Hi Andy, thanks for your channel! You should get many donations from Victron and also from JK, Eve and Gobel power. Today my official 3-phase Victron system was installed with a Gobel power battery in good old Germany. Before I started at my garage with an island system and own build battery. Without your channel neigther one nor the other would have happend! Thanks and please continue!
I always like seeing your videos about winter solar production. It means that it’s almost summer here and that my system will really start producing again.
Very Scottish weather you have there Andy. Heavy rain yesterday afternoon and heavy fog this morning has me frightened watching chunks being munched out of my battery shelf 😨
Well, it’s Saturday 22nd June in Ireland, Northern hemisphere, when we have just has our summer solstice. Now our days will be getting shorter and yours will be getting longer. So, enjoy the extra rays and keep up the great work👍
he is living in australia, he needs an upright or vertical position and I guess he had plans to build a new off grid garage as he had mentioned in January or so. Pool fence has a tradition and is also a good showcase. He had seen it from a german youtuber trying to live offgrid after the utility company had tried to screw him.
I always looking forward to australian winters because on our side of earth it's summer and i already had a lot of days with 100 amps outside 😊 thank you for your vids Andy
Good info. I haven't had to deal with MC4 connections yet, but I have heard a number of people that were annoyed at trying to keep track of the polarity of any given plug.
Dear Andy, intuitively as I am in a similar latitude, and my ideal winter angle is ~18 degrees, you would get 20% or more improvement if you lift the bottom off the grass like 20cm
Colour code your cable - you could use a short peice of red heatshrink on the the extension. I have colour coded red/black extensions and don't get confused!
Spring time now in Ontario Canada, get my best solar power in May/June. Summer the haze drops my solar. Installed some vertical bifacial panels east facing, for low winters sun and keep the snow off, will see what happens in the coming winter. Grid power 11pm to 7am its 2.8cents/kWh 4pm to 9pm its 28.8cents/kWh Rest of the day its 12.2cents/kWh Ultra low rate home charging it costs me about $6.00 per 1000km for my LR Model Y Use my solar system batteries during the 28.8 time and some of the 12.2 time , works great in the summer. In winter not so much, but do load shifting battery charging at 2.8 to use at 28.8 time.
Ive seen people put up Bi-facial panels as fences around homes. Seems very effective. If you have the space, look into windpower aswell. A istabreeze heli 2.0 of even 4.0 might work great if you have a bice open space.
And to be honest, id kill for those clouds in winter here. Its even darker, for atleast 3 months non stop. With 9500wp of solar, i produce around 100kwh in Jan or Feb 😂
Micro wind isn't worth the hassle even if you have unobstructed wind. Andy's trees would just destroy the main bearings as the turbine flapped around like a dying fish. Then the first storm of the season will eventually blow the thing off. You need more complicated electronics and inputs are erratic. I live on top of a hill 30 miles from the Atlantic and my 1kW turbine was effective in winter but noisy. It needs annual servicing and eventually the blades and alternator were spun off the mounting in a storm and landed 30 ft away on one of my greenhouses. Solar panels are so cheap now that it's easier to cover every roof space, regardless of aspect and harvest everything that the sun delivers.
You’re overthinking it unless you’ve reverse polarity your cut-off switch (wired it wrong nothing to do with mc4)it’s just not possible to plug the mc4 in the wrong way (you could get red and black cables) also 4x panel to get higher voltage but still be within 150v unless they are 50v panels then yes 3x be max (your victron can handle 150v max and I guess 30A charge if it’s the 150/30 model) If you got the higher voltage victron charge controller like the 250 or higher (or get a charge controller that allows overrating like 5kw on a 3.8kw limited inverter) you be able to string higher voltage strings and get more power overall
Nice to see you back chap, I know thay be good times then the remainders....... Anyway.....it's that time of year we in north can say....ha ha......more solar Well my system......I need more storage, I'm dumping power already....well in bits, weather here in UK is really dull then sunny....it's proper mixed. Well IV few updates to do.....ready for our winter. Hopefully next year I'll order more storage. Then up grade to 48v system.
The only days I see over 14kW solar from our 14k and some Solar install is early in spring on our 45° roof in Germany. When it is nice and cold and sunny. Doesn’t even have to be 100% clear as it seems. I never thought I would enjoy checking the power output before we installed the thing. We installed an exact copy in the Netherlands. That gives less in Winter, more in summer (crazy Dutch power billing makes trying to make efficient use of you own power not financially interesting, it’s all about total power delivered in a year).
Your garage is like my hunting cabin was. Roof blocked natural light, so I had to have lights on all day long. Cabin had windows, but not enough light. Cut some strategically placed holes and cover them with Polycarbonate sheeting. They probably make it with same rib configuration as your metal. Want spend some $$ and do it right. Look into Solar tubes. There fantastic.
glad im not the only one....🤔positive end of string connects to negative line, which isnt negative, cos it comes out positive...then plugs into a negative to finally enter the positive terminal...now add several parallel connections to the previous.👍
The only way you have polarity is from a source, that means the solar panel sets the polarity, from the source is positive which connects to a sink, negative.
