WHAT I PAID - CHEAP - ENTIRE DIY SOLAR SYSTEM
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 ส.ค. 2024
- Costs for my entire solar system, Panels, Battery Bank, Mounting System, Inverters and Materials. Where I purchased each component, materials necessary complete the installation and what I paid. This is a 7.5kw Solar panel system, connected to two Growatt 3000 watt inverters and a 20kw EG4-LL LifePower4 lithium battery bank. This entire system was installed by myself, extremely affordable and quite easy to install.
This video is made for the DIY people out there looking to get a better understanding on costs involved with solar, system arrangements and materials needed to complete a similar project yourself. Enjoy the video!
Comments are welcome, one reason I create these videos is for us all to learn, be safe and create a good experience for all while making DIY projects.
An overview of my system - 2 Growatt 3000TL LVM-ES 48 volt inverters, configured to grid power, running in parallel Split Phase, connected to 24v EG4-LL Lithium batteries, 25.6V, 200AH - 2 x 2 in series to make 48v 400AH total. Overall a great system, 7KW PV system feeding into this battery bank, not a ton of power but more than efficient when connected to the grid and being aware of your electrical needs and consumption. Happy DIY-ing friends! Leave any comments below, if I can I'll be more than happy to help.
Additional videos on Growatt SPF 3000TL LVM-ES 120/240 Volt Inverters: • Growatt SPF 3000TL LVM...
Growatt Split Phase Setup and Configuration
• Growatt Split Phase Se...
Snow effects on Solar Panel systems:
• Snow effects on Solar ...
Video on EG4-LL LifePower4 batteries here:
• EG4-LL LifePower4 Lith...
Growatt SPF 3000TL LVM-ES FAULT 15/16
• Growatt SPF 3000TL LVM...
How to wire Solar Panels to Break Box - Beginning to End:
• DIY - Wire Solar Panel...
Part 2 - How to wire Solar Panels to Break Box - Beginning to End:
• Part 2 - DIY - How to ...
Fault (20) Growatt & EG4 24v Battery BMS Test - Doesn't work, crossover cable • Fault (20) Growatt & E...
Enjoyed the video. Nice to see someone who has a clue
As opposed to so many videos that claim to be a budget build and then end up costing as much as having a contractor do it.
Hi! I've been watching quite a few videos on DIY solar over the past couple of weeks, and this is one of the best. Very straightforward, thorough, and nicely presented. Thanks for taking the time to do this, I have subscribed and I hope your channel finds success if that's what your goal is. Cheers!
- Mike thank you for the kind words, very appreciated and inspiring.
Im impressed with how well organized and researched this was. I learned alot watching this. Thanks
- Thank you for the comments, glad it helped.
Informative and a great benefit. Thank you for taking the time to produce this content!
- Thank you for the kind words and watching.
One of the best and most informative videos.
WELL DONE !!!!!!!!
- Thank you sir, glad ot helped!
William, great summary video of describing the various component of your solar system. Very organized and clearly presented!!! Great job and very informative!
Thank you sir, really nice compliment! Been working on how to improve the videos.
Always learn more when I watch your videos! Thanks, J
Appreciate the video. Been researching and looking into solar the past 6 months or so and besides the basic maintenance stuff around house I haven't messed with electricity much. Not gonna lie was bit to take in at first but just like with alot of things in life, if you take the time to learn about something you'll understand it more. Plus the help of people like you and others I've found and that share their knowledge and experience. Finally about to take my first step and make some purchases. Thanks again 👍
- Thanks for watching and sharing your comments Cory!
Awesome dude! Great job! I'm following your lead!
Very helpful, thanks for sharing this William
- Glad it was helpful Drax!
Excellent video!!! Very good job, easy to understand with all the comments.
Thank you very much!
Ian is the man! I bought 20 panels from him.
Thanks for all the excellent, detailed info.
Thanks for putting this video up. It’s been helpful. I’m a fellow DIY Yooper over by Big Bay, planning on building something similar.
wow! great information Thank you for sharing
Very helpful. Thanks for sharing what you did.
