When you try something new there is always a learning curve. It's great that you have the new generator, it's one of those things that you want to have and not need rather than need and not have.
Do you have ceramic tint on your windows to block the IR heat? Maybe shade a portion of your building that has some thermal mass radiating heat inside at night? You can find a way to reduce the needed load of your power system instead of just throwing more watts and amps at it. A few palm trees would help, but I wouldnt have any of that roof unshaded to start, since it looks to be in direct contact with your ceiling without an attic or air space in between.
Thank you for the suggestions! I don't currently have ceramic tint on my windows, nor do I have shading for portions of the building or any palm trees for additional shade. Now I realize I have a lot of work to do. I'll look into these options as ways to reduce the load on my power system. Thanks again!
Hi, thanks for reaching out. We're not currently discussing the price, as it can fluctuate significantly due to factors such as the exchange rate, materials, labor costs, and more.
I love the rocks you have put in front of your home. But and a big but we lived in El Cajon CA for a few years had a lot of rattlesnakes not as bad as some areas of CA so I am wondering if you are building a habitat for them 😊 we had to keep around the home clean no large plant pots, coiled water hose on the ground and our large bins away from the wall of the house I learned quickly when I found the first one relaxing in the coiled water hose to get it up off the ground it gave me a good heart beating once our friends told us what to do it was easy after that I would just send them to a different dimension. Love watching your videos keep them coming and hope all well with y’all
All very good and valid points. We covered the rocks with dirt to eliminate the hollow spots. Initially, they were just placed there, but we added the dirt for that reason. Regarding the hose, I have one that I've been meaning to move. This serves as a reminder that I need to relocate it or mount it to the wall. Thanks for watching and sharing your concern with us. T&K
Oh yah, it always happens... once you get hooked you start looking to reduce the propane/gas use, even across winter. More solar, more storage, more solar, more storage. But if I were to prioritize it, once you have enough storage to run overnight, piling on the solar is incrementally very easy and cheap to do. It is literally just setting up a solar string and pumping it into a Victron Smart Solar charge controller that is connected into the battery bus. You don't even need to go through the Growatt's limited MPPT capabilities. Solar, Victron, fuse on battery side, -> main battery bus. Done. Repeat. Consider some late-afternoon-facing panels too. The main solar strings would be setup for maximum daily energy generation, but having a string explicitly focused on late-afternoon-to-sundown actually makes a huge difference with regards to stringing-out your overnight battery capacity because it can keep your batteries topped-off almost all the way to sunset. And the same thing for morning. Another interesting item... in winter, or on generally cloudy days (sun obscured, all indirect light), it almost doesn't matter where the panels are pointing. So all the strings will be producing no matter their orientation. It's a very good combination. In summer you don't care that morning / evening-facing strings produce less daily energy because you will be overflowing with energy. But in winter, when you aren't overflowing with energy, they will produce almost as much as the main system. -Matt
Well good to see you haven't done in each other and or haven't melted yet. AS a Canadian (Nova Scotia) I've always wondered at what temp. we melt or just go insane. Thanks. P n D
I have 2 5k growatt inverters. 60kw of battery storage. You do not need to buy a bigger inverter just add another 6k. They talk to each other and each one will cover a line so you will have true 240 and duel 120V lines. The 240 is nice if you want to run large stuff like EV car charger water heater or anything that requires 240.
Thank you for the information! I wasn’t aware that the inverters can communicate with each other, but I'm excited to learn about it. Your setup with 2 5k Growatt inverters and 60kW of battery storage sounds impressive. I currently have a 12k and a 6k inverter. The 12k is my main inverter, but it's currently in for warranty work, so I'm using the 6k as a backup until it returns. Now I need to see if they can be stacked together, '12k + 6k'.
@@rvseeingyou The 12 and 6 can be attached to electric panel and even battery banks but they will not talk to each other. This is why I always suggest more smaller inverters. I will add another 5k inverter with more solar. I do not like those small MPPT controllers as they burn up to easy if power is stopped on battery with no warning. So I just use inverters which can hold excess power until its used.
Right now it's cheap to get more solar and more batteries. Since you need another inverter you can handle more solar and with more solar you can charge more batteries. I suggest bifacial solar fence facing east/west so you get sun all day long charging your system and running your AC units.
