Off Grid Solar Power System Battery Bank Sizing! You MUST Do This!
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- Опубліковано 14 лис 2022
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IF you talk to an electrician you can probably rig a timer to keep the water heater off at night. Or switch it out to on demand.
@@davefroman4700 I am installing a heat pump water heater shorty. Probably in the next two weeks.
We live in Florida and get cloudy / rainy days more then you would think. We figured our battery backup for 22kw system (ac is not on battery backup). Instead of adding more batteries we decided to double our solar panel for those cloudy days. This was cheaper and has worked out. Thanks for your videos.
Well just remember to pay attention to the maximum charge rate of your batteries as people often overlook the fact that you can only push so much power into your battery at any given time. I have seen contractors void the warranty and destroy batteries because they drove too much current into them.
I always hated that Florida was the "sunshine state". Arizona gets much more sun!
Good solution if you have the room. I have noticed it is vary rarely that I have zero production. Even most overcast days I still get significant production.
I have 4kw solar with a single Power Wall. Here on the California coast they supply all my electricity needs the vast majority of time. I do have a heat pump backed up by a Natural gas furnace, gas range, gas hot water and gas dryer. As my appliances need replacement I am switching out for all electric. Next purchases are a heat pump hot water heater, and then an induction range. Presently I use only about a third of the power I produce.
I don’t have room on my roof for anymore solar panels and being in a condo I don’t have an area to ground mount them. So I will have to work within my 4kw production envelope.
You aint lyin about Florida, when I first moved to Leesburg I asked someone "Is it always this cloudy?" They said yes, it is.
This is by far the BEST video, because you actually brought out an appliance that is often used in a household and told us exactly how it would drain the battery…incredible and I am incredibly grateful for your channel! ♾💎✨
Glad it was helpful!
I’ve been looking for a video like this for months and your the first to really use real life examples of what to expect great job 👏
Glad it was helpful!
The best video I've come across summarizing solar power so far. Thanks so much.
You're welcome
Great video no wasted time just pure analysis that’s what I like to see
Glad you enjoyed
Great that you point out people don't think about the loads they are using in the day time and having to charge the batteries at the same time.
Thanks!
Awesome video. Really good information! Thank you !
Glad it was helpful!
You did a great job explaining I am currently putting together my solar system components and like you I don't have deep pockets it is a pay as you go project. But calculating load requirements can be a huge pain simply because as you stated there are so many variables we cannot control. But you did well explaining in layman's terms we can all understand. Thanks
Thank you. Glad it was helpful. I did order one of the Emporia monitoring systems so I can better understand the loads. I’ll do a review on it once I study my loads for a few weeks.
I just ordered a 13000 watt system and have been watching these videos to gain information. My utility (FPL in Florida) installed a smart meter on my home several years ago. I can research my past usage. Last year in July I used 39 kWh a day. This year is much hotter and I am using 42 kWh a day. I am getting 11000 watts of panels so I should have enough power. I am getting 20 kWh of batteries so I will have to watch my night time usage.
Living in Dallas and building a cabin in Pineland. I plan on being completely off-grid.
I really enjoyed your video.
Awesome. Glad it was helpful.
Beautifully done as always! - SS
Thanks again!
Thank you for posting. We are currently configuring an off grid power system in Northern Nevada. I have saved this video for future reference. We will have a generator back up so we will have ability to charge when the sun is not producing power through the solar array(s).
Glad it was helpful!
we have a switch to turn on our hot water heater. We turn it on 15 mins before taking a shower and its hot and good for about two showers. it also lengthens the life of your hot water heater.
Nice modification
We use a hybrid water heater, which uses a heat pump when enabled. pulls about 500 watts when heating water. Made by Rheem.
Great information for sure. Being East Texas bread, born and raised Texarkana. However living on lake Whitney, I still make the trip to Signature Solar to pick up my solar needs. You living very close by about 45 minutes I believe. Thanks for the great video, have a wonderful week. God Bless in all you do.
Awesome. God bless y'all as well.
Are you solar on the lake? I am near Juniper Cove and contemplating the jump.
I am 20 min north of New Boston. It is a real blessing to live so close to Signature Solar.
Having lived in Michigan and Western Washington states I can say yes very cloudy and rainy.
Excellent!
Thank you for the video! Very nice explanation!
You’re welcome
can't wait to go off grid!
