I had to limit the output power of the new solar system. First impression after a few days...
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- Опубліковано 3 жов 2024
- Holy Dooley! What exciting past few days. After the installation of the new solar system, I could now really see its full potential! We have a lot of power. Too much power, to be honest. I really had to limit the solar charge controllers while I was not at home. Far too scary seeing over 250A going into the battery.
But today is the first day we unleash the beast and observe what happens when more than 12.000W of solar power charging the battery. How well will the BMSes handle this situation? Will the circuit breakers trip? We do a comprehensive observation of the system in different situations and monitor the outcome.
You will also see why shading does not matter any more.
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Oh, one quick additional note... now that the whole system is up, check component heating during peak production (and also with your charge controllers unlimited and charging at max rate). Everything. The conduits, wires, junctions, battery terminals, charge controllers, inverters... everything. Point an IR temperature gun at everything. Always a good safety precaution to do a check like this at least twice a year.
Coming soon, just need to get a day being at home with full sun out.
Great video Andy , I have been experiencing the excitement of producing x2 what I originally set out to and it is such a great buzz , and I'm not producing anywhere near where you are but I'm off grid an enjoying it . I love watching you videos and you never fail to put a smile on my face mate. Great stuff
Iam so happy you didn't cut trees but adjusted to your environment.
Let's amp!
Yep, that was all part of the experiment to show it's possible. Let's wait until winter though, if it is still enough...
no such thing as too much power. you need some “dummy loads”. I would suggest some large electric hot water heaters.. divert power from battery charging to the hot water heaters, once the batteries are full. you can basiclly have “free” hot water for use in your house. you can also install an electric pool heater, and have a heated pool for free as well 👏
This.
Yes there is such a thing. It goes to waste unless you sell it back to the power company. You can only use so much hot water and can only store so much. Waste of money and resources.
He could simply run his house and the water heater/heating system/AC from solar.
But honestly not sure anyone needs 50kwh per day
@@nach335 yes, it is technically a waste - but also a rational choice. We are getting close to mid summer peak solar south of the equator.
6 months from now the daily production will be only about 1/3rd as much.
Until there is some economical way to store massive amounts of energy for six months, it makes sense to over-provision panels.
@@nach335 Absolutely wrong. Never having to worry about having enough power, regardless of the weather or other conditions, is the WHOLE POINT! Most solar systems are DELIBERATELY massively undersized because they want you to still be dependent on the grid. The installation companies have their hands tied by regulations that are written by power company lobbyists. The only reason Andy can get this done is because he's putting it where the grid was never connected. Otherwise the only way to do it is DIY, which is again illegal in many places because of corporate influence.
If you don't have enough storage for at least 2 full days of normal use with no power saving behavior with zero power production and enough solar to completely fill your storage from zero to 100% then you're doing it wrong and being massively ripped off.
what a dream!🤩🤩 I can't think of anything useful to utilize the excess electricity, maybe run dehumidifiers or airconditioners 24/7 so that things/tools remain dry, minimize any growth
The house is not connected yet, but all the load is inside the house. Working on it...
In the DVCC Setup you can set a maximum current to the Battery banks (going through the smartshunt). So you can easiely limit the current without touching the mppt´s settings.
Yes, but this would require the BMS talking to each other as well. So there is more to it. I will test this out with the Seplos batteries first and learn.
Not heard that this would work with the smart shunt too before... interesting
Well done, thanks for all this detail. Very much appreciated, all the best. M
Thanks Andy
HAA! You made it up! Solar Panel Alignment Test. Thanks for wearing the shirt and giving me a BIG hint!
Always a pleasure, Andy.
Your new panel system kicks butt!
Ah, this solar stuff is like an addiction. We start small and it is quite nice so we decide to go a bit larger. So, we order more cells............and more cells. Then we realize we don't have enough power from our panels to support our larger battery. So, we purchase more panels and all the "goodies" to go with them. And then we realize we need more battery capacity. And the beat goes on.
You've got it, John. It's all about the S.P.A.T., right? 😋
@@OffGridGarageAustralia Right!
Hi, incredible, from Germany I only can look with astonishment to this amount of solar capacity. I wish all the best, like your videos very much.