Thank you for the suggestion! Based on my understanding, the 12k Growatt inverter can handle a maximum of 12 (550W) panels. I’ve considered adding a few more panels and positioning them in a more westward direction. This way, I can still capture energy once the sun moves past the range of my main panel setup. Also, I believe I am limited to seven batteries in the stack. I am going to do some more research today. Thank you
@@rvseeingyou Yes, but note that you are not limited by the Growatt's MPPTs at all. You can always hook up however-much solar you want. Just setup a string and connect it up to a charge controller that then feeds into the main battery bank directly, bypassing the growatt. I highly recommend the Victron Smart Solar charge controllers... the 150/35 is an excellent cost-effective charge controller for a 48V system (I'm assuming 48V here ?). It can handle almost 1800W worth of solar and you can have more than one. Repeat as many times as you want, give each string its own charge controller, as long as you don't go over the battery bank's maximum aggregate charging amperage. Usually though it is actually quite hard to max-out the battery when charging, particularly when you have several batteries in parallel. But there will be a battery cabling limitation too so be aware of that. -Matt
Matt, you really know your stuff on this subject. Interestingly, a friend of mine who works in solar installation suggested the same thing to me a year ago. I had completely forgotten about it until I read your message. Also, you are correct, I am running a 48V system. It's good to know that I'm not limited by the Growatt's MPPTs and can hook up as much solar as needed with additional charge controllers. I'll definitely look into the Victron Smart Solar charge controllers; the 150/35 sounds like an excellent and cost-effective option. Thanks for the detailed advice.
@@rvseeingyou why buy a bigger one when you can buy another same size and have 2 so if one ever goes down and 2 will handle double solar double everything.
Nice to know how crazy expensive it is to get The Air Conditioned In the beach. We stay at 8000 feets altitute in Chiapas and it cost 35 Pesos per two month and The System investment 0$ The only inconvenient is 2 hours drive to the beach. In Merida it cost me 10 000 pesos per 2 month , it was crazy expensive! What about Baja. Can you get Connected to the GRid. How much it cost for this I love Baja Sur , maybe we go there one day!
When you try something new there is always a learning curve. It's great that you have the new generator, it's one of those things that you want to have and not need rather than need and not have.
Absolutely agree! And you're right about the generator-it's better to have it ready, just in case. How's everything else going on your end?
Do you have ceramic tint on your windows to block the IR heat?
Maybe shade a portion of your building that has some thermal mass radiating heat inside at night?
You can find a way to reduce the needed load of your power system instead of just throwing more watts and amps at it.
A few palm trees would help, but I wouldnt have any of that roof unshaded to start, since it looks to be in direct contact with your ceiling without an attic or air space in between.
Thank you for the suggestions! I don't currently have ceramic tint on my windows, nor do I have shading for portions of the building or any palm trees for additional shade. Now I realize I have a lot of work to do. I'll look into these options as ways to reduce the load on my power system. Thanks again!
You guys did 👍🏻
How much did the total cost of the two casitas cost?
Hi, thanks for reaching out. We're not currently discussing the price, as it can fluctuate significantly due to factors such as the exchange rate, materials, labor costs, and more.
I love the rocks you have put in front of your home. But and a big but we lived in El Cajon CA for a few years had a lot of rattlesnakes not as bad as some areas of CA so I am wondering if you are building a habitat for them 😊 we had to keep around the home clean no large plant pots, coiled water hose on the ground and our large bins away from the wall of the house I learned quickly when I found the first one relaxing in the coiled water hose to get it up off the ground it gave me a good heart beating once our friends told us what to do it was easy after that I would just send them to a different dimension. Love watching your videos keep them coming and hope all well with y’all
All very good and valid points. We covered the rocks with dirt to eliminate the hollow spots. Initially, they were just placed there, but we added the dirt for that reason. Regarding the hose, I have one that I've been meaning to move. This serves as a reminder that I need to relocate it or mount it to the wall. Thanks for watching and sharing your concern with us. T&K
Oh yah, it always happens... once you get hooked you start looking to reduce the propane/gas use, even across winter. More solar, more storage, more solar, more storage.
But if I were to prioritize it, once you have enough storage to run overnight, piling on the solar is incrementally very easy and cheap to do. It is literally just setting up a solar string and pumping it into a Victron Smart Solar charge controller that is connected into the battery bus. You don't even need to go through the Growatt's limited MPPT capabilities. Solar, Victron, fuse on battery side, -> main battery bus. Done. Repeat.
Consider some late-afternoon-facing panels too. The main solar strings would be setup for maximum daily energy generation, but having a string explicitly focused on late-afternoon-to-sundown actually makes a huge difference with regards to stringing-out your overnight battery capacity because it can keep your batteries topped-off almost all the way to sunset. And the same thing for morning.
