Oh, one quick additional note... now that the whole system is up, check component heating during peak production (and also with your charge controllers unlimited and charging at max rate). Everything. The conduits, wires, junctions, battery terminals, charge controllers, inverters... everything. Point an IR temperature gun at everything. Always a good safety precaution to do a check like this at least twice a year.
no such thing as too much power. you need some “dummy loads”. I would suggest some large electric hot water heaters.. divert power from battery charging to the hot water heaters, once the batteries are full. you can basiclly have “free” hot water for use in your house. you can also install an electric pool heater, and have a heated pool for free as well 👏
Yes there is such a thing. It goes to waste unless you sell it back to the power company. You can only use so much hot water and can only store so much. Waste of money and resources.
@@nach335 yes, it is technically a waste - but also a rational choice. We are getting close to mid summer peak solar south of the equator. 6 months from now the daily production will be only about 1/3rd as much. Until there is some economical way to store massive amounts of energy for six months, it makes sense to over-provision panels.
@@nach335 Absolutely wrong. Never having to worry about having enough power, regardless of the weather or other conditions, is the WHOLE POINT! Most solar systems are DELIBERATELY massively undersized because they want you to still be dependent on the grid. The installation companies have their hands tied by regulations that are written by power company lobbyists. The only reason Andy can get this done is because he's putting it where the grid was never connected. Otherwise the only way to do it is DIY, which is again illegal in many places because of corporate influence. If you don't have enough storage for at least 2 full days of normal use with no power saving behavior with zero power production and enough solar to completely fill your storage from zero to 100% then you're doing it wrong and being massively ripped off.
Great video Andy , I have been experiencing the excitement of producing x2 what I originally set out to and it is such a great buzz , and I'm not producing anywhere near where you are but I'm off grid an enjoying it . I love watching you videos and you never fail to put a smile on my face mate. Great stuff
HAA! You made it up! Solar Panel Alignment Test. Thanks for wearing the shirt and giving me a BIG hint! Always a pleasure, Andy. Your new panel system kicks butt! Ah, this solar stuff is like an addiction. We start small and it is quite nice so we decide to go a bit larger. So, we order more cells............and more cells. Then we realize we don't have enough power from our panels to support our larger battery. So, we purchase more panels and all the "goodies" to go with them. And then we realize we need more battery capacity. And the beat goes on.
what a dream!🤩🤩 I can't think of anything useful to utilize the excess electricity, maybe run dehumidifiers or airconditioners 24/7 so that things/tools remain dry, minimize any growth
In the DVCC Setup you can set a maximum current to the Battery banks (going through the smartshunt). So you can easiely limit the current without touching the mppt´s settings.
Yes, but this would require the BMS talking to each other as well. So there is more to it. I will test this out with the Seplos batteries first and learn. Not heard that this would work with the smart shunt too before... interesting
Wow Andy! Congratulations 👏 on everything working so well, and pumping out so much energy that now you need more loads and battery 3.0! Its incredible to watch. Very awesome!
@@OffGridGarageAustralia I think you can come up with some good ideas for the energy. Do you have anything inside the house, like a freezer or hot water heater that can be powered from outside? Pool heater for the winter maybe? Just some ideas. I'm sure you have already thought of these things.
Hey Andy, remember to only wash the panels in the early morning or late afternoon. Use ambient temperature soapy water bucket and SOFT scrubber/squeegee dry or captured rainwater rinse. Tap water, water spots are to be avoided. No spray nozzle or pressure washer because the glass/frame seal can be damaged. A powerful leaf blower for regular maintenance is best but also, not on hot panels. Again, great installation Andy!
I was told to never wash the panels on the first years because you scrub off the self cleaning layer?! It was a guy installing and selling panels of 5 brands. Little confused here by your comment.
@@camielkotte You may be right about about soap (or what kind) mild for sure, but you have to check with the manufacturer. I live in an area that has lots of sticky leaves and dust. The panels have a 15 degree tilt. Most of the time I blast it with a leaf blower but that gets only 75% per treatment. After a few months the accumulation is too much. So I can wait till winter for it to self clean or do with only half the power till then. Even tho I have “half cells”, I can’t believe how a few dozen medium sized leaves can destroy energy. I envy those that have steep panels and little local contaminations. There are after market “ceramic” coatings for solar panels but I’m not interested at this point. Andy may not need to clean his because he’s going so much power anyway.
There is no self-cleaning layer on solar panels. It's the solar glass itself which has a bit of self cleaning capability but there is no coating or layer which wears off. Otherwise companies would advertise that. I use a sponge and a bucket to clean them. Well, the old ones at least. Not that I could ever see an increase in production but it is more for my OCD 😂
It was a refreshing experience to see, congrats to your system :) One comment for the top performance: if you are off-grid or at least moving in that direction you should not dimension your system to the nice sunny days, you should have it overpaneled big time so you have enough coulombs even on a worse day. If that is done right, you will always be overpowered on sunny days. This is not a problem, this is the nature of a well dimensioned off-grid solar system.
I'm envious :-). So awesome to see numbers like that from a system. Such a huge evolution compared to when the channel started! Now I really want to cover my roof with panels instead of just the attached garage(!). And maybe put together an EG4 battery rack or two or three. Ok, your next project... double battery capacity, take your home completely off-grid :-). Hell, even with your current system you probably only need a 1-2kW feed from the grid to ensure 100% 24x7 365-day uptime. -Matt
The problem in my case is the high feed-in tariff for the house solar. This needs to be separated first and stay connected to the grid. All the rest can be connected to the garage. The challenge: limited cabling between the two buildings. The sparky is working on a solution.
Congrats Andy, if I remember back to the time when you like to power the gate system with solar. Time to change the channel and t-shirts name to Off-grid house,parcel, region.... (smile)
Thank you. The gate project is still on my list and we have to replace these nasty AGM batteries with some fine lithium... Yeah, the house... that is still a bit of a problem. Working on it.
I still remember having a discussion with you in the comments where you stated seeing 100A from the charge controller would be insane and not common :)
Great job Andy, now what to do with all the extra power. As you spend so much time in the Off Grid Garage sweating your butt of producing awesome and very helpful videos maybe an aircon in there and a bigger S.P.A.T. fridge would be a start. Maybe put a shout out in your next video on ideas how to use the extra power. I see you have a quite a few already but there has got to be some really smart ones out there somewhere.