Thx a lot for all your efforts & congratulations on your set up. I only needed 2 batteries, but I decided to get 4 anyway. Because I got the best. The Discover AES 42-48-6650 gives me 6,650 amp per hour per battery. I will never run out of amp
Wawoo brother your system is so amazing and thank you very much for shearing very helpful knowledge
Best regards from Philippines 🇵🇭
Salamat
I installed an Emporia energy monitor system before installing solar. It gives a very accurate understanding of energy usage. I like that you can look at loads in amps, watts or cost. They make a 16 circuit or 8 circuit monitor but it does have sensors to monitor total panel loads.
Awesome. I'll check the Emporia out.
@@CountryLivingExperience I know at my house with my emporia energy monitor my second highest using device behind ac was the water heater. So I have since replaced with a heat pump style water heater. I put it in my garage cools my garage down and costs a third to run over conventional should go a long way helping your batteries go further.
It looks like the Emporia are smart devices. Smart devices of any kind can be controlled outside of the owners control.
@@cjcj6656 I think you can opt to not enable features that would connect it to outside sources.
My Emporia only monitors energy usage it doesn’t control anything. They do have smart devices but I don’t use them.
I love your channel! Have a blessed day.
Thank you very much! God bless you as well.
Appreciate your updates. Just went live with my system yesterday with two EG4 6500 inverters like yours. Have 12,800 watts of panels and 6 - EG4 batteries, 30,700 watts. I do have grid die into inverters and first night batteries were drained and went to bypass to grid. Of course, no sun next day. Did read where batteries need to be charged from external source before using to be functional, I did not know. Charged overnight and will try again today. Do have sun. Again, appreciate the detailed explanations and the reference material.
Awesome that you got your system up and running!
Great video. Really helps me to understand how weak my system is even for a backup to my gas generator. Need mo powa
Thank you.
Certainly always need mo powa.
Very good video! Thanks for sharing
Thank you and you’re welcome.
Thank you for a very informative overview 😊
You're welcome
All I can say objectively is, Well Done Sir!
Thank you kindly!
The explanation I crave! Thanks.
You're welcome
Well done explanation, the key things I picked up on is that your very continuous about what’s was running. Can’t just use the power as if it was grid.
Thank you. Yes, that is key. It is a totally different experience from the grid for sure.
I would encourage you to look into Emporia Energy (or something similar) to monitor each breaker for energy use. I love mine and it allows me to track each circuit in my system!
Awesome. Thank you. Someone else mentioned that today as well.
Just installed one of those myself this week. Love the results!
Excellent video ! I worked in electronics and electrical systems for about 40 years, and everything you stated is right on. I am currently acquiring the parts and equipment for solar myself. I live in Mexico and have 4 separate meters and four separate breaker panels. This is due to rental units that pay their own electric bills. Plan is to have 4 separate solar systems with hybrid solar/wind charge controllers, batteries, and 220/110 inverters. Each system will have 2000 watts of solar and 1000 watts of wind power. So 12,000 watts max input. Battery banks will be sized appropriately.
Thank you.
Very cool that you are putting in solar for all of your apartments. Good luck with the install.
@@CountryLivingExperience Thanks.🙏 My panels are about 7 ft 8 in long (550 watts) but here, the proper angle is just 20 degrees, so the high end of the panels will be less than 3 ft off the deck.
Thanks for the video.
There’s a company here in the PNW that is working on developing solar roof “shingles”, so that your total roof becomes solar panels.
You're welcome
Tesla does that already
Best Video I,ve seen about explaining these things BEST!!! Awesome work i will deff subscribe. I have a 6kw system here in Jamaica 2 Lithium batteries each 7.5kw 150 AH.
Thank you. Glad it was helpful.
I learn a ton from your videos. Just installing my system now. I have 20 solar panels and luckily a micro hydro system that makes about 3kw continuous . I have 6 LifePo4 batteries. Hopefully I’m good to go
Awesome
3kw continuous you could run a mansion with a heated pool.
@@av1204 I would assume 3 kilowatts PER HOUR, NOT 3 kilowatts per second/continously.
@@WilliamIraWoodIV 3 kw per hr is still 72kwh a day. My all electric house uses 22 kwh a day.
@@av1204 Many areas in the contiguous 50 states only get 5 hours, on average, of prime sunlight that produces electricity from solar panels. So 3 kwh X 5 is only 15 kwh of power generation per day. ;)
Great explanation! I've had the Sense Utility Monitor installed for a few years now and that helps give a good usage of daily power requirements without having to look at all the energy stickers on all the appliances. I was able to take that information and have my bank sized to be able to power my home for 24 hours with no solar. Of course, like you said, when you can GET MORE BATTERIES, so I'm working on getting close to what you have for capacity, but I imagine you're taking your own advice and will be growing your bank even more. Keep up the great work!
