Build Your Own DIY Solar Power System - Step by Step Guide
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- Опубліковано 28 лют 2024
- @BougeRV @litimepower @weize-us
Putting together a small DIY solar power system that would work great for a van build or small cabin or something like that.We're using a Weize 12 volt 100ah Lifepo4 lithium iron phosphate battery and BougeRV sunflow 30a solar charge controller, and LiTime 1000w pure sine wave inverter. For this video I want to keep it simple. and walk you guys through the process step by step of how to hook everything up. The following is a list of all the components in this video on Amazon.
✅ If you are feeling generous and found this video really helpful, you can buy me a coffee here:
buymeacoffee.com/enigmascape
Collaborations / Media Inquiries: enigmascapeoffgrid@gmail.com
Equipment:
BougeRV Sunflow 30a MPPT:
Amazon Link: geni.us/sunflow30
Official Website: bit.ly/3URPddW (Use code AFF20 to save 20%)
LiTime 1000w Pure Sine Wave Inverter: geni.us/tWZBoxp
Weize 12v 100ah Lifepo4 Battery: geni.us/weize100ah
✅ My Preferred Parts & Accessories
Cable lugs (heavy duty tinned copper): geni.us/J160Fuk
Heavy Gauge Wire from WindyNation (The best) : geni.us/2xfN6y
Lighter Gauge Silicone Wire: geni.us/MF7Hcf
Bus Bars (250a max): geni.us/Ayfe
DC Breaker: geni.us/uA3D9
DC Solar Disconnect Switch: geni.us/2oohdxK
✅ A Better One (worth the extra $10): geni.us/txyyArH
Inline Fuse:geni.us/51zjtO
25w 30ohm Resistor I used in the video: geni.us/l1A4uC
Tools:
Large Lug Crimper: geni.us/UeBL
✅ The Best Lug Crimper : geni.us/bestlugcrimper
MC4 Crimping Kit: geni.us/HoUVgbw
As an Amazon Influencer, I earn from qualifying purchases.
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In case you missed it, you may want to check out this video next: ua-cam.com/video/HLKvCnJmTX8/v-deo.html
Finally, a solar charge system build vid that answers the question 'what is a bus bar for and when should it be applied.' Believe it or not I've struggled to get the answer to this. Sometimes creators have one, sometimes not, and some even say that you can add one as an option but, no one was explaining the whys or whens. Also for the first I understand where the breakers should be in the layout. Thank you for the thoroughness and clarity.
Thanks, I'm glad you found it useful.
The best diy solar power system I have seen yet without too much unrelated talking. Simple enough that a rock like me can follow. Thank you.
It’s always great to hear that something is helpful for someone. Thanks so much for the positive feedback!
This is true. I went through many videos over many months until I found exactly what I needed and understand it through this video.
Just awesome man
Pretty nice. Nice and slow and gives us time to absorb the diagram.
So many just, "I did this." at a hundred miles an hour
Thanks, yea that hyper speed content is hard to follow for me too!
Subscribed!! I've watched this video twice. Great explanation of all components. Beginner can follow along. Great content good luck and keep bringing more videos like this one. Thanks
Thanks, I’m glad you enjoyed it. I really appreciate the support!
I gave you all 👍👍👍👍 brother I thought your video much more detailed than the other video
Thanks! I really appreciate the positive feedback.
Thanks for the video; it would be more helpful if you commented on the cable and fuse sizes.
Nice little quick build there.
I just got into solar about a year ago and basically did the same build in a 20 inch Craftsman toolbox on wheels.
Thanks for taking time to teach others.
Liked and subbed.👍
Thank you. Easy to understand and informative.
Glad it was helpful!
Great for beginners to watch
Nice job.
Very informative for newbies!
Glad it was helpful!
Most clear explanation of the solar connections I’ve seen yet. Nice job!
Awesome, thank you!
Excellent best step by step I've watched spot on!
Great to hear!
nice video thank you for the info
Thank you. You did the best diy video. Easy to comprehend with out all the bs. Thank you. I'm now subscribed
Glad you found it helpful, thanks for the sub!
