My Portable DIY Home Solar Powered Battery Backup System for in Case the Grid Goes Down...
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 ต.ค. 2022
- This is a general overview and demonstration of my Solar Power System which I designed to be able to run the essential items in our house in case we lose power from the grid for an extended period of time. I didn’t want to take on a loan for a full-scale home solar system costing tens of thousands of dollars so I started off with more modest goals to power all the essential items in the house overnight (refrigerators, furnace, lights, wifi router, etc.) and this is what I ended up with. It turns out, it runs everything in the house except the electric dryer and air conditioning. Total cost was around $5000 for which $3000 was LiFePO4 batteries. Thanks for watching!
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That made a nice tidy system and works very well
I second all the previous comments. Exceptional project and video.
Nice set up!!!Thank you for sharing!!!
The "yay!" at the end made me smile big! :) Thinking of a similar cart design, Harbor Freight is my go to for certain items like that cart. The detail you explain everything in is great, keep it up! Thank you for taking the time! Huge help!
I love the movable solar panel array idea!! I may need to build a few of those.
Same! Lovely and very simple design that can easily be changed for the summer and winter time.
I have also saved one other video for the bottom there the bottom could be swinging around so with this video and the other one im thinking about it could be great design together.
Saved this video till i have bought solar panels to my cabin.
Thank you for taking the time to make and post your video. A friend and I are wanting to do the same thing, and this was a great example we can follow as we build up our systems. Really like the rolling solar panel frames and battery cart and how it all stores very compactly when you aren't using it. Well done sir!
Excellent thank you would love to see more too
I hope it's a good feeling for you to know that this is the first video on at home solar that was realistic and understandable for me and my journey. Please let me explain, I plan on building my dreams with animals and and others who depend on me. You've just provided me with my stepping stone, thank you. God Bless
Man...That backup solar is OFF DA Chain!! Good JOB!
I love how portable it is for such a large system. Very nice 👍
Nice emergency setup. 👍 For anyone considering building something like this that is off-grid and doesn't need to meet code I would recommend looking for used solar farm panels. I've been able to find 435watt panels for about $100 each.
Awesome setup!! Now I see why Harbor Freight is always out of solar panels 😂😂
one of the nicest setups ive seen in a while
Great ideas there. I love the portable setup.
I would play a bit with the solar charge controller's to lower the battery voltages. Charging to 14,5V, means 3.625 per cell if equally balanced cells.... I would lower that to 13,8V to a maximum of 14,2V. No real advantage in going higher. You get maybe 1 to 2% more capacity but the chemistry gets stressed. Anything above 3,45V brings very little capacity, although it brings a little more charging speed.
Great video and work. Cheers
A great project to provide power when you need it.
Well done! Well thought out and executed. Cool to see the ingenuity in your design and engineering. 👏
Like most of the comments below, this is an awesome idea... appreciate if you can provide a step by step video on how you build it. Really enjoy and love to have that one in the future too.
I truly appreciate your attention to detail and showing us here on TH-cam. I have seen a lot of videos on the subject and this one showed a great amount of detail in the areas I needed. I would like to see a system like this set up in a documentary kind of form where it was from the start to finish. Nonetheless, this was great, awesome thank you
I have recorded more detail and plan to post it but I haven't managed to assemble it yet.
Thank you for the response. I will check in on you. Your work and the way you relate the separate areas is top notch. Have a great day. Thanks again for posting. You inspired me
Am working on a similar project. You just motivated me even more!!!
More solar stuff please...more post's on the cost of components and how you connected your system to the house.would be appreciated.. brilliant that you've made the system moveable and transportable ...its an idea that's been banging around in my head for awhile, thanks for doing the hard work for me!!.😎💕🇺🇸🇺🇦
I have shot some video clips with greater detail on all of that which I do intend to assemble and post. It'll happen... hopefully soon! Thanks for your interest.
Well done. Looks to be a well thought out system that is tailored for your needs. This is a good example of how solar can be customized to a specific task and be usable.
That is an outstanding set up, brother. 👍 Easy storage and set up and plenty of juice. Phenomenal
That's a very well engineered system! Only needs fuses for the solar panels since you have them in parallel (lots of amps shooting through). Thanks for posting!