That is a great idea, Glen. I'll ask the community for some ideas. We are a bit limited at the moment because most of the load is still inside the house.
You might want to have a look at DVCC. This will allow you to limit the charge current globally so there is no need to limit an individual charge controller.
This makes me happy... you've reached an impressive outcome. You might need to look at heating your pool, or leaving AC on to burn some power... I'm new to solar and recently wired up my off grid system (48v Growatt ES 5000 with 6000Wp and a 12v Rover with 750Wp of 12v) but I'm discovering that I need to over-panel to combat poor location of the panels.
@@OffGridGarageAustralia it is definitely winter here in the west ish states. Haven't seen more than 40 amps for a little over a month lol glad the heats gone but with it went the amperage! Your new panels will shine all winter I have no doubt
Wow, gee Andy. I thought you were going to put some serious power on your system? LOL, yeah right. You're top of the line, all the way! Rock on Andy, good job! Cheer's (One of the things I really like about you Andy. Is you do not cut down trees)!
Well ! !! too much power is better then not enough batteries. Now you can just add more batteries to match the power coming in from the PV modules . May the solar be with you .😊
We're now at the end of Spring and have plenty of sun. From February onwards, the production will go back again, so that will be the interesting time. Summer is easy.
Great job Andy. Now you have a serios system. I'm on your tail with my system, but i still have a bit of work to do, and my system is with MppSolar inverter, not Victron. But i'm almost there.
WOW, THIS is the video I have been anticipating. Congrats my friend and be proud of what you have built! Totally awesome, and Cheers for that! Now the rewards for your labor. By the way... you were right... I heard that comment about cutting trees! hahaha.. 👍 I am also looking forward to the discussions coming up about being off or on grid. Love to compare my thoughts with others about this as well. (JK BMS's on all three banks after testing is completed)? Curious..
Thanks Dan. Yeah, it's an incredible and powerful system now. I won't go with the JK-BMS though for some specific reason which I will discuss in some future videos. They are a bit restricted when used in such larger systems.
Uuuuulaaaalllalaaaaaahhhh! Things are going nuts down under! That much Power!!! Nice to see your system as it comes to the limits, I’m more than curious to see what’s next, don’t waste no NRG!!
Wow, big reward for all work which went into this, nice power into your batteries! Maybe time to hookup your house as well. And only let your house solar panels deliver back to the grid for a nice profit! Well done Andy!
I probably won't reach that as my roofs are facing East and West and I have a bit of shading in the morning and afternoon. Not ideal conditions but still far more energy than I need atm.
I would look at setting up DVCC Andy, that way you can limit the 250a dynamically, but still allow each controller to utilise their maximum performance if there is
That would require the different BMSes to communicate with each other. I'm looking into this with the battery 2.0 first and see how this all works using the Seplos BMSes and batteries. Once I know more about it, I'll go and upgrade the production system as well.
@@STRUTZKOFF I turned it on now and it works, kinda... there is a catch though with unmetered DC loads. It's not optimal, but it helps to limit the overall charge current.
Another thing to consider is a bigger battery may also mean you might be tempted to use more power at night than you would normally. All up a fantastic video, it's really good seeing such a powerful setup in action. The Victron gear is amazing too, I use it and am very happy with it. I'll be getting a Cerbo GX in the coming days myself to do all the monitoring like yours.
Once the bigger battery is full, I'm with the same problem again. 44kWh seems to be a good size for now. I just need more load to use this capacity so the solar can recharge it the next day again and does nto turn off that quickly.
The VRM already showed this morning you produced 52kWh with solar yesterday. Really nice! 😎 My solar controllers also show a maximum pv power thats around 20% higher than the panels are rated. So more power than calculated could be possible.
panels are rated at STC, which is 1000w/m^2 at 25'C cell temperature, many places on earth have higher insolation than that at some times of the day, especially in the middle of summer!
We usually have around 1300W/m2 but cannot compete with 25°C at this same time. The panels will be more like 50° when the sun is out. Still cloud corners can reflect parts of the sunlight back and increase production for a moment. 20% more output is possible for a short amount of time.
Amazing installation, like a lot your videos and learned already lot's of things about configurations of the systems. Think with your current production you reached the next level, start producing hydrogen for the winter😀. Living in south of Germany and our klimate would require a huge amount of panles to be offgrid in the 3 winter months. Enjoy Australia for that!
I always say... Its good to have more power than you need. Because of Cloudy days. But I Love the system man. Great setup ! Now you can come and do mine. lol
We had only 1 cloudy day so far and the system was still delivering over 4kW and was able to recharge the battery that day. Incredible. But we're in summertime and have enough light. Different story from February onwards. That will be interesting.
That's what I do at the moment, plugging in dishwasher and washing machine, kettle, toaster, microwave... Not sure how much longer my marriage will last though 😂
Wow! Just wow... that is a crazy amount of power. I know the grid doesn't pay much for export but seems a shame if you can't use it all otherwise. Very interested to see your upcoming videos on this. 🙂
We have to stay off-grid with the system until the contract runs out for the feed-in solar on the house. A lot of restrictions when connected to the gris while off-grid I can just go nuts...
@@OffGridGarageAustralia I have heard you refer to this before, I think. We'll just have to see what other ways you can put that power to use. You are right that more storage doesn't really solve it... when that fills up you end up the same spot. Maybe put an electric car charger out at the end of the drive with a credit card reader so you can put yourself on the commercial charger maps? 😅
I cut one tree down today increased my output 1-1.5kW! I’ve cut all that I need to with 34kW of PV. When you’re totally off grid, heating with heat pumps, heating your water with electric water heaters, you need every last watt. 65kWh yesterday, 124kWh. That’s with the shortest day coming up in about one month.
Oh, I thought of one more thing. Since its a battery system and the batteries might be 100% full, the solar panels could potential overheat in full sun when the batteries are full and the charge controllers aren't pulling any power from the panels. That can reduce the life of the panels. I've never had to deal with this sort of situation myself because I'm grid-tied so the system always accepts all solar power. I don't know a whole lot about potential solutions. Shunting power into additional equipment (heating the pool, for example), or running a resistive heater, or even constructing a sand battery for overnight heating. Etc. Something to deal with excess power when the batteries are full, though, would be a great project.
