Yes, if its sunny day. On cloudy days, you'll get around 10% to 25%. Ice, leaves, snow covering the panels will get you 0%. You'll have to place more panels to offset the loss.
Todd, thank you for sharing your informative videos. They are so helpful and were integral in our decision making process as we are out on the East Coast and experience many power outages in recent years. Just last month we lost power for 4 days during a 90 degree plus heat wave. Unfortunately GZ’s videos are lacking, to say the least. After doing some research and watching yours and other videos, we recently purchased an open box 1400 Yeti and MPPT battery, a 100W solar panel (suitcase), a 15 ft cable, and the 25A rapid charger. We chose to go with the Yeti for many reasons most importantly because we live in a townhome community and the portable generators are obnoxiously loud and require maintenance. The Yeti appears to be relatively low maintenance in comparison. Our living space is approximately 1500 square feet and having hot water, lighting, internet, cable, refrigerator, etc. during a power outage would be marvelous. Most of the power related experiments with the Yeti are typically for power outages during colder months. Have you tried experimenting using the Yeti for cooling purposes during very hot temperatures and am curious what recommendations you would give under these circumstances? We are considering buying the integration kit so that certain components can be turned on during loss of power. I actually reached out to an electrical contractor who advised they know absolutely nothing about the Yeti - never even heard of it. After sending him the Yeti 1400 information as well as a link to the integration kit tech info, I was told not to expect to run too much on just 1400 Watts - he said there are hair dryers that run on 1400 watts so the Yeti will not be able to do too much, especially running something like a microwave. He didn’t even think I could run a computer equipment. I let him know the Yeti most certainly could handle quite a bit. I will probably send him your video so he could see what your electrician did to optimize your Yeti 1000’s capabilities. He quoted between $1000-$1200 to install the integration kit. He said it is a big job that requires a lot of rewiring and it could take at least 5-6 hours. That seems a bit steep to me. I’m not sure what you paid to have your system installed - a system that looks to be much more detailed than what mine will be. I think I need only one panel. So far the components (Yeti, etc.) costs approx $2150 not including the integration panel kit and possible electrician costs. All said the total could be as much as $3500 once installed. For this amount of money, I’m wondering if we would have been better off installing a more powerful gas generator back up system that would be capable of providing more electrical power back up than the 1400.
I’ll try to cover what I can! As you said, the Yeti is no maintenance and quiet but it can only store a small-ish amount of energy compared to what a gas generator can produce so you need to pick lower draw things to power. That means high draw appliances like an AC, hair drier, electric heating ,etc will quickly empty a battery. I like to think of the Yeti as a reservoir that can buffer demand peaks like running a microwave or when your fridge kicks on but you need to keep it topped off. For solar, on a sunny day expect about 5 hours of useful sun and assume you’ll get 80% of the output for what a panel is rated so a 100w panel will output 80w x 5 hours = 400 watt hours of energy. Since the Yeti 1400 stores 1,400 watt hours it will take ~3 days to charge it with that panel so I’d recommend getting at least 2 more panels to have a hope of recharging in a day. The Yeti is great for running things like a computer, TV, and even higher draw items like a fridge (yours will power one for a bit more than a day) but you need to calculate the watts it draws and multiple it by the time. A microwave may use 1500w but you may only use it for 1 minute which means it only uses a small amount of battery. For keeping cool, I’ve been looking into that and I think the best option is to get a 12v DC fan, a rechargeable fan, or if you already have battery tools get a few fans that can use those batteries - I have 2 ryobi fans and a bunch of batteries and a few smaller UBC rechargeable ones. AC is out of the question unless you have lots of battery storage, like a Powerwall. For the transfer panel, I don’t know exactly what my install was because I did other things but I think it should run closer to $500 to install if you do your homework to label and identify the 4 circuits you want. After that, it’s a pretty simple job so get more quotes. Yes, you can get a generator that can power larger stuff but the big downside others than noise and maintenance is fuel. If gas, you need to keep a lot on hand and keep it rotated regularly. Propane is better because it doesn’t go bad. I opted for a hybrid where I use solar when the sun is shining and cheap, small propane generator when it’s not - both recharge the batteries so I can keep cruising.
Todd, you’ve got me considering this option for my place. I’m having a hard time getting any installers of larger battery systems (e.g. LG Chem) to even return a call-which is frustrating as I have a PV array on the roof that sits unused when the grid goes down. A setup like yours might be just the ticket, since I have the 1000 and some GZ panels. I’ll report back on what I find. Thanks for all your informative content!
Vlad I think you’ll like having the integration kit, mostly because you can power hardwired appliances like water heaters, pumps, and overhead lights you can’t connect with an extension cord.
Way late to watching this video, but just wanted to say thank you for sharing your setup. Also, thanks for continuing to respond to questions. My configuration will be very similar to yours with the exception there will be no Yeti. I have a normal all-in-one inverter and 12 kWh of batteries with 1800 watts of solar. Under normal operating conditions it is used to charge my EVs only, but during an emergency I want to use the two transfer switches to power the house for essential loads. As others have said, having the ability to use a combination of generator and inverter power with two different transfer switches is a real value compared to trying to do a single split-phase inverter for the whole house. Thanks again. I would love to see an update video if there is anything you have changed.
12:30 On the YETI panel, it shows you using 17.7 Amps. However, the output port is rated as "AC inverter (output, pure sine wave): 120VAC 60Hz, 12.5A (1500W, 3000W surge)". Is that safe?
So you have a switch (the Yetti home integration kit) that switches the house circuit power source over to the battery, does anyone make a switch that would disconnect a home’s solar panels from the grid and then allow a home’s solar panels to then charge the Yetti?
Unfortunately, no. That's the biggest bummer with a rooftop array. When the grid goes down, you can't access that power. There are a few inverters that let you pull a bit of power from the roof but it's very rare. Kind of blows my mind.
I still like mine but I'd suggest just buying a Reliance transfer switch because you can get one with 8, 10, 12, etc. circuits. The GZ one is just a Reliance panel with an instruction sheet from them. The only real difference is it has a standard 120v plug on the front but I bet you can get that one a Reliance one too
Todd, thank you for your very informative video. I am in the process of purchasing a Goal Zero Yeti Home Integration kit for use with my BLUETTI AC200MAX. I have a question about which power outlet to use from the AC200MAX to the Goal Zero Yeti. Since the AC200MAX has a NEMA TT-30 outlet, should I use that instead of a regular power outlet or does it matter?
You’d use a standard extension cable from the AC output of the 200MAX but you could also look at any Reliance transfer panels, most use the TT-30 output and they might be cheaper or offer more breakers. Ultimately, the 200MAX only puts out 20A so the TT-30 isn’t really giving you 30A output, it’s the same power as the normal outlets
@@todd.parker Thanks for your reply, Todd. And you know, you're right. The TT-30 outlet isn't any different than the other outlets. I guess it's just there for convenience. Oh, I wanted to give you a quick update. Instead of buying the Goal Zero Yeti Home Integration Kit, I am considering the Connecticut Electric EGS107501G2KIT EmerGen EGS107501G2 Manual Transfer Switch Kit. For only $80 more, you get 10 circuits. Let me know if you have an opinion of this product, but the specs and features look very good. In any event, thanks again for the information.
Excellent video! This might be the time to re task your Yeti 1000 and jump into a Yeti 1500X/3000X/6000X coming in May/June/August. $1900/$3200/$5000.(Speculations from CES) All 2000W continuous 3500W surge. :)
@@todd.parker Maybe. You do have a legitimate setup in a real world scenario. One most of us are interested in. And with your setup, one only needs to set it in place, charge it and let it run. Just about everything we are interested in is already connected to your dual transfer box. :)
BRILLIANT Todd Goal Zero should seriously hire you They do a lousy job addressing your market (I'm doing it too) as they began in trekking world One issue A single triple cord from Yeti to transfer switches PLEASE get another & plug into other port of Yeti It's just safer real easy not that much more) also consider a low power 500 w emergency microwave they are cheap small easily stored look for "dorm microwave" Refrig us critical load heating food non critical no really w aren't cavemen sterilizing laest catch Lots is safe "cold" food. Immersion heater for a cup of water another good trick to get more from these micro generators
Good call on running another cable. I usually only use 400-700 watts max peak since the yeti is so small but if i can see more copper being better. I was hoping to just use my standard microwave but on a slightly lower level. I kept that plug live via the transfer panel.
Hey Todd, We just hooked up a similar system in our house. We are considering leaving the unit active while on a long trip. Theory being, the power will flow through the inverter, and only use battery energy in the event of a black out. Thoughts?
It’s tricky because if you have power station with no reheated battery charger like Ecoflow, you can’t connect it to your electrical panel and plug it into the wall at the same time or it will fry the charger and/or trip a breaker. If it had a DC power brick, that will isolate it and should work
I did and they are the same. The only difference is the GZ panel has a standard 110v plug vs a 30A plug and I wasn’t sure if I I could swap that or use a converter. I hindsight, I would probably recommend putting in a big transfer and use an adapter switch to save some money
@@todd.parker I called Reliant and was told you can use a 30a to 15a plug converter. However, after thinking about this more, it occurred to me there may be an advantage to using more than one manual transfer switch. It has to do with being able to simultaneously use two different supply sources, separate from each other. So as an example connecting more than one lithium generator or connecting an outside generator.
@@larrysiegle5345 right, I think that was a factor for me too. Batteries are getting bigger now so one system could be fine but it’s nice to have flexibility like you said. Otherwise these are pretty stick Reliance panels with a GZ instruction sheet
Great video. But I think it points out why goal zero isn’t the best solution, unless I misunderstood parts. I’m looking for a way to access the power of my solar, which generates 50kWh per day, when the power is out. It seems the yeti can’t power anything 220v and likely the solar generated power won’t just pass through. I wonder whose system can?
If you want to connect your rooftop array and power two phase loads, you're well outside of power station territory and need to look at a Tesla Powerwall. It will be 10-20k to do what you want
Key Question.. CAN INTEGRATION KIT be installed to indoor SUBPANEL,, or must be MAIN SERVICE ENTRANCE/PANEL? Most homes have exterior mounted main panels, while GoalZero states integration kit is not weather rated, and is ‘INDOOR USE ONLY’.
It’s normally mounted next to your main breaker panel inside, just like any sub panel, that’s how we did it. I don’t think think I’ve ever seen a breaker panel outside...
Could I ask why you are using what appears to be a GFI Duplex outlet from your main panel, for feeding power to the Yeti and would that not also dictate a GFI 15/20 amp circuit breaker in the panel? Thanks.
Nice video. Do you have any problems with circuits that have a GFCI? I have heard that there may be issues with GFCI's tripping when a transfer panel is connected to a gererator/solar generator due to the ground wire. I am looking at using one of the GZ integration kit and possibly plugging an inverter in from my EV's 40 kwh battery, or from a Goal Zero.
Thank you for your video, it helps me understand this better. I’m expecting a solar generator called the titan and im trying to figure out a way to hook it up to the house and avoid using extension cords. Basically i want to use solar panels to provide energy to the house when possible and then switch to grid when necessary but im not sure if this is a good idea with a solar generator always on? If you can give me some direction i will really appreciate it. Thank you!
Glad this was helpful. You could try to be “off grid” as much as possible by hooking up transfer panels. I think you’ll find this will take a lot of babysitting but it’s fun to do it to see your energy use
Amazing video and thank you for making . I wish goal zero did a better job of producing videos like this so we all didn’t have to bug you. . Stupid question as a back up can you plug your gen into the transfer switch as a back up back up if the Yeti died?
