Living off grid with solar, our experience.
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 24 ส.ค. 2024
- Learn from us, this video could save you a lot of money and problems.
UPDATE: I solved the tankless heater issue and created a video titled YES, A TANKLESS HEATER IS VIABLE WITH SOLAR
EDIT: Solar panels are German engineered and made in South Korea, not China, the batteries are made in China.
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When people make a solar system and when they show a video of the panels being shaded.
Now, you have trimmed the trees. Thanks for your prompt reply.
You are correct sir and I since cut the trees that where creating the shade.
I would look at taking equal length positive and negative wires with one off top battery and one off bottom battery. This will help equalize battery draw and charging across the bank. Nice system!
You're actually the 3rd person suggesting this. I will inquire as to why the solar installer made the connections in simple parallel.
Thank you for your input.
you really should fix this. the top battery will do all the work with the other two acting more like slaves. move one of the inverter leads to the bottom battery to make them all work together.
@@sNEAKYnIGHTmUPPET Yup, definitely going to do that, makes perfect sense.
@@HomesteadOnThePreserve The other option is to make one common positive and one common negative buss bar for all three units and then go to the inverter with those buss bars. the installer did it they way they did because it looks the cleanest and is the easiest and cheapest but is by no way correct. yes change it to one of these other options. nice video.
@@lukefarmer5391 Appreciate your time helping out a stranger!
Nice set up - one improvement you could do is use a water cylinder and immersion heater to use as a "dump load" so instead of the inverter winding down the solar input to 0 when your battery is charged (and thus wasting solar power you could be getting for free) it will just keep feeding solar to heat the water and give you nice free hot water!
Very coo.....hot idea!
We don't have room for any type of heater in the cabin, thus the little tankless heater. I do feel that when the batteries are full (typically by 9AM) that I would like to do something with all the potential power. Maybe Ill buy a Tesla and never visit another gas station 🤪
Thanks for commenting Mr. B
@@HomesteadOnThePreserve Well you could always house the tank in a shed or attic? It would solve the issue of your water heater taking 7kw as if the solar tank has already pre-heated up 200 litres of water to 40 -45 degrees then your 7kw water heater won't hardly need to do anything to get it to 50 - maybe give the water a 1kw top off on the way through! Worth thinking about as it's the proverbial 2 birds with 1 stone. ;)
@@MrButuz We don't have an attic or shed in the cabin but as soon as we swap the SA12k for a SA15k the tankless will be prefect. The MAX draw is 7k but once it heats up it then continues around 4k so really we could get by even without the SA15k.
Yes a water cylinder is a great idea for the dump load. Maybe build a small shed outside, looks like you have great building skills! You might want to adjust the temperature a bit higher to take advantage of the "free" heat and put a temperature regulator on the output to prevent any scalding.
Instantaneous Water heaters are not the best solution with solar or batteries.
I noticed that there was a fair amount of space in the cupboard with the panels and the Sol-Ark. The footprint of that storage box should be enough for a slim water heater. Maybe not the perfect place, water + electric, but as you already have the tank less there, maybe it's not an issue.
If you are definitely going ahead with your plan of building your own house and the cabin will be just for guests, then the guests aren't going to need all the storage room that you guys currently need. I like the idea of using the tankless as a backup, maybe think about switching it to the main house (as you clearly, understandably love it) and as a backup there, it will be difficult if not impossible to ever run out of hot water, no matter how many people are in the house!
Good luck with your project and I appreciate your honest, open and quick response to comments. That's really helpful for all of us budding solar nuts!
Thank you for sharing your experience. I did not think I could sit through a 45 min video, but I did. The information are practical and useful, and your presentation is captivating.
Thank you Meta, I really appreciate those kind words! I know it's long but I figured if someone is thinking about solar, 45 minutes to (hopefully) learn is a tiny investment. Bonus to those that stuck to the end, they got to see Brindy do a cameo.
Thanks again!
Since seeing your video ive built a hell of a solar system for our off grid home. You and a few other guys videos gave me the confidence to do this and after being sick with cancer me and the wife needed a sure thing as far as power even if i get morw sick. Thanks for the videos and the ideas of making this possible. One day ill make a video to show what i have done following yall
Hey Matthew, that is super cool! I am not only thrilled for you, I am honored to be of some inspiration. Now you will be the one to inspire others.
I hope your system gives you many, many great years!
Yes, I would love to see a video showcasing what you accomplished one day.
Happy 4th of July to you and the family!
@@HomesteadOnThePreserve one of the unexpected great things of this solar adventure is meeting like minded good people. 👍
The Battery subject. As I have read some of the comments about the way the battery is wired, I did not see anyone comment about the Aluminum terminals used for the wire attachment. If you are planning on staying with this you should use ferrules over the bare copper as it will interact with the aluminum. I ran into this making control panels for VFDs in the industrial sector. We were required to use ferrules to comply with UL. Those aluminum terminals can heat up and loosen over time due to way it expands and contracts with heat(high current times or heavy loads).
Nice setup. Good luck.
one other small thing is that if he ran the negative lead from the bottom battery It would cause all of the batteries to flow from there rather than the top lead. hopefully the wire from the inverters would still be long enough not to cause excess resistance
Thank you for sharing this video. BTW to solve the issue at 6:10, the main POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE battery (DC) cable must be connected to one of the terminals of the bottom battery to eliminate unbalance discharging and charging current draw due to the resistance of the jumper cables (for battery paralleling). The bottom battery will get bit less voltage-current during charging and will last longer during discharging caused by the resistance of the jumper cables.
Hi Ricky, you're the 5th person to say this and it makes perfect sense. I'm going to inquire with the solar installer why this wasn't connected as such and will have it corrected. I greatly appreciate your input!
Hi, those are some BIG batteries. I would suggest that you use busbars which will DEFINITELY balance out the batteries and reduce the heat loss in the cables during charging and discharging. This is important with 5kw batteries, so with 7.5kw, I would say it's a must!
Great video. Thanks.
@@simonpaine2347 Appreciate you man!
Besides having the installers correct the balance issue we're having them swap the SA12k for a SA15k so endless hot water can flow and we can run all equipment at the same time without a problem.
@@HomesteadOnThePreserve yes you're right but even though busbars are installed if not correctly wired/connected, balanced charging/discharging rate will not be achieved.
@@ricky786 100%! Lengths of Cable l and the lengths of the cables can become an art, but it's so important for safety and for getting the best out of the system and therefore the investment.
May I suggest connecting one(either + or -) to the first battery and the opposite lead to the last battery so that you have as close to same length to the inverter as possible instead of number three having to go through more cable due to extra cable length between them. Sorry if you touched on this, I haven't finished the video yet.
Also, more doggo. 🐕
Hello Joe!
Yeah, I had a dozen comments on that one and I appreciate each one because I don't expect people to read all comments before posting. I will have the installer fix that issue and we're having the SA12k upgraded to a SA15k.