Make a solar panel cover that goes over top of the entire pool that is adjusted for peak optimal generation this time of year. Then maybe have it adjustable and running off micro grid tie inverters that feed into the electrical system providing power back to the inverters to charge the battery and or supplement power usage during the day
Dunkelflaute weather here in SE Queensland has been terrible for solar. Even my 2kW PV hot water heater has needed constant boosting. I'll have to add more panels, but it's on the second storey. Andy have you thought of adding a temporary /permanent underground conduit for the DC from the pool to the shed. I'm putting a T/P run under our lawn to power a friend staying in a caravan for a few months. Cables disappear too quickly in grass, and mowers find them too easily..
0503’24/1224h 🇺🇸 Hello Andy, thank you for the facts, and appreciate that very much. Yes, truly MC4 is designed badly in such a way that, the Positive is Negative and vise versa. This happened to me because I had to cut MC3 connectors from older PV panel and install MC4. Connected and I found the mistake. Luckily I had ELEJOY WS400A, which saved ton of short circuit.. thanks to you for introducing Elejoy years ago. Cheers und 73s…
Haha electricity anxiety have same problem here in South Australia think I worry to much about sun if my batteries going to last all ways checking ect. Good video cheers
Hello Andy, i think that you need a better efficiency water heating system. Have you tried the heat pump water heater or direct heating tubes from the 🌞 .
Hi Andy, ich verstehe deinen Grundgedanken mit den MC4 Steckern, dass die Polarität vertauscht sein kann. Aber nur nachdem du sie gecrimpt hast, wenn die Anlage schonmal richrig funktioniert hat, dann sind die Stecker in der richtigen Polarität und du kannst sie nicht mehr vertauschen. Übrigens hatte das ähnliche Problem von der DC Sicherung zum 150/60 polarität vertauscht, Laderegler hat es erkannt und zeigt einfach keine Spannung, du kannst also auch falsche Polarität anschließen und zu schalten ;)
Andy, your beaker polarity might be reversed (not the charge controller). When viewed from front the upper left is negative and upper right is positive. Please double check your model. If it is wrong turn off the charge controller or wait till dark to turn the breaker off( no load = no arc) to fix. Keep up the great videos 😃
This particular circuit breaker is non-polarised and meant/rated for PV use. The positive can be on either left or right, and load can be top or bottom without affecting the breaker rating.
This is making me think I could put up solar panels under trees: they would drop their leaves in the winter. Would need a system tolerant of shading from the branches though.
Given how cheap panels are now Andy, why not get some >=430W panels for the pool fence ? In terms of the MC4s I tend to turn some red electrical tape around the cables as a reminder to myself.
I chopped out every single MC4 connector earlier this year, 48 solar panels. I immediately gained almost 20% more power using nothing more than soldered joints and shrink tape on all the wires. Great for getting your system up and running, but in a year tarnish related losses start even using the best brands of MC4 made.
@@universeisundernoobligatio3283 Using a infrared camera is how I discovered it. They were warm to hot like a resistive choke point. The MC4 plastic tends to expand in the heat, the result is lower contact value so the connector would be acting like a resistor. I removed a few, the amps from each panel was 5.9 to 6.1 and rose to over 6.8 just with a wire nut used to see if I was seeing such a loss.
@@universeisundernoobligatio3283 Only 5 of nearly 100 had much corrosion. The big problem was deformation. Junk quality plastics. Brands I used were BOUGE RV, RENOGY and some random AliExpress stuff. Better off 100% removing them and using solder and glue laden marine grade shrink tape.
Dear Andy, why do you not use PVT panels to heat your tap water? You can still buy sandwich panels to collect the heat from the panels and than heat a buffertank for tapwater with it. Electric boilers a such a waist of energy. You can even cool your PV(T) panels with your poolwater to gain even higher production from the PV system with it and heat the pool at the same time.
I kind of do not understand - you have plenty panels left - so why are you feeding a 150 Volt victron charger with only 90 Volts? one panel more in each string should add up to 120 Volts right? Your fence seems long enough
You have to understand the chain of command. Andy first has to clear this with the “government” before he can add any panels to the fence. As we all know: If “government” doesn’t approve it first, you better not do it. 😂
They're probably 40-45v panels in proper sunlight, so 3 in series is the most you can go safely. Sure they might be 90v now, but its so cloudy and shaded that its the max you get. He's getting 44 watts from 1.5kw worth of panels so you know its very thick cloud.
Hey Andy, have you thought about getting a heatpump do your hot water? It will be about 2 times more efficient, but idk how the Brauchwasser -Wärmepumpen market is in Australia
Is your system on the roof connected to the grid and feeding everything into the grid cause you had mentioned it once in a while that you had built that in a very last moment before the program of the region was running out when a neighbour had told you about the opportunity ? And you also had said that you are not allowed to change anything on that system on the house. Time to use the panels from the carport somewhere, even on a flat surface just above the rainwater . We had put 7 big 550 Wp panels on the metal roof of the carport which in reality is our workshop like yours , had never seen a car. This carport is between 2 houses and fully in the shadow of the gable, except for 2 hours of full sun in the afternoon. But they delivered at least 2 kWh somehow every day and that was better than nothing during winter. Helps not much, but still a bit. Now these are gone and next winter we might start using old ones again cause they were only stored with some more for a friend.