Thanks, glad it was helpful. I wish GZ did a better job explaining how their stuff works. Anyway, yes. I can either plug either the yeti or generator into the transfer panel by switching 2 plugs
@@Rideborba The transfer panel isn't actually anything Goal Zero specific, it's made by a major company that manufactures these. Typically, these panels have a 30A plug but since the Yetis only have a standard 120v output, they have just swapped the 30A input for a 120v input but it's otherwise a standard unit. So anything that outputs 120v can be plugged into the transfer panel to power it up - Yeti, generator, etc.
Thanks for the video - super helpful. You installed two HIKs -- is that just so you had more control over what you ran during a power outage? You wouldn't actually be able to turn on all the circuits on both HIKs to run all that, unless it was just lights or other small-draw circuits, right? I like the idea of having two and may do that myself, but was just curious about how you powered the house during a real outage.
I bought 2 HIKs so I had some flexibility. I can power each from different power stations or generators if needed. For the most part, I’ve been using one with a splitter to power both panels. My Ecoflow Delta Max and Bluetti AC200P can power everything at once for the most part since there are lights, on demand water heater (100w), fridge, sump pump, microwave, router, etc. so they are low draw except for the microwave. It’s cheaper to get one panel but I like having options. It works great.
How does the integration panel power the circuit without the circuit energizing the panel? Do you have a schematic? I ask because my solar system looks for power in the panel (microinverters) to see whether to turn on the inverters and convert the solar dc power to AC power which will then try and dump the extra power on the grid. If the grid is down would this be an issue? Would I need to turn off the solar system disconnect before energizing the selected circuits?
These are pretty standard manual transfer panels, just with a 110v input rather than a 30amp connector that bigger generators use. Maybe this article will help: www.wikihow.com/Install-a-Transfer-Switch
Thanks for the informative video. What did you do for 110V circuits that have a 20A breaker switch. Our fridge and Microwave are each connected to one. The GZ transfer panel only has 4x15A circuits.
@@todd.parker Thanks. I will ask. But I think I get your point - worst case it trips the breaker switch if the appliances draw more than 20A. I doubt it will, as I know the fridge is only 7.1A and I will probably not connect the MW (which is 13.5A).
Amazing information. Super helpful to see a use case explained. Especially one as well thought out as yours! I was wondering how do you “exercise” the yeti? I hear Goal Zero recommends the yeti be used to charge a cell phone or something similar to keep the battery in optimal condition.
I do try to run it down and recharge it every month or two. The fastest way is to connect a high drain AC device like a space heater. Run it on low (750w) for 39 minutes then recharge to exercise those electrons.
It depends on the conditions but I now have 2x Boulder 100's and 160w of folding panels (360w total) which on a perfectly sunny day realistically will give me about 300w max which the Yeti can handle on the MPPT module. If I needed more power at the same time, I could fire up the generator, plug in my 4x wall chargers (240w total) and plug that into the PWM input and have 600w of input power at once.
@@todd.parker 600W is definitely enough for emergency circuits, and with proper selection, should allow one to ride out an multi-day outage. I wish I knew how to calculate the usage+duration of my furnace fan for a typical winter day. I couldn't find an online calculator that knew how to do that. I assume that I would want to set my thermostat to low+tolerable house temp (60-65F) and then keep it steady in the hope the furnace kicks in only to bring it back to that level and thus minimizing time of hi-speed fan. I guess I have to wait for winter to try that. Overall, I am becoming more confident that a proper mix of solar+generator+careful consumption+adjust behavior to emergency will be the solution.
@@jessyschoss Yeah, it's hard to calculate power consumption for appliances that cycle on an off without using a kill-a-watt or plugging it into a Yeti and seeing the kWh output over a duration. I've had fun getting to know how much power things use, it's surprising sometimes. My kind of setup requires some babysitting compared to a whole house generator but it's kind of fun finessing it.
@@todd.parker Your channel is for people who have fun tweaking and experimenting with things LOL. Whole-house-gen wasn't really an option for me due to where I live.
I am from Europe ... so maybe I am missing something ... but how many power outages do you have ?? It seems like a very expensive setup unless you have constant power outages. Unless of course you can use this setup constantly to limit your usage of the power grid. Is that possible ? Use the power grid to power the rest of your house and the goal zero - solar panels to power the fridge, microwave, lights, ... I was hoping to use the goal zero as an off grid solution to a small cabin or so. Just run things straight of the Yeti like in a camper van.
We get them occasionally, just like to be prepared. This setup would work great for an off grid cabin but I’d make sure you have battery storage for at least 3-5 days for when the weather is bad or have a small generator like I do.
Hey bro, I live in a mobile home, and my company gives me the nights for free, do you think that if I buy the yeti 3000 it will be useful for me to use from 7:00 am to 9:00 pm. I would only use it for my fridge and my lights and a security camera system
Todd, as a new Goal Zero Yeti 3000X user, absolutely love your videos and have a question. Am going to use HIK with 3000X at cottage on a island where we loose electric frequently, generally 2-4 hours at a time. My thought was to constantly charge 3000X with grid power, and leave a couple HIK circuits (refrig, Wi-Fi,security) on full time so when grid power goes out, these circuits would not be interrupted. Additionally, when I leave for a couple months at a time, the same would hold true, while also getting benefit of the above items getting pure sine wave power. Do you have any thoughts or advice on this planned setup and use? Thanks again.
That seems like a good idea. The only question I have is how much, if any, all that cycling would do to the batteries. In theory it shouldn’t be too much. Glad you like the videos!
I have watched all of your videos and definitely decided on the Yeti.This video is my favorite, since I think it's so organized and utilizes the full effectiveness of what the Yeti can do during a power outage, without having wires laying around everywhere. I did as much research as possible and all of your videos were by far the most helpful. Tomorrow I will order either the 1000 or the 1400, just not sure which one. The phone rep I spoke to on Friday said she could sell me the 1000 for $799 (that is not advertised on their website). But I will ask her how much the 1400 will go for and if that is on sale also? Thank you very much for sharing your work!
If you go to their website you can search for Open Box. Or ask them on the phone. They can sell Open Box Yeti 1400s or 3000s for a lot less. Warranty is about half as long, I think. I was going to get an Open Box 1400 and then opted for the Open Box 3000 instead.
@@TheChadWork2001 Thanks! Yesterday I bought the $799 deal on a new 1000. I have two homes in California, vacation home in Lake Tahoe and already getting warnings from utility company of power outages this year to help prevent fires. So I am in a race to get that 1000 up there and a panel kit installed. My sewer line needs electricity to pump up hill to main line. If it works great I might open box a 1400 later this year so each home will be set. For now the 1000 will be traveling with me between both homes. I bought 1 100w panel for each home and two light 8 lbs panels to travel to and from homes. I think I bought all the right connections so far for them.
@@mariomarez2223 You can never have too many Yeti generator systems. I wish you well in your plans. I bought one of these portable 160 Watt solar panels from 4thDSolar for my Yeti 3000: 4thdsolar.com/collections/portables/products/4thd-solar-with-merlin-grid-xp160-portable-160-watt-solar-panel
Thanks for the video! Question. Do you leave the Yeti plugged in to charge to keep it topped off? Or do you charge it to 100 and check it every once and a while?
I usually just leave it plugged in. It probably slightly better to only charge it when needed and to keep it a bit below 100% for longevity but that too much work
@@fresnel8279 The Yeti 1400 I have actually states the keeping it below 100% is not applicable to the Yeti as they are programed for longevity and actually often when I keep mine plugged in to AC year round when not in use during summers it'll discharge itself down to say 93% and have seen as low as 91. So that's probably that built in programing at work. And Goal Zero recommends you keep it plugged in to AC year round but if not to recharge every 3 to 6 months to full capacity. But it also is programed to hold it's charge for decent amounts of time. Check out their manuals on line via google them or go to Goal Zero dot com webpage to search for that information. The more you are informed yourself the better you understand. Hope this helps. I've had my 1400 since 2018. It keeps my Tiny Dometic freezer freezing four half gallon jugs of 3/4 full ice frozen so I start with six from home where two go into my heavy duty cooler and I swap out half frozen jugs daily with two from the freeer so no ice runs and even an occasional icecube treat or ice cream treat is possible if it's a sunny period. It does fail or slip when there is no sun due to cloudy over cast weather or worse for us here in the NW Rockies heart of the PINE Forests wildfire season haze definitely kills the sun keeping up with charging the goal zero. Otherwise it's wonderful and reliable. You can charge it via the car when traveling. Not advised otherwise because it will drain your vehicle battery if left unchecked and not running. Read up on these things really if you are serciously interested. Hubby who is into Ham Radio insists there are better lithium solar batteries out there but I'm the one buying these as he does not camp and after 49 years he's fine with my solo tent camping and I'm fine with it. Been camping on my own for well over 55 years now. You would be surprised how many ladies you find across all age groups who solo camp even yes in tents or mini vans. There are groups you can join. I'm not a joiner and live in too remote an area of the country so not a lot of op's for that anyway up here. Meantime hubby is very supportive and helped when I needed to update my two 50 watt flexible panel book from the deep cell batter MC4 set up to parrallels for the Yeti. I was afraid it wouldn't work out but we added a 40 foot extention cord system to the battery can stay in the shade at all time along with the dometic freezer and we added a 30 foot extention from Goal Zero to use the portable Allspower solar panels too at the very same time. I called Goal Zero to insure that was safe and it was within the limits. The original two 50's were not they had to be rewired together not in chain to be safe and not damage the Yeti. So he helped do that and wired the anderson plug that matched the Goal Zero's configuration. Anderson plugs have several different configurations but most can be pulled apart and switched about to mate up with the ports you need to mate too. Hope this all helps you and others too. Stay safe everyone.
@@todd.parker You might consider using smart plugs. I use TP-Link plugs and schedule my Yeti's to turn on once a week for a few hours to top off the battery.
Thanks for the extremely informative video(s) Todd! Another Q: one of the circuits I will really need is a 20 amp circuit (not sure of Voltage). Is this really limited to only 15 amp circuits? If so, I am wondering if that is because of a limitation of the Yeti (I have a 3000) - or they just have the one kit to offer. (I realize that it really is a RELIANCE 4 switch transfer panel - and maybe I could just get a 6 switch Reliance transfer panel that has 2/20 amp and 4/amp switches?) Thank you for your knowledgeable insight! 👍
Thanks. If it’s 20a at 110v 2,200w) then that would be more than the 1,500w the yeti can put out continously. I think you can use other transfer panels but the key is one that works with the the Yetis 110v output. I found it hard to find one wires with a single 110v instead of a 39 amp plug
Thank you for the video - very informative and helpful. Can the Yeti simultaneously charge (Via solar panels), while provide energy to your load (Via the inverter)?
