Off The Grid

Here's the first full month of solar for my neighbor's system.... look at this february vs last february. 1600kwh vs 359kwh this month. We had two screwups... 1)I didn't understand the failure mode of victron MPPTs and should not have connected all of them to all solar panels collectively. That has been resolved by separating the panels into groups for each MPPT and adding a 60amp fuse in line. Also victron replaced the two MPPTs under warranty. 2)we used ferules on the battery cable into the battery breaker and one of the wires partially pulled out causing the breaker to overheat. This meant that he lost 25% of his battery reserve and his system shut down around midnight. that has been resolved by fixing the wires and also programming his inverter to connect to the grid based on SoC AND low voltage. This system is so overpaneled that as the sun gets higher in the sky he makes more and more power earlier in the day.

Unistrut ground mount. Expensive... and you have to ground bond each panel and each part of it. But easily done.

Here is the "not good deal" of the year... I'm unsure of the differences between these enphase microinverters, but I do know you need one per solar panel. If you install a system with 32 panels, you'll spend $4390 on microinverters. On the other hand you could buy a EG4 12000xp for $2500 AND two 5kwh server rack batteries for the same money..... and that system would be a lot more useful. The microinverters need a grid (or simulated 240vac signal) to make power at all. They must be either grid tied or connected to an inverter that can control them. They are what you call AC Coupled.

https://youtube.com/shorts/2X5Qql0j2S8

I built a small storage bunker under the trampoline, water and air tight, 30% humidity. 7 giga calories in it, that covers a man 13 years long. Took too much room in my garage, so I put it 10 feet under, stable temperatures there too. 🍻

Just a quick post about solar. Many people want to use solar trackers to make their panels make more power all day long. The practical side of this is that the panels are cheaper than the tracking mechanism. Additionally, you will have to do maintenance and repairs on the tracker. Today I rode past the solar farm shown here and saw about 1/4 of the rows of panels were not pointed at the sun. They were pointed east and were making less power than if they had been parked facing straight up. If the commercial guys can't keep up with trackers, trust me, you don't want to either. Just add more panels.

The same people who are worried about me DEF deleting my diesel truck are shipping cookies from india for us to eat.

Do you still want that smart lock?

Legislation being passed on emotions with no regard to the facts.......world wide issue

https://youtu.be/_1-MXt1ApvA?si=291eOqZYtjJah3Je