The only thing I noticed is you may want to connect the negatives at the bottom of the bus bar. It will keep your batteries more balanced. That is if you have enough slack in the wire.
IMO that isn't needed with lifepo4 that uses a BMS. The current sharing concerns where a single battery would charge or discharge disproportional to the rest isn't a concern with a BMS because it won't allow them to overcharge, or fall too low. For lead acid, I would agree to reverse one of the bus bars
I have seen that done and I considered it but I figured that with all the testing that Signature Solar does and they don't flip the bus bar, it must not be that big of a deal. That said, I will keep an eye on it and if there is a significant difference then I might just rotate the batteries ever 5 years or so. Thanks!
@@hardnackfarms1736 Wendy, This was one of my top 3 concerns and it is nice to know that it is now covered. My other two are the well and the roof. Both are at end of life and need replaced ASAP. Thanks!
@@HomesteadEngineering it is a concern to me and I am not ready. I wished Solar wasn’t so expensive and all of the components, batteries. Nit to mention, I don’t really know what I am doing. I got two estimates just for the geothermal greenhouse and one was 35 thousand just for solar nit even the batteries and the other was 14 thousand. I can’t imagine what both shops and the house would be??? You were wise in getting to wear you are
@@hardnackfarms1736 I don't own this system linked below so take with a grain of salt but it looks really good to me. A fair price and easy to install. You could do most of the install yourself and hire an Electrician to finish it up. I would estimate about $15k all in after tax credit. signaturesolar.com/complete-all-in-one-off-grid-solar-kit-kit-e0000?setCurrencyId=1&gclid=CjwKCAiA8OmdBhAgEiwAShr40wo2Mghvw2bADisAhgr6vhhrYOY9pZyxs1pvwvFcPtlIGILPjL9OVRoC3ZQQAvD_BwE
Just a heads up, when I got mine.. I had to top balance them for more than a day. Then cycle them 80% to 20% several times before they all showed the same SOC.
Signature Solar told me that it can take a while for them to figure out there true state of charge (up to 1 month). They look pretty good to me so far and my Magnum Energy BM kit already agrees with them to 1%. They all seam to be in lock step after just a few days. So far so good but its going to take a while to optimize there use with my system and use patterns. I left a bunch of stuff on the batteries last night including the Mr. Cool min-split and it only dropped the bank to 67% by morning so I'm looking for more stuff to off-load onto the new batteries. Thanks for the tip!
Brother u want to hook up one of them at the bottom and on at the top I wouldn't put all them at the top this way the charging goes all the way across them instead of the top battery getting the full charge .... Keep it up brother
@@roggie77777 I appreciate the feedback. I have a composting video that I have already shot but not edited yet. I also have more French cleat ideas that are on my to-do-list. Thanks!
@@diySolarPowerFunWithRay This has a longer warranty, I like the screen giving the charge and voltage at a glance and this one has fire suppression built it.
Hello Frank, I have not grounded anything just yet although I do plan to. I think I will connect all the grounds on all the batteries and then ground that to the rack. I think this is already the case as they are all connected via the bolts that hold each battery into the rack (but not a great bond). Next, MAYBE connect all that to the chassis ground of the Magnum system. I am not sure just yet... Need to think about it a bit more. I did measure for any voltage differences and found none between the rack and the Magnum case. There is no continuity between the battery rack and the Magnum case ALSO, there is no continuity between the battery grounds and the negative bus bar. Note: I don't think I would connect the negative bus bar to the rack or the ground. Need to look at the bonding in the Magnum case before connecting that to the ground of the battery bank.
What size bolt/lug do you use for connecting the 4/0 battery cables to the server rack busbar? It looks like each battery is connected to the busbar with 5/16 lug and 6awg cables, but what size are those top main terminals on the busbars? Thanks for your time.
I am looking at getting some terminal fuse blocks like yours. I was wondering, the Blue Sea ones I am looking at say 3/8 connection to the bus bar but 5/16th lug to attach the cable to the inverter. I am going to use a 4/0 to my inverter. what do you think about a 4/0 cable with a 5/16 ring terminal on one of these fuses? I am kind of a novice and am not sure if I could do 5/16 on one end of my cable and then 3/8 on the other (3/8 is specified by inverter company).
