I would love to be able to get off the grid, hopefully someday this will happen! We are anxious to see your build! I hear you and understand what your saying and your right, it's good to be able to not rely on energy companies especially with the storms on the horizon!
Congrats . If the lights go down you’ll be the only ones snugly in your lighted world. Being prepared for anything is very smart I’m stoked for you and look forward to watching your future adventures.Fargo386 waiving 👋
fantastic build coming up can't wait to see it i live in the western end of nova scotia about 1/2an hour drive from yarmouth along st Mary's bay so far we have very little snow i see grass every ware...its about 31 degs. the other end of nova scotia cape bretton got dumped 5 feet of snow and a few days later dumped on again ..there is still a few places of back roads that haven't been plowed out yet and had a few places no power..or ran generators but weren't able to get gas to refill the tanks ... but the way your going solar you could get by no problem you are right things are changing
That sounds like a good reason to have a little self reliance. It does not take a huge event to be without power for days. Hurricane Fran hit us years ago and we were without power for 2 weeks.
I'm VARY interested to hear/see how your setup handles/manges your welding projects, (meaning are you able to strike an arc in your shop, WITHOUT dimming the lights in your house)
Very nice. Thanks and looking forward to this series Eric. We converted water heater and kitchen range to gas last year, Increased our gas capacity to 500gal. ended up going with a BLUETTI solar gen split phase system . The only thing it cant run is our well as the starting surge/current is %300 of name plate Amps{around 90Amps} and the electric furnace will drain rapidly but we heat exclusively on wood. so we purchased a "Simple Pump" hand pump for deep well. Get ready folks..
I purchased one just like you did in this video 10,000 W (different vendor). But I had to wait until they came out with the parallel connection. The one I'm getting you can parallel up to six units together to get 60,000 W. if it all works out, I'm gonna be purchasing another one very shortly. Mine should be here, delivered in about a week.
@@FarpointFarms I'm starting out with the 10,000 W. I'm pretty sure I'm going to add another 10,000 W. This should do up to 125 A. My whole house and three outbuildings are only powered with 200 A.
I made a follow up video-- We had other projects come up and were not able to install it-Hurricane Helene hit us hard and were without power for 9.5 days- I really wish that I had taken the time to install it as we really could have used more power.
Time will tell. These units are made by SRNE. A reputable company (by chinese standards). They rebadge items for Calpha, Sungold Power, PowMr, etc... The inrush current of inductive loads is what high frequency inverters have trouble with. It really depends on the well depth, HP rating, and age of your submersible pump.
You'll never be able to go completely off grid for very long with this lightweight, low surge, high frequency inverter. 70 Lbs is not enough mass for a real 10kW inverter charger to supply a sufficient amount of peak power capacity to power all the loads of a typical off grid home. Try at least 140 Lbs. The reason why this Chinese made low cost,short lived inverter is so lightweight is because this Chinese manufacturer removed the heavy duty iron core, copper wound transformer. Without an output transformers , you're going to have nothing but problems with this inverter when trying to start and run high inductance loads.
I might disagree, with the evolution of technology, it is likely for it to be lighter. If you look at the first computers versus what we have now- the difference is staggering.
Oh Please...The secret is to stop living like you did when you on the grid. If you have 3 freezers full of meat you might consider a complete system rather than something like the Calpha "all in one" unit shown in this video. But consider that complete system with a low frequency inverter is so costly you will be into your complete system many thousands of dollars before you even look any batteries. I have both high frequency and low frequency inverters running alongside each other and as great as low frequency inverters CAN be...an "all in one" system make perfect sense for many who live a more modest lifestyle.
This is not a thorough review. When we test an inverter, we'll put it through hundreds of inductive load, start stop cycles. We'll also place the inverter in an environmental chamber for repeated temperature cycling. We'll also use a lab grade LCR meter to determine how far off tolerance the inverter's discreet components are. We'll take thermal measurements to determine the efficiency of the heatsinks and cooling fans. These are just the beginning of the tests that we perform. You haven't performed any of these tests yet you're calling this inverter a big deal.
I checked your channel. You don't exist. If you watched the video, you know that I am in the process of installing this permanently as my primary power source for the homestead.. Check back in july for a "Test".