You can never have enough solar, he can put another string of 3 on that 150/35 cc without overloading it, solar panels are cheap compared to everything else.
Just curious, what degree latitude do you live at, and do you think if you matched up that degree on your fence solar panels if that would make much of a difference? That might be a really simple test that you could do on just two sunny days...
Sir,I want to connect Noark 2 pole circuit breaker between charge controller and battery but I'm confuse about direction.Upside of a breaker is a power source and downside is a load so do I connect upside power source(cables to battery) and downside load(cables to charge controller), + cable on a left side, - cable on a right side?
interesting .. all this based on the full and "empty" amount... I have my 0 set at ... I forgot, 20% of the actual battery ... so I have more power to use. I wonder if putting on a second monitoring system that shows the actual vs. what setting I put in that is for cerbo might help use projections.
How big is your system? I have a Hybrid System (so still Grid connected) here in NSW/Mid North Coast. Mine is: 24KW/40KWh Battery. Fronius Primos/Selectronic Pro's/LFP's/15KW Diesel Auto Start Backup Generator I left the Hot Water OFF today as it's again a miserable day. The Hot Water Storage is good for 48+ hours. The system is configured to cut over to the Grid if the Batteries hit 35% SOC. In the 7 months we had the system in, the lowest we have come is 42% SOC when the system had just been installed and the batteries didn't have a chance to fully charge yet. House Load: Pretty much same as you: All the house, including Stove/Induction Cook top/Hot Water/Large Aircon/Washing Maschine/Swimming Pool + electric car: KIA EV6. This is the 1st true Winter/short days we are heading into. So we see how the system will hold up. So far I can tell that we won't be able to charge the car except for the weekends. We have been able to until now. Luckily, my wife can charge at her work and at this stage at no cost :-). I just checked for last months and the average daily house load was: 29.362KWh, minimum: 12.6KWh and maximum: 55.9KWh. By the way...I came over from the West Germany in the early 80's. Haven't been back since.
Unfortunately so much rain and nothing like beaureu of meteorology predicted ”ElNino with extremely dry summer and winter” and it turns out 180 degrees opposite.
There are companies out there charging as much as $50,000. dollars for rooftop systems that are grid tie in for reduced power bills, with no battery backup. It should be illegal for them to charge so much.
How many Kwh per year is your consumption Andy? 20kwh a day means 7300kwh ... Okok ... car charge is included clear. Back in Germany you would try to save as much energy as possible 😂
Hi I purchased a JK-BMS and its getting delivered soon, but i couldn't find anywhere the specifications of the Balancecables. Could someone tell me which crosssection they have?
I’ve got a 7kW generator you can borrow for a bit. Kinda joking and not really. There’s also big nuke power plants probably nearby you could refill the batteries with.
Careful, one of these days she's gonna say "Honey! I just saw a wonderful video on UA-cam about these cheap Chinese Diesel Heaters!", and your world will shatter! Ah, yes, broken MC4 clips. I hate it when that happens. Those things get brittle with age. But... they are environmentally sealed and that's a necessity for outside wiring. Not too many alternatives unfortunately. For inside I actually prefer 45A power poles for low and medium amperage non-permanent 2-pole wire connectors. Those are Anderson-style connectors. I like them better than XT60s, in fact, though XT60s come in a close second for me. XT60s are hard to solder without melting the casing. The nice thing about the 45A power poles is that they are easy to crimp and to solder on top of the crimp (like can be done with MC4s), easy to put together, and are small and compact (think anderson connector but much smaller). And they can handle a lot of abuse. The 45A power poles can take 10 and 12 AWG wiring so its nearly perfect. (10 AWG is a bit tight to get into the housing but still works). -Matt
Aaah...Feed In Agreement: Now I know why you use an extension cord off your secondary input system directly to an appliance or whatever. Too bad Feed In Agreements constrain additional electricity production when there is both ever so much more population and electricity use per person (think computers, entertainment systems, EVs, etc). A T Burke
13:00 interesting I have been looking for something like that for a long time, volts but no amperage, the only difference is mine is working and suddenly no amps.
@andrewradford3953 I understand. I live in a hurricane zone, so I keep my trees trimmed to protect not only my panels but also my house. Throughly enjoy every episode, keep up the great content.
Would you know how to connect the cerbo gx to a epoch 12 v 100 ah battery ? It has a an input on the battery but I can’t get nothing in cerbo app any help would be greatly appreciated 😊
Why don't you heat your hot water directly with solar thermal? Sure electric boost if required but your bulk heating really should be solar thermal. Australia..... this is how we do it. Tropics on both sides of the equator same same. (boiler makeup water preheaters abound, they're not PV) Why don't you have a stand alone solar pump for the pool? Imagine a thermal solar heated swimming pool that you could use all year. Your electrical implementation experiments are excellent.
Efficiency is far better via electric solar power. You get more usuable energy or what are you doing with too much hot water during summer you do not need ? Here these systems are thrown out and get replaced by solar power panels and warm water heatpumps. Too many hyrdraulic issues in central europe due to cold winter nights and very hot summer days.