Brindy says "tank u jo"
I have a couple videos featuring her with more to come!
Thank you for your time.
BTW, stick around (or skip) to the end of my videos, Brindy usually does a cameo!
Hi, Great Video, But I wanted to correct you on a couple things you stated about Lifepo4 Cells. 1. They Do get hot and swell if they are used below the rated min voltage or over charged beyond the recommended 3.65v by the manufacturer. 2. They are not "sealed" so to speak, they all have vents in case they need to gas out if over charged, improperly used etc.. and the fumes are indeed toxic. The main safety of Lifepo4 is they will not catch fire or explode. When I say not sealed, I dont mean in the fact of a lead acid where you can open them etc. But to the point that they have a vent that is set to a particular pressure point to let out the gasses if the cell were to malfunction.
Definitely lifepo4s would get hot and swell under those conditions but the internal BMS would prevent that. I've been flying RC helicopters for 12 years and lipo batteries are scary. Even following perfect charge/discharge rates and cooling times they overheat and puff up after so many uses. Since I've been using lifepo4s I never had a problem.
As for being sealed, makes sense they would have a safety for emergency venting. I would compare it to a gasoline engines freeze plugs, well, reversing cold and hot factors. I have to look at my smaller lifepo4 batteries and see where the emergency vents are since they appear as a solid plastic housing with glued seams.
when you shut down your dryer turn knob to cool down and let it finish or you will be replacing a part in your dryer before it should be needed.
Yup, it has the AUTO COOL DOWN mode pre set for the higher heat settings.
..... Funny, TH-cam isn't showing a lot of comments. I'm only seeing them by scrolling down myself so sorry if I miss something from you.
Sorry. Lifepo4 stands for Lithium Iron Phosphate. Li = Lithium, Fe = Iron, Po = phosphate. Daisy chaining batteries is not ideal. Instal a busbar for positive and one for negative. The power distribution will be more even, and the wires will run cooler.
Yes, that's exactly what I said breaking down the periodic table for lifepo4.
We are having the installers do that to balance out the batteries and at the same time having the SA12k upgraded to a SA15k.
Thanks for watching Mark!
Hi nice setup. Suggest U use Equal length positive and negative cables to your inverter also run your positive line from the top of your batteries draw from the negative side on the bottom battery always use diagonal. I am in the process now of switching over to some EG4 batteries I just received yesterday to replace my outback nano carbon lead acid battery's after 5 years off grid inTN. Making a video now on the new battery rack cabinet and switching The factory installed bus bar so it can be used diagonally as they should be. Don't know why they do that anyway hope this helps.
Hey thanks alot for the info! When our solar installer comes to do the main house I'm going to ask why they connected the batteries the way they did. With my limited knowledge on technical solar, I thought connecting the batteries in parallel was sufficient.
Can't wait to check out your videos. I've been kinda fascinated with solar since it's inception.
@@ktube4848 Very curious their reason for the parallel connection, I will inquire.
This is the best solar setup i've seen,very neat.
Well done and thanks for showing.
Thank you Mando!
you don't think the shade will take away from the install?
@@hanalei412002 Morning H M
There is one oak tree on the left which is currently bare. I'm going to cut it down before Spring because it would create shade later in the day with leaves. Other than that, zero shade.
In Serbian : Odlicna prezentacija i izbor opreme. Sve objasnjeno jednostavno i lako prihvatljivo. Bravo i HVALA
I know the word BRAVO so I'll take a chance and give you a big THUMBS UP!
You have a great system. I’m glad it is working well for you.
Thank you sir, appreciated. I solved the tankless water heater issue with an $8 adjustable flow valve and the system has been amazing since!
To balance load of battery's, connect positive on top one and negative on bottom one.
Connect also communication cables between battery's and inverter,
to get same load and charge, extra info on inverter screen will show for battery's also.
Very good information indeed, I do appreciate it!
Exactly.
@@ustmissouri8029 I'm going to inquire why they didn't do that during the install.
Get one of those small 20 gallon water heaters, its literally a supplemental battery for storing thermal energy. Right now you are putting way too much demand on that water heater especially if you want to take a shower right before bed. You could even use a timer for the waterheater, where you could have it be off late at night and use power when you first get your solar coming in early in the AM..
Unfortunately there's no room in the little cabin hence the tiny tankless.
We love tankless water heaters and when we swap the SA12k for a SA15k all will be golden.
i love the idea of using timers, particularly in off-grid situations where the owner didn't go very overboard on the system capacity. really, a little bit more planning involved in how you will actually use things, to optimize (and economize) your system usage. the water heater is a perfect use of the excess energy (depending on your typical shower - hot water use schedule really), perfect if you did have a defined space to fit the water heater.
@@HomesteadOnThePreserve you can try to research on heat pumps water heater around your area. They have a better draw from solar
@@vhornwright5085 I solved the tankless water heater issue. I'm going to do a video on it because it may help others, off grid or not for those wanting a tankless water heater.
Heating water with solar is so much more efficient through thermal solar, you can always supplement with the tankless heater. Plus it is on your roof, saving precious inside space. That could solve your inverter size problem.
I solved the tankless water heater with an $8 adjustable flow valve. (I made a video on it) Everything works perfect now.
Thanks for your suggestion which otherwise would be a great solution.
@@HomesteadOnThePreserve I will check that out. I really like your setup plus what an amazing price. I recently installed my own off grid system (3300W solar with 14.4kW battery bank) and am now focusing on water. Here in rural spain many people have solar thermal panels with tanks on their roofs. Thanks for the detailed tour. All the best!
@@tjwoodsman1782 Thank you T.J.
I really appreciate your kind words and feedback.
All the best to you and your solar!
That was a nice review. I'm glad you got the Sol-Ark even though their rating methods may be a little questionable. You have a great system!
Thank you Larry, I really appreciate it!
If you're able to and you might want to look at adding a hot water tank as a solar energy dump this way it would help with the hot water. As it would only run when you had excess solar power. If you could somehow put it in line with the tankless in theory would keep a tankless from turning on unless absolutely required. Those hot water tanks can hold super hot water for a quite a long time
I actually solved the tankless hot water issue. Works perfect now and we can run everything at once without a problem. I'm going to do a video on it so maybe I can help others.
Thank you for the suggestion though, I really appreciate it!
I recommend two upgrades. One more battery so you can have 28kw of battery storage. Second install a heat pump style water heater they would be more energy efficient than that tankless electric water heater that you currently have. And the heat pump water heater will not over load your inverter.
So far the three batteries have been sufficient and it's been a year and a half living here. Our main house is almost finished so having guests stay in the cabin for a few day or a week we definitely have enough storage. I installed an $8 flow valve on the shower head which solved the tankless heater problem. I simply dialed down the flow to around 1 GPM and it's working great. Draws around 3k and the temp is slightly over 100 degrees. I did a video on that if you're interested. What you suggested with the heat pump is great but luckily unnecessary for us.