That cannot happen. It's not like with hot water solar when the pump does not work and the water overheats inside. It's the opposite with PV solar. No power means now power lose in the panels and therefore cooler panels. I'm in discussion with the sparky to get the house connected without harming the high feed-in tariff for the house solar. It's a bit tricky.
@@OffGridGarageAustralia Hmm. I guess its only 20%, but the armchair physicist in me starts whispering "conservation of energy". If the energy hitting the panel isn't being taken away as electric power, where is it going? Either way we are only talking 20% though so perhaps it isn't that big a deal.
Yeah, winter will be very interesting. Lots mor shading then, usually no clouds though. I'm still not convinced it will be enough during that time without the pool fence system.
Well done that should get the greedy energy companies running for the hills. Your work is so important in crushing public enemy number 1. The more go off grid the less they will be able to rip people off to buy their Champagne & Caviar.
holy moly - YOU'RE RIGHT!! i've been a little concerned with the cascading-battery-BMS shutdown-overcurrent thing for a while now on my system... and yea! i *NEVER* thought that when the system goes into absorb/float it is in a constant voltage state and will only push the amps required. NOT the full amps of all controllers going to the max. so, at least, this alleviates any concern i have of this going on during absorb/float. thanks! it's still a *possibility* to have a battery/bms shut down during bulk and then divide the amps among the remaining batteries... but the chances of a battery/bms going offline during bulk is... well, a very low probability. wow. im ASTOUNDED at my incompetence! LMAO!
Sounds like you need dump loads, sand heat batterries and water heaters. And no YOU CAN NEVER HAVE ENOUGH POWER! lol give it away to the neighbours, your set up is awesome, I love it. Mine is much smaller I am on a tight budget, I have just reached 1.3Kw of panels, but I am fitting more and more and windchargers about 1300 Amp hours of batteries now. We all have a social & moral obligation to destroy centralized energy production, together we can break the cycle of abuse/exploitation and the monopoly of the energy giants.
How hot are your charge controllers when they pump their rated amps all day? I installed 12V PC-Fans (driven with only 5V) above my charge controllers to help with the convection through their heat-sinks. While i'm sure Victron spec'd them to be passively cooled, i'm not really a fan of seeing electronic equipment baking at ~45°C+ all day long. (I glued LM335 Temp Sensors to my charge controllers and feed them to the TEMP-Inputs in the Cerbo, switching one of the relays to power the fans over 35°C)
with your excess power, feed your house with off-grid dedicated circuits, so you can use your power in the house where needed when you want to avoid paying hydro use.
Love a numbers man. Let me know if you every want to reduce your output. I can help take some of those off your hands (jkjk). But really, thanks OP for taking the energy (play on words not intended) to produce this informative video.
I see the leaves and want to brush them off the panels, then you show the output even with all the shading and as you said "who cares?" Staggering amount of power being produced by your system even in less than ideal conditions. This will make you start thinking of ways to keep the excess energy from going to waste. Should be fun to watch.
Id like to suggest maybe a Cool high powered battery Buggy project, with maybe a fast charging trailer/transporter towing affair behind the Tesla for a bit of weekend fun, but then we probably wouldn’t get so many great vids each week, would we? Nice!
I suggest you feel the temperature of the battery cables when you are charging at the maximum current you can. I suspect they would be getting a bit warm but would love to know for sure what is happening there.
Excellent results, I love it! So the tilted panels are running hotter, my guess is it totally due to the colour as the tilted carport panels appear to be darker (Blackish), while the west roof panels? Are a bluer colour. I wonder if you laid one panel flat if its temp would increase any due to less ventilation? Also, despite ur very good reasoning against having a 2nd battery, my thoughts why a second battery would/could be useful are as a quick charge backup for the Tesla, so you can fully recharge at any time if need be. As far as burning More of the excess energy, I can only suggest to get a Dyno and put the tesla on it. Great job. Cheers
The tilted panels have a lighter colour than the shingled panels which are just black. I think it is because I measured the black panels at the bottom where cool air stream under the panels and the tilted panels, I measured at the top where the hotter air comes out in between.
Andy I mentioned once before that I thought that you are likely have a large over supply of energy with the new panels. So are you considering moving as many house loads as you can across to the shed system, so that the house solar system can throw all it's generation into the grid and get you some of the 0.49 cents a kWh back into your pocket. It seems such a shame that you could be 'losing' some of that great shed power ATM. I know I would be beside myself if I was generating so much power that I had to throttle it back, sort of like spilling SPATs on the ground lol🤣
Yeah, I was expecting a huge power surplus in summertime. Next year, we will seem how much power we will still get from the system. From April on, production usually goes down substantially.
im thinking those panels are running hotter due to their tilt angle in relation to the sun, if they are on a more direct angle with the sun they will absorb more heat.
I too thought I had too much power when I installed my 11kW System this summer. My 14kWh Battery used to be full by 10 or 11:00. Then the winter came, and the huge tree to the south started to become a problem. On a cloudy day I'm lucky to get 2kWh out of it, maybe 5 to 8kWh if the sun comes out. It's absolutely miserable, can't wait for spring time haha :D
Yeah, that will be the test here as well. There will be shading all over the panels. It will be interesting... until March, I enjoy a full charge every day!
Heya, put some copper pipes at the back to cool the panels and us the water ( in these copper pipes ) to heat some water in a receptacle and you have your out site shower lol.
I think a contactor based BMS would be a better idea. REC make a nice system that integrates with Victron and allows the charge controllers to throttle back.
Now you need to find something for that excess power - run AC during the day to cool down the house, hot water heating (which in summer time is less of a need), pumps where there is a purpose (pool/irrigation etc). I saw a company (a while ago cant find the link) who sell a system which freezes plastic balls full of water and then air is pushed through the unit at night time and this provides cooling at night with only minimal power for the fans the freezing of the balls is done with solar. This way at night you're not drawing excessively on the battery bank. I was watching Tech Ingredients they were doing some science on distillation and they froze water in a deep freeze with pipes in it to extract 'the cold' out of the block' to save water usage on the distilling (not legal in lot of countries though), but the idea is interesting using chest freezer as a battery to cool something down later on rather than using standard batteries. But I guess these days just add more Lithium as they're getting cheaper? Compressed air is another interesting one but both of these (and water heating storage) are far more inefficient systems but as you have the solar on the roof, just a thought.....