Solar hot water is not worth it here. I have so much solar power that I can easily heat up water as well. Just not for these few weeks... I'm working on it.
@@OffGridGarageAustralia You said it was 3 months of low insolation. Yes, it's easier to implement if it's all electric. So, you need more storage (the risk of consuming out of date stored energy is your call) or more catchment. Why not both? The most important thing is that you are enjoying yourself in the process. If you went diesel solar hybrid you could go off grid easily. You could charge the EV with the diesel genset any time and have plenty of juice for your hot water.
I'm failing to understand the issue. Every MC4 cable should have a male end and a female end. A bit like 240V cables. That way you only have to think about polarity when you crimp them and then never again.
Heya, yes for me now starts the good ampritsche times lol I need a average of 450 kWh a month and last month I made olmost 300 kWh so 2/3 of my elektric needs in the winter months maybe 50 kWh so I need more panels and inverters ect ect in time lol.
@@foxithedaywalker How ? If you put 2 in parralel you have to connect 2 to the panels and only 1 connector is left. No issue at all. The trouble comes along if you have installed the cable on the roof and then go to the inverter room and have to crimp the MC4. He also had explained it wrong at 7:25 onwards every time cause Andy called the connector with the broken clip MALE which is WRONG. The connector which LOOKS FROM THE OUTSIDE like male is in reality the FEMALE cause what counts is only the metal connector inside. And what he had called MALE has inside the bigger diameter metal which means femals (which also has a PLUS marking on the genuine MC4 connector made by Stäubli) . Look inside the BIGGER connector and you will see the metal pin which makes it the male and negative one.
Hi Andy, thanks for your channel! You should get many donations from Victron and also from JK, Eve and Gobel power. Today my official 3-phase Victron system was installed with a Gobel power battery in good old Germany. Before I started at my garage with an island system and own build battery. Without your channel neigther one nor the other would have happend! Thanks and please continue!
I always like seeing your videos about winter solar production. It means that it’s almost summer here and that my system will really start producing again.
Hahaha, I know. Give it another 8 weeks, then I'm done with winter down here and the days will get longer again.
i like the mc4 connector, the beauty of it you can not connect then the wrong way, thats also why you have the correct polarity on the switch
Very Scottish weather you have there Andy.
Heavy rain yesterday afternoon and heavy fog this morning has me frightened watching chunks being munched out of my battery shelf 😨
Well, it’s Saturday 22nd June in Ireland, Northern hemisphere, when we have just has our summer solstice. Now our days will be getting shorter and yours will be getting longer. So, enjoy the extra rays and keep up the great work👍
You need to do something about the dirty tarp above your pool.
Make a solid roof out of all your spare PV panels. And then you have enough power.
Si cuando lo he visto he pensado lo mismo
he is living in australia, he needs an upright or vertical position and I guess he had plans to build a new off grid garage as he had mentioned in January or so.
Pool fence has a tradition and is also a good showcase. He had seen it from a german youtuber trying to live offgrid after the utility company had tried to screw him.
I wanted to do this for my pool. Just never got around to it after building my 50kW array.
Super expensive to build an electrical system above a pool. The regulations...
@@OffGridGarageAustralia okay. Didn't know there extra strict rules for PV above the pool.
I always looking forward to australian winters because on our side of earth it's summer and i already had a lot of days with 100 amps outside 😊 thank you for your vids Andy
Good info. I haven't had to deal with MC4 connections yet, but I have heard a number of people that were annoyed at trying to keep track of the polarity of any given plug.
Dear Andy, intuitively as I am in a similar latitude, and my ideal winter angle is ~18 degrees, you would get 20% or more improvement if you lift the bottom off the grass like 20cm
You get more solar in your “Winter”, than we do in our Scottish summer.
Yeah, I don't understand why everyone in Australia doesn't use solar panels. The payback period is something like 1 year?
"Owen, what did you do this summer?"
"That day I had to work, Connor."
😎😎😎😁😁😁🤪🤪🤪
is that why Scotts wear kilts for air cooling
Feierabend,Pizza fertig,genau richtig für Andys neues Video 👍
Colour code your cable - you could use a short peice of red heatshrink on the the extension. I have colour coded red/black extensions and don't get confused!
Spring time now in Ontario Canada, get my best solar power in May/June. Summer the haze drops my solar. Installed some vertical bifacial panels east facing, for low winters sun and keep the snow off, will see what happens in the coming winter.
Grid power
11pm to 7am its 2.8cents/kWh
4pm to 9pm its 28.8cents/kWh
Rest of the day its 12.2cents/kWh
Ultra low rate home charging it costs me about $6.00 per 1000km for my LR Model Y
Use my solar system batteries during the 28.8 time and some of the 12.2 time , works great in the summer.
In winter not so much, but do load shifting battery charging at 2.8 to use at 28.8 time.
I see room on the fence for three more panels. All you need is another set of splitter cables.
Make that awning next to the pool a solid roof. Then you can mount some permanently. 😀
Ive seen people put up Bi-facial panels as fences around homes. Seems very effective.
