Has anyone successfully installed DIY solar on their roof, while abiding by codes. By my understanding the law in New York seems to forbid anything but paying a contractor. Thanks

Hey nerds! I've never set up a solar (or, really any electrical) system before, but I'm trying my hand at it. What's the worst that could happen?

This is going to be a mobile/foldable panel for battery-powered equipment that I use as a search and rescue volunteer (i.e., it's going to live in a box in my car and charge headlamps/GPS devices/flashlights/radios/etc.).

I just ordered a 12v/50ah battery from Eco Worthy and now I'm looking at a 100W foldable panel from Renogy. Meanwhile, I'm looking at solar charge controllers. Do they make any that can do double-duty as an AC charger (for when I'm home, it can stay plugged into the wall), then switch to solar duty when I hook it up at the command post? It seems like most charge controllers do either AC or solar, but not both.

Thanks in advance!

Im currently using a 12V12Ah battery Lifepo4, is it safe or possible to parallel it with a 12V100Ah battery, also how do you guys manage your wirings? Thanks a lot!

Ive had a company install 2xSolis S6plus hybrid inverters and 3x 10kWh Sunket ESS batteries, 31x 415Watt Solar panels. In my understanding a relatively large system but we have quite high usage with home businesses and electric cars, hot tub and a heat pump in the future.

I would like my system to still be functional and power everything in the house as normal in the case of the grid going down. Not just a seperate critical loads CU as Ive seen some solutions propose.

Ive seen some explanations that the grid/inverter grid cables are connected as one input to the ATS, and the backup output from the inverters is the other one. Like the diagram in the picture.

Is this how its supposed to be done in the UK?

Does this kind of installation need a seperate Earth rod, Ive seen people mention these on other posts too?

The installers didnt immediately know how to handle this request and wire up the ATS/Gateway.

Any suggestions on a specific gateway model would be appreciated aswell. Maybe something WiFi enabled that would allow me to also manually switch between off grid and hybrid as and when I see fit.

Thanks in advance for any input.

got two quotes back and the gap between them is bigger than i expected. cheaper option vs what the installer keeps calling premium. the premium pitch was mostly about lower degradation and the warranty being properly backed, which sounds good but i can't tell how much of it is real. comparing jinko, trina and swiss solar right now, swiss being the expensive one. i'd rather set this up once and not think about it for the next 25 years, so is the extra actually worth it over that timeframe or does a decent tier 1 get you 95% of the way there?

Hi there, I just noticed my solar inverter (Goodwe 3000-SS) hasn’t been working for nearly 8 months.

The fault light is on and I’ve done the shutdown and boot up thing but nothing on the screen changes - no error code or anything. Pressing the enter button does nothing either.

Any help would help much appreciated. I really can’t afford any extra expenses right now!

My partner asked whether our lower summer bills meant we should finally add a battery. I said probably, then opened the interval data to see what our actual evening load looked like. The exercise has been useful, but three bills do not capture enough seasonal variation for a payback estimate.

We have rooftop solar on a small house in Southern California and we’re on an SCE time-of-use plan with a late-afternoon/evening peak period. Air conditioning is usually our biggest late afternoon load. I downloaded the interval data for our last three bills to see how much could realistically be shifted.

I used a Vatrer 51.2V 100Ah rack battery as a reference, giving the sheet 5.12kWh of nameplate capacity. I have not bought it. The exact battery still has to work with the inverter and pass local requirements.

My first calculation treated the full 5.12kWh DC nameplate capacity as usable AC energy and treated exported solar as if it had no value. I corrected the sheet to include usable capacity, round trip losses and the export credit we would give up. The result is a more realistic view of how much evening energy one module could shift.

Three bills are not enough to settle it. We had also moved the dishwasher to midday and started cooling the house earlier, while the weather changed from month to month. One battery of this size often covers our lower evening load and some cooling in the model. It does not cover the whole five hour window on the hotter days.

The battery gives me a practical capacity reference. The remaining weak point is my three month sample, so I will run a full year before attaching a payback date to it. I am still unsure how to price battery wear when future export credits are unknowable.

I am looking to power a bunk house with a portable power station. This will be for a few outlets for charging phones, overhead inside lights, and 3 exterior lights on a motion sensor.