The house is not connected as such so cannot run many loads over there. I made several videos about this and explained the circumstances around the high feed tariff I have on the house. It's difficult...
To much Power ? Don't think so. I love it when battery is full around noon. Bear in mind it's not the sunny days but the cloudy ones and especially in winter time. That's when you can state to much power or not.
Nice work! This is the point we are at now with our 15kva multiplus with around 22kw of array. FREE AC all day! You have built some great arrays 👍🏻 worth every drop of sweat. 😎 @OrganicPower-Australia
@andy what is the DC power load that shows in the victron overview? I couldn't figure it out as it fluctuated so much. At first I thought it was maybe the Pi and some dc-dc chargers on desk but when it went over 2kw I assumed that was wrong.
Basically everything which does not go through the inverter directly. It can be up to 4kW of DC power which is most likely the Xija Inverter running loads inside the house via extension cables.
Ich beneide dich langsam :-D , bei uns hier in Bayern wird der strom jetzt über 80% Teurer und Gas 110% - ab Januar. Sei froh dass du damals Ausgewandert bist ;-) LG Christian . Ps: Hock grad im Camper und bekomm kein Ampere rein 😑
Yeah, we left at the right time, I guess. COVID, energy crisis, now the conflict so close. Power prices are rising here as well but I will be prepared if sh!t hits the fan.
Oh, one quick additional note... now that the whole system is up, check component heating during peak production (and also with your charge controllers unlimited and charging at max rate). Everything. The conduits, wires, junctions, battery terminals, charge controllers, inverters... everything. Point an IR temperature gun at everything. Always a good safety precaution to do a check like this at least twice a year.
Coming soon, just need to get a day being at home with full sun out.
no such thing as too much power. you need some “dummy loads”. I would suggest some large electric hot water heaters.. divert power from battery charging to the hot water heaters, once the batteries are full. you can basiclly have “free” hot water for use in your house. you can also install an electric pool heater, and have a heated pool for free as well 👏
This.
Yes there is such a thing. It goes to waste unless you sell it back to the power company. You can only use so much hot water and can only store so much. Waste of money and resources.
He could simply run his house and the water heater/heating system/AC from solar.
But honestly not sure anyone needs 50kwh per day
@@nach335 yes, it is technically a waste - but also a rational choice. We are getting close to mid summer peak solar south of the equator.
6 months from now the daily production will be only about 1/3rd as much.
Until there is some economical way to store massive amounts of energy for six months, it makes sense to over-provision panels.
@@nach335 Absolutely wrong. Never having to worry about having enough power, regardless of the weather or other conditions, is the WHOLE POINT! Most solar systems are DELIBERATELY massively undersized because they want you to still be dependent on the grid. The installation companies have their hands tied by regulations that are written by power company lobbyists. The only reason Andy can get this done is because he's putting it where the grid was never connected. Otherwise the only way to do it is DIY, which is again illegal in many places because of corporate influence.
If you don't have enough storage for at least 2 full days of normal use with no power saving behavior with zero power production and enough solar to completely fill your storage from zero to 100% then you're doing it wrong and being massively ripped off.
Great video Andy , I have been experiencing the excitement of producing x2 what I originally set out to and it is such a great buzz , and I'm not producing anywhere near where you are but I'm off grid an enjoying it . I love watching you videos and you never fail to put a smile on my face mate. Great stuff
Iam so happy you didn't cut trees but adjusted to your environment.
Let's amp!
Yep, that was all part of the experiment to show it's possible. Let's wait until winter though, if it is still enough...
HAA! You made it up! Solar Panel Alignment Test. Thanks for wearing the shirt and giving me a BIG hint!
Always a pleasure, Andy.
Your new panel system kicks butt!
Ah, this solar stuff is like an addiction. We start small and it is quite nice so we decide to go a bit larger. So, we order more cells............and more cells. Then we realize we don't have enough power from our panels to support our larger battery. So, we purchase more panels and all the "goodies" to go with them. And then we realize we need more battery capacity. And the beat goes on.
You've got it, John. It's all about the S.P.A.T., right? 😋
@@OffGridGarageAustralia Right!
Well done, thanks for all this detail. Very much appreciated, all the best. M
what a dream!🤩🤩 I can't think of anything useful to utilize the excess electricity, maybe run dehumidifiers or airconditioners 24/7 so that things/tools remain dry, minimize any growth
The house is not connected yet, but all the load is inside the house. Working on it...
Wow, such a neat and tidy installation!
This is crazy ! So much power, i think you need more batterys Andy or more consumers.
Just more load. More batteries won't help.
Tons of power, must feel really great. Congrats Andy!
It does feel great. Battery is full at 10am now...
Wow Andy.....Just WOW! AMAZING!!!!
He needs Battery 4.Ooooooohhhh!!!
I need Load 2.0 now. The vehicle's battery is not enough any more. I could fully charge the Tesla twice a day now...
Lol....another Tesla 2.Oooooohhhhh!!!
Congrats Andy! Great job. Time to add a 10 person hot tub😀
Hahaha, seems you want to come 😂
@@OffGridGarageAustraliaCertified globe trotter here! Love to visit your side of the globe soon and visit you too!
Well, now you’ll need to install a walkway on your roof because I’m sure your going to wear the coating off lol! Congratulations Andy! 🎉👍🫡🍻
As long as WALKWAY doesn't CAST a SHADOW on anything!
@@romeowhiskey1146I reckon if he had a walkway that shaded a whole set of panels he would still have more than enough power at the end of the day.
And an electric escalator to get up there and use some of the extra power....
Yes, all of that, hahaha. I spend a lot of time on the roof and can't believe the output with all the shading!
In the DVCC Setup you can set a maximum current to the Battery banks (going through the smartshunt). So you can easiely limit the current without touching the mppt´s settings.
Yes, but this would require the BMS talking to each other as well. So there is more to it. I will test this out with the Seplos batteries first and learn.
Not heard that this would work with the smart shunt too before... interesting
What a great setup Andy, the system should make good power
on rainy days.
Yes, still waiting for a rainy cloudy day since the installation. That will be interesting to see...