If you have the space, look into windpower aswell. A istabreeze heli 2.0 of even 4.0 might work great if you have a bice open space.
And to be honest, id kill for those clouds in winter here. Its even darker, for atleast 3 months non stop. With 9500wp of solar, i produce around 100kwh in Jan or Feb 😂
@@Deiphobuzzouch
Micro wind isn't worth the hassle even if you have unobstructed wind. Andy's trees would just destroy the main bearings as the turbine flapped around like a dying fish. Then the first storm of the season will eventually blow the thing off. You need more complicated electronics and inputs are erratic.
I live on top of a hill 30 miles from the Atlantic and my 1kW turbine was effective in winter but noisy. It needs annual servicing and eventually the blades and alternator were spun off the mounting in a storm and landed 30 ft away on one of my greenhouses.
Solar panels are so cheap now that it's easier to cover every roof space, regardless of aspect and harvest everything that the sun delivers.
That shirt still looks good!!😁
Willkommen im Tal der Tränen😊bei uns geht es langsam Berg auf
Andy ! You killing it testing batteries!
Tape DC PV câble with red, white tape & think of a switch or breaker boxe at fence !
Then easy year 2 year
You’re overthinking it unless you’ve reverse polarity your cut-off switch (wired it wrong nothing to do with mc4)it’s just not possible to plug the mc4 in the wrong way (you could get red and black cables) also 4x panel to get higher voltage but still be within 150v unless they are 50v panels then yes 3x be max (your victron can handle 150v max and I guess 30A charge if it’s the 150/30 model)
If you got the higher voltage victron charge controller like the 250 or higher (or get a charge controller that allows overrating like 5kw on a 3.8kw limited inverter) you be able to string higher voltage strings and get more power overall
Hi Andy. My 45 kWh battery was already full again at noon today 😝
Thanks Andy. We are in the same boat in Sydney and I'm getting around 2kWh / day from a 3kW system.
Now that is the weather I am use to here in Alaska. haha.
Put your HAARP together with Geo-Engeneering out of Alaska, than weather will be better 😉
Just an FYI, with that type of cloud cover panels tend to generate the most power if they are laying flat instead of tilted.
Nice to see you back chap, I know thay be good times then the remainders.......
Anyway.....it's that time of year we in north can say....ha ha......more solar
Well my system......I need more storage, I'm dumping power already....well in bits, weather here in UK is really dull then sunny....it's proper mixed.
Well IV few updates to do.....ready for our winter.
Hopefully next year I'll order more storage.
Then up grade to 48v system.
In So. California I generate a great amount on overcast cool days. Great videos and testing.
The only days I see over 14kW solar from our 14k and some Solar install is early in spring on our 45° roof in Germany. When it is nice and cold and sunny. Doesn’t even have to be 100% clear as it seems.
I never thought I would enjoy checking the power output before we installed the thing.
We installed an exact copy in the Netherlands. That gives less in Winter, more in summer (crazy Dutch power billing makes trying to make efficient use of you own power not financially interesting, it’s all about total power delivered in a year).
Come to Greece Andy in the next month starts summer....😊
I'll bring all my batteries!
Your garage is like my hunting cabin was. Roof blocked natural light, so I had to have lights on all day long. Cabin had windows, but not enough light.
Cut some strategically placed holes and cover them with Polycarbonate sheeting. They probably make it with same rib configuration as your metal.
Want spend some $$ and do it right. Look into Solar tubes. There fantastic.
glad im not the only one....🤔positive end of string connects to negative line, which isnt negative, cos it comes out positive...then plugs into a negative to finally enter the positive terminal...now add several parallel connections to the previous.👍
The only way you have polarity is from a source, that means the solar panel sets the polarity, from the source is positive which connects to a sink, negative.
Make a solar panel cover that goes over top of the entire pool that is adjusted for peak optimal generation this time of year. Then maybe have it adjustable and running off micro grid tie inverters that feed into the electrical system providing power back to the inverters to charge the battery and or supplement power usage during the day
Use a pipe on the back of the panels to heat the water and rise the efficiency of the panel ))))
Send some of your rain over to WA, been soooo dry here in the outer Perth rural area. Been plenty of sun for the solar panels and batteries though.
Dunkelflaute weather here in SE Queensland has been terrible for solar.
Even my 2kW PV hot water heater has needed constant boosting. I'll have to add more panels, but it's on the second storey.
Andy have you thought of adding a temporary /permanent underground conduit for the DC from the pool to the shed. I'm putting a T/P run under our lawn to power a friend staying in a caravan for a few months. Cables disappear too quickly in grass, and mowers find them too easily..
0503’24/1224h 🇺🇸 Hello Andy, thank you for the facts, and appreciate that very much. Yes, truly MC4 is designed badly in such a way that, the Positive is Negative and vise versa. This happened to me because I had to cut MC3 connectors from older PV panel and install MC4. Connected and I found the mistake. Luckily I had ELEJOY WS400A, which saved ton of short circuit.. thanks to you for introducing Elejoy years ago. Cheers und 73s…
Haha electricity anxiety have same problem here in South Australia think I worry to much about sun if my batteries going to last all ways checking ect. Good video cheers
I like watching your videos cause you are south hemi and I'm fully north so 24hrs summer solstice.
very long time ago I took the pracrice of writing plus with a Edding or Pentel red felt tip pen, and minus with either black or blue.