- Glad it was helpful Jim and Diana!
Awesome, thank you for the details
- thank you!
Thank you for your honesty!
My pleasure and thank you for the comments
Thank you, very useful practical advice, simple to follow.
- Thank you sir!
Great walk through and production on the video, subbed, and will be referencing this in the coming months when I take on my own diy solar project very similarly. Keep up the great content
- Thanks Ian for the kind words, I hope the video helps as you move forward!
A very good summary of your system and costs. Providing why and where you purchased helps too. On another channel some folks with similar KW as you used some ingenuity to make tilting panel holders. They can follow the best angle for capturing sunshine and only adjust four times a year. Check the Life Uncontained channel. From my knothole I think you could run another top horizontal and some hinges and or risers at the bottom horizontal. Then all you would need are arcs of metal with a central cutout that can be bolted to the "vertical" struts at any angle you choose. Min and Max will depend on your latitude. To make it even more simple, you would just have holes in a plate that give you the four or more angles you choose. Just propping it up and laying it down.
Hello Gerald and thanks for sharing your comments, the horizontal hinged system you're referring to is exactly what I'm thinking of doing for the additional racks of panels in the future. I'm not to concerned on the East-West swivel as, those adjustments would need to be done daily if you don't have it automated, but I do want to harness the Up-Down pitch, like you said you could adjust it 4 times a year and really gain allot of extra sunlight from the angel differences accomplished. I think allot of folks under estimate how much more energy you can harness with a tilt system in areas that don't' have the sun shinning 99% of the time like the Midwest.
Excellent video, thanks for the breakdown !!!
- Thank you sir!
Great system and excellent video with text inserts of the important info. I enjoyed every minute you’re very smart man. Subscriber
- Thank you for the inspirational comments, this keeps the energies flowing on the positive cables! Happy DIY'ing and welcome to the channel.
@@ahhlifesgood1956 Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
Hey nice to see a new channel on preparedness and homestead.
Im from Southern Brazil 🇧🇷
Already subscribed
God bless your homestead and work
- Welcome aboard the channel and thank you for the kind words of aspiration!
Great video. Would really love to see more about how you constructed the array, and what hardware you used to attach the panels to the superstrut.
Im using a 3.5KW setup for backup power, Ive had it set up since 2014. Im still using 24 golfcart lead acid batteries since they were affordable back then at 85$ each. I dont use the system unless the power goes out but 75% of the panels are hooked to grid tie microinverters for lowering the electric bill. Id like to upgrade my batteries in the near future with lithium but I aslo want to move so I will probably just do a new setup at my new place. I will definitely make a rack for the panels instead of roof mount in the future. Thanks for sharing your info
Hello TDA and thank you for the sharing your comments! Good advise for newbies.
Thanks
Very good video. I like your system.
- Thank you Mike!
Great info thanks..
I am in the process of changing my system from a 12 volt to 24 volt at present. Not you got me thinking about going to the next step above that. Thanks, you give me something to think about.
Thanks Thomas for reaching out, if you're in a house I would most definitely go with a 48v system if you still can and there's not allot of other components needing changing, cheers mate!
good job ,looks very professional , I enjoyed your video
- Thank you sir
Great video. Thanks for doing a full overview of the system.
Thanks EV, appreciate the kind comments!
Thank you for the break down.
- Very welcome Andre, thank you for watching.
Great job. Very clean very Pacific and to the point.
Next time I would explain how doing it yourself makes it easier to troubleshoot if there’s a problem. Pretty obvious but you know.
-Thanks EV Jedi for the kind remarks and pointers, duels noted as I move forward. "May you be embraced in the force"
As opposed to being very Atlantic?? Oh My!!
Thank you! Very informative!
- My pleasure Jim, glad it was helpful.
That is a lot of power for the money, especially considering you went with Lithiums. Great work!
- thank you for the comments sir, yes I'm surprised myself at the cost and amount of electricity one can produce daily.
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for watching Larry!
One of the best vids of this type. +1 sub. Keep it up.