Thanks. I'll check out that Sense monitor. Always keep buying more ;-)
Good evening, happy Christmas to you. I have to say this video was excellent . You really clearly identified all of the potential issues a new system builder will encounter. Your explanation of calculations for batteries and panels was excellent. Thank you for taking the time to put together such a clear and concise video covering all the basics.
Merry Christmas! Glad the video was helpful and informative.
Super video. Very useful.
Glad it was helpful!
I love all your videos by the way
Thank you kindly
I agree using an Emporia monitor is critical to figure out your loads.
Got one on the way. Thanks for all the viewers that have suggested it.
Just starting my OFF GRID life, have a small solar system for my Tiny house. 10Kwat of starage and 1.2Kwatts of panels., that dosen't cut it. I suspect I will need 20 Kwatts of storage and 6 Kwatts of solar panels for those winter days. My night time load is about 1.5 Kwatts. I do have a small electric watter heater and I placed a power switch and I only turn it on during the day for about 20 min as needed; works well. I will check out those calculators you suggested. Thx!
You're welcome. Keep building that system up.
Good video…thanks 👍
You're welcome
That set up is very familiar. very nice
Cool
Well done sir.
Thank you
We live off a 15kw 24v system. It runs everything we need, but we only run a 110v water transfer pump, fridge, chest freezer, and lights everyday. We do have a microwave, rice cooker, Xbox and TV, but we only use those durring the day or when the generator is running. Our house is heated with a woodstove, and we use propane for a tankless water heater and stove/oven. Been living off grid for 5 years up here in Alaska, and started off with a 2kw battery bank, and slowly been upgrading as the years go by.
Cool. We are adapting a house that was already all electric. We don’t have any extras like vid game consoles or tv either.
try adding an Emporia Vue gen 2 to your distribution panel to monitor up to 16 circuits works great
well explained mate, were in the same position, we all seem to be time poor to get it all done
Thank you
In my system I use a shunt to monitor all power going in and out. It gives me an extremely accurate idea of what my usage is and will be in the future. Along with the charge level of my battery bank. Right now, I'm averaging about 20KW of power usage per day. I usually can produce a little more than that per day with my solar arrays. Hopefully this continues for 31 more days 😆
I have thought about getting one but how accurate is it. Is it going to tell you what appliance is drawing what load at what time, etc?
@Country Living Experience: A Homesteading Journey Very accurate. You can see both live and past data. This gives you a timeline for when devices are turned on. If you know how many watts a device uses, it's super easy to track when it was turned on and for how long. If you don't know how much power something uses, no problem. Just turn it on while monitoring your power output. I use a victron smart shunt. I highly recommend it.
Actually to say that correctly you are averaging 20 kWh of energy usage per day. Power is instantaneous consumption and energy is power consumption overtime.
highly recommend getting a heatpump water heater they are insanely efficient
Absolutely! I have one waiting to be installed. A Rheem performance platinum.
Great video
Thanks!
AC, heat, and water heater are the biggest hits to your daily energy use. I only have 11kwh of lifepo4 batteries. However it’s just for outages, we are on grid. We only need it for cooking and keeping freezers running.
They sure are the bulk of the loads. Glad you have a good backup for your critical items.
Really nice video
Thank you
Don't forget I'm completely off-grid here in northwest Ohio with only five 355w panels
I'm running on 16 120ah lithium iron phosphate cells in 24v 5760wh now I have 8 277ah lithium cells on they way and then another 8 eventually because I want 16 of those 277ah cells as well to add to what I already have..Oh and I'm loving my new Senville Mini Split I talked to you about 😉
Glad the Senville is working out for you.
For energy monitoring I got Emporia Smart Home system. I still need to get one for my main panel and one for my workshop that's hybrid solar system.
Another thing that we did was got a hybrid solar water heater. Uses 400 watts most of the time to heat the water.
The main energy user is our whole house heat pump - non-geo thermal. 2 ton at 4k watts heating about 2k cooling.
And yes, it is a cycle of getting more batteries and more panels. Till the system has grown to acceptable off-grid for the majority of the time. Regardless, the electric bill will decrease each time.
I am going to get an Emporia soon. I have a heat pump water heater that I still need to hook up and do a video on.
