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electromechanical stuff
Приєднався 16 жов 2012
how I charge my 70kwh battery with generator
how I charge my 70kwh battery with generator
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Відео
solar unspoken truths of charging with generator
Переглядів 7 тис.14 днів тому
What I learned about inverter chargers
woodmaster 4400 first fire after install
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woodmaster 4400 first fire after install
70kwh lifepo4 envision project part 2
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70kwh lifepo4 envision project part 2
70kwh of Lifepo4 envision 280ah battery hookup
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70kwh of Lifepo4 envision 280ah battery hookup
EG4 500V 100A Charge controller faults issues
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EG4 500V 100A Charge controller faults issues
target on my back can't barely post anything anymore
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target on my back can't barely post anything anymore
Trump's attempt was seen in a prophecy 4 months prior
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Trump's attempt was seen in a prophecy 4 months prior
Not an RFK jr supporter but truth is truth
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Not an RFK jr supporter but truth is truth
DC power supply load test HP DPS-1200SB A HSTNS-PD30
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DC power supply load test HP DPS-1200SB A HSTNS-PD30
sb220 is the maco 300 the perfect driver?
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sb220 is the maco 300 the perfect driver?
Why not source and install a DC alternator/generator?
Hi I have a question I have 30hp rotary phase converter im gonna wire it myself but need verification 70amp with 2awg not (2/0) from single phase panel to 3 phase panel. 6awg from 3 phase panel to motor also 6awg to 50amp outlet for machine load
@@rupertogranados3340 copper or aluminum
@@rupertogranados3340 how many HP is the machine?
@@rupertogranados3340 I'm going to assume aluminum because copper is rated for way over the numbers u say. But yes aluminum #2 is good for 90 amps. #6 is good for 50 amps. Are u making one from scratch or simply installing one?
@@electromechanicalstuff2602 thank you for answering North America phase converters PL30 new 70amps to phase converter they said And the cnc machine load 50amp
www.northamericaphaseconverters.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/PL-30.pdf www.northamericaphaseconverters.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/New-NAPCES-Rotary-Installation-Manual-Rev1.1D.pdf Is this one bro
I’m running a 6k growatt and I’ve also abandoned generator charging through the inverter. I pushed it to 60 amps and got hot in a hurry. Now I run two 25 amp parallel eg4 48v lfp chargers. Considering my generator is a 3400 watt 120 v inverter this is the sweet spot at around 2/3 load. Since I do have a grid connection I leave the pass through connected to the grid and prioritize utility power in the setting. This way I can leave the grid breaker in the off position and only charge when nasty weather is imminent and batteries are low. That said a full charge with 16s 3p 280ah battery bank is in the neighborhood of 17 hours on the generator, fortunately since I still have the grid available this a scenario that’s never full been realized, worst case was a multi day outage in January that required an 8 hour generator run.
Where are you located? I might be interested. I have similar battery packs. How well are they balanced and how long have you used them?
@@johnchamberlain395 I'm in SE Michigan. Monroe area. I've been using them for about two years without issues. I want to say every time I checked they were within 25 mv. I never went under 3.2 volts or over 4.1v. I have two different types the 50kwh of pouch LG and 20kwh of prismatic Fiat packs.
I think you have gas stove, oven, heater, etc, thus reducing your Ac power needs.
@@markburrows1025 nope electric range and oven. Gas clothes dryer Outdoor wood boiler heats house and water
If you have grid power ,then why are you not using it at night? Here in Ontario night power is as cheap as $.02 /kw at night, through the week and 085/kw on weekends all day ect. Been off grid for 24 years. I wish i had grid power to use at night , to much cost to connect. I use co-generation for extra power and surplus heat.
@@apsleyflyer cause our power is always expensive at 17¢ ish per kwh and just more expensive from like 4-7 pm at like 20¢ per kwh. If it was 2¢ why doesn't everyone get batteries. That would pay for itself quickly
@@electromechanicalstuff2602 typically the power is a lot cheaper in off peak hours. where I live I get all the excess power I generate back from the grid watt for watt during the winter so I typically have about 5 months worth of power credit going into the winter... ( 5 year with this setup in buffalo NY, catch is I pay a mandatory connection fee of $18 a month which I have to pay regardless where I live to be to code). I will only have batteries at my offgrid cabin (building system now).
@fathergratwick we used to have that but DTE ended the one to one banking. Now it's like 20 to one. No point selling them anything unless its extra and u may get a few dollars to bank. Not worth the cost of a more expensive hybrid inverter. The cost will never ROI
On your new blue battery storage, what BMS did you use????
