For me the best voltage system in the last ten years is 21V. Cordless tools and lithium batteries were and still are the game changer this century imho. Reliable and now very affordable with an amazing range of functionality and portability. USB C runs a close second. It changes voltage on the fly and is now up to 240W with the right cable and device. Which sort of convinced me to jump to power stations. They run off solar of almost any voltage and are the closest to the plug and play nature of cordless tools. Perhaps the best “cordless” tool yet. 😊
Yes changing things around and multi voltage systems are good to have if one develops a problem. My Selectronic 1600W at 24V is now 26 years old and has been running 24/7 for most of its life as it is keeping some IT loads and automation products running. Also changed to Kings 120Ah 2 years ago this month with no issues so far. I did swap out the Plasmatronics PL40 for a Victron 100/30 as it is connected to a 1kWp array on the carport. Just got 2 X 60Ah Kings to use up the credit I got for the Kings 3kW inverter when it died right on 12 months old. They will be set up as a 24V 1440Wh system to back up and quick charge the EcoFlow power stations I am transitioning to. Very impressed with both of them. The 1800W Delta2 I think has a 52V 1kWh battery so it may be my first 48V system ever. Yet the 800W River2 Pro is the one I like most for its light weight and easy portability. Both Wifi connected and viewable from anywhere builtin. The River 2 starts and runs my 100L chest freezer which I was impressed with. When connected in fridge mode it uses less power than my 40l Engel. Also runs the induction cooker to boil water for a cuppa. Like you solar panels on the ground or leaning up against the house. Thanks for the new year update. Laabels get my thumbs up. 🤓
I have been considering getting a Bluetti power station to try, just the price is a little steep. Ahh the good old Plasmatronics controller. I ran the PL60 solar controller when I was off grid on my old property which fed to eight 6 volt Rolls Surrette L16 size flooded lead acid batteries wired series / parallel which powered that 1,800 watt Latronic inverter you see in this video. In fact I still have my old PL60 controller, I can't bring myself to get rid of it.
@ My friends Bluetti AC180 is on its way back from repair after 12 months use. My first purchase of Allpwrs S700 is still going strong after 2.5 years. On my 3rd Allpwrs R600 after 12mths. EcoFlow chosen after much research but too early to know if it’s reliable. Price was roughly 50% off pre Xmas sales but still way over US deals. Happy so far and feature list is impressive. Time will tell but fuse and cabling is low stress.
Thanks Glen Question please you have 12/24/48 volt systems which one is the best and most reliable and which one do you prefer the most. Loved the video give us a update on your kings freezer and the new sealing you added.
In relation to reliability, that well be determined by the quality of the components one uses. They are all just as reliable as each other. When one has a high current draw that's were the higher voltage system is preferred and is generally more efficient. 12 volt systems are great for low current draw and running DC appliances which mostly run from 12 volts. They are also good for running low wattage inverters. The 48 volt system is great for running high power demands like larger inverters and the 24 volt system is a midway point between the two. So I don't realy have a favourite in general but the 24 volt system is a nice system to play around with and gives you more options. A lot of DC appliance will run from 24 volts and it is easy to get 24 to 12 volt step down converters for running 12 volt devices. As mentioned above the 24 volt system can also run devices with moderately high power demands. So if I had to pick a system, I would say the 24 volt system would be my favourite system to play around with.
