Snow Can't Stop Us: Massive DIY Solar Power Upgrade | EG4 6000XP Off-Grid Inverters (Full Install)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.พ. 2025
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Hey, Y'all,
Welcome to our Off-Grid channel DIY or DIE. It's been almost two years since we built our DIY solar power system, with our EG4 6500 inverters from Signature Solar, and moved our family onto our property to live in our tiny 28ft RV, off the grid, while we build our dream house, by hand. We've since upgraded the RV to a temporary manufactured home, and now it's is time to conduct a massive upgrade to our solar power system and replace our EG4 6500 inverters with the newer EG4 6000XP model. The biggest advantage from this upgrade for us is the newer EG4 6000XP inverters individually output both 120/240V, which means we will have true redundancy in case one inverter goes down, amd we will still be able to power critical appliances like our Well Pump.
Ironically, when we originally planned this upgrade the weather was supposed to be nice and sunny, but NO surprise, life always has an interesting curve ball to throw at us, so we end up racing against the clock to get the EG4 6000 XPs installed before we get hit with an unprecedented blizzard in Southeast Georgia.
While we have the inverters down, we won't have any power or water, so we are rushed to get the new 6000XPs up and running before we get 5-8 inches of snow dropped on our heads.
Before we can install the new 6000XPs, Justin has to teard down the old 6500 inverters and all the old wiring, including the battery and solar panel disconnects. The new 6000XPs have these disconnects built into the inverter for convenience. it is a little sad to see the old system go, but Justin is also going to upgrade all the wiring and install a metal trough and a battery cable box so the new system will be 100% contained for safety and it will look much more professional.
The hardest part of the install was making sure that all the pipes fit up perfectly between the EG4 6000XP inverters and the wire trough. Once Justin had everything fit up, it's time to start hanging components on the wall!
As Justin is installing the 6000XPs, the temperature is dropping like a rock in water, and chickens try to invade the solar power shed. We decide to sleep in the RV overnight, so while the kids are nice and toasty with the propane heater, Justin pushes on with the install as his fingers get number from the cold.
After the inverters are hung on the wall and all the conduit is connected, it's time to wire everything up! Justin has to splice a bunch of wires together with his handy, dandy butt connectors and finally manages to get everything wired up around 10pm.
The Eg4 6000XPs fired right up, but we had a bit of learning to do to figure out the programming before we could get power!
At last, thanks to Justin figuring out the right settings and power were restored to the homestead.
The next morning, we awoke to a winter wonderland, frozen pipes, and snow-covered solar panels. Once we cleared the snow off the panels, though, the inverters began to happily hum away while they charged our EG4 lithium ion battery bank.
All in all, this project was a huge success!
Great job on the install! I really enjoy seeing other folks ideas when they install their systems.
While I agree that a hydraulic punch kit would be the best, the hole saws you used are still much better than trying to use a step bit. The step bits just throw slag everywhere!
So after you started prepping all the inverters in the house, did you stop and think "why didn't we do this before we disconnected the 6500s?" 😁
The wire trough and conduit just gives everything a clean, finished look. I do like the combiner cabinet you added at the bottom for your bus bars. I've been wanting to do something like that for a long time.
A couple suggestions for you:
- You'll want to add some kind of gasket/grommet on your PV wire penetration into the wire-way as well as the battery cable penetration into your combiner box. You don't want to have anything rubbing on the wires. For the PV wires, since everything's already mounted, maybe look into an automotive grommet that you can just add around the wires.
- You'll want to ground your wire trough and battery box
- Since you're redoing your battery cables anyways, you'll want to make sure that the cables are the same length for both inverters. This helps have an equal power draw from your battery bus bars.
I know you're very meticulous and have a great knack to figure things out, but if you ever have any questions, let me know and I can recommend some resources that might help. Glad a comment on the forum was able to help!
Great video guys. I love it when she laughs at you. My wife does the same when I am doing projects.
The time spent in the house prepping was WELL worth it. Very clean looking!!! 😊
Great job. Glad to see you took the time to route the wiring cleanly to the terminals. Stay warm!
A very professional job indeed. I hope these 6000 XP 's last four years to come
Will there be any need for future upgrades?
We got snow in Augusta also but not more than about two inches. We are still trying to climb out from under Hurricane Helene as Augusta has picked up over 2.4 million cubic yards of debris so far with a lot still to be removed. I really like your videos and think ya'll do a wonderful job.
Happy Presentation Day. ❤ great even though you are under a time crunch, letting the kids get involved with the project. You're wonderful people and wonderful parents.
Thank you so much!
Brother, I love your shop floor,just be careful of all those drill shaving. I sure wish you would've files the inside of those pieces of conduct to remove the sharp edge so it doesn't cut into the wires over time.
Yes,the snow came and went but it wascod a few days,but you guys are knocking it. Very proud of your patience and determination.
We had a few days of cold here in Ocala FL but today the 2nd its 78 ,so good days are coming.
GOD BLESS you and your family and keep them safe.
I give you a lot of credit. I assume you were some kind of electrical engineer in the army. Definitely more then a computer tech. You do great work and the new system looks great with no exposed wires. Stay warm.
Nice job bro 👍
Appreciate the support!
You really should use bushing where your battery cables enter the cabinet
yes
Nice Florida man wiring
The best.
Is the manufacturer buying back all of the old hardware? Sorry if I missed that.