@@DualTasticToday Jibiada 100 amp. I'd go for one of the newer styles with active balancers built in. Battery hook up has 300 amp units without active balancer for like $130ish I think 200 amp units for $100 But I don't have any recommendations for with active balance
Biggest issues I see is your choice of a Growatt. Then you have expensive tastes for panels. My first 10 were brand new panels. After that I've been buying used panels by the pallet from Santan. Last pallet was 16 panels of mixed brands from 330w to 395w for $600. The used arrays sometimes have higher outputs than the original new array. Some of them have date codes on them and aren't very old at all. I think 2019 is the oldest dateI saw. In the event there is degradation in the future I'll add more panels and keep the VOC below 300v
@@FauxQue-yk8dt the inverter I agree. It is way worse than I thought. As far as the panels I bought all my panels 3 years ago. For 18 USA made 390 watt panels the going price was 5k. I then later bought 16 Turkish made used panels from santan for 2.5k with frame separation. I would never string a bunch of random panels together for multiple reasons. One the wattage and voltages won't be the same so making a properly balanced system will be difficult but not impossible. Two the setup will look extremely unprofessional with different size and shade of panels. I have all the family gatherings at my home and I am willing to spend extra money to make a system that I won't have to worry about. A proper ground mount isn't cheap either. So the more weak panels u have the more you'll spend of racking. You guys can make yours out of unistrut and 2*4s all u want but here in SE Michigan we get tornadoes and straight line winds regularly. I've had my shingles blown off my house twice and my Sinclair ground mount was never a concern. Lastly permitted or not if it looks professional the township and insurance is way less likely to have an issue with it. Know that if u have diy solar attached to your home your insurance will not cover any claims when they find out. Just a heads up. Outside of those things I have talk to other solar folks in my area and they have 30+kw of panels with similar loads they also can't make enough to even cover their loads let alone charge batteries. Michigan is like the 5th worst states for solar because of the clouds from lake effect. I have 12.2 kw of panels and for 2.5 months it's constant cloud coverage I may at peak day see 400 watts of power generation from the panels. I'd need 50kw of panels to cover my daytime loads I'd need 100kw of panels to charge my panels. It's just not worth it
@electromechanicalstuff2602 It's not all that bad. Arrays are 5 panels each so matching 5 panels for looks is easy. You might even get 5 of the same wattage. Voltage doesn't matter as long as my VOC is under 500v. If you were to mix say 325w panels with 395w panels the only thing that happens is the 395w panels would be clipped at 325w. The trick to having different wattage arrays is to feed them into a combiner box. I have 10- 370w panels as 2 arrays. 5- 385w panels as another array. And 5- 395w panels for the 4th array all fed into a 4 into 2 combiner box. As far as mounts go, well I don't really have any. It's all DIY unpermitted flying under the radar. 10 panels lay flat on a porch roof with 6 abs plastic stand off feet for RV roof mounting. The others are leaning against a side fence and back fence until I build something out of chain link fence posts I have laying around. Panels will block the framework so I don't care about looks. Insurance? Lol. Only a dream at this point. Makes zero sense to pay for insurance when I own the house outright. I live in Florida so I know a little about wind. I have a stack of shingle tabs I need need to go up on the roof and glue back down. You're fooling yourself if you think your expensive ground mount will survive a tornado. The panels laying flat on the roof only have dabs of silicone under the feet and flat patio stones along the edges. So far they have survived 3 hurricanes with a Cat 3 being the worst. Usually I lay down the panels that lean on the fence but I got lazy this year. At first 2 panels blew over. Luckily they didn't shatter. So I laid down the other 3 in the array. They were verticle against the fence. I left the ones horizontal thinking they'd be fine. Lol. Later that night there was a horrific noise. All 5 of another array blew over. Again not a single panel shattered. I laid down the other 5 down not wanting to push my luck. I have considered the plastic bucket style ground mounts. You fill the bases with gravel or something heavy and bolt the panels to them. But they go horizontal and I want to go vertical to save space
I'm in farm country there is nothing stoping the ground wind out here. I've had chicken coops fly away. Neighbors have had to replace their roofs several times. I've had to fix mine several times. One straight line winds broke the tops of 15 power poles off at the end of our block. . I'm not taking the risk. U can buy like u said u have panels just laying around everywhere. I'm too OCD to allow that. It has to look professional especially since I do industrial electrical as a profession. I've had neighbors stop by and ask who did my install and when I told them I did it myself they were impressed cause it looked so professional. That's what I strive for this whole solar thing. Is to be as hands off, zero maintenance and zero skill to operate. I'm not there yet with this inverter but I'm getting closer
I do car audio. And cable losses are a real thing. Especially on the DC side. Cheapest thing first. Start with each cable and measure the voltage drop across each cable/parallel cables. If you're measuring 0.1v or more across the cable, you need to add more. Open air cables have enough passive cooling to hide parasitic losses.
@@DangaRanga i do industrial electrical. You'll get more than that without a load. When u add over 100 amps it's not unusual to see 0.5 volt loss even on the 4/0 fine strand, USA made welding cable at 10' length. The wire coatings have an 105C temp rating for a reason. They will always warm up under rated load. Yes ideally u want as little as possible but there is always voltage drop it's unavoidable
I have a neighbor with electric cars, chargers and a small 5KW tesla powerwall. Don't forget to mention all the noise.
@@victorthecarguy3126 u mean electrical noise?
@@electromechanicalstuff2602 No an actual buzzing sound. I think it's a cooling system that should be on dampers but instead just shakes everything. I considered calling code enforcement since it violates local ordinances but it doesn't seem like a neighborly thing to do, not that waking me up and making it impossible to sleep is very thoughtful.