This is amazing, that mean you need more Battery!!
Why?
Well, now you’ll need to install a walkway on your roof because I’m sure your going to wear the coating off lol! Congratulations Andy! 🎉👍🫡🍻
As long as WALKWAY doesn't CAST a SHADOW on anything!
@@romeowhiskey1146I reckon if he had a walkway that shaded a whole set of panels he would still have more than enough power at the end of the day.
And an electric escalator to get up there and use some of the extra power....
Yes, all of that, hahaha. I spend a lot of time on the roof and can't believe the output with all the shading!
Nice. Glückwunsch!
This is crazy ! So much power, i think you need more batterys Andy or more consumers.
Just more load. More batteries won't help.
Wow Andy.....Just WOW! AMAZING!!!!
He needs Battery 4.Ooooooohhhh!!!
I need Load 2.0 now. The vehicle's battery is not enough any more. I could fully charge the Tesla twice a day now...
Lol....another Tesla 2.Oooooohhhhh!!!
Wow, such a neat and tidy installation!
It was a refreshing experience to see, congrats to your system :) One comment for the top performance: if you are off-grid or at least moving in that direction you should not dimension your system to the nice sunny days, you should have it overpaneled big time so you have enough coulombs even on a worse day. If that is done right, you will always be overpowered on sunny days. This is not a problem, this is the nature of a well dimensioned off-grid solar system.
I'm envious :-). So awesome to see numbers like that from a system. Such a huge evolution compared to when the channel started! Now I really want to cover my roof with panels instead of just the attached garage(!). And maybe put together an EG4 battery rack or two or three.
Ok, your next project... double battery capacity, take your home completely off-grid :-). Hell, even with your current system you probably only need a 1-2kW feed from the grid to ensure 100% 24x7 365-day uptime.
-Matt
The problem in my case is the high feed-in tariff for the house solar. This needs to be separated first and stay connected to the grid.
All the rest can be connected to the garage. The challenge: limited cabling between the two buildings. The sparky is working on a solution.
It sounds like you’ve done what we all strive toward. You have plenty of night time capacity and surplus of daytime production. Good job.
That is one cool system… I wish I had one this powerful.
Thank you, yeah, it is very powerful now. But I need that capacity for the other seasons when we have more shading on the roof again.
is nice to know that even with clouds you will have all the power you need. Thanks for inspiring us
Yes, it will be enough. Had on cloudy morning and still over 4kW of production. Plenty of energy.
@@OffGridGarageAustralia opps, I saw i had a "not" witch din't make sense, I corrected it now 😁
Awesome Andy.
I’m envious of course 😂.
I’ll have to drive to your place each day to charge my car LOL :-)
Wow. It’s amazing.
I think the same every day watching these numbers.
Tons of power, must feel really great. Congrats Andy!
It does feel great. Battery is full at 10am now...
Wow Andy! Congratulations 👏 on everything working so well, and pumping out so much energy that now you need more loads and battery 3.0! Its incredible to watch. Very awesome!
Thank you, Yeah, it is a very powerful system now. Lot's of energy and I need to develop some ideas of what to do with it all...
@@OffGridGarageAustralia I think you can come up with some good ideas for the energy. Do you have anything inside the house, like a freezer or hot water heater that can be powered from outside? Pool heater for the winter maybe? Just some ideas. I'm sure you have already thought of these things.
Wow Wow Wow. I would be the same way monitoring constantly. 🤣🤣 Very impressive now I want to upgrade my system
I basically live in the VRM now and constantly monitor the weather and solar output. Very interesting to see and learn from all that!
Yes, me too. I think a Lot of us share the habit to look as often as possible on the App and Check how Many amps and Watts are produced👍
It's so addicting!
ha! i love the harddrive magnets holding up the sign. i use those magnets for all sorts of things!
My whole garage is being hold together with these magnets 😂
Congrats Andy! Great job. Time to add a 10 person hot tub😀
Hahaha, seems you want to come 😂
@@OffGridGarageAustraliaCertified globe trotter here! Love to visit your side of the globe soon and visit you too!
What a great setup Andy, the system should make good power
on rainy days.
Yes, still waiting for a rainy cloudy day since the installation. That will be interesting to see...