The problem with your batteries is your SOL ARK is connect to the top battery on the POS and NEG terminals. So if you move the NEG cable down to the bottom battery you should be perfect.Don't forget to shut everything off first. Be careful.
Months ago I had the main technician fix the imbalance issue. He also updated the SolArk's software and everything has been great since. I solved the tankless water heater issue with an $8 flow control valve. (I made a video about it)
Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment!
Very nice video. A friendly note. If you buy a heat pump water heater it will pull 360watts. I have one in my off grid house. I replaced the heat elements with 1500w elements so even if I use the normal heat elements it will not overload my inverters. $1700 for a water heat may scare you but it’s cheaper than upgrading to solark 15k.
I actually solved the tankless water heater issue so I don't have to upgrade the SolArk. I'm going to do a video on it because it can help others.
Thank you for the heat pump info, that's a great idea for off grid for sure. Tankless isn't the best for pure solar but it is a viable option depending on the system you have. Lucky I made ours work and it's awesome.
Very nice setup dude! Did you get a loan for the cost? How many years on the loan? I would like a solar system but not for a off grid but to reduce the electric bill. We run the A/C April- October up here in Ohio. Gas furnace for the winter. The gas bill is not too bad. Propane is the worst up here in Ohio as for cost.
I have a metal roof i have got installed back in 2015 and i really like it. The loan was 3yrs/$6000 for a 1500 sq ft home. I do get alot of sun on most of the roof. I added a 20x10 covered screened in deck. That really cooled the kitchen sliding glass door side of the house. Now have been alot solar fields pop up in Ohio on the farmlands , we don't see a dime in savings on them. I do like solar systems on the homes. Don't get me started on wind turbines lol😂
Hello and good morning LLA!
We didn't take a loan for the solar, it's paid in full. I like to say our electricity is free since we have no bill or loan but figuring it out, it will take about 9 years to break even. (versus if we had a monthly bill from the power company) Remember, after credits we only paid 19k for the 28k system. Would have cost 20k+ if we ran power lines and then we would be at the mercy of the power company. We are in a good situation because we sold our house in S Fl for over half a million and it was paid off. Bought that house 30 years ago and only paid 89k! Actually paid it off in 15 years so the bank didn't get much interest from me. That money is what's paying for our main house. Speaking of, it will of course also be solar and it's a 3/2 2000sq ft with central AC! Goes to show how solar is viable these days with all the amenities of an on grid home!
As for the cabin, I solved the tankless water heater with a $8 flow valve (i made a video on it) and everything has been amazing since.
A couple days ago I spoke to my buddy for 2 hrs, helping him figure out his grid tied system to install. He's doing the same as you, to supplement. Bonus for him living in S Fl, when the hurricanes blow power he will have the battery storage so no more noisy generator and storing 20 gallons of gas like he's currently doing. The generator can only run selective stuff and no AC but his solar system will run the entire house. With the tax credits now is a great time to install! Not many people in S Fl have propane, only in their bbq grills lol. I know it gets real expensive in northern states! Best thing to do is have a big tank like 500gal and fill it in the summer when prices are lowest.
If you have any questions about solar email me at DukeTogo_13@hotmail.com I can give you my number at that point if you want to call and really get into details.
The reason why the top battery is first to discharge is because of how you connected your batteries. If you had a busbar which connects your batteries connect to instead of the cables to each other, then you will evenly discharge at the same across all your batteries. Also the other benefit of busbar is that batteries do not generate as much heat at the terminals.
Yes, I had the main technician come over a couple months ago. He did an update to the SolArk and fixed the battery imbalance issue.
Best is to use the plus pole on battery 1 and the minius from battery 3. Then the are all evenly charged and discharged.
To get them even more balanced use a buss bar and connect each battery to ot with equal length cables. Run you power then fron the buss bar to the inverter. This way it will charge and discharge all 3 the same time.
Yup, we're having the installers come out and do exactly that.
Thanks Hondra!
great infomation,,very nice setup you have,,,
@@CRAZYBUILD349 Thank you C.B. very appreciated.
Very cool you're into R.C. I've been fascinated with remote control since I was a youngster and have been flying 250 & 450 size helicopters for the last 15+ years. I think I'm going to get into boats next since I have a 1/4 acre pond on my property.
Best solar video I've seen...complete explanation...👍
Thank you David, I really appreciate that.
I would recommend anyone going with solar to install your own system. Not only will it save you tons of money but of and when you have a problem you know how to diagnose and fix especially off griders. It's really not that hard just do you research.
Definitely a great option for anyone willing to take on the task.
it draws the top one because it has the least resistance... and this means that 1 of the batteries (the top one in this case) would be cycling the most out of all 3 of them because it will be charging and releasing the charge more frequently to charge the bottom batteries and also it will be the first to be used when it discharges..... if all 3 batteries has a communication line, you can use it to connect to a computer/smart device/controller to adjust the bms to mitigate this by adjusting when the 1st and 2nd battery will release its charge automatically....
to mitigate it without the communication line, you just need to use a busbar to connect all 3 batteries before connecting to the inverter/charger unit.... make sure the length of wire from the busbar to the batteries are all the same length this will make all 3 batteries have almost the same resistance to the charger and inverter unit thus making it truly evenly using all 3 batteries at the same time... its all about the resistance
Thank you for taking the time to help and explain all of that, it totally makes sense. I didn't install the system, I choose all the equipment. It was installed by a solar installation company. I had the lead tech over (a couple months ago) to check everything and solve the imbalance issue. After a software update the batteries balance great now. I asked about what you and others mentioned and he said that's the way it's designed. Strange I know but the update fixed it.
Thanks again Freaky D!
Them 100 watt days really make you appreciate having the grid for a backup.
1kw/hr baseload roughly you got running your settup....you really could use 30kwh of batteries if you have no grid backup. That might buy you enough to get past most cloudy days if you dial back the consumption.
We've gone multiple times, 4 days without a hint of sun and never ran out. It's been a year and a half so far and it's been great! The only issue we had I fixed. The tankless water heater I talked about, solved it with an $8 flow control valve.
@@HomesteadOnThePreserve Surviving on 5kw a day sounds pretty rough to me, just hope you have a generator for a backup if it gets hot.
@@user-hg2tk3xj9y No, luckily we don't need one.