Yah, its easy to just keep playing around once one has had a taste of solar. I see you have a mid-voltage sensor connected up to the shunt. Have the two 12.8V batteries drifted apart from each other at all over the time you've been messing with them in series? You don't seem to have a whole-battery balancer connected up to them. I have great fun messing around with this stuff. My main system is 48V as well, but I have satellite 24V and 12V stuff that I still keep around. 24V is a great "middling" voltage to work with. It can directly charge many medium or larger power stations (anything whos solar input can take at least 30VDC), yet is still a high enough voltage to get good mileage out of cheaper charge controllers. And solar panel configurations are a bit easier at 24V for very small systems. When I'm not otherwise messing around with it, I just keep the old 24V gear conditioned from the 48VDC using a 48VDC -> breaker -> Victron 75/15 -> 24V system setup. I've started hanging a lot of POE+ (Power over Ethernet) stuff now too as I can power the POE+ router directly from the 48VDC battery system (POE+ is 50-57VDC and the 48V battery system's charge target is 56.8VDC, so they are compatible). Incredibly efficient without having to do DC-AC-DC. I also still maintain a couple of small emergency 12V (12.8V LiFePO4) device power sources for emergency lights, ethernet switches, and the alarm system. Those usually hang off of AC plugs. So basically: (AC) -> USB-C PD -> USB-C 19VDC cable -> Victron 75/15 (set to 3A) -> 20Ah or 30Ah 12.8V LiFePO4 battery -> device-to-power. That way I'm not completely SOL if a failure occurs in the main system. The 12V buffer battery can charge smaller power stations fairly efficiently, too. -Matt
People get fixated on batteries going out of balance from each other if put in series, but you should not get battery capacity drift if running only one series string and you have the charge parameters set right. Once one battery is full, 14.4 volts for example, the charge voltage from the controller will still remain high (at the bulk voltage) until the other battery becomes full and increases it's voltage to 14.4 volts as well (in this example). Once the charge controller see the terminal voltage of 28.8 volts (in this example) then the controller will stop the bulk charge cycle. Well the controller holds the higher voltage of a pre-set time to allow each battery to internally balance throw their own cells through their BMS. Then the charge controller will drop to a float or monitoring mode.
@@TheSimpleLivingAussie Well wait no... that isn't how it works though. The battery is not going to stop at 14.4V (think about it.. why would it?). The voltages for both batteries will continue to rise. For example, the first battery may hit 14.6V while the second only hits 14.2V (14.6 + 14.2 = 28.8). That drift will continue over time until one battery starts hitting its OVP disconnect on every charge cycle. On OVP disconnect,, the charge controllers will instantly step to 28.8V, because the entire series batteries stop accepting a charge once one of them disconnects. It becomes an open-circuit. So the other batteries in the series have no opportunity to continue charging to the appropriate charge target. Thus the drift is not corrected and continues, causing the bank to slowly lose capacity over time as one battery consistently hits OVP disconnect while the other battery's SOC hits lower and lower maximums. -Matt
For me the best voltage system in the last ten years is 21V. Cordless tools and lithium batteries were and still are the game changer this century imho. Reliable and now very affordable with an amazing range of functionality and portability. USB C runs a close second. It changes voltage on the fly and is now up to 240W with the right cable and device. Which sort of convinced me to jump to power stations. They run off solar of almost any voltage and are the closest to the plug and play nature of cordless tools. Perhaps the best “cordless” tool yet. 😊
Lovely Ep and setups Glen
Yes changing things around and multi voltage systems are good to have if one develops a problem. My Selectronic 1600W at 24V is now 26 years old and has been running 24/7 for most of its life as it is keeping some IT loads and automation products running. Also changed to Kings 120Ah 2 years ago this month with no issues so far. I did swap out the Plasmatronics PL40 for a Victron 100/30 as it is connected to a 1kWp array on the carport.
Just got 2 X 60Ah Kings to use up the credit I got for the Kings 3kW inverter when it died right on 12 months old. They will be set up as a 24V 1440Wh system to back up and quick charge the EcoFlow power stations I am transitioning to. Very impressed with both of them. The 1800W Delta2 I think has a 52V 1kWh battery so it may be my first 48V system ever. Yet the 800W River2 Pro is the one I like most for its light weight and easy portability. Both Wifi connected and viewable from anywhere builtin.
The River 2 starts and runs my 100L chest freezer which I was impressed with. When connected in fridge mode it uses less power than my 40l Engel. Also runs the induction cooker to boil water for a cuppa. Like you solar panels on the ground or leaning up against the house. Thanks for the new year update. Laabels get my thumbs up.
🤓
I have been considering getting a Bluetti power station to try, just the price is a little steep.
Ahh the good old Plasmatronics controller. I ran the PL60 solar controller when I was off grid on my old property which fed to eight 6 volt Rolls Surrette L16 size flooded lead acid batteries wired series / parallel which powered that 1,800 watt Latronic inverter you see in this video. In fact I still have my old PL60 controller, I can't bring myself to get rid of it.
@ My friends Bluetti AC180 is on its way back from repair after 12 months use. My first purchase of Allpwrs S700 is still going strong after 2.5 years. On my 3rd Allpwrs R600 after 12mths. EcoFlow chosen after much research but too early to know if it’s reliable. Price was roughly 50% off pre Xmas sales but still way over US deals. Happy so far and feature list is impressive. Time will tell but fuse and cabling is low stress.