Hi, incredible, from Germany I only can look with astonishment to this amount of solar capacity. I wish all the best, like your videos very much.
This is amazing, that mean you need more Battery!!
Why?
Wow Andy! Congratulations 👏 on everything working so well, and pumping out so much energy that now you need more loads and battery 3.0! Its incredible to watch. Very awesome!
Thank you, Yeah, it is a very powerful system now. Lot's of energy and I need to develop some ideas of what to do with it all...
@@OffGridGarageAustralia I think you can come up with some good ideas for the energy. Do you have anything inside the house, like a freezer or hot water heater that can be powered from outside? Pool heater for the winter maybe? Just some ideas. I'm sure you have already thought of these things.
Hey Andy, remember to only wash the panels in the early morning or late afternoon. Use ambient temperature soapy water bucket and SOFT scrubber/squeegee dry or captured rainwater rinse. Tap water, water spots are to be avoided. No spray nozzle or pressure washer because the glass/frame seal can be damaged. A powerful leaf blower for regular maintenance is best but also, not on hot panels. Again, great installation Andy!
I was told to never wash the panels on the first years because you scrub off the self cleaning layer?! It was a guy installing and selling panels of 5 brands.
Little confused here by your comment.
@@camielkotte
You may be right about about soap (or what kind) mild for sure, but you have to check with the manufacturer. I live in an area that has lots of sticky leaves and dust. The panels have a 15 degree tilt. Most of the time I blast it with a leaf blower but that gets only 75% per treatment. After a few months the accumulation is too much. So I can wait till winter for it to self clean or do with only half the power till then. Even tho I have “half cells”, I can’t believe how a few dozen medium sized leaves can destroy energy. I envy those that have steep panels and little local contaminations. There are after market “ceramic” coatings for solar panels but I’m not interested at this point. Andy may not need to clean his because he’s going so much power anyway.
There is no self-cleaning layer on solar panels. It's the solar glass itself which has a bit of self cleaning capability but there is no coating or layer which wears off. Otherwise companies would advertise that.
I use a sponge and a bucket to clean them. Well, the old ones at least. Not that I could ever see an increase in production but it is more for my OCD 😂
@@SkypowerwithKarl thx. That totally makes sense now to me. Learning every day here.
It was a refreshing experience to see, congrats to your system :) One comment for the top performance: if you are off-grid or at least moving in that direction you should not dimension your system to the nice sunny days, you should have it overpaneled big time so you have enough coulombs even on a worse day. If that is done right, you will always be overpowered on sunny days. This is not a problem, this is the nature of a well dimensioned off-grid solar system.
ha! i love the harddrive magnets holding up the sign. i use those magnets for all sorts of things!
My whole garage is being hold together with these magnets 😂
That is one cool system… I wish I had one this powerful.
Thank you, yeah, it is very powerful now. But I need that capacity for the other seasons when we have more shading on the roof again.
I'm envious :-). So awesome to see numbers like that from a system. Such a huge evolution compared to when the channel started! Now I really want to cover my roof with panels instead of just the attached garage(!). And maybe put together an EG4 battery rack or two or three.
Ok, your next project... double battery capacity, take your home completely off-grid :-). Hell, even with your current system you probably only need a 1-2kW feed from the grid to ensure 100% 24x7 365-day uptime.
-Matt
The problem in my case is the high feed-in tariff for the house solar. This needs to be separated first and stay connected to the grid.
All the rest can be connected to the garage. The challenge: limited cabling between the two buildings. The sparky is working on a solution.
Thanks Andy
Congrats Andy, if I remember back to the time when you like to power the gate system with solar.
Time to change the channel and t-shirts name to Off-grid house,parcel, region.... (smile)
Thank you. The gate project is still on my list and we have to replace these nasty AGM batteries with some fine lithium...
Yeah, the house... that is still a bit of a problem. Working on it.
It sounds like you’ve done what we all strive toward. You have plenty of night time capacity and surplus of daytime production. Good job.
Great job. Love your videos. I can see your channel blowing up one day. Great job.
Thanks a lot.
I still remember having a discussion with you in the comments where you stated seeing 100A from the charge controller would be insane and not common :)
370 A today from mine.
I know, right. 100A seemed HUUUGE. Now that like 8am everyday...
@@USA-GreedyMenOfNoIntegrity I'm generating 0.5kWh/day at this time of the year from a 10kW array :)
Great job Andy, now what to do with all the extra power. As you spend so much time in the Off Grid Garage sweating your butt of producing awesome and very helpful videos maybe an aircon in there and a bigger S.P.A.T. fridge would be a start. Maybe put a shout out in your next video on ideas how to use the extra power. I see you have a quite a few already but there has got to be some really smart ones out there somewhere.
That is a great idea, Glen. I'll ask the community for some ideas. We are a bit limited at the moment because most of the load is still inside the house.
Yes, me too. I think a Lot of us share the habit to look as often as possible on the App and Check how Many amps and Watts are produced👍
It's so addicting!
is nice to know that even with clouds you will have all the power you need. Thanks for inspiring us
Yes, it will be enough. Had on cloudy morning and still over 4kW of production. Plenty of energy.
@@OffGridGarageAustralia opps, I saw i had a "not" witch din't make sense, I corrected it now 😁
Dude! Thank you. You are a beast at making videos rapidly. I'm so slow. I love building my solar, but I don't love editing videos.
The don't do it. If editing is not your thing, don't bother with it. Do what you like and build awesome solar systems!
You might want to have a look at DVCC. This will allow you to limit the charge current globally so there is no need to limit an individual charge controller.
Thank I am yseing a Sunsynk 5kw inverter it has 2 MPPT charge controllers built in
This makes me happy... you've reached an impressive outcome. You might need to look at heating your pool, or leaving AC on to burn some power...
I'm new to solar and recently wired up my off grid system (48v Growatt ES 5000 with 6000Wp and a 12v Rover with 750Wp of 12v) but I'm discovering that I need to over-panel to combat poor location of the panels.
Too much solar? Honestly can't think of even thinking about having that issue. Def means your doing big things brotha. Happy for you Andy
Wintertime is when we have to measure and judge again. This will be the moment of truth for the design.