Thanks for a update. Keep it up. Helps motivate everyone 😊
The BMS does NOT shut the battery down at 20%. They shut it down at close to zero %. You programme your inverter (if you have a decent modern one) to shut it down at 20%. But the LiFePo batteries show almost full until very low. Unless you have an amp sensing device that can test the actual remaining amount of charge (doesn’t exist) without disconnecting it and doing a load test, which still isn’t all that accurate. All this “state of charge” measuring talk is Bally-hoo. There is no accurate way to measure the electric power left in a battery, period. Not that you cannot roughly estimate it, but there is no way to read the amp hours remaining. Only the voltage and the amps it can still put out under a load. Just try looking at your state of charge indicator(s), and then see what the total draw is with all your devices being used, and then see how long before the inverter, or the BMS, shuts it down. You will find, as I have, that there are so many variables in the draw to devices, like temperature for one, that there is no accurate devices available that will tell you how long you can run x amount of draw off a x amount of charge. And yet, though they do mention often that voltage is an estimate, no one will flat come out and say there is no accurate measurement of amp hours left, or if the battery is really at 90%, or 100% etc. . Good luck to all, I finally have, after two years of intense study, building on a very good electrical background, figured out all the pertinent ins and outs of solar electric power. And the products that are available to institute that. Two very different fields of study.
Good morning Bowen.
Yes, the SolArk is programmed to shut down the batteries at what it preceves is 20% remaining capacity. That number would give me around 18k of usable watts. I have never run dry on power and we recently had another 3 days of solid clouds. On day 4 we were a bit low but the sun was showing and by around 1pm all batteries were back at full charge.
A few months the lead tech guy come over and updated the SolArk software and fixed the battery imbalance issue. (I solved the tankless water heater problem with a control valve which I made a video on) Everything is working flawless now and the system is amazing.
I'm not a solar guy but I've always loved the technology. You're obviously extremely knowledgeable and if you do solar videos I'll definitely check them out.
Thank you for taking the time to comment.
I like your setup ... well organized ...
In Bulgaria we use solar hot water with a thermostat to top up with electric in winter
We've been to Bulgaria and it was wonderful!
@@HomesteadOnThePreserve we go to USA Dallas every 2 years our son lives there
Microwaves of that kind you seem to have here, do just on/off the magnetron (pulse heating) with on/off cycle matching the power rate. New inverter microwaves can modulate the power going to the magnetron for continuously reduced power consumption.
Cool, an inverter microwave is new to me. We love our little retro mirco in the cabin but for the main house I will certainly check out these inverter types, thank you!
You have the batteries wired incorrectly. The negative and positive needs to be at opposite ends to pull power equally through the cells in a balanced manor.
Yes sir, I had the lead tech. out months ago. He updated the software / fixed the imbalance issue. System works amazing now!
Bad water heater. Get a 19 gallon tank from Lowes, 110 volts, and only pulls 300 watts max. I set the temp to 135 so less hot water is used when taking a shower. Good for two showers. Your water heater is not for off grid.
Tankless is definitely not the preferred off grid heater but after owning one for 9 years at our old home we love them. Endless hot water, tiny footprint and never a worry about leaks or rusting out and replacing every 10 to 15 years like tanks. We don't have room in our little cabin for tankless anyway, everything is scaled down. As long as we don't run the clothes dryer while taking a shower our tankless is awesome. When we swap for the 15K SolArk we can even do that. The current SA12K will get paired with another SA12K for the main house so it won't be waisted.
Also if those lugs on the batteries are aluminum and the wires are copper they need No ox (Corrosion preventer) on the connections so they don't corrode and impede electrical flow. Aluminum gets that light oxidation coating fast!!
The lugs are steel and I believe not stainless because S.S. is less conductive.
That was awesome information. Learned alot to take to our property. Thank you!!!!! 😁
Glad you enjoyed it and all the best to your future homestead!
That's a nice system man 6 kilowatts is a good number off-grid as long as you have the battery to capture that power as you do
I was worried before we moved in that I may have to add another 7.5 or a couple panels but nope, all is perfect.
I appreciate your input, thank you!
5:36 Your connections are nice... but if you want an more even discharge your going to have to connect the + all the way to the bottom and the - stays at the top... of vice versa ...as you wish... and try to keep both cables the same lengt to the inverter ... but in the end thats nothing to worry about ...lots of other rack systems do it like this with buss bars at the side even ... so your ok ... Maybe just put some protection over the +- poles ...it is a high voltage system... so it is deadly yes ;....
Morning John.
Yes, I did have the lead installer come over and he fixed the issue of balancing and did a software upgrade. Everything works great now. I also solved the tankless heater issue which I recently did a short video on. Thank you for taking the time to comment and add assistance!
Wow your channel really took off !! Good luck man !!
Apparently people love solar which is totally cool.
Hope they love Chupacobras as well!
Can't handle this any longer, people keep getting it wrong. Watt is an INTENSITY measure. It shows how intensive energy flows. With other words, it is performance.
Energy stored is an EXTENSIVE measure. Its real unit of measure is Joule, but for the sake of simplicity you can also use Watt-hours (Wh).
When you say your battery is 18kW it does not show how big it is, it shows how high performance it can support. If you want to talk about amount of energy it is Watt.hours (Wh).
Great Video, Thanks for sharing all these details. I'd also ask your installer about your DC conduit for the PV conductors. Once it's inside a home they should be using EMT conduits. Not to mention no Rapid shutdown? Off-grid I guess so no need to meet code to pass an inspection, but I think a licensed contractor should follow NEC Codes at a minimum.
All in all, great looking system, Congrats!
Thank you for taking the time to comment, I do appreciate it. Not sure about the EMT conduit but it does have a rapid shutdown. The installer also came out and fixed the battery balance issue. I am super happy with the entire system.
I am replying in realtime here, so bear with me. You should ditch the tankless electric, and install a hybrid electric water heater, runs on about 500 watts and stores around 40gal of hot water.
Great idea but there's no room in the little cabin, thus we went with the tiny tankless. (plus I'd never trust a tank INSIDE a house) We're going to swap the SA12k with a SA15k to reach perfection. We will then pair that 12k with another 12k in the main house.
Thanks for watching Michael!
Instant hot water is terrible for offgrid. Large tank is the way. Use it as a dump load from panels when battery is full. Having 500 litres of hot water will last you a long time.
I solved the tankless hot water problem with an $8 flow control valve. The system has been amazing ever since.
Try connecting one of the cables to the bottom battery and keep one at the top battery so it pull evenly from all batteries
I had the lead installer come out last month and he updated the software and fixed the battery balance problem, it's perfect now.
This Saturday i'm posting a video on how I solved the tankless hot water issue.
It can help others with tankless whether electric or propane.
You really need a hot water tank then. Much cheaper than another charge controller. And then think of the water as a battery in itself.
i have a tip for you, bring the negativ cable of the inverter at the bottom of your battery. It should ballence the Draw/charge
I had the lead installer come out a couple months ago. He did a software update to the SolArk and that solved the battery imbalance. I asked him about the "top negative to bottom positive" cable and he said this system wasn't designed that way. It's working great so I can't complain. Thanks for the suggestion though, it makes sense.