@@victorthecarguy3126 none of those things should buz. It's most likely the HVAC condensor fan is loose or the contactor is not fully closing causing the loud buzzing. I've repaired both issues numerous times on machines.
@@electromechanicalstuff2602 It southern California and is in the 40 s. If anything the powerwall has a heat pump/condensing unit to maintain battery temps. Still it started when they put in the full system. We can check building permits online. I'm certain your system is far better than what they have. Hope you have a great night and Merry Christmas.
would be even better with another eg4! :)
AIO units seem to sneak in multiple inefficiencies. I almost bought one a couple months ago, but dropped the idea when I started seeing specs for idle power consumption above 40W. Might not sound like much, but that's more than my inverter + home assistant + Starlink, and it's 24-7. I think most people who like AIOs have grid power which lowers the incentive to care and/or notice. With no grid and dark winter days, I want something that's going to earn its spot in the roster. I may change strategies at some point, but for now I'm going with multiple Mean Well RSP-1500-xx units. Mine actually put out about 1,820W ea - close to maxing out a 15A breaker without tripping it. And adds redundanccy.
@@Cabinlab hp server power supplies are very efficient also
@electromechanicalstuff2602 Interesting. Dell and HP both make 90 Plus Platinum power supplies that can be had for a few bucks on eBay. Are the server versions commonly: 1. Adjustable 2. Available in 24v, 48v, etc.?
@Cabinlab yes they are adjustable but it's on an internal pot. No not 48 volts u have to isolate grounds and stack a few in series but they are 20 bucks but a real mean well rap1500-48 is 400 bucks. It's give and take
Best solution is a DC charger. These are built using a small diesel engine (around 10hp) coupled to a 160 amp 24 volt truck alternator. The voltage regulator on the alternator is modified to produce the 52 - 60 volts required to directly charge the batteries. Engine speed (and pulley ratio) is set to provide the 80 - 100 amps required. Efficiency can be quite high is the engine is run at its most fuel efficient, usually about 2 /3 of the throttle.
@@brettmat8868 I'd like to see one of those in action. I'm not sure the alternator could handle double the voltage and that much current for 100% duty cycle. I have a military turbine GPU that is for starting helicopters puts out 300 amps at 24volts I believe and it doesn't even have 100% duty
Why?
@@timcat1004 cause I can
surely you need to have a transfer switch to run the house off the generator while charging.
@@AltereggoLol1 I have several but what exactly are u asking
How high can you charge a 16S with 50mV cell difference max? 56V is max for most of my new “Grade A cells” even with JK BMS and 2A balance current. They are fine for solar.
@@USA-GreedyMenOfNoIntegrity I charge to 55.2 volts that 3.45v per cell. Off grid garage has shown it's over 95% charged at that point. My passive BMS's has been fine so far but if they start walking around I'll look into a neey
@ I run them up to 56 occasionally, but normal settings are 55.8V, then 53.8 (float).
Looks very nice. What type of batteries are those? The cheapest DC charger I've found is PowMr inverter 48vDC, 220VAC, it will do 120 amps @ 48 volt charging and it only cost $500, plus you have AC inverter when needed. I think 2 of these pushing 240amps @ 48v into the battery for less than $1,000 is best bang for buck.
@@Mikeb8134 envision 280 ah grade A matched cells from battery hookup 286 dollars per case of 4
My Sol-Ark 12K’s do much better. I run my 10kW Generac at 9kW and see 8.5kW going into battery. It’s the same with mine…I have to set the amps low enough so that you can take care of the house loads and charge the battery. Otherwise yes it will over-amp the generator. What I usually do is turn the water heater and heat pumps off then all I have is light loads - under 1000 W. Then I can max out my charging of the batteries. Fully off grid with 32kWp, 150kWh+ LFP - DIY. Wood burner used below 20F and over 3 days of cloudy weather. I typically use generator 12-20 hrs per year, 12/15-1/31. 38 deg lat Ky.
150kwh of battery!? Wow u should post a video of that I'm sure People would love to see it. I'm not surprised the solark is more efficient. For the price it should be. But yeah I don't want to have to think about what to keep on what to keep off when I'm charging. I want to set it and forget it. I have a house full of family. They are doing dishes, laundry, hair, heat, vacuuming. I don't want to tell them live different. That's my goal with solar. Is day to day there should be no sacrifices. But if shtf then obviously that's different. I want the whole system easy enough for my wife to do by herself. Turn on generator. Turn off generator. Not play with settings and change your habits. That's y I'm going with the eg4 12000 next. It monitors the generators load and will not exceed your generators capacity no matter the load and charge up to 250 amps
@ only run the generator 12 to 20 hours a year, so it’s really not a problem for the family. For the two or three hours that I usually run at one time, our hot water will stay hot, our house will stay warm - especially with the wood burner. You gotta do what works for you. I have nothing different than what everybody else has on you tube, just more of the batteries and solar panels. I have a shop with a separate system 15kWp, 64kWh diy LFP.