Each array is wired in a series/parallel arrangement. Right now, each pair of panels is in series and then the 3 pairs are in parallel. I'm going to experiment with 3 panels in series, but I haven't yet.
@@MathesonFamily sounds like you know exactly what you're doing. Congrats on obtaining the knowledge to become independent from the energy companies!
You’ve done a great job putting this together! Well thought out and constructed
First off, I really like what you did here. It makes a lot of sense building out the stands and making it portable. I did something similar and I still have the Giandel inverter but switched to a Growatt 48V because of the cabling and other requirements when running higher amperage. But there are real advantages to how you designed this with dedicated MPPT's. If you get a shading on one panel array it'll have much less affect on the system. Whereas a single MPPT like my configuration would cause a big drop in amperage across all arrays.
Where my system is different is I built out 2 pergola's and set the arrays on top. The disadvantage there is they're currently flat and I'm not getting 100% wattage during peak solar. I'm planning on doing something like you did here with the adjustable stands and remounting the arrays on my pergola's. So this gives me some good ideas.
Replace the 2x4s with 13/16” Unistrut It’ll help with durability and probably shave some weight. Great build
Nevermind the naysayers. Great concept. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you. It does surprise me how many naysayers there are (Harbor Freight is crap, treated lumber is terrible for outside use, no serious solar power system runs on 12 volts...). I delete most of their comments. :)
Great system you got there! Well done and thank you for sharing it with all of us.
Very nice and neat. It seems to do what you require in a simple and organized system!
Very nice stand
Nice job
I like your design
I know you don't want to hear about 24 or 48 volts but I have to agree with you in that your setup is perfectly fine with 12 volts. The biggest advantage with 24 or 48 volts is having less amps going through the wires allowing for thinner gauge copper wiring and thus driving the cost of a large solar array sprawled over a large piece of land or having the array far from the house, as in the case of a farmer who would rather have his livestock closer than the array so that he and his guard dogs can keep an eye for predators. But you don't have to deal with sprawl ... your setup is impressively compact and your arrays are close to the house so though you have to get thicker copper wiring, you don't have to get much of it. And it is a nice reminder that the true pioneers of "off-grid" solar power were RV owners who were also perfectly fine using 12-volt setups long before high-wattage solar arrays started becoming cost-effective for farmers and ranchers who always had the cheaper option (at the time) of running a heavy diesel generator (unlike RV owners) for their off-grid power. It was these latecomers who introduced solar array sprawl and thus created the need for 24 or 48-volt setups.
Thank you for your understanding comment! :) I agree with everything you just said. I've deleted several comments from viewers that say I should have used a 24 volt system (also from viewers that are offended I used Harbor Freight panels). But from my point of view, a 24v system would add nothing except cost. All my components are 24 or 48v compatible except the inverter. The panels are wired in a series/parallel arrangement. I could replace my 12v/3000w Giandel inverter with their almost identical 24v/3000w inverter but it would be a pointless $400+ expense. The system would still do the same thing. I agree that if I were constructing a larger system, such as might be possible with my "retirement house", I would make changes. But I didn't want to not use any of the components that I had already bought when system was smaller. There just wasn't a need.
I like your mobile array idea but I’d want larger wheels for rolling across my grass lawn. I built several solar arrays using furniture dolly’s and galvanized 1/2 pipe held together with zip ties. Easy to clean and very mobile for aiming at morning and evening sun.
Great set up
That made my head hurt! If only I understood any of that! So clever
Great job on your DIY build!!
I like the way you design this!! awesome!!
Thanks!
Wonderfully creative and inspiring ...many thanks
Nice job! Looks very clean and well thought out!
awesome work!!!
I hope u use all that for power all the time. There are transformer / controllers that will take solar & line power & feed whichever is available to circuits u designate, like fridge, furnace... GOOD WORK. Got some inspiration .
Impressive bank fantastic thanks
VERY fine work man!!!
Nice job! You did a lot of great work here.
I love how you made this setup incrementally! I really want solar but also can't (won't) drop the cash for an all out house install. This really inspired me to do a portable ground array just like yours! Bonus that I can easily (more or less) take the system with me if we decide to move in the future :)
Thanks common sense approach to home solar. I haven't had a power bill for 15 years or more it bugs me no end when naysayers claim it doesn't work only few tricks fat wire lots of fuses and keep it as simple as is practical for your needs. Get your build looked over by someone skilled ___a peace of mind it will bite you just as well as the bought stuff n ____b. Get most bang for your buck. But the real key is to use less led lights and effective fridge /freezer s. Sundazzer freezer system well worth a look energy proof you house insulation draft s etc it's a learning curve but worth it thanks for showing us your tidy well thought out system keep it up well done
You got some skills man. nice video
You rock !!!