The heat pump or air con is a killer, fireplace with heater and and hot water heater but would newer connect battery storage to heat pump or ac
I live completely off-grid myself up here in Northwest Ohio but my panels are ground level on a stand so I can get to them when it snows or any other issues they may have.
Great idea when snow is involved.
@@HomesteadOnThePreserve Yes I've cleaned these panels a few times over this winter here in Ohio
That is a ridiculously large system for a cabin. I run 1.5k of solar into 4.4k of battery for 3 days just fine. I also heat with wood and have gas appliances. My on demand heater will run for weeks on a 20 pound propane tank and so does my full size oven.
We don't have propane, pure electric here, hence the system we have is perfect. Simply drying one full load of clothes (4.5k draw for 50 mins) would drain your batteries dead. Our main house will have a 500 gal propane tank to run the tankless water heater and cooktop, just not necessary here.
Driver A drives a rusty Honda civic hatchback to the Food Lion and driver B drives a shiney Ford F250 …they both work at the local mill. … they both went and got 3 bags of groceries…drove the same distance and they both took their wife and one kid.
Whose to say one was driving a ridiculously over sized vehicle to go get groceries… ?
One guy looked like he was living life with vision and the other looked like a broke college kid…
This solar install was done by a motivated young ,white American male achieving something most people never do…….a dream perhaps….that’s what we do and have done for a few hundred years..support his spirit and achievements don’t criticize his choice to excell…..much of this country and the world hates his type nowdays… we are the only group of people alive that don’t support our own kind and our way of life….that’s why we’re seeing the country’s demise…….shame on us……….!
I say bravo to him….good job guy….👍
all depends on the usage needs. this is a live in, electric dependent (with wood stove as main heat i suppose) with all the comforts. washing machine with dryer? in a typical cabin situation, you might not even have a washer, but use clothesline to dry outside. ductless split a/c/heat? that's pretty new fancy tech for a cabin, if multi-season, most likely a wood stove only, or space heaters. likely would be a propane stove or simply a bbq for a basic cabin cooking needs.
i have a propane fireplace in a poorly/partially insulated 500 sq foot cabin, and i have burned through a 20 lb propane tank in a few weekends just keeping heat overnight with outside temps near freezing. 1 lb per hour of use is pretty typical round about rate honestly, obviously depends on how many BTUs ultimately, high fire, low fire.
@@HomesteadOnThePreserve I think you are missing my point. Certain electric appliances are extremely inefficient like any electric heating appliance. You are not homesteading you are glamping. No homesteader has $100k for a solar electric system.
@@rocktech7144 You're right, the system didn't cost us 100K, it only cost us 19K and we will never have an electric bill, water bill OR a propane bill on it. Did you even pay attention to the video? It would of cost MORE THAN 20K just to run electric to the cabin.
OK, time to do some glamping!
I will add 2 more 5k inverters. But then I need more solar. I have 9400 watts now and want 18kw of solar Then I also need to add another set of batteries so another $15,000 or so to do this myself.
The reliability of grid power comes from there being several generators and several separate transmission routes available to get power to your meter. The problem with solar is that you have one supply (your panels) and one inverter. Assume that winter will bring some 1% solar days and you could well be solar free for three days so you will need a second or third source of electricity and fuel for it... Given a south facing roof there is no reason not to fill it with solar panels so that you still make power on poor sun days...
Hey, just dropping a note if you haven't bought your second Sol-Ark yet, you might want to check out the 18KPV inverter and its little brothers at Signature Solar. Basically a clone of Sol-Ark but a lot cheaper.
@@lbroome Why hello there!
Our main house will be finished next week, they are knocking out the punch list items now. The solar was installed and inspected a few months ago and it's amazing. We have 22 Canadian Solar "all black" 400 watt panels, 4 Life Power 7.5k batteries (same as the cabin but 4 of them instead of 3) and a Sol-Ark 15k. No tankless water heater because it would require a second inverter. A Rheem 60 gal tank is in the corner of the 3 car garage.
The house is 2,000 sq ft under central air with soft start motor.
We are very excited to move in soon.
Thank you for checking in with me and the suggestion.
@@HomesteadOnThePreserve Wow, that's good to hear. That 60 gallon tank is a good idea with all those panels, free hot water! Sounds like you are all set!
I think a hybrid system of wind and solar would be better for some reason whenever there's no sun there's wind
Yeah, my original plan was to supplement with a wind turbine but the solar has been flawless. Any additions to the solar or supplementation of power would be a waste of money and resources.
Model number usually means amount of solar panels watts
Point of contention.
Sol-Arks are designed in Texas but made under contract in China by Deye.
Sunsyk, Sol-ark and Deye are all made in the same factory.
I have 2 Sol-ark 12ks and love them..
Yup and the wifi support currently comes from China. Rumor that will be changed to Texas but our SolArk is NOT wifi connected so no matter what I don't worry about it.
Were swapping the SA12k for a SA15k in the cabin then pairing that SA12 with another for the main house.
Thank you for your helpful information!
Yes they are working on moving it to Azure or some cloud service here in the US.
You know you can use Solar Assistant to monitor it locally also right?
You might want to hook of WiFi Dongle temporarily just to push the latest Firmware upgrade to it.
It fixes and changes a lot of things.
@@nb117 I read that somewhere. I won't bother but it's nice having that option.
I’m surprised that you don’t have some type of plastic cover over the battery cable ends and terminals for safety. I know you have this in a cabinet but if you are working on one battery, you could touch a terminal with something metal.
I was a bit surprised and expected the same plastic covers since it was a paid install. At least it looks cooler this way.
@@HomesteadOnThePreserve great looking setup all the same.
20:30 I don’t feel comfortable with water around electrical too many things can happen
It passed inspections but yeah, I totally understand.
At the beginning of the video, I noticed the panels are in the shade. I guess that's not a problem because your batteries are full.
There's one Black Oak that is on the left side. I'm actually going to remove it next week because it'll start to leaf. Plus, I don't want branches falling on the PVs.
1 if you want better balance for your batteries disconnect the + that goes to your invertor from the first battery and connect it on your last battery or iven better , do the same and use buss bars ; 2 realise that that you are cycling those lifepo4 batteries with solar , that means you can run them down to 10 % at leest and it will be time and age that will kill them and not cycling ..... with these batteries it is not the batteries themselfs that (battery cells) but the management systems (bms) that fail ...... i use lifepo4 allmost since they arived on the market (about 5 years for me) and i charge them to 95 % and discharge them to 5 % and the batteries are like new , bms's however i changed in the first 2 years 6 bms's for 4 batteries , they are better today
@@cristiancucu4100 Hey Christian, I really appreciate your input and taking the time to post. You're correct and many months ago I had the lead solar technician come out. He fixed the battery imbalance issue and update the Sol-Ark so everything is great now.