You're never going to fulfill your off grid dreams with this cheap, Chinese made, Calpha, high frequency toy inverter charger. High frequency inverters like this only offer a poor 200% peak power rating which is not enough for starting and running many household inductive loads and because it doesn't incorporate an iron core, copper wound output transformer, you'll be lucky to get even a couple of years worth of service out of it. Don't take my word for it, Google, "low frequency inverter vs high frequency inverters" to learn more about the faults of these cheap high frequency inverters.
Funny. I heard the same thing when I bought my 60 amp charge controller from Amazon. "It's garbage, it will never last". 4 years later in the elements and it's still working great! I have little doubt this one will suit my needs perfectly.
Charge controllers are a far simpler device that are never subject to high surge currents. So I wish you luck with this high frequency inverter. You're going to need it. @@FarpointFarms
I would love to be able to get off the grid, hopefully someday this will happen!
We are anxious to see your build!
I hear you and understand what your saying and your right, it's good to be able to not rely on energy companies especially with the storms on the horizon!
Baby steps is how we have been doing this. If we tried to do all this at once, it would have been just too much
@@FarpointFarms
Slow and steady gets the job done!
Nice rig! This is going to be very interesting to follow.
I think so too! We are hoping that it will take care of most of our needs
Congrats . If the lights go down you’ll be the only ones snugly in your lighted world. Being prepared for anything is very smart I’m stoked for you and look forward to watching your future adventures.Fargo386 waiving 👋
lets hope the lights stay on for everyone
WOW!!! THAT IS AWESOME!! Great to see you hit this HUGE milestone!
Thanks so much!!
I'm picking up what you are laying down Eric. Thanks!
Rock on!
fantastic build coming up can't wait to see it i live in the western end of nova scotia about 1/2an hour drive from yarmouth along st Mary's bay so far we have very little snow i see grass every ware...its about 31 degs. the other end of nova scotia cape bretton got dumped 5 feet of snow and a few days later dumped on again ..there is still a few places of back roads that haven't been plowed out yet and had a few places no power..or ran generators but weren't able to get gas to refill the tanks ... but the way your going solar you could get by no problem you are right things are changing
That sounds like a good reason to have a little self reliance. It does not take a huge event to be without power for days. Hurricane Fran hit us years ago and we were without power for 2 weeks.
I'm VARY interested to hear/see how your setup handles/manges your welding projects, (meaning are you able to strike an arc in your shop, WITHOUT dimming the lights in your house)
I will have to be brave when I try that one- That is a lot of juice even for a regular system
I'll bet it's not as heavy as the batteries I just installed (LOL). Thank you for sharing...
You might be correct on that one
Very nice. Thanks and looking forward to this series Eric.
We converted water heater and kitchen range to gas last year, Increased our gas capacity to 500gal. ended up going with a BLUETTI solar gen split phase system . The only thing it cant run is our well as the starting surge/current is %300 of name plate Amps{around 90Amps} and the electric furnace will drain rapidly but we heat exclusively on wood. so we purchased a "Simple Pump" hand pump for deep well. Get ready folks..
Sounds like you have a great setup- I wonder if you have a spring you could look at ram pumps
I purchased one just like you did in this video 10,000 W (different vendor). But I had to wait until they came out with the parallel connection. The one I'm getting you can parallel up to six units together to get 60,000 W. if it all works out, I'm gonna be purchasing another one very shortly. Mine should be here, delivered in about a week.
60,000w, I think you should have enough to run any house with ease.
@@FarpointFarms I'm starting out with the 10,000 W. I'm pretty sure I'm going to add another 10,000 W. This should do up to 125 A. My whole house and three outbuildings are only powered with 200 A.
Nice! It will be interesting to see if you get any RFI from the inverter.
With my old setup, I get 1db of noise, I hope it's around the same or maybe less.
I will be looking forward to your solar videos! I have been thinking about this also, just looking at what is affordable.
Weather permitting, we will begin this spring or early summer.
Cool info in your channel, keep up the great work..!!
Thank you, I will try to do that
Nice video. Have you ever considered DIY solar water heating? At least to supplement your existing system. Lots of UT videos on that.
