I'm no stranger to learning and diy. I built the house I'm living in with my two hands and it took a lot of planning and research - framing, electrical, HVAC , drywall, septic etc.
That was childs play compared to solar. No wonder the unsuspecting public easily falls prey to solar salespeople who are ,truly, the scum of the earth. they stand no chance. But I digress.
I've been researching solar day and night for close to a year and only just found out by accident that the victron rs450/100 which I was about to buy, is actually two 450/50 inputs and would not have worked for my needs, for example.
Solar has been the hardest thing I've ever had to learn about - ground neutral bonding, auto transformers, surge capacity, system sizing with voc and isc and parallel or series strings, over current protection electrical code , nec rules, temperature factors, mppt, ac coupling, DC coupling , zero export, inadvertent export,panel main bus rating, main breaker derating, line side taps.
Battery sizing, precharge resistors,closed loop communication, lifepo4 voltage and charging, cable protection, wire sizing, shunts, low temperature cutoff, charging rate.
Mounting rails, wire management, grounding, rapid shutdown requirements
And as if thats not bad enough- one mistake and you're blowing up expensive parts, or worse burning down your house. And even if you do everything right, the inverter might still fail and Good luck getting signature solar to actually replace anything under warranty.
Why am I even doing solar again? ??
That was childs play compared to solar. No wonder the unsuspecting public easily falls prey to solar salespeople who are ,truly, the scum of the earth. they stand no chance. But I digress.
I've been researching solar day and night for close to a year and only just found out by accident that the victron rs450/100 which I was about to buy, is actually two 450/50 inputs and would not have worked for my needs, for example.
Solar has been the hardest thing I've ever had to learn about - ground neutral bonding, auto transformers, surge capacity, system sizing with voc and isc and parallel or series strings, over current protection electrical code , nec rules, temperature factors, mppt, ac coupling, DC coupling , zero export, inadvertent export,panel main bus rating, main breaker derating, line side taps.
Battery sizing, precharge resistors,closed loop communication, lifepo4 voltage and charging, cable protection, wire sizing, shunts, low temperature cutoff, charging rate.
Mounting rails, wire management, grounding, rapid shutdown requirements
And as if thats not bad enough- one mistake and you're blowing up expensive parts, or worse burning down your house. And even if you do everything right, the inverter might still fail and Good luck getting signature solar to actually replace anything under warranty.
Why am I even doing solar again? ??