I have a Yeti 1400 and it definitely charges via solar panels and can be used to charge my dometic 27 Qt freezer while camping. It's one of my favorite uses and why I bought it. Now intergrating it to use at home for power outages. But I bought one of these intergration panels from GZ plus it's 4 deep cell battery kit to go with it. The Yeti 1400 keeps the deep cells charged but during power outages I have a lot more stored power to run my LP Furnace Fan for days and attempting to run our Well pump and sump pumps too. Looks like we can but unlike Tom's Electrcian who refused to work out how to do the 220 circuits I've got this information from someone who has "It can be wired for 220v but you will need to replace the connector with a P6 30 amp" So am working on figuring out how to do that. Though we will use a liscensed electrcian for basic installation and legal purposes BEFORE we call him WE intend to KNOW all we can and how to do it ourselves because not all journeymen are trustworthy. Most electrcians are but we lived in a state where we had some lemons just saying. So hope this answers your question. Note when you are basically charging the Yeti by sun and or AC or in Tom's case AC via a gas generator you are also in our case that is having the Yeti charge the deep cell battery units. We bought the four battery pack. They sell two's also. I was wondering about adding on this next year more deep cells and upgrading to a Yeti 3000X also. However now that I see Tom installed two for just one battery that has me thinking maybe I should investigate buying a second box todate they run 249. And splitting my Deep Cells into two sets. Not sure if that's possible without two yeti's or not. And you can also charge the Yeti with both AC and Sun at the same time. I have an adaptor that allows me to charge with two solar panels at one time. I plug in a 100 watt homemade panel I made for a different earlier battery and works great with Yeti and also a 60 W Allspower or 120 similar folding portable panel. Tom here has the BIG boys but I bought my Origianls for camping and use on an outdoor covered 24 foot patio that has no AC to it to run fans and lights. Summer use only of course. So this should answer your question but also provide some little extra information and jump start creative juices for personal and custom applications.
@@lasinmt106 I have a Reliance Controls 10 circuit 30 amp panel hooked up to my Yeti 3000x but am only running 110 volt circuits. Yeti only puts out 110 VAC. You can’t operate 220 volt circuits. Buy a 220 volt gas generator.
@@glleon80517 Thanks George for your input and insight. For now I'm shelving the idea about connecting the 220V Well Circuit. However I will continue to do more searching on the subject. Of course as mentioned someone did write and tell me how it can be supposedly done as previously mentioned. We have two gas generators. I looked carefully into LP whole house generators which really are appealing price wise and capability wise both. UNTIL you get into the installation and look at the fine details of operation not counting the installation itself where they need to be set a ways away from house but the amount of propane they consume to operate. I clearly understand my priorities here. Number 1 to run fan on LP furnace. A fan is not that big a draw and it is definitly wired 110. And keeping our home from freezing in winter is the biggest goal. (Due to health issues and combined with the new well system it would be great to include it too. About 5 years ago we were without a well for a bit over a week when well house was damaged. About a year later we had our own well dug & they installed a totally newer system with no pressure tank involed. I knew they wired to in house circuit box and made the incorrect assumption that it was therefore 110. Turns out ti is 220.I'm an optimist and look at daily life as challenges that's my job to work out. Head on or side ways or what ever it takes. So as to our gas generators great in summer we have on occasions run our freezers and fridge in summer on them but the way this home is built it's near impossible in winter with extention cords etc. There are three stories plus a 12 foot basement and nearly attached garage. Basement, main floor and garage all contain feezers and fridges. Living in Extreme NW MT smack in the heart of the Rockies we have actually had little power outages or major ones. My heart is breaking for those people in Texas right now. Years ago we went thru a Ma Nature disaster in IA of similar magnitude but in many ways not as severe and not in winter. Meantime we are not so interested in keeping lights on and no AC as less than 25% of people who live in this area would even consider let alone have such luxury because it's mainly not needed. One huge exception is Wildfire season and it's smoke pollution that rolls in & sets in due to mountain inversions.) Bottom line I've got all the materials now from GZ to install the 4 circuit system. Plan is to probably dedicate the GZ 1400 to that and find a competitors Lithium battery these days that will do better job keeping my Dometic 27 quart freezer operating even when battery dips below 70% which the GZ has a compatiblity problem with. The competion has developed technology around this problem. YEAH. Also having another lithium power horse battery as a back up to the GZ 1400 is a good idea too. I'm not sure the GZ's newer X upgrades don't address this problem but it's not clear.(By the way my flexible 50W panels I purchased years ago that went into my designed 1000Denier Cordura book case were by Reliance I believe. They actually told me not to buy two 50's but to go with 100 or two 100's. There was some concerns about laminate separation. I figured since I was making them into a book case and they would not be exposed to weather daily this is something that has never happened and they are working fantastic to this day. Hubby did help me rewire them to 100W parallel system or I couldn't have added on as an option to run my folding backpack Allspower 60W panels too at the same time giving me 160W input at the same time. I now have added another folding 120W but am not as fond of it as the original Allspower which is much lighter and smaller sized by weight and foot print closed and opened. So also back up most of my Powerbanks when camping with solar 18W and 25W folding solar panels which are down right handy and can charge two items at the same time.) Stay safe and thank you for your input.
I have been researching Goal Zero products for the past week or so, and you have the most informative videos out of just about anyone I have seen, so thank you for that. I am curious as to what you think about the Yeti Tank Expansion Batteries?? Do you think they are a good investment or maybe even a good alternative to solar? Or what about both solar and a couple tanks? Is that even a possibility? I apologize for so many questions, but you seem like the guy to go to!
Thanks for the kind words. My major issue with the Link/Tank combo is it uses lead acid batteries that are heavy, can’t cycle deeply, and wear out faster than lithium. The required Link module also takes up the slot I use for the MPPT module for more efficient solar charging. If you need lots of relatively cheap storage, the tank might be ok but I’d recommend getting a larger Yeti like the 3000 if you need more capacity because that uses better batteries, is still portable, and has the MPPT module built-in. As far as you solar Q, you still need some way to recharge these batteries so I’d recommend having a few options for cases where you lose power for more than a day. I have a few 100w panels and a small propane generator that can charge the Yeti but choose what you need based on goals and usage
@@todd.parker Thank you for your response! The fact that the tanks use lead acid batteries was my primary concern, but supposedly Goal Zero has some expandable lithium tanks in the works, so I guess we'll see. I am still quite new to the entire area of off-grid power, so I am doing constant research to better understand everything. I have looked into the Yeti 3000, but the only thing that concerns me is that while it has a 3000 watt surge, it only runs 1500 continuous, and I may need more than that at times. I plan on building a tiny home on wheels and traveling around most of the time, and if I can go a few days here and there without stopping off at an RV park that would be great. I'm going to need a setup that would constantly power an apartment style fridge, amongst a couple other appliances, and a 10,000 - 12,000 btu mini split running on 220V and 10 amps exceeding possibly 1,100 watts. I plan on getting as much solar as the Yeti can take in, so in the case of the 3000, I guess that would be up to 4 of the Boulder 200 Solar Panel Briefcases. Does any of this sound doable? What would you suggest? By the way, I am trying to remain as quiet as possible, so no "loud" generators.
Check out Will Prouse’s channel. He has a ton of good info. You might want to consider buying a few Battleborn lithium batteries and either assembling a system or using one of the all in one charger/inverter units he’s been reviewing if you need more power. ua-cam.com/video/ikDLxnf1ePQ/v-deo.html
@@DrSamBeckett - I've a total of 1,050 watts of solar panels attached to my Y3000. The first 550w (2x200w + 1x150) connected to the PWM charger and the other 500 (2x150w + 1x200w) is connected to the MPPT. I discovered that at best, I'm only able to extract 65% from either charge controllers - which puts my charging (at peak sun) just a tad bit under GZ's recommended aggregated charge rates. Your bigger challenge, I think, is finding the most energy efficient portable 110v fridge + microwave for your tiny home so you don't end up discharging the Y3000 faster than you can top it off. G'luck!
Awesome video, thanks! How long does the Yeti 1000 last powering your fridge without having to switch to the generator? I noticed on another site that the installer thought the 1000 was not enough for a decent-sized refrigerator.
I also have Yeti 1000, and my Fridge rate 6.5 amp at 120 volts. AC about 17-18cu ft. I tested it run about 10-13 hours, noted 10 hours was when defrost on which using heating to melt ice or use more power and usually defrost is cycle one time per 24 day.
I looked into it and personally it doesn’t make sense to remove the mppt module for this and the lead acid batteries are pretty bad compared to lithium
@@todd.parker i DO wonder why the expansion idea (which is a really good one) does not include the possibility of adding extra LITHIUM batteries instead of Lead Acid.
C.C. 95 yeah, I know they’re working on it and I thick it’s tricky to keep all the cells balanced. Guessing the new version of the larger yetis will be out soon to match the X line they’ve been rolling out.
@@todd.parker ugh! Will I have extreme buyer’s remorse having bought the 3000 last year?! LOL. We shall see soon enough if this new line of “X” models pump up the volume on new features!
C.C. 95 Who knows when these will come out and what features they will have so enjoy your 3000. This market has really heated up feature-wise so I’m guessing they are doing a lot of re-engineering to stay competitive. I do hope they bake in MPPT, support multiple expansion modules, and way increase the charger speed at a minimum. Oh, and have proper lithium expansion batteries.
Gabriel Varona I believe that it’s 720 watts total - 360 watts in the PWM (built in inputs) and another 360 watts on the MPPT module if you’ve added that. Within each, you can use any combo of ports, but 360 is the max for the sum.
@@todd.parker That is correct. Both of my 400 watt arrays are putting out almost 300 watts per side right now in the winter. The highest input I've seen on my 3000 so far is 591 watts. In summer I should see around 650 Watts going in per hour. I love how I can see all of the statistics on my phone at my cabin that is 2 1/2 hours away from my house. It powers my ring.com camera and my AT&t hotspot, both combined pull less than 20 watts per hour so I have several days of backup power. Even on cloudy days my array puts about 80 watts into the yeti during daylight hours. I've never seen my yeti drop below 90% except when I spend a few days there. Next time I'm up there I will record a video of my setup and share it with you! Thank you for these videos.
@@mooniesbarbecue7733 That sounds like a great setup. You have the right idea to have a lot of panels so you are still pulling some power, even on cloudy days. Using a Ring camera pointed at the Yeti to see the stats remotely is a genius idea!
@@todd.parker actually the ring camera is pointed at the driveway so I can see if someone is snooping on my property. I'm talking about the yeti Wi-Fi app on my phone. The yeti is connected to my hotspot and I can see real-time data. Have you connected yours to your Wi-Fi and downloaded the app?
Moonies Barbecue I see. Turns out that’s only on the 1400 and 3000 models. The 1000 has the same front end (chargers/inverter) but I guess the Wi-Fi is reserved for the larger models only. Boo.
Hello Todd! Great Video! There is no info on this system and when you call Goal Zero there are very vague about the system. Can you tell me how this stops power from feeding back into the grid?
It’s a pretty standard transfer panel that everyone uses to connect generators to their panels. I can’t explain how they work re: the grid but they don’t back feed and are very safe.