@@OffGridGarageAustralia it is definitely winter here in the west ish states. Haven't seen more than 40 amps for a little over a month lol glad the heats gone but with it went the amperage! Your new panels will shine all winter I have no doubt
Wow, gee Andy. I thought you were going to put some serious power on your system? LOL, yeah right. You're top of the line, all the way! Rock on Andy, good job! Cheer's
(One of the things I really like about you Andy. Is you do not cut down trees)!
Thank you. Yeah, the power problem seems to be fixed. For now. Let's wait for wintertime though...
@@OffGridGarageAustralia no waiting for winter time in Fort Worth Texas. We here, are living it as I speak!
Very good adding more panels on roof to reduce heat
☕☕
Best regards from Philippines 🇵🇭 Andy
It's a lot cooler in the garage. I'll add some more insulation panels in the very top of the roof where there are no panels outside.
Well ! !! too much power is better then not enough batteries. Now you can just add more batteries to match the power coming in from the PV modules . May the solar be with you .😊
More batteries won't help, Cedric. Once they are full, we are in the same situation again. What I need now is more load!
So much fun ... really nice.
Amazing. I need more panels. my production has dropped far too much for our winter season.
We're now at the end of Spring and have plenty of sun. From February onwards, the production will go back again, so that will be the interesting time. Summer is easy.
Great job Andy. Now you have a serios system. I'm on your tail with my system, but i still have a bit of work to do, and my system is with MppSolar inverter, not Victron. But i'm almost there.
It is a lot of work. I was kind of relieved when they installed all the solar for me. It would have taken me forever...
@@OffGridGarageAustralia i know, but i will do it. Thanks and good luck
Hey Andy WOW!!!!. Maybe you can fit some industrial fans to your roof to blow the leaves off the panels, just to burn a bit of power!!!!😂
80 varieties of Eucalyptus in OZ...all with OILYleaves.
Faulty panel might ignite?
Like the FAN idea...
I'm so happy for you Andy I just got my second battery Bank hooked into my solar I'm too happy 🙂👍🏾
Great! Keep going...
@@OffGridGarageAustralia I'mma try lol
Awesome Andy.
I’m envious of course 😂.
I’ll have to drive to your place each day to charge my car LOL :-)
WOW, THIS is the video I have been anticipating. Congrats my friend and be proud of what you have built! Totally awesome, and Cheers for that!
Now the rewards for your labor. By the way... you were right... I heard that comment about cutting trees! hahaha.. 👍
I am also looking forward to the discussions coming up about being off or on grid. Love to compare my thoughts with others about this as well. (JK BMS's on all three banks after testing is completed)? Curious..
Thanks Dan. Yeah, it's an incredible and powerful system now. I won't go with the JK-BMS though for some specific reason which I will discuss in some future videos. They are a bit restricted when used in such larger systems.
Uuuuulaaaalllalaaaaaahhhh! Things are going nuts down under! That much Power!!! Nice to see your system as it comes to the limits, I’m more than curious to see what’s next, don’t waste no NRG!!
Ahhhh, fantastic. Worth the wait.
Absolutely! I'm pumped!
Wow, big reward for all work which went into this, nice power into your batteries! Maybe time to hookup your house as well. And only let your house solar panels deliver back to the grid for a nice profit! Well done Andy!
Yes, that's what the sparky is looking into at the moment. It will be an interesting project if we can do that...
Congratz Andy
Thank you.
Just a note on my 15kw grid setup I can produce during summer over 100KWh in a day, and I am a little further south, so your system has potential.
I probably won't reach that as my roofs are facing East and West and I have a bit of shading in the morning and afternoon. Not ideal conditions but still far more energy than I need atm.
I would look at setting up DVCC Andy, that way you can limit the 250a dynamically, but still allow each controller to utilise their maximum performance if there is
That would require the different BMSes to communicate with each other. I'm looking into this with the battery 2.0 first and see how this all works using the Seplos BMSes and batteries. Once I know more about it, I'll go and upgrade the production system as well.
@@OffGridGarageAustraliado you need the bus to do anything ? The dvcc should just limit the charge controllers to set value of for example 250 amps.
@@STRUTZKOFF I turned it on now and it works, kinda... there is a catch though with unmetered DC loads. It's not optimal, but it helps to limit the overall charge current.
Another thing to consider is a bigger battery may also mean you might be tempted to use more power at night than you would normally. All up a fantastic video, it's really good seeing such a powerful setup in action. The Victron gear is amazing too, I use it and am very happy with it. I'll be getting a Cerbo GX in the coming days myself to do all the monitoring like yours.
Once the bigger battery is full, I'm with the same problem again. 44kWh seems to be a good size for now. I just need more load to use this capacity so the solar can recharge it the next day again and does nto turn off that quickly.
The VRM already showed this morning you produced 52kWh with solar yesterday. Really nice! 😎
My solar controllers also show a maximum pv power thats around 20% higher than the panels are rated. So more power than calculated could be possible.
panels are rated at STC, which is 1000w/m^2 at 25'C cell temperature, many places on earth have higher insolation than that at some times of the day, especially in the middle of summer!
We usually have around 1300W/m2 but cannot compete with 25°C at this same time. The panels will be more like 50° when the sun is out. Still cloud corners can reflect parts of the sunlight back and increase production for a moment. 20% more output is possible for a short amount of time.
Was, Off-Grid Garage now Andy's Power Station
YES 💪
Wow Wow Wow. I would be the same way monitoring constantly. 🤣🤣 Very impressive now I want to upgrade my system
I basically live in the VRM now and constantly monitor the weather and solar output. Very interesting to see and learn from all that!
Nice. Glückwunsch!
Very well done! Now it is time for a load management system. You need a home automation. Luxusproblem 🙂
Yes, I certainly do need such a system. Extension cables from the garage to the house are not good for a marriage...
Wow. It’s amazing.
I think the same every day watching these numbers.
Amazing installation, like a lot your videos and learned already lot's of things about configurations of the systems. Think with your current production you reached the next level, start producing hydrogen for the winter😀. Living in south of Germany and our klimate would require a huge amount of panles to be offgrid in the 3 winter months. Enjoy Australia for that!
Thank you. Our Winter will be the season to see the true result of the new system. Summer is easy.
Awesome crazy power
toller Kanal.hab mir grad eine Amperetime 24V 200AH gekauft.