- Excellent inspiration, thank you sir!
By the way, I had 2 solar companys talk to me about using MY ROOF to produce electricity just to sell it back to the electric company. No Batteries. Over $50,000.00. But with government credits so it will be lower. Credits not guaranteed, but I still would owe them over 50 Grand. I told them to hit the road.
Thank you
- Thank you for watching Duane!
Awesome video
Thank you for the comments!
Another place you can cut cost is fuses. Fuses are only required on PV lines if you're paralleling 3 or more strings. 1 or 2 strings do not require over current protection.
- Thanks for the comments Chris!
Thank you, very informative video.
- Thank you for watching sir
Nice job
- Thank you Donny!
Amazing video. I'm subscribing!
- Thank you sir, planning to make more videos in the near future!
Dual purpose panels, they use water to cool the panels and the hot water can be used for domestic.... sold in California, my idea over 10 years ago...small sail boat wind generators... there is a guy in NJ who gets temps over 100 fahr using a similar system in the winter. LTO cells for battery packs, Daly BMS.... silicone wire, high strand count, high conductivity and less line losses, resistance etc... the larger the wire or multipule strands of smaller wire the less heat and resistance you have.
Combining all 3 types of passive energy gives you more options, more reliability more self reliance.
Heat is the worst enemy of solar panels... so using water to cool them, makes them last longer.... there is a guy in Aus. who builds tesla type power wall units, he does some nice work...
Thank you for the great info brother
Have a great day
God bless
Just saying
- And thank you Mike for the kind words, brothers we are!
Great Video
Thank you for watching!
Gyll look really good
- Thanks for commenting Harris, the EG4's (supposedly GYLL) work great, it's only the BMS speaking to the Inverters that is the issue for myself. Thankfully the BMS of the EG4's is good enough to allow AMPS in or OUT intelligently enough where the inverters help is not needed. My plan is to install an additional BMS between inverters and batteries as a backup prior to expansion.
Finally a video on solar station that does look like it was done DIY. I have very similar station and its cost is around 7k USD (I have lead-acid 10 kWh batteries), also bought 7 kW gas generator (2 liters of gas for each 7 kW of energy; up 80 liters of fuel a year). I have Discord channel where I encourage people to go solar. And in the end of the winter I will give results of living in an off grid house with similar video.
- Thanks for sharing Llya, I'll be having a look at your channel. Living Off Grid has become the new place to be.
Good video. I like your setup.
- Thank you Greg!
Every electrical supply house sells wire by the foot. Also, Home Depot sells wire by the foot. Nice system. 👍
Excellent info!
Thanks for sharing Greg
Great video, thanks for making it.
Thank you Dale!
Excellent system excellent information seems like a system that would pay for itself in as little as three years or maybe out to 7 years depending on what you are doing
- Hello Curtis and thank you for watching, yes the system is not to big, not to small, just the right size for someone wanting to dig in and get there feet wet in the solar industry prior to any serious investments of time and money. The system could pay for itself without using any kind of credits or write off expenses within 8 years, depending of course on consumption and increased electrical prices towards the future. With tax incentives this system will pay for itself in 3 years time.
Great video
Thanks!
Very informative, hopefully the battery options will improve and hopefully pricing comes down.
- Hello sir, thank you for the comments!
Thx for sharing bro
- Thanks for sharing your comments.
Nice video. Very informative.
- thank you sir, glad it worked out for you.
Aside from the battery cost, which I am sure you have your reasons for the overkill storage...that's a reasonable cost for such a big amount of electricity capability. We pay on average $200/month so you can see if with your battery cost we'd be running free in less than 5 years. Awsome break down William!
- Hello William, if you do add solar be sure to plan according to your consumption of electricity needs and then the rule of thumb is to have a 3 day surplus. Honestly for me, depending of course on needs I think a 10kw, system with a 30kw storage system in the northwest is necessary for running your average households, then again I consume allot of electricity. This amount greatly depends on if your conscious or not in your consumption needs. Now in the desert of California you could probably get away with 5kw PV and 10kw battery bank, given the amount of continuous sun. In the end for me it's been worth the small investment for the added stability I have of being Off grid should the time come to be.
the wire now costs $966 per 500 ft 8 gauge reel at Menards. Copper prices are off the charts
- Like everything else these days, inflation is off the charts and continuing.