Basically you keep the switched turned off when not in use. So no feedback when turned off. Also you are only feeding into the circuit lines not going back to the grid itself via the main panel box. As in your standard electric panel should never feed power back to the grid. Now if you are talking about solar power systems that you set your home wired into that may be a total different arrangement and probably takes place outside the box itself as in the power lines that actually feed your electric box to begin with via power company. One of the reasons one needs to use surge protectors. We bought a whole house surge protection system when we moved here due to many homes including the one we bought having a history of power surges that were destroying freezers and other applliances. Previous home owners had spent big money repairing both freezers and fridges due to this and since we installed the whole house protection not once. However recently one did catch our newer landline phone system and a neighbors septic pump system also was effected. Not sure if they had protection or not. Meantime we recommend it if you live in an area that is prone to surges and outages. (Before we did this we ran through 3 computer modems one after the other within a year due to this problem but of course we do not have any outside solar or wind power off grid set ups at that time and still do not. This is a back up system as our power that rarely goes out up here in NW MT did just a few weeks ago. We were back on in 11 hours but neighbors were 3-5 days without during January WINTERS...OMGosh. We are fine iwth no lights as have plenty of USB lights via Power banks to take care of that. What we do need here is back up for Well as we have a new system that will or could burn out if we attempted to run it as in flushing toilets or two when powers out and also run the fan to an LP furnace to keep house from freezing. Otherwise we can manage basically. We may attach a garage door and our phone line to avoid that issue again in future. But have tablets and a simple cell phone for emergency use if our computers are down otherwise. We are not attempting to run our fridges or freezers or water heaters. And definitely not on a wee sngle Goal Zero Yeti 1400 W Battery. That's why the back ups and if you need to have back up for 2 days to a week or more that's whey the investment in the four deep cells Goal Zero sells too. Anyway you are not feeding power into the main power lines period with this or a deep cell back up system. You are switching on these batteries to feed into the circuits prewired in your home to run specific applliances or what's on those lines. For us we will put a on off switch by the way to items we do not want to run if on those lines such as our water softener or water heaters. We do not want them to run while the goal zero runs the sump pump which is important to the running of the furnace as much as we need the fan. The fan will not take a lot of power to run and the sump pump runs several times a day for short periods so no problem with that. And so if say you have an item like our water heaters and our water softener that do not have on off switches on them we can use a go between heavy duty plug adapter that does to turn off to avoid draining the goal zero system way too fast when we need it for the prime purpose to run furance and well. Do not expect this system even with the four addiional batteries to operate the entire house as if there was no failure during an outage. That's unrealistic and would be looking at a full LP generator back up system with it's own LP tank etc. if that's our goal. And we have so few outages up here we do not feel that need. We also live in mountains were we rarely need AC so do not have it in our home as most around here do not. We also do not have a lot of sunshine year round this is not a solar productive setting and low degree unit days at that. So basically we won't be setting up to recharge via sun unless it's a warm weather outage and the deep cells will keep thigns going while I carry the Yeti upstairs to charge via solar panels. And then return to recharge the deep cells or add to them. I could run through an open basement window. Mind you our basement has 9 to 12 foot deep floor to ceiling depth and below the three windows it is cement that is extremely thick and difficult to drill into let alone through. After watching people struggle with installing the LP line to new furnace I finally suggested they go through the above ground level where it is not the thick cement and enter that way and sure enough they finally succeeded. Yes I'm a female in her 70's but even experts seem to fail logic lateral thinking sometimes. Anyway stay safe and educate yourselves. Read manuals of all products you may be investigating most are listed on line or thorugh their sellers web pages. And yes Goal Zero could and SHOULD DO BETTER at presentations of how to install these units. We tend to educate ourselves so we can assist the electrcian in this case and or have all materials on hand in advance of turning to one and having to order due to our remote and rural area where it's 100 miles to nearest large town Kalispell MT so a 200 mile round trip is not always helpful. Having all things pulled together in advance means a win win for everyone.
You can have roughly 320 watts of input for the built-in PWM ports total and double that if you have the MPPT module installed. Since you’d be lucky to get 70% of the output of a panel, even on a sunny day, you could attach four 100w panels, eight if you have the MPPT
I discovered my new fridge, when unplugged and re energized, regardless of Interior dial turned to off, the fridge pulls 600 watts until the compressor turns on again. The automatic defrost timer cant be avoided. 600 watts is alot of power.
Amazing! I just bought the yeti 6000x and one 200 watts nomand solar panel and the next step is to have the home integration kit installed 🤞 I plan to use the yeti for off grid camping but I am scared to bring it because it’s kinda expensive if somebody tried to steal it. Any suggestions? And I am not going to tie it down a tree haha. Excellent video!
Yep, I periodically flip things over to run off the yeti and it works great. The 1000 is pretty small so it can run my fridge for half a day or so, less if I’m using the other circuits but it works great and I can even take hot showers. If I had the money, I’d get a bigger yeti but can use solar and my generator to add run time indefinitely
Todd Parker nice! I don’t know if you know about the Yeti fast charger. You can get two of them and charge up your 1000 really fast. I have a 3000 and I fully charged in in 5 hours after running a test that drain it. Plus you should think about getting a small portable generator. I used my Ryobi small generator to charge up my Yeti and it only has a 1.2 gallon tank. Less gas to use then a home generator. So if your storing gas, it should last you a long time.
iiinsaiii cool, sounds like we have similar setups. I made my own fast charger by strapping 4 wall chargers together (videos on that) and it filled my yeti from 35% yesterday in 3 hours. For the 3000 your setup is perfect. I like to use my yeti as a buffer for my ryobi propane generator and solar panels so I can use the least amount of fuel, sounds like you do the same. It’s slick.
@@anonymous_friend I get the concern but I don't think it's that linear and all comes down to the C rate. Charging with 4 chargers is about 250 watts which means we're charging this 1kw battery at a 0.25 C rate which is pretty conservative. Yes, the faster you charge and discharge you battery, it causes faster degradation but I think at this level, it's not that big a deal. I prefer to only fast charge in cases where I need to and will unplug a charger or two if I'm not in a hurry. According to this article a .25C rate isn't even in rapid charging (.5-.5C) territory let alone fast charging (1C) or ultra fast (1-10C) - batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/ultra_fast_chargers
You're expecting way too much from your 1000 yeti. You'll need 3 to 4 times the capacity. I used Jackery 1500 on my similar sized refrigerator. It lasted about 6 hours. It is a energy hog. 325 watts when compressor is running. 450 watts when defroster comes on.
For sure. The plan was to use the Yeti as a buffer so I could run my generator a few times a day so it wouldn’t need to run continuously. It would cycle on and charge the Yeti and I’d cruise for a while. The HIKs give me future flexibility. I have a AC500 and 6kw of batteries hooked up to them now and the Yeti is in retirement
Yep! I have that on a circuit that I can power from the Yeti. I was hoping to do my heat as well since it’s also a small on demand style unit but the air handlers are 220v
Out of experience, the best money spent for hot water is in a solar hot water system! 5 yrs ago I bought a small single panel with a 80gl storage tank system for $600 installed. I connected a small on demand water heater on the inlet pipe that enters the house(bath room, kitchen, laundry) that can be turned on with the flip of a CFI waterproof on/off switch I located 2ft to the left of the shower head.
Have you ran all 8 switches at once? My understanding is that these Goal Zero generators can only support 4 at one time (which is what you showed). So do you plan on just flipping switches on/off as needed during an outage, just never running all 8 at one time off the Yeti?
Yep, I’ve run all 8 at once and it’s no problem. As long as you don’t exceed 1,500 continuous you can connect as many circuits as you want. Obviously, the run time is highly dependent on load so I try to keep the load light. I can also hook up one or both panels to my propane generator if needed.
@@antricemccarroll2958 I wish I had a bigger unit like the 1400 or 3000 but I'd wait before spending that much money right now. The bigger Yeti lithiums are long overdue for an upgrade to the "x" series like they've done for the smaller units. Supposed to have integrated MPPT, more expansion ports, etc.
I love your yeti setup but I hate your plumber… Also dude, when you flip your transfer switches you don’t need to flip it to the off position and “wait a second”, the power sources are completely separated from each other. Just flip them
@@todd.parkerI recently checked Tesla solar for my home and that recommended 3 Tesla walls, that is 22.5 KWhr/2100 AmpHr batteries. Home integration works well with that type of capacity. 280 amp he is too small for a SFH IMHO but if it works for you that great.
@@mantan_rtw my setup is to run the bare minimums during a power outage so it’s far from an off grid setup. My my solar and propane generator can run the basics like a fridge and some lights for extended times. A power wall is a much bigger system for sure!
@@todd.parker seems your setup doesn't need electricity for heating? I didn't see any furnace-related circuit. I have forced-air with CNG heating. I just learned how much power is just using the furnace fan. 700WH when in top speed. That was a big surprise. My power deficit will be substantial if I need to deal with an outage during a cold winter...any suggestions on how to deal with that? I have a Yeti 3000X, so have a deeper "reserve power", but this fan consumption will eventually erode that reserve quickly...
@@jessyschoss Heating is difficult with smaller batteries. I also have natural gas for heating and my dual central air handlers require 220v circuits so I couldn't add them to this transfer panel setup. I have an on demand water heater and that barely uses more than 50w so I can have hot water but for heat, I have 2 gas fireplaces on the first floor and plan on using that to keep us warm if we lose power during an outage. I also have a buddy heater but that would just be used to heat an area that is in danger of freezing and I'd need to babysit it. Gas fireplaces are a nice way to stay toasty so that might be worth looking into? If you ran your fan was running at it's lowest speed, does that lower power consumption enough to make a difference?
*The solar **Generater.Systems** E300 is a great product . It does everything well. Great job, Jackery.*
Yes, if its sunny day.
On cloudy days, you'll get around 10% to 25%.
Ice, leaves, snow covering the panels will get you 0%.
You'll have to place more panels to offset the loss.
Todd, thank you for sharing your informative videos. They are so helpful and were integral in our decision making process as we are out on the East Coast and experience many power outages in recent years. Just last month we lost power for 4 days during a 90 degree plus heat wave. Unfortunately GZ’s videos are lacking, to say the least. After doing some research and watching yours and other videos, we recently purchased an open box 1400 Yeti and MPPT battery, a 100W solar panel (suitcase), a 15 ft cable, and the 25A rapid charger. We chose to go with the Yeti for many reasons most importantly because we live in a townhome community and the portable generators are obnoxiously loud and require maintenance. The Yeti appears to be relatively low maintenance in comparison. Our living space is approximately 1500 square feet and having hot water, lighting, internet, cable, refrigerator, etc. during a power outage would be marvelous. Most of the power related experiments with the Yeti are typically for power outages during colder months. Have you tried experimenting using the Yeti for cooling purposes during very hot temperatures and am curious what recommendations you would give under these circumstances? We are considering buying the integration kit so that certain components can be turned on during loss of power. I actually reached out to an electrical contractor who advised they know absolutely nothing about the Yeti - never even heard of it. After sending him the Yeti 1400
information as well as a link to the integration kit tech info, I was told not to expect to run too much on just 1400 Watts - he said there are hair dryers that run on 1400 watts so the Yeti will not be able to do too much, especially running something like a microwave. He didn’t even think I could run a computer equipment. I let him know the Yeti most certainly could handle quite a bit. I will probably send him your video so he could see what your electrician did to optimize your Yeti 1000’s capabilities. He quoted between $1000-$1200 to install the integration kit. He said it is a big job that requires a lot of rewiring and it could take at least 5-6 hours. That seems a bit steep to me. I’m not sure what you paid to have your system installed - a system that looks to be much more detailed than what mine will be. I think I need only one panel. So far the components (Yeti, etc.) costs approx $2150 not including the integration panel kit and possible electrician costs. All said the total could be as much as $3500 once installed. For this amount of money, I’m wondering if we would have been better off installing a more powerful gas generator back up system that would be capable of providing more electrical power back up than the 1400.