I always say... Its good to have more power than you need. Because of Cloudy days. But I Love the system man. Great setup ! Now you can come and do mine. lol
We had only 1 cloudy day so far and the system was still delivering over 4kW and was able to recharge the battery that day. Incredible. But we're in summertime and have enough light. Different story from February onwards. That will be interesting.
not bad Andy, not bad... my maximum from my 4,4kWp panels (max. 285Wp panels) was this autumn 160A... in 24V battery system with capacity 17kWh
Run a few extension cords to the house Andy and use the excess power that way. Just a thought....
That's what I do at the moment, plugging in dishwasher and washing machine, kettle, toaster, microwave...
Not sure how much longer my marriage will last though 😂
now it's time for bigger main breaker and more batteries for storage on cloudy days or when the weather knocks the mains out for a week.
I think the breaker is fine for the shelf. More batteries need to be installed elsewhere. But they won't really help. I need more load!
Wow!
Just wow... that is a crazy amount of power. I know the grid doesn't pay much for export but seems a shame if you can't use it all otherwise. Very interested to see your upcoming videos on this. 🙂
We have to stay off-grid with the system until the contract runs out for the feed-in solar on the house. A lot of restrictions when connected to the gris while off-grid I can just go nuts...
@@OffGridGarageAustralia I have heard you refer to this before, I think. We'll just have to see what other ways you can put that power to use. You are right that more storage doesn't really solve it... when that fills up you end up the same spot.
Maybe put an electric car charger out at the end of the drive with a credit card reader so you can put yourself on the commercial charger maps? 😅
I cut one tree down today increased my output 1-1.5kW! I’ve cut all that I need to with 34kW of PV. When you’re totally off grid, heating with heat pumps, heating your water with electric water heaters, you need every last watt. 65kWh yesterday, 124kWh. That’s with the shortest day coming up in about one month.
Oh, I thought of one more thing. Since its a battery system and the batteries might be 100% full, the solar panels could potential overheat in full sun when the batteries are full and the charge controllers aren't pulling any power from the panels. That can reduce the life of the panels.
I've never had to deal with this sort of situation myself because I'm grid-tied so the system always accepts all solar power. I don't know a whole lot about potential solutions. Shunting power into additional equipment (heating the pool, for example), or running a resistive heater, or even constructing a sand battery for overnight heating. Etc. Something to deal with excess power when the batteries are full, though, would be a great project.
That cannot happen. It's not like with hot water solar when the pump does not work and the water overheats inside. It's the opposite with PV solar. No power means now power lose in the panels and therefore cooler panels.
I'm in discussion with the sparky to get the house connected without harming the high feed-in tariff for the house solar. It's a bit tricky.
@@OffGridGarageAustralia Hmm. I guess its only 20%, but the armchair physicist in me starts whispering "conservation of energy". If the energy hitting the panel isn't being taken away as electric power, where is it going? Either way we are only talking 20% though so perhaps it isn't that big a deal.
Andy, time to add an Off-Grid-Home to the Off-Grid-Garage and degrade the grid to "winter backup" 😁
Andy will produce enough in winter too - the sun is very strong in Australia, even in winter.
Yeah, winter will be very interesting. Lots mor shading then, usually no clouds though. I'm still not convinced it will be enough during that time without the pool fence system.
Well done that should get the greedy energy companies running for the hills. Your work is so important in crushing public enemy number 1. The more go off grid the less they will be able to rip people off to buy their Champagne & Caviar.
I've watched this since day one 😎
Hey, great, thank you!
holy moly - YOU'RE RIGHT!! i've been a little concerned with the cascading-battery-BMS shutdown-overcurrent thing for a while now on my system... and yea! i *NEVER* thought that when the system goes into absorb/float it is in a constant voltage state and will only push the amps required. NOT the full amps of all controllers going to the max. so, at least, this alleviates any concern i have of this going on during absorb/float. thanks!
it's still a *possibility* to have a battery/bms shut down during bulk and then divide the amps among the remaining batteries... but the chances of a battery/bms going offline during bulk is... well, a very low probability.
wow. im ASTOUNDED at my incompetence! LMAO!
Sounds like you need dump loads, sand heat batterries and water heaters. And no YOU CAN NEVER HAVE ENOUGH POWER! lol give it away to the neighbours, your set up is awesome, I love it. Mine is much smaller I am on a tight budget, I have just reached 1.3Kw of panels, but I am fitting more and more and windchargers about 1300 Amp hours of batteries now. We all have a social & moral obligation to destroy centralized energy production, together we can break the cycle of abuse/exploitation and the monopoly of the energy giants.
Great, Richard. That's the way to go and how I started as well. With 3 panels on the roof was my first set up.
love that jingle ha ha
How hot are your charge controllers when they pump their rated amps all day? I installed 12V PC-Fans (driven with only 5V) above my charge controllers to help with the convection through their heat-sinks. While i'm sure Victron spec'd them to be passively cooled, i'm not really a fan of seeing electronic equipment baking at ~45°C+ all day long. (I glued LM335 Temp Sensors to my charge controllers and feed them to the TEMP-Inputs in the Cerbo, switching one of the relays to power the fans over 35°C)
Andy will see higher ambient temps than 35C through Summer here, and west of here can get 45C+ in the shade.
They will throttle when hotter than 40°C and can run on max load 24/7. If the sun shines that long.
with your excess power, feed your house with off-grid dedicated circuits, so you can use your power in the house where needed when you want to avoid paying hydro use.
Yeah, its' complicated... th-cam.com/video/LQJZUmWDuCs/w-d-xo.html
@@OffGridGarageAustralia fair enough, just thought I’d share a way to use excess power from your solar system.
Love a numbers man.
Let me know if you every want to reduce your output. I can help take some of those off your hands (jkjk). But really, thanks OP for taking the energy (play on words not intended) to produce this informative video.
Time to start level 2 charging the Teslander!
I don't drive that much. A larger or faster charging won't make a difference 😏
I could install a Super Charger at the front gate...
Yes a new video!
Time for a sub panel to run some of the house.
Yep, coming... but it's complicated.