You run your LiFePo4's down to 5% wow. Factory settings on mine are to shut down at 20% and kick back on at 32%. I know this by opening the Sol Arks program settings. I would lower the values to say 15% / 27% or even 10% / 22% if I needed to squeeze out more juice but living here for almost two years it's not necessary as we never killed the batteries. Many times we didn't see the sun for several days but we just save laundry washing & drying for a sunny day. As you know clothes drying is a massive draw.
To correct a piece of misinformation you repeated over and over and over again in this video: The charge controller DOES NOT "decide" where to "direct" the power. The inverter is connected directly to the battery at all times, and the charge controller just dumps juice onto that DC rail, where it automatically goes to the lowest bidder as a matter of "path of least resistance".
Correct, the charge controller doesn't direct the power being demanded but it does monitor and direct its flow into the batteries and prevents reverse current draw. It also shows the flow rates and other information on the inverters screen since it is a computer.
My wording wasn't perfect but I'm not a solar expert, that's why I didn't DIY.
Instead of swapping out for the 15,000w why not add another 12,000w to accommodate the hot water and the other one for the dryer on two separate lines
I actually solved the problem and we can now run everything (including the clothes dryer) while taking a hot shower without issue. I'm going to do a video to demonstrate a tankless electric can be totally viable with solar.
Thank you for taking the time to comment and watch our video!
You haven't wired the batteries correctly, that's why they are not balancing, the positive From the charge controller goes to the first battery and the negative from the charge controller goes to the last battery
I had the lead installer come over a couple months ago. He fixed the issue and all 3 batteries are now balancing perfectly.
Why don’t you just get a heat pump water heater?
After having tankless at our last home for 9 years we love them. Also, there is no room in the cabin, hence the tiny tankless. The main house however, will have a propane tankless water heater.
When the batteries are nearly full, they aren't topped off slowly to persevere the battery, that's just the nature of the cells. When the cells are 98% full, it takes time for the electrons to find a spot. Think of it like going to a movie theater. When it's almost empty, you find a seat instantly. When only 2 seats are left, it takes some time.
That's a great analogy, I like it!
I would recommend a removable metal barrier between your hot water supply including fittings and your solarark+batteries, especially with sharkbite type fittings. You don't want water spraying on your system in case of a leak, nor pipe burst?
I actually thought about doing similar but the housing on the batteries offers protection from everything but a flood. The SA I believe is outdoor rated, I know the newer ones are. A great idea for sure Mark.
@@HomesteadOnThePreserveI just replaced my 40 gallon electric water heater in emergency. I would like to have a tankless. The SHARKBITE push-to- connect fittings I put on 15yrs ago never leaked. All the hard water up here in Ohio killed the Whirlpool heater I installed back in 2009. And I'm not using a well either.
@@lowlifeangler We LOVE our tankless water heater! Had one in S Fl for about 9 years till we moved and it was awesome! Got it after being tired buying a tank heater and having them rust and leak every 10 years!
I did a lot of tankless water heater research and Rheem is excellent. Titan, like I have is the most efficient made. If you're running solar you need efficiency or you will quickly max out your inverters wattage draw!
Yes, Sharkbite S.S. braided pipe is awesome! I used it in our old house and for those 7-8 years it was perfect, never leaked a drop!
@@HomesteadOnThePreserve Awesome! We to bring our cheap pop-up camper and stay a week at your homestead 😂.
I haven't been that area of Florida. Been wanting to visit St. Marks state park. I think that south east from you.
@@lowlifeangler Not sure where St Marks is but I've been hitting Panama Citys "St Andrews State Park" fishing and it's an award winning beach. I feel like I'm in the Caribbean when there!
If you are in the area we can go fishing together especially if you bring the kayak. Some gorgeous lakes here and the Chipola River is just "wow!"
PS you can park your camper on The Preserve any time!
if I were going to do this I would do a few things differently. Would use a solar thermal heater for the water as a drain back system.. So no more 7kw water heater. I would look at using a water to water heat exchanger heat pump smallest one that i could find to do radiant heat picking up extra heat from the thermal heater or possibly just expanding the themal system large enough to run radiant heat also. I would consider putting in rain water collection as it is pretty much just a matter of filtraton. even with storage tanks the cost and running cost of a well would be much reduced Looking at your windows would place more on the south face to add to solar heat gain during the winter. Just my two cents
I solved the tankless water heater issue with an $8 part. I made a video on it to help others. Being over a year now living with solar it's been absolutely amazing!
got a link to your solution@@HomesteadOnThePreserve
@@stevepailet8258 Thanks but I already solved it with a flow control valve. It's only drawing 3 - 3.5k watts now and heats the water to around 106 degrees!
did you disconnect on of the heating elements? @@HomesteadOnThePreserve
@@stevepailet8258 Nope
It draws more from the top battery because that is the shortest route. You should have connected either the - or + to the lowest battery...... and now I see the other comments on that ;-)
LoL @ "and now I see....."
Sad to see that solar installer installed the batteries incorrectly that poor top battery will micro cycle to death.
Corrected by installer and now they are balancing perfectly. I also solved the tankless heater issue which I'll be doing a video on.
That's a really decent price on that system.
After the rebates it sure was and we love it. Since I fixed the tankless issue (posted the video last week) it's been flawless!
Those batteries should be charged at the same time. Daisy chain has to send the charge into the first one which send to the second and the second sends to the third so again you are using up cycles way faster than you should be. I use 52-60 cycles a year but I have a 58kw battery bank, 51kw usable since I leave about 9% top and 10% bottom. My batteries should out live me which is around 40 years. Lithium breaks down at different rates depending how much C is charged or discharged and temperature also is a factor. My basement never goes over 70F summer and under 50F winter.
Appreciate the information. I'm going to ask the install company why they connected in simple parallel.
Thanks again!
@@HomesteadOnThePreserve ask them if they know the difference between daisy chaining batteries and each battery to a busbar. I say this because they will say they followed the manufacturers advise. I bet they do and they can change it for an amount of money at your cost.
@@dc1544 I screen shot your reply so I remember what to ask. Thank you!
Use a heat pump dryer and water heater which is the better answer. Hopefully you use induction cooking
I solved the water heater watt draw issue so all is perfect. I'll do a video which can help others. Didn't have to upgrade the inverter either.
Some say when you daze chain them together you should pull one off the top and other off the bottom. Most pull red + off top and black - off the bottom. They feel the power goes through all batties like that. I use a bus bar each battery has it's own cables. Does it matter who knows. If you not having trouble who cares.
Thank you for taking the time to comment. I had the lead installer come out a few weeks ago and fix the battery imbalance, works perfect now.
@@HomesteadOnThePreserve What did he dp. Thanks
@@roberrbush5446 Product manager came to our cabin. He ran a diagnostic and then a calibration. He did not do the "negative to positive" cable as everyone is suggesting. He said it's not designed that way. The batteries are balancing perfectly now, we are very happy!