Solar panels are really cheap now, they've literally become 75% cheaper over the last 2 years. Way cheaper than battery storage - there's never been a better time to try and "over-solar" your system.
@@MrButuz another guy lives in Michigan down in the comments he has 24kw of solar and he says he only got 45kwh this December. It's cloudy. So cloudy it's not economically reasonable. I'm going to install another 8kw to make it an even 20kw of panels but it will never be cost inhibitive to have enough solar to cover the loads of my house for those 2.5 months of absolute cloud coverage. How many kw do u have? U know how much space 20kw of solar takes up? It's an array double stacked almost 100' long. I have the space for it and more but I'm not going to make a large piece of my backyard unusable at the cost of 10s of thousands of dollars which is what it actually cost to install good galvanized ground mounts and fill them with quality 400+ watt solar panels. To be able to just cover my winter loads. Nobody who lives a normal life as if they were on grid runs completely off grid without a generator.
Nice setup. I’m in southeast Michigan. Gonna check out some of your other videos to check out your setup. Looking at those envision cells from batteryhookup is tempting!
It seems to me that charging 48v batteries directly with a DC generator makes a lot of sense....versus generating AC volts to be then converted to DC through some battery charger. I've search on line to shop for a DC battery charging generator without much luck...at least in the USA. There was a company in the Seattle area which went out of business. There are a few youtuber who have attempted DIY belt drive alternator generators....
Awesome! Welcome to the world of heating self-reliance! Love my wood boiler! After seeing the smoke by the door, I was gonna suggest replacing the gasket. The other thing I would mention is if you put a cap on the stove, you'll wana keep a close eye on it. I had one on mine for years and it ended up creating more problems in the long run. It kept being a build-up point for creosote, so much so that the stove could barely breathe. I didn't put it on this year and I've had very few airflow problems Iike I have in the past.
Nothing to see here..10 k/VA or 10,000 watts as you put it, is not even 45 Amps..Are you expecting a miracle for Xmas from such low amperage?
Units rated in watts not va
I appreciated your video. You make important to know points. I just found your channel. I'd really like to know if your diesel generator is much more efficient than a $900 open frame 9KW gasoline generator. I'd like to have a diesel generator but they appear to cost at least $6k or more. I'm fully off grid in the northwest near the Canadian border. It's a fact that at least 3 months are 95% clouds and fog here. Daily solar production from 14KW bifacial panels will range from zero to 6KW. Running a generator every 4 to 5 days for 5 to 7 hours consuming 4-6 gallons of fuel is just a fact of life ....just as certainly as driving to a place of employment consuming 5-10 gallons of vehicle fuel each week is a fact with which to deal. As a long term off grid household we have two seasons: plenty and austerity. We don't run every powered appliance known to the on grid suburbanites in the winter....and we heat with wood. By early March we will service and put that generator to sleep until November. Life is good.
@@northidahodreaming5657 my generator uses 1 gallon per hour at full load it uses no less than 0.5 gallons per hour at 50% or less. So at the very least u should have it loaded to 50%.
@@northidahodreaming5657 gov planet dot com. Look for them there. May have to travel a state away but they are usually worth getting. 1500 hrs or less is ideal. Will have plenty of life left at that point. Check for tar around exhaust system in pics. Wet stacking. Don't buy them if there is tar around exhaust manifolds. Ideally it runs in a posted video and makes voltage. Have fun shopping. I've bought and sold dozens when they first hit the surplus. I never paid over $1500 at auction. When they started hitting $2-4k in auction I got out
@@electromechanicalstuff2602 Great....Thanks I'll check it out! subscribed and will watch more of your content!
Like those hefty busbars.
27000 Watts here in Mid Michigan. Getting 5 to 6 kWH a day. I would say more like 200,000 worth of panels still would not do it. Best Day in the last month December has been 40 kHW. I can to a 100 kHW in the summer like nothing. I started out with the 12k Growatt for over a year and for the last two years running a 15k Sol-ark. Running three other charge controllers on top of that. Thinking about going to a 6000xp to replace two charge controllers and then in the summer I will have more load Capacity. Don 't like to see the Sol-ark doing over 10k.
@@bigblockcutlass123 I want to add another 6kw array to make mine 18 and switch over to the eg4 12000xp or two
try Victron and see the difference, china products really don't pay attention to certain details , mostly efficiency
@@chuksobi593There are definitely Chinese companies manufacturing top tier electronics. Most of the best phones and drones are made in China. Mean Well is one company that makes well regarded and high-efficiency chargers. Victron clearly spends more money marketing to English speaking markets (and passes those costs on to its customers).
Can you add extra solar? Also is a set of micro wind turbines a option?
@@RayJohnson1980 of course u can always add solar. As long as u have the time and money to do it. I have enough for the summer months already at 12.2kw. it's the 2.5 months of winter that it's not even close. I need 30kw worth of panels to be close to covering the energy in usage in those few months. Question is it a reasonable endeavor to do so. Another 18kw of decent panels are going to be about $3k another ground mount will be about the same. Wiring and more charger controllers your looking at $8-10k for a quality diy set up so if I was truly off grid I wouldn't have to spend $200 a month in diesel fuel for 2-3 months? I have the grid so to just pay the $125 Electric bill for a few months not the end of the world
@electromechanicalstuff2602 and what about a few micro wind turbines for those months
@@RayJohnson1980 micro for the most part are a waste of money. They say they are 500 watts but never produce more than 50 unless it's 30 mph winds. They need to be way up in the air to actually be effective. 90% of people who have bought them said it was a waste of money.