We had a timer switch installed on our hot water heater. We have a family of three and we let it run for four hours every day. That gives us enough hot water for all to take showers and wash dishes. If we need more we can change it to be on longer or shorter.
Cool
Watching from Biliran Island, Philippines sir Erick...
Kumusta
Good info, I literally have the same system you have as I have modeled it after Will Prowse's system. To aid in faster charging during the day I picked up 4 of EG4's solar Mini splits and plan to use them to do my cooling/heating during the day so as much energy as possible from the panels goes in to charging up the batteries. But I am in FL so it will most likely be 90% cooling not heating. I did get the solar DC/AC 120V ones as it will be easier for me at least to wire them to 120 than 240 for use at night. I am also going to add a solar water heater element or possibly add a small second 30 gallon water heater with a solar heating element and switch between the two with bypass valves because during the summers here we really barely use any hot water, just for dishes and laundry. Showers are luke warm.
Thank you.
Good thinking on the DC mini-splits for saving on daytime load draw. I am thinking that they are using the same amount of power from the panels though. Aren't they still robbing your total from the panels and in turn robbing the amount the panels are sending to the batteries?
@@CountryLivingExperience They are each on their own separate panels, 4 each per mini split. so they are completely separate as far as solar from the main panels. At night however they will be drawing from the battery bank :/
Ah, I understand.
I HIGHLY recommend in buying 2.5-3.5x more solar KWH then what your daily consumption is to Help maintain enough energy being put into your battery bank storage and into your home that even when cloudy theres still enough energy getting to your home use and keeping your batteries charged
That is partially what I was alluding to.
Friendly advise - grab a few Tasmota energy monitoring plugs. Whatever you want, you can measure. One simple HTTP call and short script and you have online monitoring using csv text file.
Thanks for the heads up
Hi, very nice video. Couple of suggestions.
1. I like to monitor my usage using "SOLAR ASSISTANT". It runs on a Raspberry Pi and provides a timeline graphing of solar generation and loads. It's relatively easy to figure out what appliance is on at a particular time.
2. I think for most people 3 days of autonomous power yields a battery which is unaffordable. So perhaps you might define two or more modes depending on the weather forecast. Modes could be abundant solar, and no solar. If you know that tomorrow or the next day will fully charge your batteries you may want to keep all 3 mini-splits on. But if you know it will be overcast, switching to two or even one might be more appropriate.
Of course a generator may be the only source of power for those weeks when there is no solar.
I am a pensioner in South Africa where we have frequent power outages called "load shedding" so I put together a 24v 50ah lifepo4 battery with a 100v 20a solar charge controller and a 3000w inverter and 400w solar panels to help with my fridges and freezer during the day, at night I only run the 2 small fridges for about 4 hours during load shedding. Now I am planning a 24v 3000w system with a 24v 100ah lifepo4 battery and 920w solar. Later I plan to upgrade this second system batteries to 24v 200ah and the again to 300ah. I happen to be an electrician as well.
That is wonderful. Glad you are continuing to build your system. I know the hardships in South Africa with electricity. I have friends who live there.
I think the news said this pass winter was the most cloudy winter on record for Michigan & Ohio U right about going days on in with no solar I was to mad lol I ended up using my generator 4-5 diff times over the course of the whole winter & I'm in Toledo Ohio
I turn off the hot water heater during a blackout. We use electric kettles to get hot water as needed. This saves us about 10KWh per day.
Good call
Put the Water Heater on a Timer, it can be off at Knight.
Great explanation, thanks
You're welcome
I would make sure the panels had two positions. One position for winter when the sun is lower in the sky. I would have my HW heater, clothes dryer, and cooking powered by propane or natural gas.
insulation insulation, insulation. around the water heater, fridges, and freezers (just don't block airflow to the compressor), Not going to make a huge difference at one time, but every bit helps.
I added mine up, factored in a week of autonomy, and I need a shocking amount of batteries and solar panels.
I got 2 eg4-LL's (v2) and 1 6500ex inverter + the 6 slot rack. $5500 for a bit of battery backup to start, and I'll add solar and more batteries as I go. Our main power plant is now shut down and they say we'll have blackouts this summer. Wish me luck.
It is a shocking amount for sure. Just keep building it one piece at a time. Good luck.
@@CountryLivingExperience Good luck: all of our main power plants may soon die, in which case we all must be self-(solar) powered. So it seems.I am nowhere near that, as yet in S Louisiana.
Sense Home monitoring unit tracks KW usages and finds devices as it runs.