I’ll try to cover what I can! As you said, the Yeti is no maintenance and quiet but it can only store a small-ish amount of energy compared to what a gas generator can produce so you need to pick lower draw things to power. That means high draw appliances like an AC, hair drier, electric heating ,etc will quickly empty a battery. I like to think of the Yeti as a reservoir that can buffer demand peaks like running a microwave or when your fridge kicks on but you need to keep it topped off. For solar, on a sunny day expect about 5 hours of useful sun and assume you’ll get 80% of the output for what a panel is rated so a 100w panel will output 80w x 5 hours = 400 watt hours of energy. Since the Yeti 1400 stores 1,400 watt hours it will take ~3 days to charge it with that panel so I’d recommend getting at least 2 more panels to have a hope of recharging in a day. The Yeti is great for running things like a computer, TV, and even higher draw items like a fridge (yours will power one for a bit more than a day) but you need to calculate the watts it draws and multiple it by the time. A microwave may use 1500w but you may only use it for 1 minute which means it only uses a small amount of battery. For keeping cool, I’ve been looking into that and I think the best option is to get a 12v DC fan, a rechargeable fan, or if you already have battery tools get a few fans that can use those batteries - I have 2 ryobi fans and a bunch of batteries and a few smaller UBC rechargeable ones. AC is out of the question unless you have lots of battery storage, like a Powerwall. For the transfer panel, I don’t know exactly what my install was because I did other things but I think it should run closer to $500 to install if you do your homework to label and identify the 4 circuits you want. After that, it’s a pretty simple job so get more quotes. Yes, you can get a generator that can power larger stuff but the big downside others than noise and maintenance is fuel. If gas, you need to keep a lot on hand and keep it rotated regularly. Propane is better because it doesn’t go bad. I opted for a hybrid where I use solar when the sun is shining and cheap, small propane generator when it’s not - both recharge the batteries so I can keep cruising.
Todd, you’ve got me considering this option for my place. I’m having a hard time getting any installers of larger battery systems (e.g. LG Chem) to even return a call-which is frustrating as I have a PV array on the roof that sits unused when the grid goes down. A setup like yours might be just the ticket, since I have the 1000 and some GZ panels. I’ll report back on what I find. Thanks for all your informative content!
Vlad I think you’ll like having the integration kit, mostly because you can power hardwired appliances like water heaters, pumps, and overhead lights you can’t connect with an extension cord.
Way late to watching this video, but just wanted to say thank you for sharing your setup. Also, thanks for continuing to respond to questions. My configuration will be very similar to yours with the exception there will be no Yeti. I have a normal all-in-one inverter and 12 kWh of batteries with 1800 watts of solar. Under normal operating conditions it is used to charge my EVs only, but during an emergency I want to use the two transfer switches to power the house for essential loads.
As others have said, having the ability to use a combination of generator and inverter power with two different transfer switches is a real value compared to trying to do a single split-phase inverter for the whole house.
Thanks again. I would love to see an update video if there is anything you have changed.
Sounds like a cool setup. Mine hasn’t changed much, having two panels is really nice. I modified my setup to run MC4 cables in from an 800w array
I'm so envy....it looks super good having the yeti back up
It’s really nice for peace of mind
Now that's a setup! Great video. Thanks for showing me how it's done right!
Glad you liked it!
12:30 On the YETI panel, it shows you using 17.7 Amps. However, the output port is rated as "AC inverter (output, pure sine wave): 120VAC 60Hz, 12.5A (1500W, 3000W surge)". Is that safe?
Great vid-torial! Thank you.
Thank you. I hadn't seen any real world examples of how to put it all together
Thanks for the info. Nice kitchen.
Ha, thanks!
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So you have a switch (the Yetti home integration kit) that switches the house circuit power source over to the battery, does anyone make a switch that would disconnect a home’s solar panels from the grid and then allow a home’s solar panels to then charge the Yetti?
Unfortunately, no. That's the biggest bummer with a rooftop array. When the grid goes down, you can't access that power. There are a few inverters that let you pull a bit of power from the roof but it's very rare. Kind of blows my mind.
Thanks for this video! I'm considering a Goal Zero integration. Would you recommend it after four years of use?
I still like mine but I'd suggest just buying a Reliance transfer switch because you can get one with 8, 10, 12, etc. circuits. The GZ one is just a Reliance panel with an instruction sheet from them. The only real difference is it has a standard 120v plug on the front but I bet you can get that one a Reliance one too
Fantastic!
Todd, thank you for your very informative video. I am in the process of purchasing a Goal Zero Yeti Home Integration kit for use with my BLUETTI AC200MAX. I have a question about which power outlet to use from the AC200MAX to the Goal Zero Yeti. Since the AC200MAX has a NEMA TT-30 outlet, should I use that instead of a regular power outlet or does it matter?
You’d use a standard extension cable from the AC output of the 200MAX but you could also look at any Reliance transfer panels, most use the TT-30 output and they might be cheaper or offer more breakers. Ultimately, the 200MAX only puts out 20A so the TT-30 isn’t really giving you 30A output, it’s the same power as the normal outlets
@@todd.parker Thanks for your reply, Todd. And you know, you're right. The TT-30 outlet isn't any different than the other outlets. I guess it's just there for convenience. Oh, I wanted to give you a quick update. Instead of buying the Goal Zero Yeti Home Integration Kit, I am considering the Connecticut Electric EGS107501G2KIT EmerGen EGS107501G2 Manual Transfer Switch Kit. For only $80 more, you get 10 circuits. Let me know if you have an opinion of this product, but the specs and features look very good. In any event, thanks again for the information.
@@realistindenial I don’t know that one in particular but is a better value than the GZ panel and should do the same job.
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Excellent video! This might be the time to re task your Yeti 1000 and jump into a Yeti 1500X/3000X/6000X coming in May/June/August. $1900/$3200/$5000.(Speculations from CES) All 2000W continuous 3500W surge. :)
Maybe they will send me a review unit 🤣
@@todd.parker Maybe. You do have a legitimate setup in a real world scenario. One most of us are interested in. And with your setup, one only needs to set it in place, charge it and let it run. Just about everything we are interested in is already connected to your dual transfer box. :)
I’ve emailed them a few times asking for review units but never heard back.
BRILLIANT Todd Goal Zero should seriously hire you They do a lousy job addressing your market (I'm doing it too) as they began in trekking world
One issue A single triple cord from Yeti to transfer switches PLEASE get another & plug into other port of Yeti It's just safer real easy not that much more) also consider a low power 500 w emergency microwave they are cheap small easily stored look for "dorm microwave" Refrig us critical load heating food non critical no really w aren't cavemen sterilizing laest catch Lots is safe "cold" food. Immersion heater for a cup of water another good trick to get more from these micro generators
Good call on running another cable. I usually only use 400-700 watts max peak since the yeti is so small but if i can see more copper being better. I was hoping to just use my standard microwave but on a slightly lower level. I kept that plug live via the transfer panel.
Hey Todd,
We just hooked up a similar system in our house.
We are considering leaving the unit active while on a long trip.
Theory being, the power will flow through the inverter, and only use battery energy in the event of a black out.
Thoughts?
It’s tricky because if you have power station with no reheated battery charger like Ecoflow, you can’t connect it to your electrical panel and plug it into the wall at the same time or it will fry the charger and/or trip a breaker. If it had a DC power brick, that will isolate it and should work
So even if the utility power is functioning normally, you can just switch one (or all) of the circuit to "GEN" and they will run off the Yeti?
Yep, that's the benefit of a transfer panel over an interlock. You can flip individual circuits to battery power and leave the rest on grid.
Todd, did you consider using a single transfer switch that had more circuits? I understand Reliant makes 6, 8, and even 10 circuit transfer switches.
I did and they are the same. The only difference is the GZ panel has a standard 110v plug vs a 30A plug and I wasn’t sure if I I could swap that or use a converter. I hindsight, I would probably recommend putting in a big transfer and use an adapter switch to save some money
@@todd.parker I called Reliant and was told you can use a 30a to 15a plug converter. However, after thinking about this more, it occurred to me there may be an advantage to using more than one manual transfer switch. It has to do with being able to simultaneously use two different supply sources, separate from each other. So as an example connecting more than one lithium generator or connecting an outside generator.
@@larrysiegle5345 right, I think that was a factor for me too. Batteries are getting bigger now so one system could be fine but it’s nice to have flexibility like you said. Otherwise these are pretty stick Reliance panels with a GZ instruction sheet
Great video. But I think it points out why goal zero isn’t the best solution, unless I misunderstood parts. I’m looking for a way to access the power of my solar, which generates 50kWh per day, when the power is out. It seems the yeti can’t power anything 220v and likely the solar generated power won’t just pass through. I wonder whose system can?
If you want to connect your rooftop array and power two phase loads, you're well outside of power station territory and need to look at a Tesla Powerwall. It will be 10-20k to do what you want
Key Question.. CAN INTEGRATION KIT be installed to indoor SUBPANEL,, or must be MAIN SERVICE ENTRANCE/PANEL? Most homes have exterior mounted main panels, while GoalZero states integration kit is not weather rated, and is ‘INDOOR USE ONLY’.
It’s normally mounted next to your main breaker panel inside, just like any sub panel, that’s how we did it. I don’t think think I’ve ever seen a breaker panel outside...
Could I ask why you are using what appears to be a GFI Duplex outlet from your main panel, for feeding power to the Yeti and would that not also dictate a GFI 15/20 amp circuit breaker in the panel?
Thanks.
My electrician wired up these two transfer panels so I’m not sure I can answer the question.
Nice video. Do you have any problems with circuits that have a GFCI? I have heard that there may be issues with GFCI's tripping when a transfer panel is connected to a gererator/solar generator due to the ground wire. I am looking at using one of the GZ integration kit and possibly plugging an inverter in from my EV's 40 kwh battery, or from a Goal Zero.
I haven’t but I don’t think I have many GFCI circuits on it
Thank you for your video, it helps me understand this better. I’m expecting a solar generator called the titan and im trying to figure out a way to hook it up to the house and avoid using extension cords. Basically i want to use solar panels to provide energy to the house when possible and then switch to grid when necessary but im not sure if this is a good idea with a solar generator always on? If you can give me some direction i will really appreciate it. Thank you!
Glad this was helpful. You could try to be “off grid” as much as possible by hooking up transfer panels. I think you’ll find this will take a lot of babysitting but it’s fun to do it to see your energy use
Todd Parker Awesome, thank you so much!
Amazing video and thank you for making . I wish goal zero did a better job of producing videos like this so we all didn’t have to bug you. . Stupid question as a back up can you plug your gen into the transfer switch as a back up back up if the Yeti died?
Thanks, glad it was helpful. I wish GZ did a better job explaining how their stuff works. Anyway, yes. I can either plug either the yeti or generator into the transfer panel by switching 2 plugs
@@todd.parker I was hoping that was the case but stoked you’ve tried it so I have the confidence knowing it could work
@@Rideborba The transfer panel isn't actually anything Goal Zero specific, it's made by a major company that manufactures these. Typically, these panels have a 30A plug but since the Yetis only have a standard 120v output, they have just swapped the 30A input for a 120v input but it's otherwise a standard unit. So anything that outputs 120v can be plugged into the transfer panel to power it up - Yeti, generator, etc.
I'm just curious: Why not use the generator instead of even buying a yeti when the power goes out?
Thanks for the video - super helpful. You installed two HIKs -- is that just so you had more control over what you ran during a power outage? You wouldn't actually be able to turn on all the circuits on both HIKs to run all that, unless it was just lights or other small-draw circuits, right? I like the idea of having two and may do that myself, but was just curious about how you powered the house during a real outage.