Hello Louis, My Magnum system is charging these EG4's just fine so far. The Magnum BM kit is in perfect lockstep with the EG4's. I don't see any sign of any problems so far. Where did you hear that Magnum controllers can't charge Lithium? Am I missing something important?
@@HomesteadEngineering I got a Magnum, there was nothing in the manual that said it changed Lithium, no settings for Lithium, if im wrong, im very curious to learn, most people charging Lithium use a midnite classic
@@MosaicHomestead I have to say that I have not seen anyone else use a Magnum controller to charge an EG4 battery. That said, I did call Magnum Energy about a month ago and tech support told me that it would work. They even gave me their recommended settings for the ME-RTR. My next video will show the settings that I used and I should have that up soon. Note: I did not use the exact settings that Magnum Energy gave me, I think their settings are too high to match EG4 recommended settings. Magnum: Bulk/Absorb=57.6 Magnum: Float=54.4 Magnum: Equalize=57.6 Done: 0.1hrs Note: you don't equalize Lithium EG4: Bulk/Absorb=55.5 EG4: Float=54.0 My Settings: Bulk/Absorb=55.2 My Settings: Float=54.0 I brought it done a bit so as not to over charge.
@@HomesteadEngineering It is an app the signature solar has in the back pages of the EG charge controller manual but watch power also works with a few other inverter charger setups, not sure if it covers yours, it is an ok app that lets you monitor some of the functions functions of your battery and inverter/ charger from your phone whenever you have service/
In other words, you cannot get your batteries to actually communicate correctly with an inverter or even with the software. If you have to connect your laptop to each battery separately, then your communications setup isn't correct. I'm not dunning you! EG4 has made it nightmarishly difficult to get correct communications to work! Most people abandon the effort and kick their inverter(s) into "user" mode and ignore BMS communications entirely. My point is that EG4 communications is NOT ready for prime-time, and everybody seems to just accept that this mess is okay. It's NOT okay!
Hello Richard, I have no need to communicate with the EG4 BMS what so ever. I did initially connect to each battery individually just to check them but that really was not necessary. My system is running open loop between the inverters and the EG4 batteries. I have a BMS on the inverter side that manages the system. That system and the EG4 system are in near perfect agreement as to the SOC at any given time. Also Note: The top battery in the stack is 0.03 V higher than the bottom battery in the stack (so basically the same). I set this up about 6 months ago and have not touched it since and its running my entire house seamlessly. I typically get it to 100% by the end of each day and it runs down to about 40% over night. It runs a refrigerator, freezer, computers, TV's and 2-3 AC units all night long. I know these are setup to work closed loop with many inverters and there may be problems with that... I just don't know anything about that because I am not operating my system in that way. What you see in this series of 4-5 videos is all I have ever done to my system. I just set it up the one time and It just works perfectly!
@@HomesteadEngineering I understand, and good on you! But I want my system to run as advertised, with the inverter in close and continual communication with the battery-bank BMS. There are indeed many problems with that, which is ridiculous, since EG4 has designed all parts of that system to supposedly work together. Congrats on your success, though! I envy you!
The only thing I noticed is you may want to connect the negatives at the bottom of the bus bar. It will keep your batteries more balanced. That is if you have enough slack in the wire.
IMO that isn't needed with lifepo4 that uses a BMS. The current sharing concerns where a single battery would charge or discharge disproportional to the rest isn't a concern with a BMS because it won't allow them to overcharge, or fall too low. For lead acid, I would agree to reverse one of the bus bars
I have seen that done and I considered it but I figured that with all the testing that Signature Solar does and they don't flip the bus bar, it must not be that big of a deal. That said, I will keep an eye on it and if there is a significant difference then I might just rotate the batteries ever 5 years or so. Thanks!
@@HomesteadEngineering thats actually not a bad idea
Wow! That is so nice! I have solar envy! Have a blessed day! Wendy🙏🏻🌎
Hello Wendy, I am liking it so far. I'll do an update after a few days or so. Thanks!