Great video. That is so true about having enough solar to fully charge up your batteries in a few hours. But my question is, what do you do if it’s raining for a few days? That’s when you need a plan B.
My plan B is having a few of Signature Solar 48v 18a chargers and run them off my gas generator. Well right there is another problem. If you’re going to use a gas generator your going to have to store gas and treat it, so it will last for a year. Then you need to figure out, how much gas you want stored. ( I have 30 - 5 gallon Jerry cans. Don’t judge me 😂. )
Then I ran into a little problem. I have 3 of those 48v 18a chargers. I have an 8500watt whole house generator. I try running the chargers off the generator, but every time I run just one charger, the outlet keeps tripping. But I have two small Ryobi 1800w generator and each generator runs one charger for a little over 6 hours.
Now that’s the problem that your going to run into. Having a generator or generators to run your chargers.
I’ve been doing my test now and not later in a middle of something bad.
What would you do for a plan B
Thank you. Leave some Jerry cans for the rest of us...😂😉.
Those chargers have a lot of amps running through them. Good you have several small generators.
I’m in the exact same boat. Use more power then the 3.65kw of panels can provide. I have the 6 rack of Lifepower4’s. My shunt shows that I use somewhere around 175- 200ah a night. Last few days here in Post Oregon we’ve been socked in with freezing fog and have been running the generator during the day to keep up.
Keep adding to your array. I will be doing that soon. The more the better for sure.
@@CountryLivingExperience yep NAWS had a 9% sale a few months ago so I bought another 3.65kw of panels and another charger controller. Just need county to hurry up with my permits.
Awesome!
Thank you Eric, very practical and useful info. I encourage people to access your excellent history of videos. We have your exact system except with only six batteries, all from Signature Solar. Our order of use/drain is the same; Solar, batteries, then grid as backup. We are also working towards whole house coverage. Referring back to your wiring video, our system is not connected yet because I'm unclear on using/wiring a sub panel and how that is wired to the main panel for the stated objective. Electricians here in East TN tend to shy away from solar. Can you point us to more detailed info on this?
Hello Eric, I would like the same education as Mike Hamer because here in South Texas electricians and my husband shy away from solar too. I'm trying to ve brave and follow your lead. I understand what's coming, but to my family I am a little on the doom side as the say. Thank you for all your efforts. God bless you and your family. You have an open door home here in Sugar Land.
You're welcome and thank you for suggesting our videos.
From the sub-panel where the two hot conductors (1 from each EG4's) land on 1 double pole breaker. Then I just run bigger conductors from the sub panel (2 hots, a neutral, and a ground) to the main panel. Land the neutral and grounds on their appropriate bar and the two hots on another 70A double pole breaker.
Which video did you watch specifically? I think I have a closeup shot of the sub panel and the main in one of them.
@America Gerzsenyi Thank you. God bless you as well.
@@CountryLivingExperience It was this video: "EG4 Inverter Installation Full System Wiring And Tips!" Off Grid Solar! Beginning at 15:52 "...AC out lines to load center which is subpanel...safety switch then back to main panel..." So it looks like I may need to migrate most breakers I want for "daily use" to my sub-panel/load center. I failed to mention we are at the same time installing the same system on my son's house. No need to answer, Eric. I will pay closer attention to info you have provided. May our Lord bless you and your precious family.
I kind of feel better about my heat pumps now lol. We have a 2400 sq foot home 2 42k BTU outdoor condensers and 7 indoor air handler mini splits and with it being 20-30 degrees outside we have been using right around 3KWH overnight for heat that was with the fridge, freezer, 100 gallon fish tank with 3 filters running and a heater plus various other appliances, security lights / landscaping lights as well.
3kwh is not bad for all of that.
@@CountryLivingExperience yea Im surprised your mr cools are using that much for heat. I have the Mitsubishi hyper heat. Have to see what they use when its down in the single or negative digits but anything is cheaper than oil even if it goes up to 6KWH a hour sure beats the current price of $6 a gallon for home heating fuel.
For sure. Fuel oil is out of control. We used to have it in Michigan years ago.
Hopefully I can add five more panels by this spring or summer from SanTan Solar honestly I wish i could just pack everything up and move from up here in Ohio
sense makes easy to use monitor. also get hybrid hotwater heater.... saves 2-3 kwh a day.
Yep, I have a heat pump water heater waiting to be installed. Been sitting here for a month...lol.
Here are some numbers to compare to his usage overnight. This guy's house used 28.5 kWh over a roughly 8 to 10 hour period. He ran some mini-splits for heating, old water heater, and fridges+freezers.