You gave me some really good ideas to do with my system.
My one suggestion is to make some kind of cover for the top of your cart.
It is dangerous to have exposed copper bus bars.
It would be too easy to drop something and cause a short.
Other than that , I give you an A+.
I agree with the cover idea. Thanks for the comment.
Very nice system. Well thought out.
LOVE THIS! Thanks for sharing.
I dig your setup. You will never have to be without power ever again. Nicely built and pretty much stuff anyone can get. Much of which is available locally.
You're exactly right! Most likely, I will never be without power again because now that I've built the system, my grid electricity is much less likely to go out! :)
Fantastic build!
Love the practicality of the setup..cheers from philippines bro
I would really like to see how you made the racks for your solar panels those are awesome
I am planning to post of video with a lot of the construction or assembly details. I've already shot the video segments. I just haven't assembled the video yet. Thanks for asking.
Thank You so much. I was also wondering where your son went on his mission?
@@MathesonFamily looking forward to it
@@MathesonFamily How does your set up compare to let’s say the Bluetti AC500?
One of the engineers for Dr. Peter Pry formally of the EMP commission whom has recently passed away. This engineer said that you would take two 12 V deep cycle batteries and combine it with a 2000 W inverter. He said you could run a home for 20 years but I think that was a little overstated. What do you think of his set up?
Très belle installation, simple et pratique.🥰
Great setup. I've started building my solar shed setup with one 40A rover and 4x100 panels to get into the game. I've also been eyeing up the same 3K watt inverter that you have as Giandel seems to be the best bang for the buck. Biggest thing for me is to start small but have the ability to scale up.
Yeah, that's about the scale I was originally planning to do. But as I procrastinated on actually putting it together, Harbor Freight would advertise another sale on panels and I'd buy a couple more. So this is essentially a scaled up version of what you are planning. Good luck!
Amazing .Really great job Congratulations !!!!
As of late ive been thinking how to protect my DIY very small solar system.(Im glad its very small) from an EMP. An EMP will lay waste to my whole system, which consist of solar panels, Victron charge controller, a 3000 Watt inverter plus 2 batters that have a BMS. Now i have find the cheapest way and the best way to protect my system. BTW you have a very neat system. I admire people who make the DIY Solar system super clean and neat.
Haha! Thank you for thinking this system is clean and neat. In an earlier form, the controller board was much tidier with short, straight cables cut to length but after actually reading the Renogy controller manual, I realized I would have to re-design it to mount the controllers vertically (for cooling purposes). So in its present form, I got lazy and didn't worry about running the cables in nice straight short sections. I just made it functional.
Excellent build and video sharing. Love how you talk through thinngs. I am very interesting in how you built the switch to ensure grid Isolation. Not sure I can do that in my location but I would love to be off-grid to degree possible in California suburbs. I know the goal is to charge us for having solar just connected. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you for the show and tell
excellent work I hope one day i will do something like that
Nice setup! It is almost identical to mine only three times the size!
I like your cart! Great idea and I'm not offended that you used Harbor Freight panels! I think they do a pretty good job!
Nice job. Really well thought out.
Another note on the seperste charge controllers. This is actually better than on big one. If racks of panels have different sun exposure, then 'weakest' would rag all down (with combiner/single controller), plus you have redundancy built it. Perhaps look to see if these can have data link between them, so they can agree on charge point/voltage.
This is a great build. I like the mobility with the frames and cart. I used 2 hand trucks to create redundant 3.5kw and 2.5kw vertical systems. I know you intended this to be 12v but you can always use the solar panels and the batteries if you do upgrade to 24v or 48v. That way, you can double or quadruple the amount of overall wattage the cables can handle. You could then replace the 4 controllers with one larger one that has an integrated inverter. Will Prowse has a lot of videos on these larger DIY systems.