Thanks Glen Question please you have 12/24/48 volt systems which one is the best and most reliable and which one do you prefer the most. Loved the video give us a update on your kings freezer and the new sealing you added.
In relation to reliability, that well be determined by the quality of the components one uses. They are all just as reliable as each other. When one has a high current draw that's were the higher voltage system is preferred and is generally more efficient.
12 volt systems are great for low current draw and running DC appliances which mostly run from 12 volts. They are also good for running low wattage inverters. The 48 volt system is great for running high power demands like larger inverters and the 24 volt system is a midway point between the two.
So I don't realy have a favourite in general but the 24 volt system is a nice system to play around with and gives you more options. A lot of DC appliance will run from 24 volts and it is easy to get 24 to 12 volt step down converters for running 12 volt devices. As mentioned above the 24 volt system can also run devices with moderately high power demands.
So if I had to pick a system, I would say the 24 volt system would be my favourite system to play around with.
Yah, its easy to just keep playing around once one has had a taste of solar. I see you have a mid-voltage sensor connected up to the shunt. Have the two 12.8V batteries drifted apart from each other at all over the time you've been messing with them in series? You don't seem to have a whole-battery balancer connected up to them.
I have great fun messing around with this stuff. My main system is 48V as well, but I have satellite 24V and 12V stuff that I still keep around. 24V is a great "middling" voltage to work with. It can directly charge many medium or larger power stations (anything whos solar input can take at least 30VDC), yet is still a high enough voltage to get good mileage out of cheaper charge controllers. And solar panel configurations are a bit easier at 24V for very small systems.
When I'm not otherwise messing around with it, I just keep the old 24V gear conditioned from the 48VDC using a 48VDC -> breaker -> Victron 75/15 -> 24V system setup.
I've started hanging a lot of POE+ (Power over Ethernet) stuff now too as I can power the POE+ router directly from the 48VDC battery system (POE+ is 50-57VDC and the 48V battery system's charge target is 56.8VDC, so they are compatible). Incredibly efficient without having to do DC-AC-DC.
I also still maintain a couple of small emergency 12V (12.8V LiFePO4) device power sources for emergency lights, ethernet switches, and the alarm system. Those usually hang off of AC plugs. So basically: (AC) -> USB-C PD -> USB-C 19VDC cable -> Victron 75/15 (set to 3A) -> 20Ah or 30Ah 12.8V LiFePO4 battery -> device-to-power. That way I'm not completely SOL if a failure occurs in the main system. The 12V buffer battery can charge smaller power stations fairly efficiently, too.
-Matt
People get fixated on batteries going out of balance from each other if put in series, but you should not get battery capacity drift if running only one series string and you have the charge parameters set right.
Once one battery is full, 14.4 volts for example, the charge voltage from the controller will still remain high (at the bulk voltage) until the other battery becomes full and increases it's voltage to 14.4 volts as well (in this example).
Once the charge controller see the terminal voltage of 28.8 volts (in this example) then the controller will stop the bulk charge cycle. Well the controller holds the higher voltage of a pre-set time to allow each battery to internally balance throw their own cells through their BMS. Then the charge controller will drop to a float or monitoring mode.
@@TheSimpleLivingAussie Well wait no... that isn't how it works though. The battery is not going to stop at 14.4V (think about it.. why would it?). The voltages for both batteries will continue to rise. For example, the first battery may hit 14.6V while the second only hits 14.2V (14.6 + 14.2 = 28.8).
That drift will continue over time until one battery starts hitting its OVP disconnect on every charge cycle. On OVP disconnect,, the charge controllers will instantly step to 28.8V, because the entire series batteries stop accepting a charge once one of them disconnects.
It becomes an open-circuit. So the other batteries in the series have no opportunity to continue charging to the appropriate charge target. Thus the drift is not corrected and continues, causing the bank to slowly lose capacity over time as one battery consistently hits OVP disconnect while the other battery's SOC hits lower and lower maximums.
-Matt
Thanks mate. New subscriber and fellow offgridder, enjoying your content. Keep up the good work.
Thanks mate.
Hi, I enjoy your videos. I wonder if you are running a battery balancer on your 24v system?
there is shading on the 24 VDC solar panels. are you able to pull them out a little farther to fix that problem?
Yeah it was from the star picket giving shade at around 3pm. I need to move the panels out a little.