Hello Andy, i think that you need a better efficiency water heating system. Have you tried the heat pump water heater or direct heating tubes from the 🌞 .
You may have to make the hard choice to cut some of those trees down for I had to do just that to maximize solar protection in the winter.
Hi Andy, ich verstehe deinen Grundgedanken mit den MC4 Steckern, dass die Polarität vertauscht sein kann. Aber nur nachdem du sie gecrimpt hast, wenn die Anlage schonmal richrig funktioniert hat, dann sind die Stecker in der richtigen Polarität und du kannst sie nicht mehr vertauschen. Übrigens hatte das ähnliche Problem von der DC Sicherung zum 150/60 polarität vertauscht, Laderegler hat es erkannt und zeigt einfach keine Spannung, du kannst also auch falsche Polarität anschließen und zu schalten ;)
Andy, your beaker polarity might be reversed (not the charge controller). When viewed from front the upper left is negative and upper right is positive. Please double check your model. If it is wrong turn off the charge controller or wait till dark to turn the breaker off( no load = no arc) to fix. Keep up the great videos 😃
This particular circuit breaker is non-polarised and meant/rated for PV use. The positive can be on either left or right, and load can be top or bottom without affecting the breaker rating.
This is making me think I could put up solar panels under trees: they would drop their leaves in the winter.
Would need a system tolerant of shading from the branches though.
Given how cheap panels are now Andy, why not get some >=430W panels for the pool fence ? In terms of the MC4s I tend to turn some red electrical tape around the cables as a reminder to myself.
I chopped out every single MC4 connector earlier this year, 48 solar panels. I immediately gained almost 20% more power using nothing more than soldered joints and shrink tape on all the wires. Great for getting your system up and running, but in a year tarnish related losses start even using the best brands of MC4 made.
That's shocking!
With 20% voltage drop across your MC4s were they melting from the heat? P=V*A.
@@universeisundernoobligatio3283 Using a infrared camera is how I discovered it. They were warm to hot like a resistive choke point. The MC4 plastic tends to expand in the heat, the result is lower contact value so the connector would be acting like a resistor. I removed a few, the amps from each panel was 5.9 to 6.1 and rose to over 6.8 just with a wire nut used to see if I was seeing such a loss.
@@JOHNDANIEL1
Interesting have to get my Flir camera out and check. Did you try electrical grease to keep the contacts corrosion free?
@@universeisundernoobligatio3283 Only 5 of nearly 100 had much corrosion. The big problem was deformation. Junk quality plastics. Brands I used were BOUGE RV, RENOGY and some random AliExpress stuff. Better off 100% removing them and using solder and glue laden marine grade shrink tape.
So sorry for your break up... im sure you are are alot happier now with your new wife.
Dear Andy, why do you not use PVT panels to heat your tap water? You can still buy sandwich panels to collect the heat from the panels and than heat a buffertank for tapwater with it. Electric boilers a such a waist of energy. You can even cool your PV(T) panels with your poolwater to gain even higher production from the PV system with it and heat the pool at the same time.
Not worth the investment for me. A solar hot water system will cost me $6k including installation. The ROI would be 45 years.
I am at the Glasgow Tigers Speedway, sorry Andy you can wait.
Hey andy if water spins in one way there and the opposite up here we can made a perpetual motion energy machine or some? Thanks from my wc!
I kind of do not understand - you have plenty panels left - so why are you feeding a 150 Volt victron charger with only 90 Volts? one panel more in each string should add up to 120 Volts right? Your fence seems long enough
Maybe too much shades where he has left the empty space. Had been similiar in the years before.
You have to understand the chain of command. Andy first has to clear this with the “government” before he can add any panels to the fence. As we all know: If “government” doesn’t approve it first, you better not do it. 😂
They're probably 40-45v panels in proper sunlight, so 3 in series is the most you can go safely. Sure they might be 90v now, but its so cloudy and shaded that its the max you get. He's getting 44 watts from 1.5kw worth of panels so you know its very thick cloud.
3 panels is tops, open circuit voltage can spike to high with 4 series and smoke the capacitor in the victron.
@@lexicase8805 250Watt panels have opencircuit voltage of 36V tops (unless it freezes)
Hey Andy, have you thought about getting a heatpump do your hot water? It will be about 2 times more efficient, but idk how the Brauchwasser -Wärmepumpen market is in Australia
2:44 if there is mold in battery, it's charge has passed it's due date, can be rectified with two ottingers, I guess.
Andy, why not mount the Panels outside the Carport instead of storing them inside ?
First thing i do with a new panel, klip the mc4 stecker.
Is your system on the roof connected to the grid and feeding everything into the grid cause you had mentioned it once in a while that you had built that in a very last moment before the program of the region was running out when a neighbour had told you about the opportunity ?
And you also had said that you are not allowed to change anything on that system on the house.