Ahhhh, fantastic. Worth the wait.
Absolutely! I'm pumped!
Very good adding more panels on roof to reduce heat
☕☕
Best regards from Philippines 🇵🇭 Andy
It's a lot cooler in the garage. I'll add some more insulation panels in the very top of the roof where there are no panels outside.
Great job. Love your videos. I can see your channel blowing up one day. Great job.
Thanks a lot.
So much fun ... really nice.
You might want to have a look at DVCC. This will allow you to limit the charge current globally so there is no need to limit an individual charge controller.
Thank I am yseing a Sunsynk 5kw inverter it has 2 MPPT charge controllers built in
Hey Andy, remember to only wash the panels in the early morning or late afternoon. Use ambient temperature soapy water bucket and SOFT scrubber/squeegee dry or captured rainwater rinse. Tap water, water spots are to be avoided. No spray nozzle or pressure washer because the glass/frame seal can be damaged. A powerful leaf blower for regular maintenance is best but also, not on hot panels. Again, great installation Andy!
I was told to never wash the panels on the first years because you scrub off the self cleaning layer?! It was a guy installing and selling panels of 5 brands.
Little confused here by your comment.
@@camielkotte
You may be right about about soap (or what kind) mild for sure, but you have to check with the manufacturer. I live in an area that has lots of sticky leaves and dust. The panels have a 15 degree tilt. Most of the time I blast it with a leaf blower but that gets only 75% per treatment. After a few months the accumulation is too much. So I can wait till winter for it to self clean or do with only half the power till then. Even tho I have “half cells”, I can’t believe how a few dozen medium sized leaves can destroy energy. I envy those that have steep panels and little local contaminations. There are after market “ceramic” coatings for solar panels but I’m not interested at this point. Andy may not need to clean his because he’s going so much power anyway.
There is no self-cleaning layer on solar panels. It's the solar glass itself which has a bit of self cleaning capability but there is no coating or layer which wears off. Otherwise companies would advertise that.
I use a sponge and a bucket to clean them. Well, the old ones at least. Not that I could ever see an increase in production but it is more for my OCD 😂
@@SkypowerwithKarl thx. That totally makes sense now to me. Learning every day here.
Dude! Thank you. You are a beast at making videos rapidly. I'm so slow. I love building my solar, but I don't love editing videos.
The don't do it. If editing is not your thing, don't bother with it. Do what you like and build awesome solar systems!
Well ! !! too much power is better then not enough batteries. Now you can just add more batteries to match the power coming in from the PV modules . May the solar be with you .😊
More batteries won't help, Cedric. Once they are full, we are in the same situation again. What I need now is more load!
Congrats Andy, if I remember back to the time when you like to power the gate system with solar.
Time to change the channel and t-shirts name to Off-grid house,parcel, region.... (smile)
Thank you. The gate project is still on my list and we have to replace these nasty AGM batteries with some fine lithium...
Yeah, the house... that is still a bit of a problem. Working on it.
Uuuuulaaaalllalaaaaaahhhh! Things are going nuts down under! That much Power!!! Nice to see your system as it comes to the limits, I’m more than curious to see what’s next, don’t waste no NRG!!
Just a note on my 15kw grid setup I can produce during summer over 100KWh in a day, and I am a little further south, so your system has potential.
I probably won't reach that as my roofs are facing East and West and I have a bit of shading in the morning and afternoon. Not ideal conditions but still far more energy than I need atm.
Love a numbers man.
Let me know if you every want to reduce your output. I can help take some of those off your hands (jkjk). But really, thanks OP for taking the energy (play on words not intended) to produce this informative video.
I've watched this since day one 😎
Hey, great, thank you!
This makes me happy... you've reached an impressive outcome. You might need to look at heating your pool, or leaving AC on to burn some power...
I'm new to solar and recently wired up my off grid system (48v Growatt ES 5000 with 6000Wp and a 12v Rover with 750Wp of 12v) but I'm discovering that I need to over-panel to combat poor location of the panels.