You can always add solar, but the farther north you get, the less it pays off in the winter. Shorter days are shorter, which lowers total possible sunlight, which in turn lowers the probability it will be clear while the sun is above the horizon. Toward the edge, but here at 2° below the Arctic Circle there's effectively zero direct sunlight for about 8 weeks.
@@electromechanicalstuff2602 So aftr spending 4 days researching these I found you are correct for the most part but there are some larger heavier turbines out there that according to reviews actually generate decent power. They cost more of course..
Good set up, are you in Australia? Solar panels are direct cheap not and many people are giving secondhand for free in Melbourne.
@@pr5991 no in Michigan USA. Still to set up 30kw of panels I need mounts that can handle 100mph winds we get tornadoes and straight line winds regularly. I've lost shingles twice in 4 years. So if u get old low watt panels it just means u spend more on mounting more panels Sinclair is the brand we use up here. They are made not far from me.
@pr5991 same here in the bay area Cali. Low wattage panels are free or close to it bc land has gotten $$$
@Gary-ee3kq here in Michigan solar is not a big thing because of our winters. So not a lot of used equipment going around
I see the testing use of this setup, but for long term charging I can't see this being economical. Nice generator. You get it at a govt auction?
If 0,5C charging rate with 4x 48v 280Ah battery packs guess bro can charge 560amps around 56volt continuously. That's 31 360watts, would need a 60KVA, diesel and a mad big charger with current limiter. Then its from 10% to 90% charge within a few hours.
@gary-ee3kq ya I bought and sold dozens of them when they first hit the auctions. But yeah I might be looking for a 30 kw now
@@vtd-4764i actually have 5 packs but just need to assemble the last one still. But yeah a 30kw Genny might be in my future
Was going to ask... What about the eg4 chargeverter? And you answered that very quickly! This speaks to the logistical challenges of charging 30+kwh. HighTechLab used 12.... Not glorious nor easy. But a solution. The more I dived into the off grid-living, the more I realized how big of a challenge larger shop-type loads are. Great video!
Learn te difference between High Frequency Systems (Growatt. EG4 and other AIO's {all in ones}) and LOW Frequency ones which handle motors & loads more efficiently. HF is NOT optimal for motors like Shop Tools, Well Pumps, Fridge & AC Compressors. Cannot put links but look it up. FYI Low Frequency Systemns are HEAVY as hell and more bucks too (sometimes a lot more).
@@stephsoltesz6731 I am aware of Transformer based low freq. inverters. A bit pricey for my taste but rather high idle efficiency. Does it have trouble with those kinds of loads? Or does it potentially damage those components? I am a little confused as most high frequency inverters I've seen and heard of do just fine. To be clear I'm an advocate for both.
@@davidpopowicz7689 Again, I use Samlex EVO. 95% efficient, identical quality as Victron in that respect. Stand-by idle uses 11W, in Eco-Mode 8W, 18W when loaded (functioning). When charging it pulled 120V/25-27A to provide 80A Charge (My setting, leaving 20A for overhead ops). I can easily run my Heavy MIG Welder, 4HP 30 Gallon 2 stage compressor and everything I have thrown at it without as much as a blink. Because I use a GrundFos SQ Deep Well pump (300' deep then to 50 Gal pressure Tank and 75' to house) I chose a 120V. Soft-STart version which starts at 550W and ramps to 1200W by the time it reaches 52PSI cutoff. Very Few pumps are properly Softwatrt with stages and hard to compare but also a Grundfos is not Chump Change by any means. BTW, you never ever notice any pressure drop or change. Consider looking here for a good synopsis. Link hacked so I can post it. https www .magnum-dimensions.com/knowledge/high-vs-low-frequency-inverters/inversion-methods-explained-high-frequency-vs-low
I have no need for a charge verter, because I have 32 kW of PV. My 12k’s can easily put in what my little 10 kW propane generator can put out. I also have two addition SCC hooked up to two of the strings. So that’s another 6kW into the bat.
Hallo sieht gut aus 👍
That does seem terribly inefficient. I wonder if that's more to do with the Growatt you have being a transformer type. I am pretty new to Solar stuff, recently bought a modern all in one 500voc, HF, with 80 amp mppt charger and the little testing I have done it seems to be perfectly acceptable efficiency when charging from grid power or solar. Will have to dig deeper into that. I agree though that you should always have external chargers. They would come in handy in any situation to get the batteries charged back up should something die or go wrong. My suggestion about getting through the Winter months with less frustration would be to simply cut back on usage. Offgrid folks seem to get their primary heat source from wood. Electric heat of any kind is terribly inefficient. Electric Heaters are good for load tests, that's it, haha.