Time to use the panels from the carport somewhere, even on a flat surface just above the rainwater . We had put 7 big 550 Wp panels on the metal roof of the carport which in reality is our workshop like yours , had never seen a car. This carport is between 2 houses and fully in the shadow of the gable, except for 2 hours of full sun in the afternoon. But they delivered at least 2 kWh somehow every day and that was better than nothing during winter. Helps not much, but still a bit. Now these are gone and next winter we might start using old ones again cause they were only stored with some more for a friend.
Only 6 panels....the fence is much bigger. 🐸🐸🐸
Come on...You also need to use all other panels sitting in the carport....😉
You can never have enough solar, he can put another string of 3 on that 150/35 cc without overloading it, solar panels are cheap compared to everything else.
Just curious, what degree latitude do you live at, and do you think if you matched up that degree on your fence solar panels if that would make much of a difference? That might be a really simple test that you could do on just two sunny days...
Sir,I want to connect Noark 2 pole circuit breaker between charge controller and battery but I'm confuse about direction.Upside of a breaker is a power source and downside is a load so do I connect upside power source(cables to battery) and downside load(cables to charge controller), + cable on a left side, - cable on a right side?
interesting .. all this based on the full and "empty" amount... I have my 0 set at ... I forgot, 20% of the actual battery ... so I have more power to use. I wonder if putting on a second monitoring system that shows the actual vs. what setting I put in that is for cerbo might help use projections.
How big is your system? I have a Hybrid System (so still Grid connected) here in NSW/Mid North Coast.
Mine is: 24KW/40KWh Battery. Fronius Primos/Selectronic Pro's/LFP's/15KW Diesel Auto Start Backup Generator
I left the Hot Water OFF today as it's again a miserable day. The Hot Water Storage is good for 48+ hours.
The system is configured to cut over to the Grid if the Batteries hit 35% SOC. In the 7 months we had the system in, the lowest we have come is 42% SOC when the system had just been installed and the batteries didn't have a chance to fully charge yet.
House Load: Pretty much same as you: All the house, including Stove/Induction Cook top/Hot Water/Large Aircon/Washing Maschine/Swimming Pool + electric car: KIA EV6.
This is the 1st true Winter/short days we are heading into. So we see how the system will hold up. So far I can tell that we won't be able to charge the car except for the weekends. We have been able to until now. Luckily, my wife can charge at her work and at this stage at no cost :-).
I just checked for last months and the average daily house load was: 29.362KWh, minimum: 12.6KWh and maximum: 55.9KWh.
By the way...I came over from the West Germany in the early 80's. Haven't been back since.
Thanks Andy
No worries
I would try wind energy, it keeps charging day and night if wind strong enough. I have plans to build diy wind generator
Unfortunately so much rain and nothing like beaureu of meteorology predicted ”ElNino with extremely dry summer and winter” and it turns out 180 degrees opposite.
Andy, just send all of your aux batteries to me in FL and I'll fill them up and send them back to you.
There are companies out there charging as much as $50,000. dollars for rooftop systems that are grid tie in for reduced power bills, with no battery backup. It should be illegal for them to charge so much.
How many Kwh per year is your consumption Andy? 20kwh a day means 7300kwh ... Okok ... car charge is included clear. Back in Germany you would try to save as much energy as possible 😂
This why there is a red wire for the + ,and a black wire to the -.
Same i just picked up 4 more used 365w CE panels and a second 100/50 hppt this will double my solar input
Hi
I purchased a JK-BMS and its getting delivered soon, but i couldn't find anywhere the specifications of the Balancecables.
Could someone tell me which crosssection they have?
I’ve got a 7kW generator you can borrow for a bit. Kinda joking and not really. There’s also big nuke power plants probably nearby you could refill the batteries with.
So, your panels are 250w? How much $/€ for a panel ?
I got a few of 435w (Bifacial) for 70€ a piece.
Careful, one of these days she's gonna say "Honey! I just saw a wonderful video on UA-cam about these cheap Chinese Diesel Heaters!", and your world will shatter!
Ah, yes, broken MC4 clips. I hate it when that happens. Those things get brittle with age. But... they are environmentally sealed and that's a necessity for outside wiring. Not too many alternatives unfortunately.
For inside I actually prefer 45A power poles for low and medium amperage non-permanent 2-pole wire connectors. Those are Anderson-style connectors. I like them better than XT60s, in fact, though XT60s come in a close second for me. XT60s are hard to solder without melting the casing.
The nice thing about the 45A power poles is that they are easy to crimp and to solder on top of the crimp (like can be done with MC4s), easy to put together, and are small and compact (think anderson connector but much smaller). And they can handle a lot of abuse. The 45A power poles can take 10 and 12 AWG wiring so its nearly perfect. (10 AWG is a bit tight to get into the housing but still works).
-Matt
Hie, just a bit off topic, do you have any idea if alpha 10.1 smile lithium battery can communicate with victron? Advice if possible please
Is it possible to post the most important PACE bms settings on your website?
I'm currently building a 12kW/15kwp/30kWh system 50% vertical south(northern hemisphere), 25% south 35° and 25% west 35°. Any suggestions? 😀
Do you run pure off grid, or you also have grid tried inverter set up?