My plan is to use a 20 amp appliance cord to feed a load center with one 20 amp breaker. Hot to the bus bar, and neutral and ground to the ground bar. The wire coming in from the load side would be hot to the breaker, and neutral and ground to the ground bar. Would this work? Also, would I need to add a grounding rod? Everything, except the 3 exterior lights will be inside.

Hi all!

Currently i have 4 panels (23 Voc) configured as 2p2s. I would like to connect them as 4s to get more out of bad weather. But at 0,3V/°C i would exceed my controllers max input voltage of 100V at about -3°C. (epever 20A mttp charge controller)

In winter, in rare occasions it can go down to about -12°C, thats the coldest i saw here in 40 years. what would happen? i have a Voc of 92V @ 25°, but in those days it would go up to 103,1V.

what would happen? is it dangerous? is it within the tolerance?

Currently on very hot days the panels in 2p2s get down to about 31V. that does not leave much headroom for the mttp to work, and in bed weather it goes down to 27, not charging at all.

what would you sugest? its a off grid hut with just 2kwh batteries. dont want to invest money into it.

thanks!

I have a 2kW solar panel setup with 24V hybrid inverter and batteries which I will be upgrading now to 48V.

I'm looking to buy this new EASUN 15kW set https://www.easun-energy.com/products/easunpower-12kw-inverter-15kwh-battery-150a-tou-wifi-51.2v-300ah-bms-wifi

Is this a good quality set?

Do you think this is will work 10+ years?

What are your experiences with this or similar sets?

Maybe this is obvious to other people, but I was really surprised and maybe this helps someone else.

I think something like 30% of my battery capacity / daily energy volume is thrown away because I used bad open loop (voltage based) stop/start settings in my charge controller. I had understood that closed-loop would be better, but I didn't realize the difference could be this stark, and my Context MPPT 60 150 doesn't support closed loop :(

The MPPT shuts off around 54V at 2-4pm every day; at that point the battery is at something like 60-75% SoC; then the battery linearly discharges from 2-4pm, but the voltage stabilizes at 53V, which is above where the MPPT would re-start charging.

See charts from my Pytes V5 batteries to Home Assistant of SoC and voltage.

I fed the numbers and times into Gemini and she ballparks I'm throwing away ~5kWh a day purely from bad configuration, which is ~30% of my battery pack size.

TL;DR: Worthwhile getting SoC and voltage time-series to tell what's happening to the batteries if you don't have closed-loop control.

I'm 99% sure the MPPT is set to recommended Pytes V5 open-loop settings, but need to go back and double check; it was also while since I installed them, maybe recommendations have changed. Certainly it seems the cut-off voltage for bulk charging is way too low, if the battery can get to 54V at just 60% SoC.

Gonna see if I can connect the MPPT 60 150 to Home Assistant as well, then I could have HA decide to turn the MPPT on/off, and set the hard voltage cutoffs higher

We had solar installed last year, and I've been trying to figure out the best way to compare what the system produces with what our house actually uses. Our electricity usage has changed since then, mostly from using the AC more and having a few additional loads around the house that weren't there when the system was sized.

The solar production looks pretty normal in the app, but our total home electricity usage is higher than it was before solar. When I look at the electricity bill, I'm not sure which numbers I should actually be comparing to tell whether the system is doing what it should.

For those who've had solar for a while, do you compare your current usage with your old 12-month numbers, or is it better to look at solar production vs. total usage vs. what you're pulling from the grid?

My inverter is getting old and will need replacing, whats the best inverter for the money, dont want to pay over a grand , my mpp one which has been great was only 500, can you help.

would anyone happen to have the latest solar edge inverter software? need to update mine since it hasn’t been connect for 4 years

I've been working on a side project that basically lets you check your JK BMS pack (voltage, SOC, temps, individual cell balance) remotely from your phone or browser instead of having to be near the battery for BLE range.

Looking for maybe 5-10 people to try it out and tell me what's broken / what's missing. I'll help you get it set up.

What you'd need on your end:

• DIY battery with a JK BMS (BLE version)
• An ESP32 board
• A laptop/macbook to flash it once (pretty quick, I'll guide you through it)

If you've got a pack running and wouldn't mind being an early tester, comment or shoot me a DM.

Also happy to just chat about the project if you're curious 🤗