Any costing data?
DIY Off-Grid Solar Power
21–30 of 234 posts
Re: DIY Off-Grid Solar Power
#22I recently set up my own off grid solar system in a tiny cabin that I designed and had built. I used the Solar Controller+Inverter Combos recommended on this site (Growatt) but ultimately switched to ones by Renogy. The Growatt one I purchased has a wifi adapter and app - wifi requirement was a deal breaker when remote. The renogy one has a Bluetooth adapter and app, plus feels better designed (though actually I thin…
Have you considered Lithium Titanate batteries? They can discharge at a temperature of -40C.
Re: DIY Off-Grid Solar Power
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
Read the rest about solar, I actually just grabbed it from my bookmarks and didn't realize he'd posted anything new since 2011. Ignore the first few posts and carry on reading his rants about solar, batteries, wire gauge, charge controller location, charging voltage, panel placement, shading, etc.
Quoted post unavailable.
Do you ensure that every bit of material that you read isn't written by someone who also has some really stupid and harmful beliefs about some other topic?
Re: DIY Off-Grid Solar Power
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
How intelligent can the guy be when he's flagrantly demonstrating such flawed thinking? It calls into question everything he writes, full stop. Better things to do with my time and why give him more audience.
Intelligence has almost nothing to do with it. The whole 'rona thing has been very very stressful and many people have not reacted well to it. Scam artists have exploited this stress (as they always have and always will). Some people have been led astray and some are leading people astray, and some are both. At any rate, it is an impairment of gathering and processing information correctly, not intelligence. It's a f…
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Re: DIY Off-Grid Solar Power
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
Quoted post unavailable.
Do you ensure that every bit of material that you read isn't written by someone who also has some really stupid and harmful beliefs about some other topic?
> Do you ensure that every bit of material that you read isn't written by someone who also has some really stupid and harmful beliefs about some other topic?
Everyone makes mistakes, and I've been known to rescind my references and recommendations upon making such discoveries.
In this case all it takes is simply loading the referenced page, the hogwash is front and center. Give me a break.
Re: DIY Off-Grid Solar Power
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've been dealing with an off grid solar office for 5+ years now. Year round power, heating (propane at times, candles/kerosene at others, electricity most of the time if I have the light), and have spent the bulk of this time in some esoteric backwaters communities on IRC with other people who do the same sort of thing. It's really, really hard to find people who have written accurately about solar on the internet.…
How intelligent can the guy be when he's flagrantly demonstrating such flawed thinking? It calls into question everything he writes, full stop. Better things to do with my time and why give him more audience.
I should judge the accuracy of what someone wrote nearly a decade ago by what I think of what I think they believe today?
It's a popular enough viewpoint today, certainly, but it leads to throwing out huge swaths of perfectly good work that could be useful. Obviously, I reject it. I don't know the guy, I don't know what's happened to him or not in the past decade since he was writing on the deep truths of RV solar. I do know that the more I learn about solar from hands on operation, the more his writings reflected what I'd found through experimentation/analysis/etc. You could apply plenty of his rantings to some of the off-grid battery destroying systems presented on YouTube as Grade A Amazing builds and improve a lot on those systems.
But, if you're only willing to consider the viewpoints of those you would consider show clear thinking, which largely translates to "agrees with what I already think," you're welcome to go through life that way. I tend to find that dreadfully boring and a good way to miss an awful lot of really solid knowledge. I'm happy to learn about lead acid battery quirks from people who've lived with lead acid for half as long as I've been alive, even if I think they make some pretty dumb decisions in life. I know they question some of my decisions back.
Anyway, your mind is clearly settled and the issue is closed on this particular bit of writings. You might go find some of SunKing's rants about "max smoke charging" useful as well, if you're dealing with off grid lead, but I guarantee you won't like him much as a person either.
Re: DIY Off-Grid Solar Power
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you ensure that every bit of material that you read isn't written by someone who also has some really stupid and harmful beliefs about some other topic?