Another interesting item... in winter, or on generally cloudy days (sun obscured, all indirect light), it almost doesn't matter where the panels are pointing. So all the strings will be producing no matter their orientation. It's a very good combination. In summer you don't care that morning / evening-facing strings produce less daily energy because you will be overflowing with energy. But in winter, when you aren't overflowing with energy, they will produce almost as much as the main system.
-Matt
Well good to see you haven't done in each other and or haven't melted yet. AS a Canadian (Nova Scotia) I've always wondered at what temp. we melt or just go insane. Thanks. P n D
No, I think we are stuck (literally” with each other 😂. Hope you have been well 🤗
What about supplementing the power with a personal wind generator?
I have 2 5k growatt inverters. 60kw of battery storage. You do not need to buy a bigger inverter just add another 6k. They talk to each other and each one will cover a line so you will have true 240 and duel 120V lines. The 240 is nice if you want to run large stuff like EV car charger water heater or anything that requires 240.
Thank you for the information! I wasn’t aware that the inverters can communicate with each other, but I'm excited to learn about it. Your setup with 2 5k Growatt inverters and 60kW of battery storage sounds impressive.
I currently have a 12k and a 6k inverter. The 12k is my main inverter, but it's currently in for warranty work, so I'm using the 6k as a backup until it returns. Now I need to see if they can be stacked together, '12k + 6k'.
@@rvseeingyou The 12 and 6 can be attached to electric panel and even battery banks but they will not talk to each other. This is why I always suggest more smaller inverters. I will add another 5k inverter with more solar. I do not like those small MPPT controllers as they burn up to easy if power is stopped on battery with no warning. So I just use inverters which can hold excess power until its used.
Property looks fantastic! Hot here in Phoenix. Heading for San Diego in a week. Keep enjoying life gang!! Timmy C Arizona
Hey Timmy! Glad you like the property! San Diego sounds like a great escape from the Arizona heat! How have you been otherwise?
@@rvseeingyou Been very busy with real estate the past month. Trying to close the deals now so I can relax the rest of summer......San Diego!!
Right now it's cheap to get more solar and more batteries. Since you need another inverter you can handle more solar and with more solar you can charge more batteries. I suggest bifacial solar fence facing east/west so you get sun all day long charging your system and running your AC units.
Thank you for the suggestion! Based on my understanding, the 12k Growatt inverter can handle a maximum of 12 (550W) panels. I’ve considered adding a few more panels and positioning them in a more westward direction. This way, I can still capture energy once the sun moves past the range of my main panel setup. Also, I believe I am limited to seven batteries in the stack. I am going to do some more research today. Thank you
@@rvseeingyou Yes, but note that you are not limited by the Growatt's MPPTs at all. You can always hook up however-much solar you want. Just setup a string and connect it up to a charge controller that then feeds into the main battery bank directly, bypassing the growatt. I highly recommend the Victron Smart Solar charge controllers... the 150/35 is an excellent cost-effective charge controller for a 48V system (I'm assuming 48V here ?). It can handle almost 1800W worth of solar and you can have more than one.
Repeat as many times as you want, give each string its own charge controller, as long as you don't go over the battery bank's maximum aggregate charging amperage. Usually though it is actually quite hard to max-out the battery when charging, particularly when you have several batteries in parallel. But there will be a battery cabling limitation too so be aware of that.
-Matt
Matt, you really know your stuff on this subject. Interestingly, a friend of mine who works in solar installation suggested the same thing to me a year ago. I had completely forgotten about it until I read your message. Also, you are correct, I am running a 48V system.
It's good to know that I'm not limited by the Growatt's MPPTs and can hook up as much solar as needed with additional charge controllers. I'll definitely look into the Victron Smart Solar charge controllers; the 150/35 sounds like an excellent and cost-effective option. Thanks for the detailed advice.
@@rvseeingyou why buy a bigger one when you can buy another same size and have 2 so if one ever goes down and 2 will handle double solar double everything.
Nice to know how crazy expensive it is to get The Air Conditioned In the beach. We stay at 8000 feets altitute in Chiapas and it cost 35 Pesos per two month and The System investment 0$ The only inconvenient is 2 hours drive to the beach. In Merida it cost me 10 000 pesos per 2 month , it was crazy expensive! What about Baja. Can you get Connected to the GRid. How much it cost for this I love Baja Sur , maybe we go there one day!
Ignorance does not merit a fully thoughtful response.
How much did it cost you ma'am ?