues got seriously shocked when their elbows touched each other, they worked back to back on a 400Vdc batteries string... they started from the middle and when done had the full string voltage between them...
 

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