@@xxcrazy_critr6661 ya we just started heating from wood. But it's an outdoor wood boiler so it has a small blower to blow air onto the fire for fast recovery, it has water pumps that push water through the insulated pipes underground going to my house and garage, then the gas furnaces have blowers that I have secondary thermostats that just turn on the blowers to regulate temp. Installing a fireplace inside the house one is also expensive but increases your insurance costs, u bring bugs into the home and everything you burn has to be well seasoned and split. My house is 32*34 2 story American 4 square. It has two HVAC units one in the basement and one in the attic. So two blowers. They are 800 watts a piece. I have 2 large deep freezers and 3 full size refrigerators. At this point cutting back would be like not turning on my Xmas lights or tvs. I'm not off grid but yes if I had to be I could easily cut back and put food outside in coolers and only run the downstairs HVAC blower and the bedrooms would just be colder. But as someone who was not trying to go fully off grid all the time but am able to make sacrifices if the situation arose I could. Just getting some info out there about efficiencies and to be mindful of them and the big one is the charging regardless of efficiency most inverters have bypass for loads when charging and don't control the amount of load the Genny sees and can often cause overloads if your not babysitting the system
i bought the EG4 18Kpv and a EG4 chargeverter and i have four 15 kilowatt DIY batteries, never a problem. USA STOCK EVE LF280K 280Ah EV Grade A Class New V3 LiFePO4 3.2V Prismatic Cell Test Out 310Ah with Laser-Welded M6 Studs $71 each, free shipping no sales tax. that is only $1,136 for sixteen cells @ 51.2 volts
@@stevenfrazier8939 where'd u get that deal?
@@stevenfrazier8939 I paid just shy of 6k after taxes free shipping for 84 cells. (4 extra cells) That's five 14.3kwh batteries 280ah make 14.3kwh batteries. Even if they test over their rating that will quickly diminish down to the rated capacity within a year or so. Then they flatten out on capacity and the degradation really slows down after that. That's what off grid garage has experienced with all of his. Mine are envision cells. 1C rating Grade A 280ah unused new old stock. They were made per the QR code in late 2022. Also laser welded m6 studs plus accessories. From battery hookup in PA. Sounds like a u got a great deal. So u have roughly 60kwh right now and u charge with 100 amps with 1? Chargeverter. From empty to full with inverter off no load it'll take 12 hours correct. Now likely the inverter won't be off it'll be running your house so it'll be using 20-40 amps from your battery at the same time your charging so now your only charging with 60-80 amps and will take 20-15 hours to charge that pack. That's a long time imo. My new chargeverter will be here tomorrow and it's definitely the way to go to maintain a constant load on the generator. Unless your inverter is smart enough to regulate the total power it will pull from the gen to prevent overloading. The eg4 12000xp has this feature. I'll.have to go look up the Manual for the 18kpv And see if yours does it too. If it does and you have a decent generator big enough with clean power then u can just use that and probably charge faster. But it sounds like if that was an option you'd already be doing that. Most generators are not clean enough.
@stevenfrazier8939 that's about $1/ah for each 12v set. That's what I paid for my dc house 165ah batts, but at least you know the quality of your cells vs I'm rolling the 🎲 with mine.
I use a 50kva genset. I realized no sense in screwing around with long charge times awhile ago.
There is so much to explain here! 1st 2 of the chargers the inverter and the bottom 1 are basically MOSFET switches charging. Since lithium ion phosphate has no resistance. So a load resistor has to be used plus an active balancer has to be used. No charger is effective or efficient when the batteries have low resistance.Thre is so much more !😊
@@corashy1950 load resistor? The two chargers I'm using are not actually chargers they are regulated power supplies. I can short them out at 60volts at 60 amps the voltage will drop to almost nothing and it will regulate the current to only 60 amps. No resistor needed. If they were linear transformers I'd agree with u but these don't care about the load. I set it to 60 amps at 55.2volts. it will go to 60 amps and the volts will sag to whatever the pack voltage is and rise only as it charges. Once the pack reaches 55.2 volts the current starts falling off. Once current is below 4% of 1C it's charged. 1 C is 280 amps on a 280ah battery. 4% of 280 is 11.2 amps u can charge till 0 amps but your not really gaining anything but will take a good amount of time to fully saturate. I have seen no imbalance yet. If I see some start showing up over 100mv at 3.45volts from cell to cell I'll buy some till then Imma let it ride. Most commercial packs don't have active balancers in them especially if u have matched cells. I've got a few cycles in these things now and at 3.45 I only have 50mv delta when fully charged and at 3.1 volt 10% soc also 50mv delta. I'm checking on them regularly through the app. So I'll keep it posted how the balance holds up.
Lead Acid is better!! 99% efficient 😊
Very nice sir!
That's not efficient. My lv6548 (2) can do 240 amps combined into the batteries, but I just take the hit when it's ☁️ and pay the grid without charging the batteries, but I wouldn't be suprised if it's just as inefficient.
@@Gary-ee3kq I had an lv6048 prior to the Growatt 12k but I up sized for the central air. Gave that system toy brother. Worked fine except no surge capability. The MPPT was great I got 9kw plus input from solar.