I bought 2 HIKs so I had some flexibility. I can power each from different power stations or generators if needed. For the most part, I’ve been using one with a splitter to power both panels. My Ecoflow Delta Max and Bluetti AC200P can power everything at once for the most part since there are lights, on demand water heater (100w), fridge, sump pump, microwave, router, etc. so they are low draw except for the microwave. It’s cheaper to get one panel but I like having options. It works great.
How does the integration panel power the circuit without the circuit energizing the panel? Do you have a schematic? I ask because my solar system looks for power in the panel (microinverters) to see whether to turn on the inverters and convert the solar dc power to AC power which will then try and dump the extra power on the grid. If the grid is down would this be an issue? Would I need to turn off the solar system disconnect before energizing the selected circuits?
These are pretty standard manual transfer panels, just with a 110v input rather than a 30amp connector that bigger generators use. Maybe this article will help: www.wikihow.com/Install-a-Transfer-Switch
@@todd.parker thanks!
@@todd.parker Also ua-cam.com/video/GLgtFCJlVFQ/v-deo.html 5:15 is a good animation...
@@metamorph20 Wow, that’s a really great find
Thanks for the informative video. What did you do for 110V circuits that have a 20A breaker switch. Our fridge and Microwave are each connected to one. The GZ transfer panel only has 4x15A circuits.
I think you could probably connect those since a both should exceed 15a but you’d want to ask an electrician
@@todd.parker Thanks. I will ask. But I think I get your point - worst case it trips the breaker switch if the appliances draw more than 20A. I doubt it will, as I know the fridge is only 7.1A and I will probably not connect the MW (which is 13.5A).
Amazing information. Super helpful to see a use case explained. Especially one as well thought out as yours! I was wondering how do you “exercise” the yeti? I hear Goal Zero recommends the yeti be used to charge a cell phone or something similar to keep the battery in optimal condition.
I do try to run it down and recharge it every month or two. The fastest way is to connect a high drain AC device like a space heater. Run it on low (750w) for 39 minutes then recharge to exercise those electrons.
@Todd Parker - just to clarify the power input at the end. It's 248 WH with 2xBoulder 100 AND with the propane generator combined?
It depends on the conditions but I now have 2x Boulder 100's and 160w of folding panels (360w total) which on a perfectly sunny day realistically will give me about 300w max which the Yeti can handle on the MPPT module. If I needed more power at the same time, I could fire up the generator, plug in my 4x wall chargers (240w total) and plug that into the PWM input and have 600w of input power at once.
@@todd.parker 600W is definitely enough for emergency circuits, and with proper selection, should allow one to ride out an multi-day outage. I wish I knew how to calculate the usage+duration of my furnace fan for a typical winter day. I couldn't find an online calculator that knew how to do that. I assume that I would want to set my thermostat to low+tolerable house temp (60-65F) and then keep it steady in the hope the furnace kicks in only to bring it back to that level and thus minimizing time of hi-speed fan. I guess I have to wait for winter to try that. Overall, I am becoming more confident that a proper mix of solar+generator+careful consumption+adjust behavior to emergency will be the solution.
@@jessyschoss Yeah, it's hard to calculate power consumption for appliances that cycle on an off without using a kill-a-watt or plugging it into a Yeti and seeing the kWh output over a duration. I've had fun getting to know how much power things use, it's surprising sometimes. My kind of setup requires some babysitting compared to a whole house generator but it's kind of fun finessing it.
@@todd.parker Your channel is for people who have fun tweaking and experimenting with things LOL. Whole-house-gen wasn't really an option for me due to where I live.
Could I use the Yeti Home Integration Kit with a Honda EU 2000i suitcase generator?
Sure
I am from Europe ... so maybe I am missing something ... but how many power outages do you have ?? It seems like a very expensive setup unless you have constant power outages.
Unless of course you can use this setup constantly to limit your usage of the power grid. Is that possible ? Use the power grid to power the rest of your house and the goal zero - solar panels to power the fridge, microwave, lights, ...
I was hoping to use the goal zero as an off grid solution to a small cabin or so. Just run things straight of the Yeti like in a camper van.
We get them occasionally, just like to be prepared. This setup would work great for an off grid cabin but I’d make sure you have battery storage for at least 3-5 days for when the weather is bad or have a small generator like I do.
Hey bro, I live in a mobile home, and my company gives me the nights for free, do you think that if I buy the yeti 3000 it will be useful for me to use from 7:00 am to 9:00 pm. I would only use it for my fridge and my lights and a security camera system
The 3000 should easily power a full size fridge and other appliances for a day or more. Ideally your lights would be LED.
Todd, as a new Goal Zero Yeti 3000X user, absolutely love your videos and have a question.
Am going to use HIK with 3000X at cottage on a island where we loose electric frequently, generally 2-4 hours at a time. My thought was to constantly charge 3000X with grid power, and leave a couple HIK circuits (refrig, Wi-Fi,security) on full time so when grid power goes out, these circuits would not be interrupted. Additionally, when I leave for a couple months at a time, the same would hold true, while also getting benefit of the above items getting pure sine wave power. Do you have any thoughts or advice on this planned setup and use?
Thanks again.
That seems like a good idea. The only question I have is how much, if any, all that cycling would do to the batteries. In theory it shouldn’t be too much. Glad you like the videos!
I have watched all of your videos and definitely decided on the Yeti.This video is my favorite, since I think it's so organized and utilizes the full effectiveness of what the Yeti can do during a power outage, without having wires laying around everywhere. I did as much research as possible and all of your videos were by far the most helpful. Tomorrow I will order either the 1000 or the 1400, just not sure which one. The phone rep I spoke to on Friday said she could sell me the 1000 for $799 (that is not advertised on their website). But I will ask her how much the 1400 will go for and if that is on sale also? Thank you very much for sharing your work!
If you go to their website you can search for Open Box. Or ask them on the phone. They can sell Open Box Yeti 1400s or 3000s for a lot less. Warranty is about half as long, I think.
I was going to get an Open Box 1400 and then opted for the Open Box 3000 instead.
@@TheChadWork2001 Thanks! Yesterday I bought the $799 deal on a new 1000. I have two homes in California, vacation home in Lake Tahoe and already getting warnings from utility company of power outages this year to help prevent fires. So I am in a race to get that 1000 up there and a panel kit installed. My sewer line needs electricity to pump up hill to main line. If it works great I might open box a 1400 later this year so each home will be set. For now the 1000 will be traveling with me between both homes. I bought 1 100w panel for each home and two light 8 lbs panels to travel to and from homes. I think I bought all the right connections so far for them.
@@mariomarez2223 You can never have too many Yeti generator systems. I wish you well in your plans.
I bought one of these portable 160 Watt solar panels from 4thDSolar for my Yeti 3000:
4thdsolar.com/collections/portables/products/4thd-solar-with-merlin-grid-xp160-portable-160-watt-solar-panel
Hey thanks! I think you should go for the highest capacity you can afford since expansion is limited to lead acid right now.
Thanks for the video! Question. Do you leave the Yeti plugged in to charge to keep it topped off? Or do you charge it to 100 and check it every once and a while?
I usually just leave it plugged in. It probably slightly better to only charge it when needed and to keep it a bit below 100% for longevity but that too much work
Todd Parker makes sense. Thanks!
@@fresnel8279 The Yeti 1400 I have actually states the keeping it below 100% is not applicable to the Yeti as they are programed for longevity and actually often when I keep mine plugged in to AC year round when not in use during summers it'll discharge itself down to say 93% and have seen as low as 91. So that's probably that built in programing at work. And Goal Zero recommends you keep it plugged in to AC year round but if not to recharge every 3 to 6 months to full capacity. But it also is programed to hold it's charge for decent amounts of time. Check out their manuals on line via google them or go to Goal Zero dot com webpage to search for that information. The more you are informed yourself the better you understand. Hope this helps. I've had my 1400 since 2018. It keeps my Tiny Dometic freezer freezing four half gallon jugs of 3/4 full ice frozen so I start with six from home where two go into my heavy duty cooler and I swap out half frozen jugs daily with two from the freeer so no ice runs and even an occasional icecube treat or ice cream treat is possible if it's a sunny period. It does fail or slip when there is no sun due to cloudy over cast weather or worse for us here in the NW Rockies heart of the PINE Forests wildfire season haze definitely kills the sun keeping up with charging the goal zero. Otherwise it's wonderful and reliable. You can charge it via the car when traveling. Not advised otherwise because it will drain your vehicle battery if left unchecked and not running. Read up on these things really if you are serciously interested. Hubby who is into Ham Radio insists there are better lithium solar batteries out there but I'm the one buying these as he does not camp and after 49 years he's fine with my solo tent camping and I'm fine with it. Been camping on my own for well over 55 years now. You would be surprised how many ladies you find across all age groups who solo camp even yes in tents or mini vans. There are groups you can join. I'm not a joiner and live in too remote an area of the country so not a lot of op's for that anyway up here. Meantime hubby is very supportive and helped when I needed to update my two 50 watt flexible panel book from the deep cell batter MC4 set up to parrallels for the Yeti. I was afraid it wouldn't work out but we added a 40 foot extention cord system to the battery can stay in the shade at all time along with the dometic freezer and we added a 30 foot extention from Goal Zero to use the portable Allspower solar panels too at the very same time. I called Goal Zero to insure that was safe and it was within the limits. The original two 50's were not they had to be rewired together not in chain to be safe and not damage the Yeti. So he helped do that and wired the anderson plug that matched the Goal Zero's configuration. Anderson plugs have several different configurations but most can be pulled apart and switched about to mate up with the ports you need to mate too. Hope this all helps you and others too. Stay safe everyone.
@@todd.parker You might consider using smart plugs. I use TP-Link plugs and schedule my Yeti's to turn on once a week for a few hours to top off the battery.
Great video. Why can't you use the roof top solar to charge the Yeti?
Due to safety refs, if the grid goes down you can’t access the power from the rooftop panels. It’s a huge bummer
Thanks for the extremely informative video(s) Todd!
Another Q: one of the circuits I will really need is a 20 amp circuit (not sure of Voltage).
Is this really limited to only 15 amp circuits? If so, I am wondering if that is because of a limitation of the Yeti (I have a 3000) - or they just have the one kit to offer. (I realize that it really is a RELIANCE 4 switch transfer panel - and maybe I could just get a 6 switch Reliance transfer panel that has 2/20 amp and 4/amp switches?)
Thank you for your knowledgeable insight! 👍
Thanks. If it’s 20a at 110v 2,200w) then that would be more than the 1,500w the yeti can put out continously. I think you can use other transfer panels but the key is one that works with the the Yetis 110v output. I found it hard to find one wires with a single 110v instead of a 39 amp plug
@@todd.parker gotcha. That makes perfect sense. The Yeti has a limitation of 1500 continuous watts. I did not know that 20A at 110 = 2200w.
Thanks!
Todd I saw you where using the yeti 1000. How long did it last to run your refrigerator?
It will run my full size 36” refrigerator for 16-24 hours depending on weather and how often we open the door. Not bad!
Thank you for the video - very informative and helpful. Can the Yeti simultaneously charge (Via solar panels), while provide energy to your load (Via the inverter)?