Cool video, nice you doing a step by step and talking about each component 👍👍
I really love this video. I have watched many on here and I like yours the best. I do have some questions. I noticed that you do not have all the parts that you used listed??? I have an 2000watt inverter pure sine wave and it can go to 4000 in for a very short time. Everything that I have read tells me that I need 4/0 cable??? I have an Victron 100v/50amp controller, I will run 6awg to the battery from it. That is the max size it takes. Battery is the same size you have. Running 8awg solar wire from panels to charge controller.
Awesome thanks for the reply and look forward to the video I here ya on the cost thankfully been reading all reviews possible
No problem 👍
Thanks i would like to try this in Jamaica
Great job and good explanations on the whys and hows. Im putting together a setup in the back of my 4WD and will use your methods here for reliability and safety. Great video and subbed for more vids like these.
Glad it was helpful! More on the way...
great video...10/10!...i am a total newbie from the UK just doing my first small off grid project for a cabin ..have watched a million you tube vids and yours is one of the best for a newbie...great job...keep up the clear and easy style...one request...could you please list all the wire gauges and fuse / breaker / DC breaker fuses you have used in each section...or a diagram...it would really help...thanks a lot...
Thanks for the comment, it always makes me feel good to know people are getting value from my videos. Its funny you mention this suggestion because that's the video I am working on right now is going over wire gauges and fuse/breaker sizing, so look forward to that in the next few days.
Brilliant...i look forward to it..i am getting ready to hook up soon@@enigmascape
Great video, very simple to follow, thank you.
Where is the ground? To chassis? Isn’t that necessary for the entire system? And a fuse just off the + battery post before the switch? Everything I see shows these… just curious thanks
How did you calculate the values for the breakers and fuses?
Nice video. What are the stud size of the red and the black bus bars? 5/16"?
No, the ones I got are 3/8, but 5/16 would be fine for this small system.
Really good and simple explanation. Can someone explain why there is a fuse between the inverver and not just use a dc breaker like on the charge controller?
You could substitute a properly sized breaker in place of this fuse if you wanted. I only chose to use a fuse in this location because I feel a fuse is more reliable than a breaker, and this is the primary load and most vulnerable, and they are generally cheaper. It is possible for a breaker to stick if they get gunked up with dirt or bugs or rust or just poor manufacturing, but I do prefer breakers for most things because they are so functional, and I think you would be just fine using a descent quality DC breaker there if the environment is relatively clean and not exposed to moisture.
@@enigmascape i appreciate the quick and concise answer. Im building my system and have a 250amp breaker(like the 40amp in the video) between the 2k watt inverter but every video or diagram i see, people are using inline fuses so i was confused as to why.
Beware with bussbars, be sure you buy plated pure copper models, not the high resistance brass ones.
I'm confused on how you determine the amperage for both the inline fuse to the 12v fuse panel and circuit breaker from solar panels. I've seen your links to amazon but as a noob I'm still a dummy. I can't be the only one. Hope to see more of your channel for my skills
I'll be making a video soon that goes over wire sizes and fuse recommendations pretty soon.
Hey is it better to have a (shunt) or actual battery monitor with the device the wires run through to help with knowing the life of battery and charging it??
The shunt is more accurate than the hall sensor kind (the kind where the cable runs through it). One of my videos next week I'm gonna go over the shunt I use, which is this one : amzn.to/4cjYMcq if you don't need the bluetooth and all that you can find something cheaper, but I like having the Bluetooth. I'd like to have the Victron one but it's a bit steep for me at the moment, but I got my eye on it.
Could you implament a beaker box in the design?
I assume you mean an AC breaker. I’ll probably get into that in a future video, but this inverter is small and doesn’t have a way to direct wire into a breaker box like so me others do.