Good video
- Thank you for sharing your inspiration!
Little money for me is $5 bucks LOL Great video sir!!!
If you plan to add more panels I would just go with getting something like a midnight charge controller if you do not need more inverter space. Adding another array or 2 is always easy. Did you run the wires in conduit? if you did then it might be easy to sting in a few more lines for new arrays. You can never have enough solar. Winter time is one when having extra panels really pays off. In the summer it really helps as well because you can turn on another ac unit and not feel guilty about it.
The all in one inverters are nice. I like the MPP solar ones because of their higher voltage rating. 450v for one of their battery-less inverter. Also you can only make them battery less if they are ran as single units. Though there is not a larger unit out there. I would like to find a unit that is 20kw inverter with 30kw of solar and can be battery-less. As the current way my home is set up adding in a few kw all in one battery less inverter if futile. With the battery less you can also back them up with the grid which is great for those who want to cut their day time electric cost by larger margins. This could also be the means of running air conditioners with out the extra monthly cost, running electric heat with out the extra cost.
- Thanks for weighing in William and offering good advise for myself and others, most solar enthusiast would agree I'm sure that you just can't have enough panels, especially those in the areas where sunlight is a higher priced commodity! I was also at a tossup between MPP Solar and Growatt, the only deciding factor for me was that these smaller growatt series are perfect for the greenhouse, while being scalable for my trial period In-House until the Climate controlled greenhouse has been built. Battery-less option inverters are a great option to have available.
I have 4350 watt Solar, with a 6000 watt growatt inverter (240 volt split phase)and 3 - 48 volt eg4 batteries (15.3KW) .. all on a 40' motor home.
Nice layout. Wish we had gone with another brand. We did Schneider.
- Thanks Journey, was a joy implementing this system. We'll have to see how the Growatt and EG4's do overtime!
these vids have answered 90% of questions I have had, so thank you for taking the time to make them. 1 question I still have is, I see you have a ground rod for your pv combiner boxes and solar panels. Did you run a ground wire out of your PV combiner bow back to the inverter? or just 2 reds and 2 blacks? If you did run a ground wire where did you terminate it inside? Again thanks
- Hello Big Cheese! Going from the combiner box to the inverter I only ran both DC hot wires, no ground. I did however connect a physical ground to the case of my combiner box directly to a grounding rod at the panels chasis.
Really eye opening video. I am planning a 9kw install. Aside from outages, what are the advantages for using batteries. My system is going to be grid tie. Not worried about outages.
Pretty amazing. An equivalent tesla power wall would be about $20k at least. Thanks for all this info!
Thanks Chris
Been in solar stuff for35 years = you did very well in your selection sizing etc = should you advance to the green house I would suggest looking at nife batteries tied in so as to use the browns gas/ hho that is a buy produce the can be used to enhance plant and health situations = read up on George wise browns gas
- Hello Doug and thank you for taking the time to share you comments and advise, much appreciated!
Greatly system !
- Thank you sir, was just out cleaning of the morning snow that seems to fall on this system in this region almost daily!
Living off grid for 15 years now I just upgraded to lifepo4 battery’s At this day in age I would never recommend led acid to anyone they may be cheaper in initial cost but to get the same amount of storage you need 2x more . 100 ah led acid = about 40 ah irl. Don’t buy led acid
Hello Smack, this is good advice given all the alternatives now available for Lithium and cold or even Salt battery solutions. Couldn't agree more on storage capacity and discharge rates. Where I live currently, 46 degrees north everyone relies heavily on Lead acid as the temperatures can get really cold (-50), with people living off grid 100% they have no alternative for charging there batteries in the event there is no sun. Of course there is allot of Lead acid batteries available as well on the market, making them a very cheap additional energy source when rebuilding old units.