Yes, I do that all the time and it works great. Many other battery packs can’t do this, seems like a big limitation
I have a Yeti 1400 and it definitely charges via solar panels and can be used to charge my dometic 27 Qt freezer while camping. It's one of my favorite uses and why I bought it. Now intergrating it to use at home for power outages. But I bought one of these intergration panels from GZ plus it's 4 deep cell battery kit to go with it. The Yeti 1400 keeps the deep cells charged but during power outages I have a lot more stored power to run my LP Furnace Fan for days and attempting to run our Well pump and sump pumps too. Looks like we can but unlike Tom's Electrcian who refused to work out how to do the 220 circuits I've got this information from someone who has "It can be wired for 220v but you will need to replace the connector with a P6 30 amp" So am working on figuring out how to do that. Though we will use a liscensed electrcian for basic installation and legal purposes BEFORE we call him WE intend to KNOW all we can and how to do it ourselves because not all journeymen are trustworthy. Most electrcians are but we lived in a state where we had some lemons just saying. So hope this answers your question. Note when you are basically charging the Yeti by sun and or AC or in Tom's case AC via a gas generator you are also in our case that is having the Yeti charge the deep cell battery units. We bought the four battery pack. They sell two's also. I was wondering about adding on this next year more deep cells and upgrading to a Yeti 3000X also. However now that I see Tom installed two for just one battery that has me thinking maybe I should investigate buying a second box todate they run 249. And splitting my Deep Cells into two sets. Not sure if that's possible without two yeti's or not. And you can also charge the Yeti with both AC and Sun at the same time. I have an adaptor that allows me to charge with two solar panels at one time. I plug in a 100 watt homemade panel I made for a different earlier battery and works great with Yeti and also a 60 W Allspower or 120 similar folding portable panel. Tom here has the BIG boys but I bought my Origianls for camping and use on an outdoor covered 24 foot patio that has no AC to it to run fans and lights. Summer use only of course. So this should answer your question but also provide some little extra information and jump start creative juices for personal and custom applications.
@@lasinmt106 I have a Reliance Controls 10 circuit 30 amp panel hooked up to my Yeti 3000x but am only running 110 volt circuits. Yeti only puts out 110 VAC. You can’t operate 220 volt circuits. Buy a 220 volt gas generator.
@@glleon80517 Thanks George for your input and insight. For now I'm shelving the idea about connecting the 220V Well Circuit. However I will continue to do more searching on the subject. Of course as mentioned someone did write and tell me how it can be supposedly done as previously mentioned. We have two gas generators. I looked carefully into LP whole house generators which really are appealing price wise and capability wise both. UNTIL you get into the installation and look at the fine details of operation not counting the installation itself where they need to be set a ways away from house but the amount of propane they consume to operate. I clearly understand my priorities here. Number 1 to run fan on LP furnace. A fan is not that big a draw and it is definitly wired 110. And keeping our home from freezing in winter is the biggest goal. (Due to health issues and combined with the new well system it would be great to include it too. About 5 years ago we were without a well for a bit over a week when well house was damaged. About a year later we had our own well dug & they installed a totally newer system with no pressure tank involed. I knew they wired to in house circuit box and made the incorrect assumption that it was therefore 110. Turns out ti is 220.I'm an optimist and look at daily life as challenges that's my job to work out. Head on or side ways or what ever it takes. So as to our gas generators great in summer we have on occasions run our freezers and fridge in summer on them but the way this home is built it's near impossible in winter with extention cords etc. There are three stories plus a 12 foot basement and nearly attached garage. Basement, main floor and garage all contain feezers and fridges. Living in Extreme NW MT smack in the heart of the Rockies we have actually had little power outages or major ones. My heart is breaking for those people in Texas right now. Years ago we went thru a Ma Nature disaster in IA of similar magnitude but in many ways not as severe and not in winter. Meantime we are not so interested in keeping lights on and no AC as less than 25% of people who live in this area would even consider let alone have such luxury because it's mainly not needed. One huge exception is Wildfire season and it's smoke pollution that rolls in & sets in due to mountain inversions.) Bottom line I've got all the materials now from GZ to install the 4 circuit system. Plan is to probably dedicate the GZ 1400 to that and find a competitors Lithium battery these days that will do better job keeping my Dometic 27 quart freezer operating even when battery dips below 70% which the GZ has a compatiblity problem with. The competion has developed technology around this problem. YEAH. Also having another lithium power horse battery as a back up to the GZ 1400 is a good idea too. I'm not sure the GZ's newer X upgrades don't address this problem but it's not clear.(By the way my flexible 50W panels I purchased years ago that went into my designed 1000Denier Cordura book case were by Reliance I believe. They actually told me not to buy two 50's but to go with 100 or two 100's. There was some concerns about laminate separation. I figured since I was making them into a book case and they would not be exposed to weather daily this is something that has never happened and they are working fantastic to this day. Hubby did help me rewire them to 100W parallel system or I couldn't have added on as an option to run my folding backpack Allspower 60W panels too at the same time giving me 160W input at the same time. I now have added another folding 120W but am not as fond of it as the original Allspower which is much lighter and smaller sized by weight and foot print closed and opened. So also back up most of my Powerbanks when camping with solar 18W and 25W folding solar panels which are down right handy and can charge two items at the same time.) Stay safe and thank you for your input.
I have been researching Goal Zero products for the past week or so, and you have the most informative videos out of just about anyone I have seen, so thank you for that. I am curious as to what you think about the Yeti Tank Expansion Batteries?? Do you think they are a good investment or maybe even a good alternative to solar? Or what about both solar and a couple tanks? Is that even a possibility? I apologize for so many questions, but you seem like the guy to go to!
Thanks for the kind words. My major issue with the Link/Tank combo is it uses lead acid batteries that are heavy, can’t cycle deeply, and wear out faster than lithium. The required Link module also takes up the slot I use for the MPPT module for more efficient solar charging. If you need lots of relatively cheap storage, the tank might be ok but I’d recommend getting a larger Yeti like the 3000 if you need more capacity because that uses better batteries, is still portable, and has the MPPT module built-in. As far as you solar Q, you still need some way to recharge these batteries so I’d recommend having a few options for cases where you lose power for more than a day. I have a few 100w panels and a small propane generator that can charge the Yeti but choose what you need based on goals and usage
@@todd.parker Thank you for your response! The fact that the tanks use lead acid batteries was my primary concern, but supposedly Goal Zero has some expandable lithium tanks in the works, so I guess we'll see. I am still quite new to the entire area of off-grid power, so I am doing constant research to better understand everything. I have looked into the Yeti 3000, but the only thing that concerns me is that while it has a 3000 watt surge, it only runs 1500 continuous, and I may need more than that at times. I plan on building a tiny home on wheels and traveling around most of the time, and if I can go a few days here and there without stopping off at an RV park that would be great. I'm going to need a setup that would constantly power an apartment style fridge, amongst a couple other appliances, and a 10,000 - 12,000 btu mini split running on 220V and 10 amps exceeding possibly 1,100 watts. I plan on getting as much solar as the Yeti can take in, so in the case of the 3000, I guess that would be up to 4 of the Boulder 200 Solar Panel Briefcases. Does any of this sound doable? What would you suggest? By the way, I am trying to remain as quiet as possible, so no "loud" generators.
Check out Will Prouse’s channel. He has a ton of good info. You might want to consider buying a few Battleborn lithium batteries and either assembling a system or using one of the all in one charger/inverter units he’s been reviewing if you need more power.
ua-cam.com/video/ikDLxnf1ePQ/v-deo.html
@@DrSamBeckett - I've a total of 1,050 watts of solar panels attached to my Y3000. The first 550w (2x200w + 1x150) connected to the PWM charger and the other 500 (2x150w + 1x200w) is connected to the MPPT. I discovered that at best, I'm only able to extract 65% from either charge controllers - which puts my charging (at peak sun) just a tad bit under GZ's recommended aggregated charge rates. Your bigger challenge, I think, is finding the most energy efficient portable 110v fridge + microwave for your tiny home so you don't end up discharging the Y3000 faster than you can top it off. G'luck!
Awesome video, thanks! How long does the Yeti 1000 last powering your fridge without having to switch to the generator? I noticed on another site that the installer thought the 1000 was not enough for a decent-sized refrigerator.
I have a very large 36” counter depth fridge and it will run for 12-18 hours.
I also have Yeti 1000, and my Fridge rate 6.5 amp at 120 volts. AC about 17-18cu ft. I tested it run about 10-13 hours, noted 10 hours was when defrost on which using heating to melt ice or use more power and usually defrost is cycle one time per 24 day.
Per day.
Did you ever consider getting some of the extra battery tanks to attach to the Yeti (via the proprietary cable) so that it lasts longer?
I looked into it and personally it doesn’t make sense to remove the mppt module for this and the lead acid batteries are pretty bad compared to lithium
@@todd.parker i DO wonder why the expansion idea (which is a really good one) does not include the possibility of adding extra LITHIUM batteries instead of Lead Acid.
C.C. 95 yeah, I know they’re working on it and I thick it’s tricky to keep all the cells balanced. Guessing the new version of the larger yetis will be out soon to match the X line they’ve been rolling out.
@@todd.parker ugh! Will I have extreme buyer’s remorse having bought the 3000 last year?! LOL. We shall see soon enough if this new line of “X” models pump up the volume on new features!
C.C. 95 Who knows when these will come out and what features they will have so enjoy your 3000. This market has really heated up feature-wise so I’m guessing they are doing a lot of re-engineering to stay competitive. I do hope they bake in MPPT, support multiple expansion modules, and way increase the charger speed at a minimum. Oh, and have proper lithium expansion batteries.
Hey Todd what is the maximum amount of charge you can put into the yeti,using all the ports(including mppt port)
Gabriel Varona I believe that it’s 720 watts total - 360 watts in the PWM (built in inputs) and another 360 watts on the MPPT module if you’ve added that. Within each, you can use any combo of ports, but 360 is the max for the sum.
@@todd.parker That is correct. Both of my 400 watt arrays are putting out almost 300 watts per side right now in the winter. The highest input I've seen on my 3000 so far is 591 watts. In summer I should see around 650 Watts going in per hour. I love how I can see all of the statistics on my phone at my cabin that is 2 1/2 hours away from my house. It powers my ring.com camera and my AT&t hotspot, both combined pull less than 20 watts per hour so I have several days of backup power. Even on cloudy days my array puts about 80 watts into the yeti during daylight hours. I've never seen my yeti drop below 90% except when I spend a few days there. Next time I'm up there I will record a video of my setup and share it with you! Thank you for these videos.
@@mooniesbarbecue7733 That sounds like a great setup. You have the right idea to have a lot of panels so you are still pulling some power, even on cloudy days. Using a Ring camera pointed at the Yeti to see the stats remotely is a genius idea!
@@todd.parker actually the ring camera is pointed at the driveway so I can see if someone is snooping on my property. I'm talking about the yeti Wi-Fi app on my phone. The yeti is connected to my hotspot and I can see real-time data. Have you connected yours to your Wi-Fi and downloaded the app?
Moonies Barbecue I see. Turns out that’s only on the 1400 and 3000 models. The 1000 has the same front end (chargers/inverter) but I guess the Wi-Fi is reserved for the larger models only. Boo.
Hello Todd!
Great Video! There is no info on this system and when you call Goal Zero there are very vague about the system.
Can you tell me how this stops power from feeding back into the grid?
It’s a pretty standard transfer panel that everyone uses to connect generators to their panels. I can’t explain how they work re: the grid but they don’t back feed and are very safe.