I analyzed my previous house electricity usage in order to get a ballpark of what I would use and what I may need. My 1500 sq ft house used an average of 11.35 kWh per day during a 10 month period. I excluded July and August because I like my AC and I kept those numbers separate based on heavy AC usage or little/no AC. My toasty summer months average was 24.3 kWh per day. That's everything including the central air.
I think the video author here is using a lot more electricity than he thinks for this test.
Disclaimers regarding my house electricity usage: Heat and cooking was gas; no one was home during work hours so just the 1 fridge was running. Off hours was pretty typical use of a few lights plus big TV plus computer. For the AC, like I said I love my AC and I keep it cranked up during the summer. I want to say I set it maybe to 68 and leave it on all the time.
So you had no heating load, no 2nd fridge, no freezers, no heated dog bed, no electric hot water tank. Hmmm... no wonder your consumption was significantly lower than that shown in this video!
@@timb7814 you've just proved how much energy he wastes converting electricity to heat. He talks about his energy usage as if it is minimal when he is in reality burning watt-hours despite everyone being asleep in their beds. He is a living meme of the dog in the burning room with his coffee mug saying 'this is fine'.
Yeah I was thinking the same this 😅😂
I mean the fact that OP doesn't have a whole home/individual circuit shunt/hall battery monitor system tells me this guy is just a keyboard worrier spreading forum information. Immediate red flag.
Right now Im using 17-22 kwh a day in 24 hours in a 4600 sq ft house in Northern Virginia. Your house is using over double what I use....
Love the content! I see you added another battery rack. Does the large main cable that connects to your bus bar need to be the same length for both battery cabinets to avoid charging issues? I know from bus bar to inverters cable lengths need to be the same, but didn't know for the additional battery cabinet? Thanks!
Thank you very much.
I haven't noticed any charging issues between the two cabinets. My cables are relatively the same length however. If you have seen Will Prowse's video, it looks like they are different lengths but it is a bit hard to see.
I have 3 of the battery racks that hold 3 batteries each... from each rack they go to an enclosed bus bar with all cables being the same length and size (4 AWG) From the negative and positive bus bars we go to inverter with 4/0 AWG cable. All nine batteries have always stayed balanced on their respective voltages. Within 100 millivolts.
Thank you sir for the very informative video about off-grid solar and sizing. I have one question sir, will the battery while being charged in the daytime also supply power to the house load when the solar power becomes insufficient?
You're welcome. Yes, that is how the system works when you have batteries.
You need insulation for hot water heater....then a timer. Even the grid i had a timer it was a hour a day for me so i could take a shower. It also had a bypass if hour wasnt enough. You really need one for an solar power solution.
Awesome explanation!!! I'm just lost on how to do this for my ice cream truck here in hawaii😮...I need 10000 watts surge power..but only 8000 watts running...and the most I need it for is 8 hours. I need help...I need help...I'm dumb...lol...Mahalo for all your info..love your channel!!
Thank you.
You just need an inverter that can handle 10kw or two inverters that can handle 5kw. Mobile platforms are very different. There is a channel that is called Explorist Life. They do a lot of solar installs in vans and RV's. You may find some valuable info there.
M A H A L O !!!@@CountryLivingExperience
72 degrees is overkill, if 65 is too cold then you need to buy more blankets.. not to mention the part where a wood stove installed would cost about the same as 1 of your batteries and would add a lot of resilience and utility to your property unless you have no trees.
hi
Thanks for sharing. If I may :
You totally forgot the number 1 thing to do : ISOLATE your house.
You could divide per 10 the amount of electricty needed for your heating.
I live in a 300m2 house, well isolated, and almost have no need for heating.
A stove might also be , on e your house is correctly isolated, a much more efficient - and cost effective - and ecological - solution - than putting - 50kWH of lithium battery.
Best regards
You should install a timer on your water heater. Keeps the water heater off while you are sleeping
Cool. I am switching it out for a heat pump water heater soon.
a very nice video. but always in my mind how many kwh could win in winter in harsh conditions.For example i ve got a 10 kwh solar generator could it be generated at the worst situations in wintwer every mont at least 300 kwh that is our energy monhly needed.
currently running the numbers on the Solarks or EG4. Two/Three EG4 won't be enough based on solar input. Two gets you about 16k max, and I plan to mount about 22k, requiring 3, BUT I have quite a bit of usage across the farm. 3-4 may be needed for load side. If I went with 3 EG4, I may split the panels to be some DC and some AC to keep within specs.