Very cool setup, however, living in Canada as I do, I wouldn't ever consider setting up an offgrid system without some ability to charge your batteries besides solar!! I talked to one older fellow after he had solar installed, and he said in 2013, there was a stretch of 3 months during the winter that he never saw more than 3 days in that entire period that had good clean sunlight!! Thankfully he had a backup generator!!
- Hello Kevin and thank you for commenting. I would agree with your recommendations, those living in the northern climates where snow or rainfall, conditions are high causing literally causing "sun outs", having either extra panels, and a few more batteries than you're normal solar setup is recommended. If you have the luxury to do so, a backup wind generator would also be ideal if you're 100% off grid. The luxury of Hydro probably isn't an option unless you have a fast enough current where the river doesn't freeze and or you have the space to put the turbine low enough in the water table where it won't freeze.
Great job, on installation and the video. One question, do you have 2pole breakers in the panel from grid to supply inverters or are you off grid? And, what size breakers are you using to send power from inverters to panel? Assume a one pole 20amp...
Thanks for doing the video, again, great job and I subbed to see what else you're doing
Great video! Could you please tell us (or do a video) about how you wired your panels, ie. how how many in series/parallel, open volts/amps, max volts/amps, etc.? I'm wondering because I want to buy the exact same Growatt 3000 ES model inverters but the manual says only 18A max solar input and it looks like you have more in parallel that exceed 18A. Also how does the cold weather affect your panel voltage? Does the voltage exceed VOC on really cold mornings? Thanks!
great video, but I think it would even better if you gave examples or demonstrate what you can run or power with your set up such as appliances, furnace etc.
- Sounds like a great video, pushing the system to the limits and see how well it'll perform without being connected to the Grid. I'll do that at the point of moving it to the greenhouse in the event something goes "haywire", Thanks Bob
If you build the batteries by your self, which is quite easy, they cost less than half ($2500/20kWh) My 14kWh (16pcs 280Ah Lifepo4) battery + JK smart BMS (balance current 2A, 200A load) + 5A active balancer (+ his voltage detection controller to activate just above 3,4 Volts) + offline monitor was in total $1750.-
Dude your set up is 20x the size of mine, lol.
I have 2x 24v panels on a single controller, going to 2 truck batteries. That powers a 24volt inverter. Off that I can run a small fridge, and charge my laptops.
I have a single panel on a car battery to run the 12volt Car Stereo and the lights.
If I ever get around to cleaning the place up I might do a video about it. :)
- Hello Rowen, sounds like a nice start to your system! I've seen a few of these guys put there systems on Dolly's when there smaller, yet very powerful, making it portable and more versatile for alternative applications.
It would be interesting to see solar panels efficiency to understand how much power you can get in reality versus information given in data sheet
- Sounds like a great video on efficacy of the panels, capabilities, costs and time, thank you Denis for your comments.
Could you make a video walkaround of your pressure treated solar array setup? I've been wanting to do something like that and yours is the most efficient and well designed I've seen anywhere based on this short video. Wood may not last 30 years and so people poo-poo it but most solar installs only make it about 10 anyway before theft, hail, moving, etc so that makes sense to me. I was also thinking of using superstrut but am unclear on how those Ubolts fit in and such. Thanks for the video!
- I'll make a more detailed walk around on the solar rack, thanks for asking.
Great video! I'm subscribing. How much per month are you saving, and how much do you charge to come to Minneapolis and put it together? LOL 😂😂
- Thanks for the comments Paul, I'm saving on average roughly $200 a month in electric costs. Albeit the best part being is that I'm not dependent on the grid if something should go wrong or electric prices start to match that of inflation. Having that next level of independence is gratifying. I can be contacted directly if you go to the "About" page on my channel, I can point you in the right direction if you're serious about installing a system.
Nice job! It looks like you're running the 24v batteries in a 48v configuration. I noticed these are easier to get and a little cheaper as well. Any regrets with not using the 48v models?