@@HomesteadEngineering I look forward to the update! I bet your relieved you have all of that? The power grid is scary right now.
@@hardnackfarms1736 Wendy, This was one of my top 3 concerns and it is nice to know that it is now covered. My other two are the well and the roof. Both are at end of life and need replaced ASAP. Thanks!
@@HomesteadEngineering it is a concern to me and I am not ready. I wished Solar wasn’t so expensive and all of the components, batteries. Nit to mention, I don’t really know what I am doing. I got two estimates just for the geothermal greenhouse and one was 35 thousand just for solar nit even the batteries and the other was 14 thousand. I can’t imagine what both shops and the house would be??? You were wise in getting to wear you are
@@hardnackfarms1736 I don't own this system linked below so take with a grain of salt but it looks really good to me. A fair price and easy to install. You could do most of the install yourself and hire an Electrician to finish it up. I would estimate about $15k all in after tax credit. signaturesolar.com/complete-all-in-one-off-grid-solar-kit-kit-e0000?setCurrencyId=1&gclid=CjwKCAiA8OmdBhAgEiwAShr40wo2Mghvw2bADisAhgr6vhhrYOY9pZyxs1pvwvFcPtlIGILPjL9OVRoC3ZQQAvD_BwE
More wattage for the cottage in action! Gotta love it!
Yes sir!
Good job, David!
Thanks!
Thanks for sharing! Awesome system inspiration
Thanks!
Just a heads up, when I got mine.. I had to top balance them for more than a day. Then cycle them 80% to 20% several times before they all showed the same SOC.
Signature Solar told me that it can take a while for them to figure out there true state of charge (up to 1 month). They look pretty good to me so far and my Magnum Energy BM kit already agrees with them to 1%. They all seam to be in lock step after just a few days. So far so good but its going to take a while to optimize there use with my system and use patterns. I left a bunch of stuff on the batteries last night including the Mr. Cool min-split and it only dropped the bank to 67% by morning so I'm looking for more stuff to off-load onto the new batteries. Thanks for the tip!
Brother u want to hook up one of them at the bottom and on at the top I wouldn't put all them at the top this way the charging goes all the way across them instead of the top battery getting the full charge .... Keep it up brother
Hey Dan, I did consider doing that and I am going to keep an eye on it to see if it becomes an issue. Thanks!
Looks incredible thinking about purchasing this unit also.
I am only on day 3 of operation but I can see that it is going to be a game changer for sure. Good bang for the buck! :)
@@HomesteadEngineering I enjoy the videos especially the woodworking ones and garden ones. All the best
@@roggie77777 I appreciate the feedback. I have a composting video that I have already shot but not edited yet. I also have more French cleat ideas that are on my to-do-list. Thanks!
@@HomesteadEngineering Cool. Any reason you didn't go with the more affordable EG4-LifePower4 Lithium Battery?
@@diySolarPowerFunWithRay This has a longer warranty, I like the screen giving the charge and voltage at a glance and this one has fire suppression built it.
Great job!
Have you grounded only the rack (case) or the negative busbar inside the rack also?
Hello Frank, I have not grounded anything just yet although I do plan to. I think I will connect all the grounds on all the batteries and then ground that to the rack. I think this is already the case as they are all connected via the bolts that hold each battery into the rack (but not a great bond). Next, MAYBE connect all that to the chassis ground of the Magnum system. I am not sure just yet... Need to think about it a bit more. I did measure for any voltage differences and found none between the rack and the Magnum case. There is no continuity between the battery rack and the Magnum case ALSO, there is no continuity between the battery grounds and the negative bus bar. Note: I don't think I would connect the negative bus bar to the rack or the ground. Need to look at the bonding in the Magnum case before connecting that to the ground of the battery bank.
What size bolt/lug do you use for connecting the 4/0 battery cables to the server rack busbar? It looks like each battery is connected to the busbar with 5/16 lug and 6awg cables, but what size are those top main terminals on the busbars? Thanks for your time.
I am pretty sure I used the bolt/lugs that came with the system. Thanks!
thanks
COOP
...