@@HomesteadOnThePreserve Software I don't know if I believe in that is the best I run my batties to a bus all cables the same and pulling off the middle of it. Works great is that why did I just get lucky who knows. Some that more 168.000 miles a sec. Does 2 inch. make a diffrents I don't think so for me it is wire size and connection points Keep them from getting hot
.Heat is lost power. just my 2 cent. Thanks Love your system can't want to see your big system.
@@roberrbush5446 The big system will be very similar. 18 Q-Cell 430w panels (instead of 14) and 4 7.5kw lifepo4 batteries (instead of 3) and a SolArk 15k (instead of SA12k)
We are very excited for the new build, we signed the contract several weeks ago.
your batteries are installed incorrectly btw. you need to move either the pos or neg to the bottom battery. you can see the fault in your video, it's why the bottom one fills up first. it is also draining first. this means it will also degrade faster than the other two. also, go buy yourself a Solar-assistant and have all your stats and graphs on your phone.
Yes, you are correct. A few months ago I had the lead tech come out and update the SolArk and correct the battery imbalance.
There's an app for SolArk to monitor all functions on your cell phone, I never bothered but it is available.
What is the name of these panels…Hanna T shells? …with no captions and no links in description….I am unsure. Thanks!!!
LoL! Hanwha Q Cells.
German engineered PVs made in South Korea. I've had excellent service from everything made in South Korea so I expect the same from the panels. So far they are amazing. They don't fudge the numbers like most PV companies either. I've seen over 7K watts coming in and the panels are only rated at 6.02k watts!
Where is a link to the solar calculator you show in this video? Looks like a great calculator and I like your explanations. I subscribed
I just replied to your email with the calculator link.
@@HomesteadOnThePreserve I was also wondering about the solar calculator link as well? Great video, nice to hear about the balancing between wood heat and the heat pump setup through a cold snap/low solar period.
Just sent ya the calculator
Hey Kwik, email me at DukeTogo_13@hotmail.com and I'll send you one. I just sent one out to Jacob.
Sorry Kwik, just saw your request a couple days ago. I gave you my address, send request and I'll reply with the calculator.
You should connect the communication from then batteries to inverter. One more thing put the cable negative from the inverter to the bottom batterie to ballance the load!
Yup, having the installers do that to balance them.
Thanks for watching Sylvain!
It sounds like the total load or requirement was never calculated.
The lead installer came out and ran a diagnostic with an update and the batteries are balancing perfectly now.
Great vid! Thank you for your content
Thank you Godfather for your kind words.
Looking for an installer for a 20kw off grid system in silverthorne if anyone know anyone
I love Your explanation thank You! Appreciated.
I'm happy that you're happy!
If your roof standing seam roof, what’s the gage of the metal.
20 gauge steel and I believe the seams are 1.5" tall.
It's a 50 year roof and actually very quiet when it rains even though we don't have an attic to buffer the sound.
As I was watching your video I was saying why u put the inverter near to those heater pipes imagine pipes getting leak could be dangerous
Very good question. The battery cabinet protects them and it's raised off the floor. Not ideal like a waterproof cabinet but it works and passes all codes.
Good job my man…..👍 ….we need more like ya..
Appreciate that Jim, you ROCK!
You need a heat pump water heater, uses about 500 watts.
I actually solved the tankless water heater watt draw issue. I'm going to do a video on it because it can help others.
I got rid of our tankless water heater and went back to a large tank and use it for our dump load so the inverter puts all excess power once batteries are charged into the tank heater and charges the car
We went tankless not only because we love them, there's no garage to store a tank. Won't put one inside the cabin because they leak every 10 years. (main house will have a garage & tank heater) I did solve the tankless issue and just posted the video if you want to check it out.
That's a great idea, love it!
What car do you have?
@@HomesteadOnThePreserve I have a Mitsubishi Phev so gas and electric
They the battery makers do Daisy chain so in 10 years you would have replaced 2-3 of your batteries. With busbar it will be over 20 years and could be 40 years we do not know yet.
I wonder what the next battery chemistry will be. I just bought a bunch of nickel zinc AAs for my game cameras because they put out 1.5v instead of the typical 1.2 for rechargeables. They are amazing so far, lasting as long as alkaline and it's nice seeing all "pips" lit up on the battery level display.
Ftlaud911 is telling you the right thing as I take my phone to comment on it I've seen where he mentioned it in the comments line
Yup, Ftlaud911 and you are both correct. I had the lead solar tech come over a few months ago. He updated the SolArk software and fixed the battery imbalance. I solved the tankless water heater issue with a flow control valve which I did a video on. Everything is working perfect now and we are extremely happy.
Thanks for taking the time to comment.
Curious why not have the dryer, and hot water heater on propane ?
Great question. Initially we were but decided we didn't want to be reliant on any product or service. Propane means constant filling and constant $$. After solving the tankless water heater issue (I made a video on it) everything has been flawless and unless something breaks, it's all free. Our main house will also be 100% solar and that's going to run central AC. A soft start compressor is the key there.
HEY HOMESTEAD!!! this video is a little old be i have a idea for concentrating how about a tank hot water heater that bottom element runs on dc and only as a dump load when batteries are full charged the top element would be a normal ac or dc also but it would be set to a much lower temp With a well insulated water tank the water will stay hot for many days This setup may almost never use power from your battey and makes way better use of you panels I have a friend that has his setup just like i described
and your wrong about how long that roof will last you will paint it some time in the future making it last much longer if your kids paint it when needed it may last well over 100 years! lol
@@ambersmith6517 The metal is 24 gauge and the warrantee is 40 years so I'm very happy with that. It was the highest quality metal roof I could source.
It will fade of course and that's fine by me, I'll never have it painted.
That's a great idea indeed but I solved the tankless heater issue for $8. I did a video on it titled "Yes, a tankless water heater is viable with solar" if you want to check it out. Entire system is flawless now. I'm currently working on the main houses solar which will be slightly different and more powerful. The main house will actually have central AC. I'm sure a lot of people didn't think that was possible being 100% off grid. Entire solar system will still cost many thousands less than if I had grid power run to that house. Solar ROCKS!