Hey had one more question if u could help when hooking up your system to a car for the power when hooking up to the dc to dc charger from when u find the right fuse to jump off of is a 20a charger the highest u can use or can u safely utilize a 40a dc to dc charger and not keep popping the 20a fuses or am I thinking of that wrong??
for either a 20a or a 40a DC to DC charger I think you would be better off running a wire directly from the battery to the charger and using an inline fuse. For a 40a one its the only way to do it really... And I would use either a 40 or 50a fuse that's designed for something like car audio, and be sure to use a wire gauge thick enough to handle that 40a at the length of your wire run too. Fuses are meant to protect the wire more than anything, so if the fuse is gonna blow at 20a, then the existing wire cannot handle it. You'll probably want at least an 8awg wire, if not even 6awg, which is much thicker than most wire that leads into your fuse panel.
Alrighty makes sense but don’t u only want to pull power from the battery when the vehicle is turned on rather than draining the battery it’s being hooked to not the one it will be charging?
@@joshh9003 Not sure which model you have, but my understanding of most of them is they only come on when the volage of the vehicle battery is over 13 volts or something like that to prevent that problem, but If you are concerned about that you could always install a disconnect switch and flip it off when you're not driving.
A bit confused on why the battery wires from the charge controller goes to the bus bars and not directly to the battery. Even with the main battery switch off the solar controller will still supply some power to the inverter through the busbar, if forget to turn off the breaker? Maybe its just me over thinking it
I intend to make more videos like this one, and go over certain parts in a bit more detail because I am seeing where I could improve the explanations and reinforce various safety precautions or protocols in shutting down a system and things like that. But, the first thing that should be turned off is always your solar panels, then the battery. It's very important to do that as a first step to always make sure no power from your solar panels are flowing through your system without a battery connected and ON because that power from the panels needs someplace to go and it can damage your solar charge controller if you have panels hooked up and live without a battery hooked up and live. What you describe is a secondary reason to always make sure to shut down the panels as step 1 of shutting a system down, and the LAST step when turning a system ON because that power you are referring too would be coming from the panels. You could wire the charge controller directly to the battery instead if you wanted. The bus bar is simply acting as an extension of the battery terminals.
What gauge wire would be needed to connect a 30A charge controller to 12v batterie?
10awg is good, but if the wire run is a good distance from your battery (more than 10 feet) then I'd go with 8awg.
@@enigmascape Thanks for replying.
Why use a fuse to protect a fuse box? Isn’t that redundant? Just curious because I’m learning about small solar systems.
The purpose of a fuse is to protect a wire really. Think of this fuse like a main breaker in a house. Say you have 5 items hooked to the dc fuse box and they all have 15a fuses and the sum total of that is 75a. If your main wire coming into the fuse box cannot handle 75a then we want to throw that fuse to protect that wire from melting or potentially catching on fire. In the example video I used 6awg wire which is rated for only 55a. If the sum total of all the dc loads coming off the fuse box exceed the rating of this wire then you want to blow the fuse, even tho no 1 item exceeded their individual fuse rating. I hope this makes sense.
The purpose of a fuse is to protect a wire really. Think of this fuse like a main breaker in a house. Say you have 5 items hooked to the dc fuse box and they all have 15a fuses and the sum total of that is 75a. If your main wire coming into the fuse box cannot handle 75a then we want to throw that fuse to protect that wire from melting or potentially catching on fire. In the example video I used 6awg wire which is rated for only 55a. If the sum total of all the dc loads coming off the fuse box exceed the rating of this wire then you want to blow the fuse, even tho no 1 item exceeded their individual fuse rating. I hope this makes sense.
Hey what size of resistor do u use to touch from the power wire to battery when setting up I’m setting up a 2000 watt inverter system?
Sorry I forgot to mention that in the video, its a 25W 30ohm resistor. It would work fine for your 2000w inverter as well. I Just added the exact one I bought to the description box to make it easier for people to find. Thanks for the comment!
Thanks for the information and video was helpful!!
The bleed resistor can be pretty much any size. Heck, a pencil lead will work. I use a 50W light bulb.
The video suggests 4 gauge to better support the full load of the inverter. 1000W at 12.8V would be nearly 80A, and if the battery has a significant drop in voltage, it could be under 11V, which would seriously bump the ampdraw. Upping to #2 or even #1 would be a good idea.
When he was assembling the automotive fuse box, he put a washer UNDER the negative wire, NEVER do this. All wire lugs should always be in direct contact with the bussbar. Washers are a high resistance obstruction, that can cause massive heat.