Thank you for the review and words of encouragement, kindly appreciated! I purchased the 24v originally for my greenhouse, the need being for lower voltage ranges at 12v. If I could go back I would've purchased the 48v batteries from the beginning, it only makes sense when all other equipment is running on 48v, not to mention the BMS of the 24v batteries doesn't match with the Growatt inverters communication correctly.
You mention upgrades as a benefit to 8 gauge wire, which it is. Another small but real benefit is less transmission loss.
- Good point and thanks for sharing.
Thanks for taking the time to share your setup with us. What kind of a price difference would that be between a EcoFlow setup including the $6k batteries specs minus the solar panels?
- Hello Truth seaker, nice name! I don't know allot about the The Eco Flow series but it seems one would still need to price in an actual power source provider which is expansive for what they offer, depending on solution, as is the case with the Pro unit. The price difference would be significantly more than the setup i have and more restricted, depending greatly on what model you chose and how you planned to do your setup. What I don't like about these units is you're stuck with an entire all-in-one package if inverters, components and batteries all-in-one. If one little part goes wrong you have no system at all, and they're is allot points that could fail. Cool system though for people on the move, camping, RV, boats, etc...
Signature Solar has solar panels for 40 to 43 cents per watt on the low end and averages around 50 cents per watt. The cheapest battery is 24 volt at `100 amp hours or 2.4 kilowatt hours for $500. Two for me was $1,000 dollars for a 5 kilowatt hour pack. I spent about 3,600 dollars for 7 kilowatts of panels each being 370 watts. My dad and I split up 33 panels, 14 for him and 19 for me. His inverter was 1250 dollars and he also got a 5,000 watthour battery pack for a thousand dollars. Together we spent over 9,330$ and I don't have my inverter picked out yet but I will probably get the same as his, a grow watt 6000 watt system and I will put 16 panels on it ,two series of 8 in parallel connections to keep the voltage down and the amps to about 16 to 18 amps. When finished this system will have cost me over 5 thousand dollars and I will upgrade it later with more batteries and I will also have 3 panels left over to run a separate small system of 3,000 watts with a simple inverter and 3 or four lead acid batteries. Two systems so I can avoid total shutdowns if there is a problem.
The main way to reduce cost is to design the house and lifestyle to use less electrical power.
Q: Did you look into whether or not it would be cost effective to have a solar rack that could be manually adjusted to change the panel angle for different seasons?
Hi Don - The first sentence you have written is stated perfectly. No I haven't calculated the cost differences as of yet on being able to adjust the panels to follow the sun but I can assure you this is very important topic that needs allot more discussion, the difference is big for people like myself with limited sunlight as opposed to others.
I am guessing you are in Canada... amazing info.
On the border of CA in the UP... Close enough, great area to be currently.
I must say great video but can i ask some question.
Between mono and poly , solar panels..any of these two type can be connected in series.
How would you calculate the wire needed from the solar panels from rooftop to your growat inverter, am considering to install a 3600w solar system and 3000w inverter....i would need the calculation for the size wire from inverter to battery bank.
How many battery it would require for an off grid system?
I see you install a breaker box in this video which a great idea.. can i ask a question on that..for instance install a breaker box too. How would u calculate the size wire for the output current, coming from the inverter to the breaker box..
For instant there is a 2 (40amp breaker install) what type wire should be connect to those 2 amps.
And there is 1 (15amp breaker) what type wire should be connected to that...
Can you please explain so i can understand..and if you any video ..that can help , i would appreciate that too
Nice presentation. You got a great price on those panels. My system is roof mounted because I needed the extra height due to the fact that I have pretty high trees around my house and my wife didn't want to see ground mounted solar. Consequently the number of panels I could mount (1,000 watts) was impacted by being able to remove snow from the panels. My system is in my house, so I went with a UL listed inverter to keep my insurance company happy. I currently have a 10 KWh battery bank, but will be increasing it to 20 KWh this Spring. One cost I didn't see in your video was the cost of the wiring from the batteries to the inverters. I used 2/0 cabling for that and the cost including connectors was pretty steep. I did use marine grade tinned wire. My system came to approximately $5,600, but the battery upgrade this spring is going to add an additional $3K or so for batteries, cabling, switches, fuses a DC:DC charger to tie the two battery banks together and new battery enclosures. So I will be close to $9K when the project is completed. My system is configured as a backup system and is not grid tied.