We have but I am not sure if I am brave enough for that. I really love my hot showers.
Have you got the unit up and working yet?
No, I was going to do it and some things came up- Hurricane Helen. I am now trying to do it next summer
4 months later how is your Calpha working?
Love it. We are currently working to hard wire it into a generator transfer switch so we can run more off of it.
@@FarpointFarms Thank you!
@@FarpointFarms Love your name LLAP
Impressive. How it doing now?
I made a follow up video-- We had other projects come up and were not able to install it-Hurricane Helene hit us hard and were without power for 9.5 days- I really wish that I had taken the time to install it as we really could have used more power.
WOW! Every one of us needs a tool like that.
Agreed, we all should have one
Can it handle deepwell water pump?
Yes it can, we are planning on hooking ours to it this summer- It will do 120/240v
Time will tell. These units are made by SRNE. A reputable company
(by chinese standards). They rebadge items for Calpha, Sungold Power, PowMr, etc...
The inrush current of inductive loads is what high frequency inverters have trouble with. It really depends on the well depth, HP rating, and age of your submersible pump.
My pump is a shallow well cistern style. It's 6 years old. 220v
how many units parallel?
5k watts on each side- pv
Our snaky friends will not be happy!
They need to find a new home- I am not a fan of them
That was nice to get will be keeping up with you.
Thanks for coming, I hope once spring hits to get started.
You'll never be able to go completely off grid for very long with this lightweight, low surge, high frequency inverter. 70 Lbs is not enough mass for a real 10kW inverter charger to supply a sufficient amount of peak power capacity to power all the loads of a typical off grid home. Try at least 140 Lbs. The reason why this Chinese made low cost,short lived inverter is so lightweight is because this Chinese manufacturer removed the heavy duty iron core, copper wound transformer. Without an output transformers , you're going to have nothing but problems with this inverter when trying to start and run high inductance loads.
I might disagree, with the evolution of technology, it is likely for it to be lighter. If you look at the first computers versus what we have now- the difference is staggering.
Oh Please...The secret is to stop living like you did when you on the grid. If you have 3 freezers full of meat you might consider a complete system rather than something like the Calpha "all in one" unit shown in this video. But consider that complete system with a low frequency inverter is so costly you will be into your complete system many thousands of dollars before you even look any batteries. I have both high frequency and low frequency inverters running alongside each other and as great as low frequency inverters CAN be...an "all in one" system make perfect sense for many who live a more modest lifestyle.
This is not a thorough review. When we test an inverter, we'll put it through hundreds of inductive load, start stop cycles. We'll also place the inverter in an environmental chamber for repeated temperature cycling. We'll also use a lab grade LCR meter to determine how far off tolerance the inverter's discreet components are. We'll take thermal measurements to determine the efficiency of the heatsinks and cooling fans. These are just the beginning of the tests that we perform. You haven't performed any of these tests yet you're calling this inverter a big deal.
I checked your channel. You don't exist. If you watched the video, you know that I am in the process of installing this permanently as my primary power source for the homestead.. Check back in july for a "Test".
I am unsure how stating the obvious is of any help to your fellow viewers. Your comment IS impressive though. Thanks
You're never going to fulfill your off grid dreams with this cheap, Chinese made, Calpha, high frequency toy inverter charger. High frequency inverters like this only offer a poor 200% peak power rating which is not enough for starting and running many household inductive loads and because it doesn't incorporate an iron core, copper wound output transformer, you'll be lucky to get even a couple of years worth of service out of it. Don't take my word for it, Google, "low frequency inverter vs high frequency inverters" to learn more about the faults of these cheap high frequency inverters.
Funny. I heard the same thing when I bought my 60 amp charge controller from Amazon. "It's garbage, it will never last". 4 years later in the elements and it's still working great! I have little doubt this one will suit my needs perfectly.
Charge controllers are a far simpler device that are never subject to high surge currents. So I wish you luck with this high frequency inverter. You're going to need it. @@FarpointFarms
Charge controllers are a completely different animal than an inverter. @@FarpointFarms
I am not so sure as amny on UA-cam seem do be getting good results from the "all-in-one" system approach. I think is worth a try.