Aaah...Feed In Agreement: Now I know why you use an extension cord off your secondary input system directly to an appliance or whatever. Too bad Feed In Agreements constrain additional electricity production when there is both ever so much more population and electricity use per person (think computers, entertainment systems, EVs, etc).
A T Burke
13:00 interesting I have been looking for something like that for a long time, volts but no amperage, the only difference is mine is working and suddenly no amps.
Could be a faulty device in your case.
I turned of the charger through the software at the end of the 'winter season'. Just a habit...
@@OffGridGarageAustralia I hope no, it's weird, it goes off at night but don't start charging at the morning (at least every two weeks)
QUESTION
You say you need more solar power this time of year.
My question is:
Do you have any wind generation to add puwer to your batteries?
Red is Black and Plus is Minus!
😁😁😁😋😋😋🤪🤪🤪
May and June are the worst for me I get shade aswell
Why not trim your trees? It will help with the shading and protect your panels if trees fall in a storm.
Andy loves his trees.
It's not going to happen, even with battery powered saws.
@andrewradford3953 I understand. I live in a hurricane zone, so I keep my trees trimmed to protect not only my panels but also my house. Throughly enjoy every episode, keep up the great content.
Could you supplement with a wind turbine in the down months?
Hi, ich sage nur PowerCon …ich mag die MC 4 auch nicht…. Und in der Veranstaltungstechnik nutzen wir diese Art an Verbindung schon seid Jahren…
Andy, are you using a solar hot water collector?
No, I don't.
Hej Andy den 3 maj (2024) leveret jeg grøn solcelleenergi til nettet kun 120 kwh. efter forbrug, masser af sol i DANMARK HI-HI Henrik
I kind of dont know whats the problem with mc 4 plugs.
If there is negative Potential on the positive plug, than there is something messed up!
Would you know how to connect the cerbo gx to a epoch 12 v 100 ah battery ? It has a an input on the battery but I can’t get nothing in cerbo app any help would be greatly appreciated 😊
Looks like a Norwegian mid summers day 😂.
Why don't you heat your hot water directly with solar thermal? Sure electric boost if required but your bulk heating really should be solar thermal. Australia..... this is how we do it. Tropics on both sides of the equator same same. (boiler makeup water preheaters abound, they're not PV)
Why don't you have a stand alone solar pump for the pool? Imagine a thermal solar heated swimming pool that you could use all year.
Your electrical implementation experiments are excellent.
Efficiency is far better via electric solar power. You get more usuable energy or what are you doing with too much hot water during summer you do not need ?
Here these systems are thrown out and get replaced by solar power panels and warm water heatpumps.
Too many hyrdraulic issues in central europe due to cold winter nights and very hot summer days.
Solar hot water is not worth it here. I have so much solar power that I can easily heat up water as well. Just not for these few weeks... I'm working on it.
@@OffGridGarageAustralia You said it was 3 months of low insolation.
Yes, it's easier to implement if it's all electric.
So, you need more storage (the risk of consuming out of date stored energy is your call) or more catchment. Why not both?
The most important thing is that you are enjoying yourself in the process.
If you went diesel solar hybrid you could go off grid easily. You could charge the EV with the diesel genset any time and have plenty of juice for your hot water.
I'm failing to understand the issue. Every MC4 cable should have a male end and a female end. A bit like 240V cables. That way you only have to think about polarity when you crimp them and then never again.
"Full permission from the local government" lol
That's what you have to do!😅
New inverter? No FCHAO "Peter"?
How do you track solar production over time? Im in S. Eastern U.S.
The Victron system does it and I also use Home Assistant for all my energy monitoring.
Thx
Andy, Do you want me to send you charged batteries? 😂
Heya, yes for me now starts the good ampritsche times lol I need a average of 450 kWh a month and last month I made olmost 300 kWh so 2/3 of my elektric needs in the winter months maybe 50 kWh so I need more panels and inverters ect ect in time lol.
Thanks!
Thank you very much, Sree!
Look at a EG4 Chargeverter.
Positive Negative that dosent matter. You can't plug it togehther the wrong way, the MC4 won't fit the wrong way.
If you are using Y-cable it is possible to get it wrong
@@foxithedaywalker
Only if you abuse it as gender changer....
@@foxithedaywalker How ? If you put 2 in parralel you have to connect 2 to the panels and only 1 connector is left.
No issue at all. The trouble comes along if you have installed the cable on the roof and then go to the inverter room and have to crimp the MC4.
He also had explained it wrong at 7:25 onwards every time cause Andy called the connector with the broken clip MALE which is WRONG.
The connector which LOOKS FROM THE OUTSIDE like male is in reality the FEMALE cause what counts is only the metal connector inside.
And what he had called MALE has inside the bigger diameter metal which means femals (which also has a PLUS marking on the genuine MC4 connector made by Stäubli) . Look inside the BIGGER connector and you will see the metal pin which makes it the male and negative one.
If you connect one side of an Y-cable with a panel you have two kind of connectors left. If you than use the wrong one you have this strange effect.
85.7k FYI YOUR numbers are misleading on the wall but I can help. 😂 Use all your panels. 😊
You keep track of it and let me know when I have to change the numbers again.