Basically you keep the switched turned off when not in use. So no feedback when turned off. Also you are only feeding into the circuit lines not going back to the grid itself via the main panel box. As in your standard electric panel should never feed power back to the grid. Now if you are talking about solar power systems that you set your home wired into that may be a total different arrangement and probably takes place outside the box itself as in the power lines that actually feed your electric box to begin with via power company. One of the reasons one needs to use surge protectors. We bought a whole house surge protection system when we moved here due to many homes including the one we bought having a history of power surges that were destroying freezers and other applliances. Previous home owners had spent big money repairing both freezers and fridges due to this and since we installed the whole house protection not once. However recently one did catch our newer landline phone system and a neighbors septic pump system also was effected. Not sure if they had protection or not. Meantime we recommend it if you live in an area that is prone to surges and outages. (Before we did this we ran through 3 computer modems one after the other within a year due to this problem but of course we do not have any outside solar or wind power off grid set ups at that time and still do not. This is a back up system as our power that rarely goes out up here in NW MT did just a few weeks ago. We were back on in 11 hours but neighbors were 3-5 days without during January WINTERS...OMGosh. We are fine iwth no lights as have plenty of USB lights via Power banks to take care of that. What we do need here is back up for Well as we have a new system that will or could burn out if we attempted to run it as in flushing toilets or two when powers out and also run the fan to an LP furnace to keep house from freezing. Otherwise we can manage basically. We may attach a garage door and our phone line to avoid that issue again in future. But have tablets and a simple cell phone for emergency use if our computers are down otherwise. We are not attempting to run our fridges or freezers or water heaters. And definitely not on a wee sngle Goal Zero Yeti 1400 W Battery. That's why the back ups and if you need to have back up for 2 days to a week or more that's whey the investment in the four deep cells Goal Zero sells too. Anyway you are not feeding power into the main power lines period with this or a deep cell back up system. You are switching on these batteries to feed into the circuits prewired in your home to run specific applliances or what's on those lines. For us we will put a on off switch by the way to items we do not want to run if on those lines such as our water softener or water heaters. We do not want them to run while the goal zero runs the sump pump which is important to the running of the furnace as much as we need the fan. The fan will not take a lot of power to run and the sump pump runs several times a day for short periods so no problem with that. And so if say you have an item like our water heaters and our water softener that do not have on off switches on them we can use a go between heavy duty plug adapter that does to turn off to avoid draining the goal zero system way too fast when we need it for the prime purpose to run furance and well. Do not expect this system even with the four addiional batteries to operate the entire house as if there was no failure during an outage. That's unrealistic and would be looking at a full LP generator back up system with it's own LP tank etc. if that's our goal. And we have so few outages up here we do not feel that need. We also live in mountains were we rarely need AC so do not have it in our home as most around here do not. We also do not have a lot of sunshine year round this is not a solar productive setting and low degree unit days at that. So basically we won't be setting up to recharge via sun unless it's a warm weather outage and the deep cells will keep thigns going while I carry the Yeti upstairs to charge via solar panels. And then return to recharge the deep cells or add to them. I could run through an open basement window. Mind you our basement has 9 to 12 foot deep floor to ceiling depth and below the three windows it is cement that is extremely thick and difficult to drill into let alone through. After watching people struggle with installing the LP line to new furnace I finally suggested they go through the above ground level where it is not the thick cement and enter that way and sure enough they finally succeeded. Yes I'm a female in her 70's but even experts seem to fail logic lateral thinking sometimes. Anyway stay safe and educate yourselves. Read manuals of all products you may be investigating most are listed on line or thorugh their sellers web pages. And yes Goal Zero could and SHOULD DO BETTER at presentations of how to install these units. We tend to educate ourselves so we can assist the electrcian in this case and or have all materials on hand in advance of turning to one and having to order due to our remote and rural area where it's 100 miles to nearest large town Kalispell MT so a 200 mile round trip is not always helpful. Having all things pulled together in advance means a win win for everyone.
How many panels I can install in my yeti 1000 right now I have 1of 100watts
You can have roughly 320 watts of input for the built-in PWM ports total and double that if you have the MPPT module installed. Since you’d be lucky to get 70% of the output of a panel, even on a sunny day, you could attach four 100w panels, eight if you have the MPPT
Thank you for the reply am new in this thanks for the help
I discovered my new fridge, when unplugged and re energized, regardless of Interior dial turned to off, the fridge pulls 600 watts until the compressor turns on again.
The automatic defrost timer cant be avoided. 600 watts is alot of power.
That is. How long does that run for?
Amazing! I just bought the yeti 6000x and one 200 watts nomand solar panel and the next step is to have the home integration kit installed 🤞
I plan to use the yeti for off grid camping but I am scared to bring it because it’s kinda expensive if somebody tried to steal it. Any suggestions? And I am not going to tie it down a tree haha.
Excellent video!
Maybe the weight will deter thieves!
Maybe get the 1000X or 1500X for camping. I would NOT want to load/unload the 6000X for a camping trip.
Have you done a test run? See how long can you run off the Yeti’s before you need to recharge them.
Yep, I periodically flip things over to run off the yeti and it works great. The 1000 is pretty small so it can run my fridge for half a day or so, less if I’m using the other circuits but it works great and I can even take hot showers. If I had the money, I’d get a bigger yeti but can use solar and my generator to add run time indefinitely
Todd Parker nice! I don’t know if you know about the Yeti fast charger. You can get two of them and charge up your 1000 really fast. I have a 3000 and I fully charged in in 5 hours after running a test that drain it. Plus you should think about getting a small portable generator. I used my Ryobi small generator to charge up my Yeti and it only has a 1.2 gallon tank. Less gas to use then a home generator. So if your storing gas, it should last you a long time.
iiinsaiii cool, sounds like we have similar setups. I made my own fast charger by strapping 4 wall chargers together (videos on that) and it filled my yeti from 35% yesterday in 3 hours. For the 3000 your setup is perfect. I like to use my yeti as a buffer for my ryobi propane generator and solar panels so I can use the least amount of fuel, sounds like you do the same. It’s slick.
@@todd.parker You guys realise that fast charging with 4 chargers is probably degrading your batteries over 300% than normal.
@@anonymous_friend I get the concern but I don't think it's that linear and all comes down to the C rate. Charging with 4 chargers is about 250 watts which means we're charging this 1kw battery at a 0.25 C rate which is pretty conservative. Yes, the faster you charge and discharge you battery, it causes faster degradation but I think at this level, it's not that big a deal. I prefer to only fast charge in cases where I need to and will unplug a charger or two if I'm not in a hurry. According to this article a .25C rate isn't even in rapid charging (.5-.5C) territory let alone fast charging (1C) or ultra fast (1-10C) - batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/ultra_fast_chargers
You're expecting way too much from your 1000 yeti.
You'll need 3 to 4 times the capacity.
I used Jackery 1500 on my similar sized refrigerator. It lasted about 6 hours. It is a energy hog. 325 watts when compressor is running. 450 watts when defroster comes on.
For sure. The plan was to use the Yeti as a buffer so I could run my generator a few times a day so it wouldn’t need to run continuously. It would cycle on and charge the Yeti and I’d cruise for a while. The HIKs give me future flexibility. I have a AC500 and 6kw of batteries hooked up to them now and the Yeti is in retirement
you can run your water heater from your yeti?
Yep! I have that on a circuit that I can power from the Yeti. I was hoping to do my heat as well since it’s also a small on demand style unit but the air handlers are 220v
@@todd.parker that's really impressive. it takes a lot of energy to power a water heater.
mike allen my water heater is natural gas, not electric,so it only needs a bit of power for the pump
@@todd.parker that makes more sense. electric water heaters suck too muck power for yeti.
Out of experience, the best money spent for hot water is in a solar hot water system! 5 yrs ago I bought a small single panel with a 80gl storage tank system for $600 installed. I connected a small on demand water heater on the inlet pipe that enters the house(bath room, kitchen, laundry) that can be turned on with the flip of a CFI waterproof on/off switch I located 2ft to the left of the shower head.
Have you ran all 8 switches at once? My understanding is that these Goal Zero generators can only support 4 at one time (which is what you showed). So do you plan on just flipping switches on/off as needed during an outage, just never running all 8 at one time off the Yeti?
Yep, I’ve run all 8 at once and it’s no problem. As long as you don’t exceed 1,500 continuous you can connect as many circuits as you want. Obviously, the run time is highly dependent on load so I try to keep the load light. I can also hook up one or both panels to my propane generator if needed.
Todd Parker thanks for the reply. Good to know. I’m thinking the link and battery packs will solve for the run time issue. Thanks again
Is it worth the 5k price tag
5k? The Yeti is $1,000 and each home integration panel is $250 so materials were around $1,500, labor maybe $400.
@@todd.parker hook what bout 3k yeti would u recommend it
@@antricemccarroll2958 I wish I had a bigger unit like the 1400 or 3000 but I'd wait before spending that much money right now. The bigger Yeti lithiums are long overdue for an upgrade to the "x" series like they've done for the smaller units. Supposed to have integrated MPPT, more expansion ports, etc.
I love your yeti setup but I hate your plumber… Also dude, when you flip your transfer switches you don’t need to flip it to the off position and “wait a second”, the power sources are completely separated from each other. Just flip them
Ha, my plumber is OCD is a very good way. Next time, I’ll let those switches rip!
I think we all know that you are your "electrician" 😁
You really should invest in the 1400 at least with the way you test and use the product
Anthony Garrett - Maybe even the 3000
I’d say the 3000 has more power,more storage, and I think but not sure that you can chain in more auxiliary batteries to the 3000.
YETI 4 TANK EXPANSION BATTERY GOALZERO 1200
That's way too much stuff plugged in to a small Yeti, I guess 3000X. Overkill of home integration kits.
Works like a champ.
@@todd.parkerI recently checked Tesla solar for my home and that recommended 3 Tesla walls, that is 22.5 KWhr/2100 AmpHr batteries. Home integration works well with that type of capacity. 280 amp he is too small for a SFH IMHO but if it works for you that great.
@@mantan_rtw my setup is to run the bare minimums during a power outage so it’s far from an off grid setup. My my solar and propane generator can run the basics like a fridge and some lights for extended times. A power wall is a much bigger system for sure!
your electric bill must be an all time low.
I have rooftop solar but can' use it during an outage so that's why I have this whole setup.
@@todd.parker seems your setup doesn't need electricity for heating? I didn't see any furnace-related circuit. I have forced-air with CNG heating. I just learned how much power is just using the furnace fan. 700WH when in top speed. That was a big surprise. My power deficit will be substantial if I need to deal with an outage during a cold winter...any suggestions on how to deal with that? I have a Yeti 3000X, so have a deeper "reserve power", but this fan consumption will eventually erode that reserve quickly...
@@jessyschoss Heating is difficult with smaller batteries. I also have natural gas for heating and my dual central air handlers require 220v circuits so I couldn't add them to this transfer panel setup. I have an on demand water heater and that barely uses more than 50w so I can have hot water but for heat, I have 2 gas fireplaces on the first floor and plan on using that to keep us warm if we lose power during an outage. I also have a buddy heater but that would just be used to heat an area that is in danger of freezing and I'd need to babysit it. Gas fireplaces are a nice way to stay toasty so that might be worth looking into? If you ran your fan was running at it's lowest speed, does that lower power consumption enough to make a difference?