- Hello Todd and thanks for sharing your comments, sounds like a really nice "backup" or supplemental system you have in place and ready to go should you need it. I used 2/0 cabling between batteries and inverters, which I'm now upgrading to 1/0 as I have the extra wire here. This run is only 3 feet keeping the cost very minimal on my end, maybe $30... As for SNOW, this is something I don't think allot of folks in the northern latitudes plan for, especially if its a roof mount. This is the only reason I went with the ground mount, for snow removal. Of course another benefit with ground mounts is the ease of implementing a swivel base to capture more of the suns rays during solstice angle ranges. Cheers
I know you already did it the way you did it but just a money saving fyi for you for future projects, Instead of buying way more wiring than you need just buy one roll of white that will cover all the distance you need and label the connected ends with black or whatever color electrical tape. The color only has to be correct for the first foot after each connection.
- Thank you Andrew for the advise as it's very true and the 1000' foot rolls are less expensive than the 500'.
I've got a 10kW solar system coupled with a 28kWh LiFePO4 DIY battery with BMS. The system includes 2x100A charge controller and a 6kW low frequency inverter. Together with all wiring, and my DIY ground mounts the total cost of the system was
- That sounds like a really nice system and at a great price, was planning myself to DIY the next round of batteries. What did you use for the BMS?
@@ahhlifesgood1956 JK BMS. It's a 2x16 280Ah cell battery pack, so 2x that BMS. It's been running for almost two years now without issues. I'll probably double the capacity this year.
@@upnorthandpersonal - Thanks for sharing, I'm in the market myself for backup BMS to my EG4'z and for expansion of my current system
@@ahhlifesgood1956 No problem. Are you on Will Prowse's forum? If not, I would recommend dropping by there :)
Great video, great info. Do you run off-grid or grid tie?
- Hello sir, I run off both. When the inverters or battery's cannot provide the electricity needed the Grid comes on automatically to compensate any additional power needs. Very nice system, I'm very happy with it in general.
To help put this kind of info in perspective, count up how many kilowatt-hours you've produced with your system. Divide that by your total expenditure to put your outlay in the same framework as what on-grid electricity consumers pay: money per kilowatt-hour.
While it's early days it'll look like a terrible comparison and you've thrown your money at a losing proposition, but unlike ratepayers - like myself - your spending is pretty much done. Every kilowatt-hour you generate without spending more money works to the good. The longer it lasts, the more affordable your system looks until eventually it becomes pretty obvious that your way is the best way: it costs a hell of a lot up front, and is cheaper every day after that.
- Hello Leif and thank you for taking the time to share your insights. Solar to me really comes down to the question of "if you need it," if you need it well then the cost is justifiable. In truth we really don't need electricity but we've conditioned ourselves to think we do, therefore we spend most time and money more often than not on luxuries we never needed at all. Cheers
I have a 17kW, 50-panel (340 watt panels) grid-tied microinverter system that was installed by a local solar contractor last year for $20,000. No batteries yet. I thought it was a pretty good deal.
- Thanks for sharing Greg, sounds like you have a powerful system at a very reasonable price.
Thanks for an informative and well laid out video. I wonder if it would be worth to have the panels on rotating mounts to get more energy? It would be interesting to see a video on what options there are for rotating mounts on the market and what cost diy and so on.
That's a really good point and thank you for the comments! In this area of the world being so far north (46 lat.) it is most necessary to have some kind of swivel or mount that allows you to track the sun. The small amount of time I've been here I see a tremendous difference in the amount of energy produced from the angle the sun reaches from Summer/Winter Solstice, along with the amount of time it's available during the day. The suns angle here is 60 degrees in Summer and 12 degrees in Winter, yes that's correct so anyone that's serious about harnessing as much energy as you can from the sun, most definitely plan to implement some kind of swivel into your base if you can, if not, find that exact medium (average) between the two numbers and plan accordingly.