You can only run the EG4 in pairs unless you are going for 3 phase (very uncommon). So you would need 2 or 4 of them. Solark is a whole different animal and costs considerably more.
@@CountryLivingExperience Thanks for the heads up. In all my reading and planning, missed that minor detail. THANK YOU!! 2 isn't enough, 3 would not work, so 4 it is .. which gives me ample of everything (except wall space.. hahaha). Thanks again.
Thanks for the video I was wondering if you could do a summary section at the end so people who aren't necessarily watching the video and are listening often miss sections and so miss the actual numbers and then I start searching for specific numbers and I never find it so then I give up.
Good suggestion. I will try to do that on future videos.
I did put the time codes for the different chapters of the video in the video description.
Good info. I'm running into that issue of just not having enough batteries and panels. Certain devices like electric dryer really drain my batteries. Have you thought about adding wind turbines to supplement your solar? I've been researching that but its hard to find good information on pairing the two together using the EG4 system.
Thanks.
We quickly ruled out wind because we live in an area with very little. We are going to add propane for the big loads like the dryer and stove. We will try to add as many redundant systems as possible.
Don't do it. Wind is just too damn hard for a small residential application.
If your system logs current draw, the water heater will stick out on the graph as a big spike.
Thanks for the heads up.
Hey, have you tried to see how would you charge your system if the grid was down and it’s been raining and cloudy for a few days to a week? That’s something I’ve been working on since last year with some small generators and battery chargers. I think it’s something you should test, for just in case.
P.S. love your videos. Keep out the good work.
Thank you.
I have a small generator with a battery charger. I showed it in another solar video. Without those inputs, my system will last for 2.5 days depending on the loads I use.
@@CountryLivingExperience I saw your signature solar charger, 48v 18a. You need to keep in mind the load you are using . That charger will only lower the amount of load your using and not really charge your batteries. I have three of them that I run on 3 Small Ryobi gas generators. With three of them running and a load on my system, it will take a whiles to charge up my 25,700kw system. That’s the reason I got a 48v 50amp chargers that run on 240v. My goal in to charge my system up from 20% to 90% in under 5-6 hours or less.
You gave me more information than anywhere else about how to match the batteries to the solar panels but I have so many questions and very little knowledge. I currently have a 10kw solar system which goes directly into the grid through the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). One unfortunate problem is that I'm limited to a 10kw system by agreement with the TVA until next year. After the agreement ends my hope is to be off grid, increase the number of solar panels, and add the appropriate EG4 Lithium Batteries. Can you be of assistance or should I go directly to Signature Solar. Thanks again for the informative video!
You're welcome. Glad you get to expand your system next year. If you use this link to order it helps out our channel.....www.signaturesolar.com/?ref=countrylivingexperience Let me know if you need anymore advice.
There are different ways you can it. I have a separate box set up for each individual room. Easier to keep up with for me. The only thing constantly running is my refrigerator, my lights are so efficient that they could run all day and night, I don't need ac because the way I have it insulated it stays in the 70s even in the Florida summers.
If you install a propane tankless water heater on your electric water heater cold inlet , you will make it in the winter( 60c inlet ) whit your battery’s.. just turn the ignition switch of in the summer and let cold water run true it ..
Using solar for heat is crazy unless u uave a surplus of solar. It is very ineffecient when it comes to heat. Wood, coal, propane, and gas are the way to go for heat. Without the heat production many can get by on only 2-5 kw per day. So 1-2 of those $1600 batteries is a great syart. Nothing wrong with having 9 though. Have to save up 😅
like the last comment mentioned, adding solar panels can often be cheaper than more batteries to get you started and help cover. Your AC needs on the hottest days.
I'm surprised with all the stuff you got, that none of it was a Sense, or an emporia Vue, to monitor your energy. That was the best way for us to discover our usage and specific appliance draws
I do now. I did a video on the Emporia. I had never heard of those monitoring systems before making this video.
Great videos! Did I miss the video of you adding the smaller rack of 3 batteries to the system? I just got 6 more EG4s delivered today! I will have 2 full racks (6 +6). Is adding the 2nd rack as easy as just hooking up to the external buss bar? Thanks
Thank you.
I didn't make a vid of me adding the additional batteries. Adding it is easy. If you take a look at the bus bars screwed on the wall, you can see the batt cables coming into it from the new small rack. Will Prowse did it the same way. He added from another battery bank into that wall mounted bar.