Nice work! This is the point we are at now with our 15kva multiplus with around 22kw of array. FREE AC all day! You have built some great arrays 👍🏻 worth every drop of sweat. 😎 @OrganicPower-Australia
Great job Andy. Now you have a serios system. I'm on your tail with my system, but i still have a bit of work to do, and my system is with MppSolar inverter, not Victron. But i'm almost there.
It is a lot of work. I was kind of relieved when they installed all the solar for me. It would have taken me forever...
@@OffGridGarageAustralia i know, but i will do it. Thanks and good luck
Yes a new video!
I'm so happy for you Andy I just got my second battery Bank hooked into my solar I'm too happy 🙂👍🏾
Great! Keep going...
@@OffGridGarageAustralia I'mma try lol
Great job Andy, now what to do with all the extra power. As you spend so much time in the Off Grid Garage sweating your butt of producing awesome and very helpful videos maybe an aircon in there and a bigger S.P.A.T. fridge would be a start. Maybe put a shout out in your next video on ideas how to use the extra power. I see you have a quite a few already but there has got to be some really smart ones out there somewhere.
That is a great idea, Glen. I'll ask the community for some ideas. We are a bit limited at the moment because most of the load is still inside the house.
Amazing. I need more panels. my production has dropped far too much for our winter season.
We're now at the end of Spring and have plenty of sun. From February onwards, the production will go back again, so that will be the interesting time. Summer is easy.
Too much solar? Honestly can't think of even thinking about having that issue. Def means your doing big things brotha. Happy for you Andy
Wintertime is when we have to measure and judge again. This will be the moment of truth for the design.
@@OffGridGarageAustralia it is definitely winter here in the west ish states. Haven't seen more than 40 amps for a little over a month lol glad the heats gone but with it went the amperage! Your new panels will shine all winter I have no doubt
I still remember having a discussion with you in the comments where you stated seeing 100A from the charge controller would be insane and not common :)
370 A today from mine.
I know, right. 100A seemed HUUUGE. Now that like 8am everyday...
@@USA-GreedyMenOfNoIntegrity I'm generating 0.5kWh/day at this time of the year from a 10kW array :)
toller Kanal.hab mir grad eine Amperetime 24V 200AH gekauft.
Had to remember it's summer time down under.
It's sunny hot down here!
I would look at setting up DVCC Andy, that way you can limit the 250a dynamically, but still allow each controller to utilise their maximum performance if there is
That would require the different BMSes to communicate with each other. I'm looking into this with the battery 2.0 first and see how this all works using the Seplos BMSes and batteries. Once I know more about it, I'll go and upgrade the production system as well.
@@OffGridGarageAustraliado you need the bus to do anything ? The dvcc should just limit the charge controllers to set value of for example 250 amps.
@@STRUTZKOFF I turned it on now and it works, kinda... there is a catch though with unmetered DC loads. It's not optimal, but it helps to limit the overall charge current.
Wow, big reward for all work which went into this, nice power into your batteries! Maybe time to hookup your house as well. And only let your house solar panels deliver back to the grid for a nice profit! Well done Andy!
Yes, that's what the sparky is looking into at the moment. It will be an interesting project if we can do that...
Now we can have aircon in the garage.
We probably will at some stage...
Wow, gee Andy. I thought you were going to put some serious power on your system? LOL, yeah right. You're top of the line, all the way! Rock on Andy, good job! Cheer's
(One of the things I really like about you Andy. Is you do not cut down trees)!
Thank you. Yeah, the power problem seems to be fixed. For now. Let's wait for wintertime though...
@@OffGridGarageAustralia no waiting for winter time in Fort Worth Texas. We here, are living it as I speak!
Amazing installation, like a lot your videos and learned already lot's of things about configurations of the systems. Think with your current production you reached the next level, start producing hydrogen for the winter😀. Living in south of Germany and our klimate would require a huge amount of panles to be offgrid in the 3 winter months. Enjoy Australia for that!
Thank you. Our Winter will be the season to see the true result of the new system. Summer is easy.
Congratz Andy
Thank you.
Time to start level 2 charging the Teslander!
I don't drive that much. A larger or faster charging won't make a difference 😏
I could install a Super Charger at the front gate...
Time for a sub panel to run some of the house.
Yep, coming... but it's complicated.