@@ahhlifesgood1956 I’m at long 58 in Sweden. My only experience with solar is on my sailboat and it makes a big difference when I direct the panel to the sun. Some auto following of the sun would be great here. I don’t think many people understand how much better it can be if you have the panel on a swivel and direct the panel. Many including me have the panel flat on the hatch of the sailboat.
Easy to build diy solar trackers on you tube. eBay had cheap kits with everything you need for less than 100 bucks.
For a solar tracking post you can use the front sraight axle off a truck. Bury the axle into concrete in the ground like a post and then use the spindle and wheel hub to rotate solar array to follow the sun. And put an accuator on the tie rod attachment end to make the solar array tilt at the king pin to follow the seasons. I've built a few of these before and found that they even handle high winds well if not mounted on a peak.
Great video. Just installed a Honeywell ATO for a 12 KW generator backup. As a last resort option.
@@CurtisDrew1 - I like the way you think Curtis, definitely outside the box where ingenuity meets resourcefulness! That's a very functional and strong base (axle) to weld a massive PV array to pending size of axles. Heck you could even put a hydraulic ram on the tilt and hookup a gyro synced to the atomic clock for automated sun tracking. For those that need Feng Shui or curb appeal you could always case the axle in steel or wood. Thanks for the insight, comments and great idea.
What do you estimate the pay back time ?
And how long do the batteries last ?
Looks like a pretty neat install 👍🙂
- Thank you for the comments - I just answered another viewer on this and have added to your additional question on battery time: "Great question, savings or return on solar investment wouldn't be until after the 7 - 20 year mark for most people, depending largely on size (cost) of your investments and if you use tax credits to write off your investment. My system will pay for itself in 3 years, if I use the tax credits. The option that I have backup utility to me in the event there is no Power is without price."... Battery Discharge rates will depend on how much electricity you consume and for how ling you'll need it. These time variables can differ immensely, as well as the costs can get astronomical with battery banks, very fast. As for how long the batteries last, well the manufactures says 7000 cycles (apprx. 15 yrs) at 80% discharge. Whether these numbers ring true, we wont know until they've been on the market long enough.
Excellent breakdown, thank you. Forgive my ignorance but what does a system of that size run? Can you run your whole house on it?
- Hello TwoBuck Chuck... System prices are increasing these days, especially panel pricing I'm noticing is much higher in only 9 months. The costs of systems vary on many factors from location, electrical consumption needs to whom is selling the system. My entire system was pretty cheap in comparison to many other freinds and viewers. Can it run my house entirely, sure but I need to be conscious about all energy consumption loads and charging rates (weather/time) at every moment. The place I have this solar system is the size of a cabin for most folks living in the US.
I think that it could be a good video if you could let us know what s your plan with solar + greenhouse. Are you trying to be self sufficient as possible? What are your upcoming goals?
- Great idea for an up and coming video, thank you!
Those are some cheap superstruts !!! My local Home Depot has them at $25 per 10 ft section, if you buy 10 or more, $29 otherwise. BTW I subscribed.
- Hello An Mo - Honestly I cant remember what I paid exactly for them, but I know it wasn't $29 a piece, if it were I probably would've used wood. For expansion any additional solar racks I'll be welding together on a manual swivel, cost will be a relatively the same but the durability should last longer, and allow me to move the panels according to the suns angles.
@@ahhlifesgood1956 Very cool. I will be very interested in seeing your swivel design.
Great video. I'm sure i can find this somewhere else, but you promoted the concept of batteries or wind/water to generate power at night. However, with what you presented, can this feed into your existing power? i.e. feed into the grid or do net-credits for not using anything from the grid? I cannot process that without batteries this would be around $4K for me if I just went with panels...
This system could feed into my grid but I chose to run it entirely independent so when I transfer the system to my greenhouse I should have the bugs worked out. Which I'm happy to report, the bugs have been minimal.