I am looking at getting some terminal fuse blocks like yours. I was wondering, the Blue Sea ones I am looking at say 3/8 connection to the bus bar but 5/16th lug to attach the cable to the inverter. I am going to use a 4/0 to my inverter. what do you think about a 4/0 cable with a 5/16 ring terminal on one of these fuses? I am kind of a novice and am not sure if I could do 5/16 on one end of my cable and then 3/8 on the other (3/8 is specified by inverter company).
Magnum controllers don't charge Lithium, does the battery change charging frequency?
Hello Louis, My Magnum system is charging these EG4's just fine so far. The Magnum BM kit is in perfect lockstep with the EG4's. I don't see any sign of any problems so far. Where did you hear that Magnum controllers can't charge Lithium? Am I missing something important?
@@HomesteadEngineering I got a Magnum, there was nothing in the manual that said it changed Lithium, no settings for Lithium, if im wrong, im very curious to learn, most people charging Lithium use a midnite classic
@@MosaicHomestead I have to say that I have not seen anyone else use a Magnum controller to charge an EG4 battery. That said, I did call Magnum Energy about a month ago and tech support told me that it would work. They even gave me their recommended settings for the ME-RTR. My next video will show the settings that I used and I should have that up soon. Note: I did not use the exact settings that Magnum Energy gave me, I think their settings are too high to match EG4 recommended settings.
Magnum: Bulk/Absorb=57.6
Magnum: Float=54.4
Magnum: Equalize=57.6 Done: 0.1hrs
Note: you don't equalize Lithium
EG4: Bulk/Absorb=55.5
EG4: Float=54.0
My Settings: Bulk/Absorb=55.2
My Settings: Float=54.0
I brought it done a bit so as not to over charge.
@@HomesteadEngineering Exellent, Thanks👍
I have the very same battery setup, do you plan on using the watch power app?
Watch Power App? Never heard of it but suddenly I feel as though I can't live without it... Tell me about it?
@@HomesteadEngineering It is an app the signature solar has in the back pages of the EG charge controller manual but watch power also works with a few other inverter charger setups, not sure if it covers yours, it is an ok app that lets you monitor some of the functions functions of your battery and inverter/ charger from your phone whenever you have service/
@@Prepologyblog OK, I'll have to look into it. Thanks!
30kwh enough for you?
I was thinking the same thing but .not writing the check
30kWh feels like the sweet spot but check back in 1 year and well see. :)
Progress
In other words, you cannot get your batteries to actually communicate correctly with an inverter or even with the software. If you have to connect your laptop to each battery separately, then your communications setup isn't correct.
I'm not dunning you! EG4 has made it nightmarishly difficult to get correct communications to work! Most people abandon the effort and kick their inverter(s) into "user" mode and ignore BMS communications entirely.
My point is that EG4 communications is NOT ready for prime-time, and everybody seems to just accept that this mess is okay. It's NOT okay!
Hello Richard, I have no need to communicate with the EG4 BMS what so ever. I did initially connect to each battery individually just to check them but that really was not necessary. My system is running open loop between the inverters and the EG4 batteries. I have a BMS on the inverter side that manages the system. That system and the EG4 system are in near perfect agreement as to the SOC at any given time. Also Note: The top battery in the stack is 0.03 V higher than the bottom battery in the stack (so basically the same).
I set this up about 6 months ago and have not touched it since and its running my entire house seamlessly. I typically get it to 100% by the end of each day and it runs down to about 40% over night. It runs a refrigerator, freezer, computers, TV's and 2-3 AC units all night long.
I know these are setup to work closed loop with many inverters and there may be problems with that... I just don't know anything about that because I am not operating my system in that way.
What you see in this series of 4-5 videos is all I have ever done to my system. I just set it up the one time and It just works perfectly!
@@HomesteadEngineering I understand, and good on you! But I want my system to run as advertised, with the inverter in close and continual communication with the battery-bank BMS. There are indeed many problems with that, which is ridiculous, since EG4 has designed all parts of that system to supposedly work together.
Congrats on your success, though! I envy you!