Was, Off-Grid Garage now Andy's Power Station
YES 💪
WOW, THIS is the video I have been anticipating. Congrats my friend and be proud of what you have built! Totally awesome, and Cheers for that!
Now the rewards for your labor. By the way... you were right... I heard that comment about cutting trees! hahaha.. 👍
I am also looking forward to the discussions coming up about being off or on grid. Love to compare my thoughts with others about this as well. (JK BMS's on all three banks after testing is completed)? Curious..
Thanks Dan. Yeah, it's an incredible and powerful system now. I won't go with the JK-BMS though for some specific reason which I will discuss in some future videos. They are a bit restricted when used in such larger systems.
Awesome crazy power
Another thing to consider is a bigger battery may also mean you might be tempted to use more power at night than you would normally. All up a fantastic video, it's really good seeing such a powerful setup in action. The Victron gear is amazing too, I use it and am very happy with it. I'll be getting a Cerbo GX in the coming days myself to do all the monitoring like yours.
Once the bigger battery is full, I'm with the same problem again. 44kWh seems to be a good size for now. I just need more load to use this capacity so the solar can recharge it the next day again and does nto turn off that quickly.
Hey Andy WOW!!!!. Maybe you can fit some industrial fans to your roof to blow the leaves off the panels, just to burn a bit of power!!!!😂
80 varieties of Eucalyptus in OZ...all with OILYleaves.
Faulty panel might ignite?
Like the FAN idea...
Run a few extension cords to the house Andy and use the excess power that way. Just a thought....
That's what I do at the moment, plugging in dishwasher and washing machine, kettle, toaster, microwave...
Not sure how much longer my marriage will last though 😂
Well done that should get the greedy energy companies running for the hills. Your work is so important in crushing public enemy number 1. The more go off grid the less they will be able to rip people off to buy their Champagne & Caviar.
im thinking those panels are running hotter due to their tilt angle in relation to the sun, if they are on a more direct angle with the sun they will absorb more heat.
Yeah, hm... I know what you mean. None of my panels are ever in that very ideal SPAT position. And if so, only for a very short moment...
That is awesome.
I always say... Its good to have more power than you need. Because of Cloudy days. But I Love the system man. Great setup ! Now you can come and do mine. lol
We had only 1 cloudy day so far and the system was still delivering over 4kW and was able to recharge the battery that day. Incredible. But we're in summertime and have enough light. Different story from February onwards. That will be interesting.
holy moly - YOU'RE RIGHT!! i've been a little concerned with the cascading-battery-BMS shutdown-overcurrent thing for a while now on my system... and yea! i *NEVER* thought that when the system goes into absorb/float it is in a constant voltage state and will only push the amps required. NOT the full amps of all controllers going to the max. so, at least, this alleviates any concern i have of this going on during absorb/float. thanks!
it's still a *possibility* to have a battery/bms shut down during bulk and then divide the amps among the remaining batteries... but the chances of a battery/bms going offline during bulk is... well, a very low probability.
wow. im ASTOUNDED at my incompetence! LMAO!
Very well done! Now it is time for a load management system. You need a home automation. Luxusproblem 🙂
Yes, I certainly do need such a system. Extension cables from the garage to the house are not good for a marriage...
It’s like a Jackson Pollock painting all that shading Andy and ya still producing power in the am 😊 that sure is nothing to S.P.A.T about 🤪🤪
I could spend all day on the roof and watch the shade moving across the panels... checking the app and smile. 🍺
love that jingle ha ha
now it's time for bigger main breaker and more batteries for storage on cloudy days or when the weather knocks the mains out for a week.
I think the breaker is fine for the shelf. More batteries need to be installed elsewhere. But they won't really help. I need more load!
The VRM already showed this morning you produced 52kWh with solar yesterday. Really nice! 😎
My solar controllers also show a maximum pv power thats around 20% higher than the panels are rated. So more power than calculated could be possible.
panels are rated at STC, which is 1000w/m^2 at 25'C cell temperature, many places on earth have higher insolation than that at some times of the day, especially in the middle of summer!
We usually have around 1300W/m2 but cannot compete with 25°C at this same time. The panels will be more like 50° when the sun is out. Still cloud corners can reflect parts of the sunlight back and increase production for a moment. 20% more output is possible for a short amount of time.