> Do you ensure that every bit of material that you read isn't written by someone who also has some really stupid and harmful beliefs about some other topic? Everyone makes mistakes, and I've been known to rescind my references and recommendations upon making such discoveries. In this case all it takes is simply loading the referenced page, the hogwash is front and center. Give me a break.
> I've been known to rescind my references and recommendations upon making such discoveries
You understand that most everybody who was born in the first part of the 20th century or earlier believed quite a few things that we now consider pretty abhorrent.
Re: DIY Off-Grid Solar Power
#28I recently set up my own off grid solar system in a tiny cabin that I designed and had built. I used the Solar Controller+Inverter Combos recommended on this site (Growatt) but ultimately switched to ones by Renogy. The Growatt one I purchased has a wifi adapter and app - wifi requirement was a deal breaker when remote. The renogy one has a Bluetooth adapter and app, plus feels better designed (though actually I thin…
Have you considered Lithium Titanate batteries? They can discharge at a temperature of -40C.
Have you priced LTO? They're rather staggeringly expensive for their capacity. The cycle life is excellent, but they excel in very high C-rate applications (10C-20C), which is the opposite of what you need for off-grid systems. If an off grid system is getting anywhere near C/10 discharge rates, you're going to be in the dark awfully soon.
It's old tech, it's boring, but it works fine... flooded lead acid. Don't fully discharge it in the winter, and they won't freeze. They'll cycle just fine in the cold. Well tested, proven, and unless you're full time living and heating an interior space that can be lithium-friendly, they're the right option. Disconnect all the loads and run them on float in the winter with a high, vertical, south facing panel (obviously swap that if you're in the southern hemisphere), and they'll do just fine.
Re: DIY Off-Grid Solar Power
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've been dealing with an off grid solar office for 5+ years now. Year round power, heating (propane at times, candles/kerosene at others, electricity most of the time if I have the light), and have spent the bulk of this time in some esoteric backwaters communities on IRC with other people who do the same sort of thing. It's really, really hard to find people who have written accurately about solar on the internet.…
How intelligent can the guy be when he's flagrantly demonstrating such flawed thinking? It calls into question everything he writes, full stop. Better things to do with my time and why give him more audience.
Greater intelligence & creativity just means you can tell yourself increasingly clever and convincing lies.
Conspiracy-theory-ism is an "emotions" problem, not an "intelligence" problem.
Re: DIY Off-Grid Solar Power
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
The problem with him, and people like him on YouTube, is that about 90% of what they say is fine, and 10% ranges from "iffy" to "This is a good way to burn your house down - at some unknown point in the future." The average viewer of that sort of material can't tell the difference, and by the time you can, you're not in need of handwaving entry level information, because you can read the design documents, spec sheets…
"YouTube is simply the wrong medium to try to teach detailed" YouTube is literally just humans talking, so you are basically saying you don't think humans can teach complicated subjects?
That's an absolutely absurd characterization of both YouTube and actual teaching.
YouTube is dominantly entertainment/personality based "edutainment" at best, based on what seems to percolate to the top and be promoted. There's zero feedback outside comments (standard warnings about comment sections apply here).
The right way to teach complex subjects is a more interactive process with hands on material/learning/actually solving the problems yourself. In the case of solar and energy systems, you can do this, but if you don't have some basic EE background, it would be wise to go get that first before listening to some slick talking huckster selling their wares. WHY do we size wires the way we do (either for temperature limits or for voltage drop, depending on the application)? What's wrong with a 5000W 12V inverter (500A or so, and the I^2 components of resistive losses, paired with the voltage drop from those)?
I don't think a human lecturing blindly into the void optimizing for "engagement" (whatever metrics those are based on this week) can competently teach any real detailed material, no. That doesn't mean that people can't teach complex material. It just means YouTube is not the place or medium for it.