got the writing bug i guess sorry i am ben this is my wifes you tube i just wanted to tell you i am slow to learn slower than most any way but my mother instilled into me so strongly that i could do anything i believed it And it is easy to see looking back she was right what is my point you may be thinking well just from this video it is very clear you can do anything i can I just spoke truth fact to you period my system is about the size of yours i have a 10k inverter that will surge way more i built it myself i wound the toroid transformer my self also i forest gumped into a way to make low freq inverters have very low idle losses my 10k is under 20 watts idle losses who knows how big a load it will start and run i dont have anything big enough to test very long at over 10k i first built a very small inverter with only 4 hy4008 mosfets i have ran window ac and chop saws and other tools redoing my 6v92 supercharged and turbo all alum skinned 40 foot Eagle detroit diesel pusher rv i tested it for long time to over load it and blow it up never did still runs great its maybe 4 or 5 years old i am old and dont do well at time lol my 10k has 24 mosfets and i probably have 2 or 300 bucks in it my battery bank is around same size as yours it is made up of samsung 94 amp hour cells i got a very good deal the modules brand new they where 22s so i had to make them 14s was the only thing brand new factory sealed i payed under 4 grand a old biz partner and i went in on 130 340 watt panels new but from a insurance pay out he sold enough to pay for them all so i have nothing in mine i have used so far until good deal on some thing comes along use make sky blue mppt charge controllers you seem king at getting a great deal and you have a very good mind compared to mine!!! now think of what you could do if only you knew you could do it I faked it till i made it on every thing i have ever done taught myself how to read better than sounding out see spot run night shift pant went down a lot had nothing to do setting in a peace of heavy equipment so A D D could not set still to learn anything in school i am retired now i faked everything till i made it jumped in blindly i have a universal certified in hvac maint certified pluming and electrician certified heavy equipment operator certified tec 2 in auto mechanics much much more the fun is learning how every thing works and doing it better than every one else lol lol i put the motor and transmission in my wifes toyota van maybe 4 or 5 years ago in my side yard chain is now grown into the tree you have the key bag tag every bolt screw just like i already know you would do you may say well i dont no nothing about this or that great the funniest part is learning and like i said you are smarter than me by the way any work i do i do by code my father in law knew i was dumber than a box of rocks and at first would check up or send pros to check my work lol this is long i know but you must know that if you have the time there is nothing solar you can not do or anything else these trades do not have a big learning curve!! YOU CAN DO IT ALL FOR YOUR SELF SAVING YOU TONS!!!!!!! ok sorry for the book of run on sentences did not do so well at teaching myself to spell or write lol True key to life is knowing and trusting in God our father that bible is not what we have ALL been told and it is testable beyond shadow of doubt chuck missler has a video on youtube about testing bible it shows a few of countless testing that has been done gospel means good news and most has never hear it have you heard you are going to hell you cant have or do any thing fun and must have a stick up your ass That is not God or good news!!! God bless you and yours God is good!!
@@ambersmith6517 That's a really great system you created and I am VERY happy for you! Do not underestimate yourself, you are most impressive indeed.
Thank you for taking the time to write. I myself just finished some mods on my old 2005 Polaris ATV. I enjoy working on old cars and ATVs much more then electronics.
Stay cool my friend!
could you add another battery instead of buying new inverter
I actually solved the tankless water heater so I don't need a larger inverter. We now have endless hot water and can run everything at once no problem. I'll be doing a video on that because it can help others.
But no, another battery would not make a difference, it's the watt draw limited by the inverter (9k) that dictates what can be run at the same time.
Actually all electric resistance water heaters have 100% efficiency by default - as converting electricity to heat always will have. Small differences can only arise from bad insulation to the outside, but that's negligable for tankless heaters while tank heaters may suffer more from bad insulation.
For a good shower you would need 11kW at least, with less you only get a "trickle" from the shower head if you want it warm.
I solved the tankless water heater issue with an $8 part. Tankless heater runs flawless now with my 6k system. I did a video on it last month. The main house will have a Rheem tank heater because we will have a garage (with angled floor in case of leaks) to store it. No way I was putting a tank heater inside the cabin. Those things rust and leak every 10 years.
@@HomesteadOnThePreserve What are you using the tankless heater for? Usually they require 22kW/400V for enough capacity to take a shower. 11kW with some ECO shower heads and more time.
What is the max. output of your inverter to supply that energy demand?
ah yes 12kW - but a 12kW heater could only heat 7l/minute from 15 to 40C (60 to 104F) which may be enough for a eco shower head.
@@Spechtlerimwald The tankless heater is mainly for the shower. It draws around 3k watts with a flow of 1 gpm heating the ground water from an average of 70 degrees to over 100 degrees. It works amazing after installing the flow limiter. Check out my video "Yes a tankless water heater is viable with solar."
The inverter is rated to put out 9k watts at once but it actually goes 9.4k or higher before the internal breaker will pop. I've actually seen it go over 10k but the two "legs" must be in good balance to achieve that.
@@HomesteadOnThePreserve 70/100 ... 3kW should warm about 3l/minute. A trickle-down shower.
That ground water there is really warm - rather drink beer instead :)
I just saw a heat pump clothes dryer that uses a lot less power, maybe you can check it out. Btw, my brother in the Philippines, just had a 7.5 kwh system with two 10.5 kwh LiFePO4 battery pack, all made in China. It cost him US$ 9,250.
Wow great price! Did that include the install?
I solved the tankless water heater issue and did a video on it if you want to check it out. It works perfectly now and the draw is only around 3k watts.
@@HomesteadOnThePreserve - yes it came with the installation.
@@socalbenny4728 Most impressive
it looks like you have 160ah sells they are 16 in series to get 48v. that means if you draw 8480 watts that is 1C if you bus bar that each battery would be doing .334C. Took me a minute to find what cells they use in those batteries. I just want your batteries to last as long as they can and installers do not care they just do the simplest way and cheapest way.
I do appreciate your input and yeah, after the sale most companies just don't care. Good news, the batteries are under warrantee if more than 20% degradation after 5000 cycles.
Thanks again DC
Same time back boiler on your stove to also heat the water tank
I solved the tankless heater issue for only $8, I posted the video last week, check it out.
Love your avatar by the way.
it looks like your roof gets shading from trees
There was one Black Oak on the left side but I actually just cut it down yesterday.
How many watts or power does your Sol Ark inverter Charger needs just to even run that look like it's taking 150 to 200 watts just to operate it
Great question and I actually mentioned that before editing down my video. Initially it was 60 minutes but I thought I was getting to technical and lengthy so edits were called upon.
The Sol Ark 12K idols at 60 watts and I believe 75 when the cooling fans are spinning.
@@HomesteadOnThePreserve that's not bad at all I have two of those 24v 3000 watt cheap Chinese all in-one inverter chargers with built-in Mppt solar charging they both idol at around 35-40 watts each but they run great though each one also has a Victron Smart charge controller running with it so I can monitor everything on my phone via Bluetooth
@@diysolaradventures7894 Hey that's cool!
A lot of people are hostile about Chinese products but not all are bad. Although we would love for everything to be made here in America, bottom line, if they do what they're supposed to and LAST then mission accomplished!
@@HomesteadOnThePreserve right and I like the fact that they are affordable though each one of my inverter/chargers cost only $500 and that's not bad for a 3000 watt all-in-one within Mppt 80 amps of solar charging
@@diysolaradventures7894 Wow, most impressive!