So the inverter charger is pulling load while charging ? Which means the extra 4kw must be the load? I would love to have that many batteries. Very nice.
@@justanotherearthling1062 that's what I thought too. But then I unplugged the inverter output so there was no load other than the batteries. Well I have 70kwh of lithium ion for dirt cheap in SE Michigan
do you need DIY BMS product?
@@powerwall i need an active balancer
@@electromechanicalstuff2602 jk makes fairly decent active balancers and bms with active balancers.
@fathergratwick I've seen some from off grid garage but he has had lots of videos basically saying they didn't pass his quality. I think mostly software issues. Do u have any? If so which one do u recommend
Unless you are pouring out tons of heat from the inverter or wiring there has to be some measure of inaccuracy in your readings that you are looking at..
Tons of heat. 3 measurement devices. One is a fluke amp clamp.
@@electromechanicalstuff2602I put my AC bypass on a separate breaker. When I have it on even if it's not being used all day/ night it will still eat up 1.7-2.0 kwh as measured by my electric bill... it only goes to 0 when the batts are fully charged. I've got it set to ONLY run the loads not charge the batteries. It's not much but when you pay 40c/kwh ( Cali) it adds up.
@@electromechanicalstuff2602 Might be OK in the Winter if you needed a space heater but certainly that is where those amps are going.. A poor design or faulty circuit switchover because of bad diodes or relay is pretty obvious in this inverter.. The inverter circuit uses large power transistors, a resistance biasing bridge, transformer and smoothing capacitors.. When going in reverse as a charger a completely different circuit needs to be employed and just like the efficiency difference between an MPPT charge controller and a PWM controller efficiency and losses matter.. I wonder if charging through the inverter at a lower rate would improve efficiency?? The most optimal would be to have a DC regulated generator/alternator to directly charge the batteries and avoid the inversion process all together.. From your described losses running a 240v electric motor to spin a DC generator would be more efficient.. The cheapest way for me to charge my batteries without solar is the grid and that takes almost 8 hours from flat to full at 4kw but I mostly avoid this and just put my system into UPS mode and run off the grid..
Why make a video of wrong equipment ?
@@HaroldMcDermott why make a comment that sense no make
so you are aware of the tradeoffs to such equipment.
@@fathergratwick such equipment means what?
To be honest, I just think your genny doesn't actually output what it claims, suprise, suprise.
He said he metered it between the genset and the inverter/charger. The generator was outputting the full wattage.
@@bentheguru4986 the gen is a military mep803a extremely high end water cooled diesel. Not only does the Geny say it. The reliance wattmeter in my basement confirms it and my fluke amp clamp confirmed it. I've ran 11 tons of refrigeration with it no problem at 130% load. It's very inefficient when charging from grid. I could feel the heat coming out of the inverter. Lots
@@electromechanicalstuff2602 Couple of things, stop assuming that we are all yanks. The genny is ex-mil and thus secondhand. Googled it up to cover your assumption we know what it is. Just a rebadged Onan genny which is no different than most other genny's. I and possibly many others no nothing of WTF a reliance power meter and to be honets, couple of tiny indicators that are far from detailed, no credit given. The real bit that I am biting back at is you are throwing heaps of figures and details around and the whole time you keep using the term KW/Killowatt. Not once did you mention the correct figure you should be using, VA / KVA. No idiot rates a genny in watts, they are rated in VA and I don't a hoot if even the DoD can't get that right.
@@CL-gq3no Read ther reply to him and then re-read this. I dropped a very big hint as to where a good part of the problem may lay. Stop using watts on AC. You have no idea how the inverter/charger is using the incoming power and what the power-factor is like. Not defending the inverter, it's just another inverter to me.
@@bentheguru4986 here in America we use kw primarily. Yes kva is the most correct term because of power factor. I am an industrial electrician . I know the difference. But most of this solar community uses kw. Except for victron almost all the solar stuff sold in America is rated in watts. Not volt/amps. If you don't know what a reliance watt meter is, I show it to u in the video. I had all the loads in my house off by unplugging the inverters output. The only load was the batteries being charged. Not only did I say I read the meter on the mil spec Genny which is not like any of the garbage sold here. It's brushless with less than 3% thd that's (total harmonic distortion). Most consumer grade Genny units don't even compare. This unit was taken out of service solely because our ridiculous military spending allows for new models every 6-10 years. So all the perfectly good stuff gets sold off to make room for the new contracts. I have bought and sold and repaired dozens of them. So I trust the load meter I also confirmed with the reliance wattmeter and a fluke amp clamp. So unless all three are incorrect which is unlikely. Or this inverter charger has a very poor power factor to charge batteries. It's mostly turning into heat. Which u can hear in the video the fan was on high most of the time. Just so we have all the details
Is it possible for you to put all lights and important equipment on a small victron 48/1200 inverter? Keep the large equipment on the existing inverter.