Yeah, I actually had the 12v inverter before I had most of the panels, which for the time being, locked me into the 12v design. Except for the inverter, everything else could be used for a 24v or 48v system. Maybe if I feel the need to expand in the future, I'll spring for a different inverter, etc. But for now, I've been able to keep and use everything I had for the original smaller system.
Nice little vid bud. You’ll find yourself mucking around with solar and batteries more and more now you’ve made a functional system! Next one will be a 48v system like you’ve mentioned I reckon :)
I have the 2200w version and it does over the rated amount. Even runs my 1.6hp dewalt air compressor, and 3.5hp Poulan chainsaw.
This is just great cheers from Freddy tait in uk
Very nice setup, thanks
Nice portable back up power station
Impressive! I have the solar panel cart!
Sir, i like what you have done. Excellent. Im building my own 12v , 400w solar panel system as well. I like the cart with the batteries, inverter, controller set up.
I've been collecting components over the past yesr. My panels are the same. My intent as far as mounting and portability are the same. Great video.
That sounds just like my story. It started off as a 400w system primarily for the computer and internet router and then for more than a year, I'd buy additional components that I finally assembled into this system. A lot of folks, whose comments I mostly delete, are offended that I used 100 watt panels and 12 volts. But that's what I started with and I didn't want to trash those items, particularly the 12v inverter, when I could still use them.
Excellent!
Nice job
A great portable system. However, there are some vulnerabilities. The cart, the shelves should have several large drain holes, especially the top shelf. The cart should also have some type of protection from roof leaks.
It looks to me like your panels are connected in parallel making 4 strings of 6 panels connected in parallel? If this is correct, you absolutely should fuse your panels. Otherwise, a fault in one of the panels will cause the rest of the panels on the string to dump all their amperage into the broken panel leading to a fire.
I love it!
Very cool setup! 20KWatt of storage would be my recommended minimum.
Nice solar power ❤👍
Awesome junior high school project.
I like the way you designed and constructed the deployable solar arrays. I noticed that you inverter sees 12.4V when your battery says 13.1V when pulling 2000W... This could be fixed by adding another set of conductors (in parallel) between your batteries and the inverter to reduce the voltage drop.
nice project bro🥰🥰..
Very impressive system! Would be great to know how you started planning this and how it progressed to now. (edit) If you have video or photos of the progression it could be a good next video or series of videos? I’m sure plenty of people would be interested in seeing this.
I’ve been building a small solar setup over the last few months, with a plan of having many panels on portable roll out frames like yours. I’ve changed how I connect my panels about 5 times already and planning the 6th revision now to handle even more panels 😅
Actually, I am planning to post a video showing a lot of the construction details. I worry that I talk too much and that people would be bored viewing it. Thanks for asking.
@@MathesonFamily I was going to ask for a video of the stand's construction. That would be awesome
Very nice
As a self build system this is great, nice to see clean/logical layout of components and wiring. I'd be a little concerned about the stability of the panels - one wind gust and you might see some damage. Maybe add some tie-down points for stakes/pegs/guide lines....
Yeah, I have given some thought to what I might do about high winds. I don't really expect to use this system often or for very long as it is just a back up. But my first thought is I'll just lay the arrays down flat on the ground if it gets windy. Each array is 150 lbs and unlikely to budge but, later, I may invest in some type of a system to anchor them down.
Nice 👍😎
Nice set up ,now I want to learn what adding some magnets to the set up could do for increase energy..alternating supply attachment probably could increase the efficiency pretty much. Just by understanding how to fix low supply or increase the efficacy seems important.
Great set up....Now your playing with power...(Nintendo)
Cheers!
I liked your work, professional, nice and clean. The only thing I recommend is that change the wooden bases of the panels and make them with aluminum, since if it is a portable system, the wood is very heavy and it decomposes. Thank you for your attention, hrg1961
Thanks for your good words. I considered metal frames but it was quite a bit more expensive and I expect that actual use of this system to be rather minimal so I chose treated lumber so that if it was out in the weather, it would be OK for a while.
Nice!
Take it easy they say that's right
I have 1260 watts on the roof of my box truck house.
Thanks for showing us this. I’m designing a similar scale system, and curious as to whether you considered a 24v system by wiring some panels in series to boost the voltage. A series/parallel configuration, in other words.