It’s like a Jackson Pollock painting all that shading Andy and ya still producing power in the am 😊 that sure is nothing to S.P.A.T about 🤪🤪
I could spend all day on the roof and watch the shade moving across the panels... checking the app and smile. 🍺
I see the leaves and want to brush them off the panels, then you show the output even with all the shading and as you said "who cares?" Staggering amount of power being produced by your system even in less than ideal conditions. This will make you start thinking of ways to keep the excess energy from going to waste. Should be fun to watch.
Yeh, shading, clouds and leaves have almost no impact any more and I can still produce more energy than I use. Time will tell...
Id like to suggest maybe a Cool high powered battery Buggy project, with maybe a fast charging trailer/transporter towing affair behind the Tesla for a bit of weekend fun, but then we probably wouldn’t get so many great vids each week, would we? Nice!
Nah, can't be away for too long, the videos are waiting.
I can fill the Tesla twice a day now, it's crazy.
I suggest you feel the temperature of the battery cables when you are charging at the maximum current you can. I suspect they would be getting a bit warm but would love to know for sure what is happening there.
Coming soon, just need to be at home when we have full power coming in.
Excellent results, I love it! So the tilted panels are running hotter, my guess is it totally due to the colour as the tilted carport panels appear to be darker (Blackish), while the west roof panels? Are a bluer colour. I wonder if you laid one panel flat if its temp would increase any due to less ventilation?
Also, despite ur very good reasoning against having a 2nd battery, my thoughts why a second battery would/could be useful are as a quick charge backup for the Tesla, so you can fully recharge at any time if need be.
As far as burning More of the excess energy, I can only suggest to get a Dyno and put the tesla on it. Great job. Cheers
The tilted panels have a lighter colour than the shingled panels which are just black. I think it is because I measured the black panels at the bottom where cool air stream under the panels and the tilted panels, I measured at the top where the hotter air comes out in between.
That is awesome.
Now we can have aircon in the garage.
We probably will at some stage...
Andy I mentioned once before that I thought that you are likely have a large over supply of energy with the new panels.
So are you considering moving as many house loads as you can across to the shed system, so that the house solar system can throw all it's generation into the grid and get you some of the 0.49 cents a kWh back into your pocket.
It seems such a shame that you could be 'losing' some of that great shed power ATM.
I know I would be beside myself if I was generating so much power that I had to throttle it back, sort of like spilling SPATs on the ground lol🤣
Yeah, I was expecting a huge power surplus in summertime. Next year, we will seem how much power we will still get from the system. From April on, production usually goes down substantially.
im thinking those panels are running hotter due to their tilt angle in relation to the sun, if they are on a more direct angle with the sun they will absorb more heat.
Yeah, hm... I know what you mean. None of my panels are ever in that very ideal SPAT position. And if so, only for a very short moment...
I too thought I had too much power when I installed my 11kW System this summer. My 14kWh Battery used to be full by 10 or 11:00. Then the winter came, and the huge tree to the south started to become a problem. On a cloudy day I'm lucky to get 2kWh out of it, maybe 5 to 8kWh if the sun comes out. It's absolutely miserable, can't wait for spring time haha :D
Yeah, that will be the test here as well. There will be shading all over the panels. It will be interesting... until March, I enjoy a full charge every day!
Well done Andy 👍🍺. Now, what to do with all that energy? Maybe run a few extension cords to the neighbours!
That would be the least thing I would do, hahaha. I'll use it myself somehow. Let's see what I can find...
Thank Andy so you have 14.240kw of panels what was your configeration
Thanks I am using a Sunsynk 5kw inverter it has 2 X MPPT charge controllers built in if I remember correctly 6kw each
Heya, put some copper pipes at the back to cool the panels and us the water ( in these copper pipes ) to heat some water in a receptacle and you have your out site shower lol.
I think a contactor based BMS would be a better idea. REC make a nice system that integrates with Victron and allows the charge controllers to throttle back.
REC costs as much as a kidney (same as Batrium). I'll explore some other alternatives before I go this path (maybe go this path).
Now you need to find something for that excess power - run AC during the day to cool down the house, hot water heating (which in summer time is less of a need), pumps where there is a purpose (pool/irrigation etc).
I saw a company (a while ago cant find the link) who sell a system which freezes plastic balls full of water and then air is pushed through the unit at night time and this provides cooling at night with only minimal power for the fans the freezing of the balls is done with solar. This way at night you're not drawing excessively on the battery bank.
I was watching Tech Ingredients they were doing some science on distillation and they froze water in a deep freeze with pipes in it to extract 'the cold' out of the block' to save water usage on the distilling (not legal in lot of countries though), but the idea is interesting using chest freezer as a battery to cool something down later on rather than using standard batteries.
But I guess these days just add more Lithium as they're getting cheaper? Compressed air is another interesting one but both of these (and water heating storage) are far more inefficient systems but as you have the solar on the roof, just a thought.....
The house is not connected as such so cannot run many loads over there. I made several videos about this and explained the circumstances around the high feed tariff I have on the house. It's difficult...
To much Power ? Don't think so. I love it when battery is full around noon. Bear in mind it's not the sunny days but the cloudy ones and especially in winter time. That's when you can state to much power or not.
Yes, that is correct. We will see what is going to happen in April, May and June next year... Summer is easy.
Nice work! This is the point we are at now with our 15kva multiplus with around 22kw of array. FREE AC all day! You have built some great arrays 👍🏻 worth every drop of sweat. 😎 @OrganicPower-Australia
@andy what is the DC power load that shows in the victron overview? I couldn't figure it out as it fluctuated so much. At first I thought it was maybe the Pi and some dc-dc chargers on desk but when it went over 2kw I assumed that was wrong.
Basically everything which does not go through the inverter directly. It can be up to 4kW of DC power which is most likely the Xija Inverter running loads inside the house via extension cables.
You are in Australia, it’s summer now. I am just wondering how much you are making on the winter time.
It's still spring down here but yeah, from April next year, we will see the true potential of the system.
Ich beneide dich langsam :-D , bei uns hier in Bayern wird der strom jetzt über 80% Teurer und Gas 110% - ab Januar. Sei froh dass du damals Ausgewandert bist ;-) LG Christian . Ps: Hock grad im Camper und bekomm kein Ampere rein 😑
Yeah, we left at the right time, I guess. COVID, energy crisis, now the conflict so close.
Power prices are rising here as well but I will be prepared if sh!t hits the fan.