Pro tip for the future: prep the new inverters and hardware BEFORE you do the swap so you have power and heat while you work. THEN take the old down and swap.
Nice work! Her merry laugh when you realized you'd goofed up and left the inverter bolted to the wall was awesome and fun. Seeing little man helping was neat.
"Oh... duh..." and her giggles. lol
Pipe logs... 😁
Chickens: Birds have some sort of electromagnetic sense so they might be attracted to that. Or bugs... or a curious. "Why did the chicken go into the power room?"
"You're in so much trouble..." ROFL
Glad you got it sorted out. Awesome!
Wild seeing snow in Georgia!
I did the same swap, they gave a 50% discount on the 6000XPs when you send the 6500EX back.
Fantastic video, all I can say is I am glad it was you and not me for I would have been totally lost. God Bless from your Canadian Friend.
welcome to DIYing solar: refactoring old stuff with new stuff. I am on my 4th generation of inverters - started in 1999
and I got the knockout punch early, have punched many holes since. quieter and cleaner
love the bus bar box
and yes firmware update is required. My son had same issue
great work
By a No.13 socket did you mean a 13mm socket?
You really should be using some rubber bushing where the cables enter a metal casing, its to prevent potential damage to your cables.
I’m from North Idaho, over 30 years! Now I’m in southern Oklahoma and hate it! But I’ll survive!
Smart planning on wire size for genny. Nice.
Love it. Very nice professional looking results.
The music has a nice beat to it. Good choice
Amazing job getting the system upgraded. I was worried at the beginning when you said "that beeping is because the batteries are low". Knowing the system is down all day you would have same low-bat on the other end of the upgrade. Happy to hear you got the power back on. Noce finish.
Looks all great. Glad all up.
Nice tidy job excellent work 👍🏻
Wow that was wild to watch!! Glad to know y'all got power back on!!
Definitely was pretty to see Snow in the south again!!
Happy February to y'all. I hear their talking about maybe another snow event sometime this month. Y'all take care.
Good job looks nice wiring
Thanks!
Very clean instal awesom job
You will love them I have 3 changed from Growat about a year ago
Great job get it going
Thank you for sharing.
Enjoyed the video. Thanks for sharing
Nice job.
You have to do a soffware update on the battery
I need to hire you to hook up my surround sound. Your work is so professional, neat, and esthetically pleasing. BTW, I did think I heard banjo music playing in the background.
nice as Always
Thanks!
Great job and you can still hook up the grid power you just set your gas powered portable generator as your grid power.
I have seen others do that for thier off grid solar like my mother's home she is off grid now. But she has a big diesal generator that set as her grid power to charge her bateries.
For which my brother designed.
Personally I think you guts should have upgraded the inverters to 2 18 kw.
As you would also no longer need the seperate chargeverter.
As it is built in to the 18kw and would also allow for expandability for more solar panels.
Hope this helps.
Like someone said, you have to upgrade the firmware in the batteries, either with a laptop or they will send a dongle to do each battery. Also when you connect to the inverter dongles you have to set your wifi to 2.4 Ghz. They also have Bluetooth, I did not know about the 2.4 ghz for the wifi and just used my phone to set up the inverters. Once you have the inverter dongles set you can change all the battery charging parameters from your computer. You download the monitor program from the EG4 website. I got my battery dongle from them, Signature Solar had difficulty shipping one to me. Also like it says in the manual your generator has to have a THD
Great job. Can you turn the background music down in your recordings? It makes it hard to hear you.
Ah, darn! Thanks for the feedback. It's a tricky balance!
Understandable. It wasn't every part with music, just part of it.:) Love all your videos so keep up the great work!
Very professional job Jacob. It's in ok yo be onery too. Just say got ya
39:58 did you check your antifreeze in the microphone? 😅
@14:27, at the top of the box (center), we can see the plastic bushing protecting the white wire. Do you think you need these bushings on all of the conduit inside of the trough? (HD SKU # 655509)
Why use terminal blocks in there in your channel to extend those wires that you need to extend and you wouldn’t have to go through buying a new wire I think the terminal box would be least expensive and they are our insulated so that you wouldn’t have to worry about them being grounding out to the metal
How many little dings on the vinyl flooring from the little drill bit did you do?
None 😀
❤❤
I hope it is a simple firmware update problem.
no rubber grommets? wire rubbing on metal box???
I was wondering if anyone would catch that 😄. I had grommets at the initial install, but they were too small. Stay tuned for an update!
31 ain't COLD. I lived in Alaska for 4 years. That's a heatwave. lol
Haha! That's about as cold as it gets down here. Maybe some nights in the 20s.
What do you do with the old inverters?
Send them back to Signature Solar as part of their upgrade program.
😇👍👍👍👍👍🙏
🇳🇴👍👍🥇
How old are your children now 2025?❤😊
We have five beautiful children who range in age from preteen to newborn!
@DIYorDIE_Off-Grid Sorry I was bust nosy,I had 7 childrearing all are grown up how time flys.I smile all the time I see everybodys small children,love watching you building your home,good luck.
Before you buy this 6000XP inverter which is manufactured by Luxpower, Ask Google AI, "Do Luxpower inverters have a higher failure rate than low-frequency, transformer-based inverters?"
Poor choice for an inverter. Ask Google AI "Do high frequency inverters have a high failure rate?" to learn the truth about these cheap Chinese made inverters.
Nice tidy job excellent work 👍🏻