The system is 12 volt because when I started acquiring the components, my intent was to assemble a much smaller scale project... maybe only 4 panels to power the computer, wifi and aquariums. If I was planning a 2000 watt system from the beginning, I would do it differently and it would be 24 or 48 volts. Anyway, I do wire the panels in a series/parallel arrangement. For each array, each pair of panels is in series and then the 3 pairs are in parallel. The Rover charge controllers will accept up to 100 volts, but my inverter is locked into a 12 volt input.
Nice build. 800 Amp hours can keep stuff running for quite a while. I like the multiple Renogy MPPT units. They are reliable.
I am attaching a video showing how I can read my Renogy shunt type battery meter remotely. The Renogy WiFi dingle dongle is fine when I am home. But if I leave for days, I want to know what's charging, amps drawn, state of charge, etc. So I added a Pet Cam video system. The iPhone app allows me to rotate the camera 350 degrees, look up or down, put a red laser dot on the screen and prove that it's real time. It has 2 way conversation and I can verify that the inverter fan is running or the MPPT fan is on if the solar input is over 500 watts. The Pet Cams are cheap, useful, and handy
There is an extra digital thermometer panel with 8 readouts not shown and can be read instantly by cell phone with that same camera. This battery cabinet with inverters runs for months on end and powers up 2 full sized fridges and 4 chest freezers in the shop. I can see if the temps are correct on the units being powered up. The system is 24 volts, has 3600 amp hours or 46,000 watt hours in Chins batteries. th-cam.com/video/vwrH6pFzy4w/w-d-xo.html
Pretty fancy stuff! Thanks for sharing.
NICE
Nice setup, which I'm building something, but with 2x 400w half-cut cells panels, and 6x 150w panels all on movable frames and 4.8kwh of LifePo4 and 4kwh of LA, plus a 3kw inverter.
You are using two charge controllers to run 2 different sets of batteries and 2 inverters?
Amazing work!
Thank you so much for your inspirational video!
p.s. It would be nice if you could list the components so that we try in replicating such great idea and, perhaps, not rely on the grid in times of despair.
Thank you so much!
It's coming, within the next few weeks anyway.
Nice set up. I have a smaller version of yours...
Those panels are great. I currently have 16 on my way to 24…I buy out the stores when they go on sale. You are right…they absolutely overproduce their rated wattage. I’m very happy with them.
I decided that I wanted to have these panels out 24x7, so I’m constructing permanent mounts for them now. I’m looking forward to your video on how you made them, and I’m wondering why you went with different mounting angles (maybe they are adjustable?).
Looks great!
Thank you for being someone who didn't criticize me for using Harbor Freight 100W panels! Many people have been offended by that but I deleted their comments. I have no regrets about buying them. They seem to be well constructed, are the more efficient monocrystalline design, work very well and, in fact produce more power than advertised. Yes, if I was starting from scratch, I could use larger panels (for about the same cost per watt, especially after shipping) and a larger and integrated charge controller. But the fact is, I started small, and the system got bigger but I haven't had to retire or discard any of the components I started with and it works fine. I did originally intend to make the tilt angle variable by having longer legs with an adjustable length chain with pre-marked angles for different seasons. But when I looked into it more, it appeared that the most efficiency I would lose with a fixed angle equal to my latitude was 10%. So I cut the legs to be vertical for that angle and attached constant length chains to keep the panels stable at a fixed angle. They are all uniform now.
@@MathesonFamily Those panels are great for all of the reason you said. I like that you can get them local from a shop you can return them to. They are well made. The wire is OFC, which many are not. I have had them produce over 104w each before. I also started put modular and kept adding to the system.
The good position is perpendicular of solar radiation.
Use a square to get the most out of the solar panel. Best regards.
All the arrays are set by fixed chains to create an angle that corresponds to the optimal fixed angle for our latitude. I was going to make the angle adjustable to account for seasonal variation, but decided that keeping it fixed was simpler and I'd only lose about 10% efficiency.
This is a great video, I love the DIY spirit all around. Do you have a breakdown of all the components used? I'd really like to build a similar battery cart, for starters.
I pretty much do and, eventually, I'm going to post a follow-on video which should contain enough detail that somebody could duplicate it. I'll probably post that video this month or next.
@@MathesonFamily If you set up affiliate links with Amazon and other retailers, you'll make money every time somebody uses your links for a purchase. You should set that up because I'm sure you'll make $$ from people like me looking for specifics