I wasn't really thinking about the "Cleaning" as being the point. RainX Repels water. When I use it on the car, even when it rains , I can still see out the window without wipers. Because the rain beads up and rolls off. Which begs the question, Since the dirt on a panel comes from the rain, if the rain beads up, and rolls off before it can evaporate from the glass, maybe they would only need to be cleaned 1x a year. I don't have a solar system, so I can't check that out.
Thanks Mark. I know RainX and it's a great product.
I would assume it will not work on solar panels as well because of the missing wind and the relatively flat angle of the panels. Most of the dirt is coming from dust, not the actual rain. But it accumulates at the lowest point of the panels.
I have cleaned panels for years without seeing any increase in production afterwards.
not bad Andy, not bad... my maximum from my 4,4kWp panels (max. 285Wp panels) was this autumn 160A... in 24V battery system with capacity 17kWh
Also time to get battery 4 in place, gives 1 hour extra to fill...
I need more loads!
@@OffGridGarageAustralia time for a second electric car or power the house (ot heat water etc). You'll find something!
Wow 50 kilo. In one day.. I use about 90kilo a month. Those panels are awesome 👍😎
with your excess power, feed your house with off-grid dedicated circuits, so you can use your power in the house where needed when you want to avoid paying hydro use.
Yeah, its' complicated... ua-cam.com/video/LQJZUmWDuCs/v-deo.html
@@OffGridGarageAustralia fair enough, just thought I’d share a way to use excess power from your solar system.
Superbe !
Sorry to waste your weekend binge watching E3/DC yt channel. 😁
I cut one tree down today increased my output 1-1.5kW! I’ve cut all that I need to with 34kW of PV. When you’re totally off grid, heating with heat pumps, heating your water with electric water heaters, you need every last watt. 65kWh yesterday, 124kWh. That’s with the shortest day coming up in about one month.
Excellent results, I love it! So the tilted panels are running hotter, my guess is it totally due to the colour as the tilted carport panels appear to be darker (Blackish), while the west roof panels? Are a bluer colour. I wonder if you laid one panel flat if its temp would increase any due to less ventilation?
Also, despite ur very good reasoning against having a 2nd battery, my thoughts why a second battery would/could be useful are as a quick charge backup for the Tesla, so you can fully recharge at any time if need be.
As far as burning More of the excess energy, I can only suggest to get a Dyno and put the tesla on it. Great job. Cheers
The tilted panels have a lighter colour than the shingled panels which are just black. I think it is because I measured the black panels at the bottom where cool air stream under the panels and the tilted panels, I measured at the top where the hotter air comes out in between.
I too thought I had too much power when I installed my 11kW System this summer. My 14kWh Battery used to be full by 10 or 11:00. Then the winter came, and the huge tree to the south started to become a problem. On a cloudy day I'm lucky to get 2kWh out of it, maybe 5 to 8kWh if the sun comes out. It's absolutely miserable, can't wait for spring time haha :D
Yeah, that will be the test here as well. There will be shading all over the panels. It will be interesting... until March, I enjoy a full charge every day!
Oh, I thought of one more thing. Since its a battery system and the batteries might be 100% full, the solar panels could potential overheat in full sun when the batteries are full and the charge controllers aren't pulling any power from the panels. That can reduce the life of the panels.
I've never had to deal with this sort of situation myself because I'm grid-tied so the system always accepts all solar power. I don't know a whole lot about potential solutions. Shunting power into additional equipment (heating the pool, for example), or running a resistive heater, or even constructing a sand battery for overnight heating. Etc. Something to deal with excess power when the batteries are full, though, would be a great project.
That cannot happen. It's not like with hot water solar when the pump does not work and the water overheats inside. It's the opposite with PV solar. No power means now power lose in the panels and therefore cooler panels.
I'm in discussion with the sparky to get the house connected without harming the high feed-in tariff for the house solar. It's a bit tricky.
@@OffGridGarageAustralia Hmm. I guess its only 20%, but the armchair physicist in me starts whispering "conservation of energy". If the energy hitting the panel isn't being taken away as electric power, where is it going? Either way we are only talking 20% though so perhaps it isn't that big a deal.