The setup looks very cool. You even have opportunities to make it redundant because of the abundance of space. - Been experimenting with Lifepo4 350Ah cells for a small 8S 24volt set. 5,8kg per cell, 500amp Daly MBS so it can handle a 24volt winch on that workvan. Space is limited, so only 1 victron 24/5000 and a 24/800. Mppt100/30 solar charger with 2x 390watt panels in series. Same problems in winter with dark days. Have a lil army 28,8volt 50amp DC 2 cilinder petrol charger. Bit underpowered and its loud.
Solar panels are dirt cheap now. 20 cents a watt or less if you shop around
@@bigcbradio ya but I Iike the a Sinclair ground mount they are about $2500 per 6kw. To get me to 30kw of solar I'd need 18kw of panels and mount would be at $6k plus concrete plus conduit and wire plus charge controllers plus time. As u know it all adds up fast
@electromechanicalstuff2602 I was up in Winnemucca last month. The few houses that are completely off grid near battle ⛰️ have huge solar trackers in addition to alot of ground mounted arrays.
I think the only way to go off grid is to have alot of land and ALOT of panels. I got 6kw of panels mounted with $50 of wood.
@@Gary-ee3kq ya u need like 30kw up here in Michigan if u intend on pulling 600+kwh a month in the winter like an average home. Or u need a small cabin and very few amenities.
@@Gary-ee3kqAlso we get straight line winds and tornados here in SE Michigan so my mounts have to be rated for 100+ mph winds. I've had my shingles blown off twice while my panels held their ground
generator -> server power supplies -> mppt solar charger = cheap high efficient charger. used server psus are often plantnium rated! 98% efficiency. i have a vid of hacking on together. ua-cam.com/video/lj1977VuGR4/v-deo.html ( note with mppt you don't have to derate the psus like i did in the video ) also, not only are the on-board chargers inefficient, but they also have a tendancy of dying pretty fast / being super sensitive to the generator output as well.
Or use a used telecom rectifier. They're designed to take crappy generator input and be highly efficient, and you can get them cheaply. Something like a Vertiv/Emerson R48.
try this on victron,the figures will be so different xD My victron high frequence fet based inverter can charge around 92% efficiency...thats pretty low loss
@@83kaszas victron inverters are inverters only tho. They have all in ones?
@@electromechanicalstuff2602 They have,in fact i am using one of them,the Victron RS 48/6000/100 smart solar inverter,it has an mppt with 98% efficiency 120-450V(high voltage) a 6000kva(5100-5200 continuous watts)inverter,and it can charge from AC imput too,You can also AC couple with solar inverters,if You have too many panels,and want to do that.Depends what You want,but yes they have an all in one.Its high frequency inverter,some ppl dont like them,i dont know why,Victron is high quality,i was welding on mine,it has a starting wattage tolerance of 9000 watts,so my air compressor starts without even flicker,or bending the sine weave.Hands down for this inverter,at least for what i use it(the whole house).
@@electromechanicalstuff2602 They have
@@electromechanicalstuff2602 i replyed multiple times but youtube deletes them,yes they have all in one inverter,very good one.
Multiplus victron, seen you've 48v system its not even that expensive to get 3x Multiplus hook m together for 3x400v+N 50hz. You probably like the quality.
My EG4 18KPV isnt nearly as bad at AC to DC, about 85-90% efficient, But yeah most hybrid inverters emphasize DC to AC conversion, which again for mine and probably yours is 98-99% efficient. So it is the trade off of running a hybrid inverter.
Even DC-AC on this low frequency growatt wouldn't exceed 85%.
I live totally off grid in the UP 2 miles from the nearest power line. This time of the year we rely pretty heavily on generator power. I started off trying to use my outback inverter as you are doing and I quickly gave up on it. The reason as you so correctly state is the gross inefficiency of it. To improve my efficiency I switched over to Iota switch mode chargers. Specifically the Iota DLS90. 90 amps @12v (nominal) and they can be connected in series or parallel. I have tweaked the chargers by adjusting the internal current limit pot to 65 amps. These charge at over 90% efficiency. Here is my little trick. If you use external chargers you add up the load (generator side) for all the external chargers. You subtract this from the CONTINIOUS rating of then generator. You take the amount of current left after the external chargers and program this to be the maximum that the inverter is allowed to pull from the generator (for charging/loads). Program the inverter to charge at 100 watts (its lowest setting) and for generator support mode. This allows for all loads to be run from the generator and if someone kicks on a big appliance it'll support the load using the inverter. I hope that I've explained this well enough. This is how it turns out in my system: 2 - Iota DLS90 chargers = 1900 watts (Generator load) Outback inverter 100 watts = 160 watts Total = 2060 watts (from generator) The generator is a Honda EU3000 (2800 watts continuous): 2800 watts - 2060 (charger load above) = 740 watts remaining = 6 amps I programmed my Outback for a limit of 6 amps from the generator. Doing it this way I've never had anything trip the generator as the inverter will step in to make up the difference. I charge at peak efficiency and the loads run off the generator while its running (up to 6 amps worth). When a load like the coffee maker kicks on it'll take the full 6 amps from the generator + a few hundred watts from inverter to supply the power to the coffee pot. This is BY FAR the most efficient way to charge.