I was hoping it was that easy! However, electricity (especially solar) can have curve balls. Thanks again for the videos.
I have a question for you, do you mind sharing how you hooked up your inverter out put power in a breaker box. Thanks for your help! I have a similar off grid solar system by I have only the 3 kw (EG4) inverters and thinking about upgrading to the ones you have. Thanks in advance for your help. 👍
Of course. Did you watch our installation videos for this system? If not check them out here...ua-cam.com/video/-5w6b_2LxtQ/v-deo.html, ua-cam.com/video/gnA44z6PYyk/v-deo.html
The shorter days are starting to be noticeable on our power Opposite of you i have way more solar but less batteries. I keep adding batteries. Over 20kw of panels, 20kw inverters, and only 35kw of batteries. We hit 100% nearly everyday there is even partial sun. Two hours of mid day sun and that’s a good day to do laundry. Cloudy days not to bad but dark rainy days when it rains all day wow those are pitiful. Try adding a insulation wrap cover to your water heater that will help it not need to turn on overnight. It’s amazing the way we learn to use energy based on sun. We started in an rv so we would turn our water heater off at night. Still hot water in the morning anyway then flip a switch back on for it when the morning sun is up.
According to my Emporia Vue, my home consumes between 37kW and 42kW/day, every day (about 1,400kW/month). I would be draining and depleting this entire rack of batteries Day 1, and then take 7 days of 3-4 solar hours per-day to fill it back up again.
Using the calculator at the altestore, it shows I will need 48 x 500W panels just to cover my current monthly load. I don't have the rooftop acreage to even come close to bring in the 23kW system needed to cover that usage.
You would only drain your entire rack if you had zero input from the panels. i.e. in a multi-day thunderstorm. Not sure why it would take you so long to charge them unless you only have a tiny amount of panels. You need to have enough panels to supplement your loads and charge in a reasonable amount of time. Keep adding panels up to the point where your inverters can't handle anymore input voltage. 48 is probably overkill but you should try to start with 20. Also, try to manage your loads on the cloudy days better. i.e. postpone laundry, etc.
Thanks. Very good explanation. My off grid project is pending. I will have a house similar in size to yours. And probably very similar load demand. I am wondering though... Do you have a submersible well pump. If so, is it 240 or 120? Does this stress the inverter output - especially when other high draw things are operating? heat pump, fridge, oven, dryer? Although you do have some control over turning things on, the well pump is an exception.
You're welcome.
No stress on the inverter with the loads I have. My well is on a separate transformer. It is 240. Well pump load draw can be mitigated with a large pressure tank that will keep it from coming on so much. I will be adding a system to that in the near future.
@@CountryLivingExperience what do you mean by separate transformer
@@sh839c A separate grid transformer. Totally separate from my house.
Hey, i love your videos and Wanted to get your opinion on our set up. We have a Off grid cabin in upstate NY and our daily loads range from 1.5-2.5kw per day.
With have 8 x 280watt panels (2,240Watt) which output 40-45 volts at a Max of 8 amps on a Sunny day. (During winter months, its cloudy and we mainly get 1-2 amps and about 2 sun hours.
We have a Growatt ES 5000, and only 2x 5000Watt Eg4 batteries.
The issue we run into is during November/ December when we have to run a Honda gas generator to power our 48V charger to then re-charge the batteries. because cloudy days can go on for 4+ days in a row. during these months batteries hover from 40-70% never getting to fully charged.
Our option moving forward is we want to buy a Generac natural gas generator because we have unlimited natural gas on the property, We would use this as a Electric panel tie in or as an option to run it through our Growatt to supply power to house/ charge the batteries.
Other options i dont think will work as well would be buying more batteries, I get that they provide a buffer but even with 2 we cant get them up to 100% charged during this cloudy months (Summer its fine).
Another option we didnt want to pursue, is to angle the panels, and they are already on the roof at 28 degrees so getting them to 40-45 degrees on a roof , we cant find an affordable solution for this. (Ground mount is out of the question).
Again, you dont need to answer this but would love to get your take on this issue we are having and a possible solution we may not have thought of. thanks in advance. love the videos.
Thank you.
You are going to have to weigh the cost/benefits of adding that Generac. How large is it...how expensive? Solar in upstate NY is tough because of the amount of sun as you know. Of course that being said, the more panels you have the more power you produce. If you have that much cheap natural gas, I would switch to that for your big loads and keep the small solar for lights and refrigerators.