Heya, put some copper pipes at the back to cool the panels and us the water ( in these copper pipes ) to heat some water in a receptacle and you have your out site shower lol.
Hi Andy to much power im on the other side of the world and I have to little power oh well it is what it is best regards from South Africa
Id like to suggest maybe a Cool high powered battery Buggy project, with maybe a fast charging trailer/transporter towing affair behind the Tesla for a bit of weekend fun, but then we probably wouldn’t get so many great vids each week, would we? Nice!
Nah, can't be away for too long, the videos are waiting.
I can fill the Tesla twice a day now, it's crazy.
Wow!
Just wow... that is a crazy amount of power. I know the grid doesn't pay much for export but seems a shame if you can't use it all otherwise. Very interested to see your upcoming videos on this. 🙂
We have to stay off-grid with the system until the contract runs out for the feed-in solar on the house. A lot of restrictions when connected to the gris while off-grid I can just go nuts...
@@OffGridGarageAustralia I have heard you refer to this before, I think. We'll just have to see what other ways you can put that power to use. You are right that more storage doesn't really solve it... when that fills up you end up the same spot.
Maybe put an electric car charger out at the end of the drive with a credit card reader so you can put yourself on the commercial charger maps? 😅
Ich beneide dich langsam :-D , bei uns hier in Bayern wird der strom jetzt über 80% Teurer und Gas 110% - ab Januar. Sei froh dass du damals Ausgewandert bist ;-) LG Christian . Ps: Hock grad im Camper und bekomm kein Ampere rein 😑
Yeah, we left at the right time, I guess. COVID, energy crisis, now the conflict so close.
Power prices are rising here as well but I will be prepared if sh!t hits the fan.
I think a contactor based BMS would be a better idea. REC make a nice system that integrates with Victron and allows the charge controllers to throttle back.
REC costs as much as a kidney (same as Batrium). I'll explore some other alternatives before I go this path (maybe go this path).
With so much power you could almost tie in to the grid as an electric supplier.
It's off-grid. As soon as you connect to the grid, you have many regulations and restrictions to take care off. You cannot have unlimited solar and feed-in while being connected to the grid.
As long as all this red tape exists, it's not worth it.
Sounds like you need dump loads, sand heat batterries and water heaters. And no YOU CAN NEVER HAVE ENOUGH POWER! lol give it away to the neighbours, your set up is awesome, I love it. Mine is much smaller I am on a tight budget, I have just reached 1.3Kw of panels, but I am fitting more and more and windchargers about 1300 Amp hours of batteries now. We all have a social & moral obligation to destroy centralized energy production, together we can break the cycle of abuse/exploitation and the monopoly of the energy giants.
Great, Richard. That's the way to go and how I started as well. With 3 panels on the roof was my first set up.
Now you need to find something for that excess power - run AC during the day to cool down the house, hot water heating (which in summer time is less of a need), pumps where there is a purpose (pool/irrigation etc).
I saw a company (a while ago cant find the link) who sell a system which freezes plastic balls full of water and then air is pushed through the unit at night time and this provides cooling at night with only minimal power for the fans the freezing of the balls is done with solar. This way at night you're not drawing excessively on the battery bank.
I was watching Tech Ingredients they were doing some science on distillation and they froze water in a deep freeze with pipes in it to extract 'the cold' out of the block' to save water usage on the distilling (not legal in lot of countries though), but the idea is interesting using chest freezer as a battery to cool something down later on rather than using standard batteries.
But I guess these days just add more Lithium as they're getting cheaper? Compressed air is another interesting one but both of these (and water heating storage) are far more inefficient systems but as you have the solar on the roof, just a thought.....
The house is not connected as such so cannot run many loads over there. I made several videos about this and explained the circumstances around the high feed tariff I have on the house. It's difficult...
Yea, congratulations for your PREMIUM problem - too much power 🙂
My experience as well: watching the solar figures like a hungry cat watching birds :-)
It's very addicting... Dam you Victron for inventing the VRM!
I suggest you feel the temperature of the battery cables when you are charging at the maximum current you can. I suspect they would be getting a bit warm but would love to know for sure what is happening there.
Coming soon, just need to be at home when we have full power coming in.