Hum 🤔, aren't you supposed to have the fuse at the battery between it and the buss bar?
It wouldn’t hurt to have a fuse there too for redundancy, but I don’t think it’s really necessary because every load coming off the bus bar has its own fuse., but you can never really go wrong adding more fuses just in case.
@@enigmascape In your configuration, if you dropped something and it shorted out the positive and negative buss bars. Your system would catch fire. Moving your fuse from between the buss bar and the inverter. To the positive post of the battery would protect the entire system from a short circuit.
After trolling the internet for ages I just happened upon your video, Wow I thought you might be the man to help me?
I am planning to take my sailboat off to sunnier climes later this year but power on a sailboat is always an issue.
I already have 2x80W panels into 1 x 80ah starter battery and 1x 80ah house battery. these batteries I might use for an anchor windlass at a later stage.
I have not seen this displayed anywhere else, in the marine environment, multi solar panels 2x 80W + 2x 200W into 1x130ah Starter battery + 3x130ah house AGM batteries
I want to have the one 130ah starter battery charged by the high output Alternator, but the 4 solar panels into the 3x130ah AGM batteries via 2x30AMP victron charge controllers,
I have very little experience of boat electrics, maybe you can help with a video or even a diagram would help me please? Many thanks.
So you want to remove your starter battery from the solar setup and just connect the solar to the 3 house batteries? I assume this is all 12v?
Currently there are 2x lead acid 80 ah batteries being supplied by 2x 80W solar panels. I want to disconnect the 2 batteries and save them for a later date when I aquire an electric anchor winch.
Then I want to install 3x 130ah batteries, 1 AGM 130ah battery to use as a starter battery, the other 2x130ah batteries i want supplied by the 2x 80Wsolar panels with the 2x200W solar panels giving me a total of 560W solar power through 2x Electron 30amp solar charge controllers and yes the entire system is 12V I also have a 2000W inverter, as I say I am not electrically minded so any help would be greatly appreciated.@@enigmascape
@@petercrane2065 you said you wanted the starter battery charged via the alternator. Do you already have a DC-DC charger now that's handling that with your existing start batts? And, unless you have a good reason for wanting to use AGM batteries for your house batteries, I would highly recommend using LifePO4 batteries instead. AGM is fine for start batteries cuz they generally have a higher cranking amps to start an engine, but with AGM batteries you can only discharge them to 50%, so your 130ah batteries essentially are only 65ah of usable capacity, while a LifePO4 you get the full rated capacity as usable energy. Lastly, having mixed solar panels is tricky, but if you have 2 controllers already then you would connect the 2 80w panels to 1 controller and then to the battery bank, and the 2 200w panels to the other charge controller and then connect that to the same bank.
DC-DC charger? There is a battery charger which takes shore power is that the same thing?
As for installing LifePO4 Batteries,
is this what you mean? LiFePO4 Battery 12V 100Ah Lithium leisure battery, Lithium Iron Phosphate Battery instead of car AGM battery These are about $250 each but it looks like they are made in china, but on the reviews they have a 5star rating, I also think I would need 3 instead of 2, but then I am limited for space space, that is why I was trying for a total of 3 batteries.
سلام میشه از خروجی دیگه استابلایزر برق ACداد به ادابتور تا خروجی DC ازش گرفت تا به کنترول کننده شارژر باتری داد تا این روند در چرخش باشه بنظر شما این عمل امکان پزیر است?
I'm sorry, I'm using translation software and I'm not understanding your question because I don't think it's translating well.
Dang really? A 1 gauge?
You could get by with something as small as a 4 awg if all you were running is the 1000w inverter, but this layout includes a 12v fuse block as well. Always better to over-size wire. I consider wire not only a safety thing, but also future-proofing your investment in it by leaving headroom for upgrades, or unknown variables (like the 12v fuse block). I am upgrading my inverter to a 2000w soon, and when I do I will be using 1/0 from the bus bar to the inverter too.
Annoying uptalk but straight forward tutorial
My thoughts exactly.