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DIY Off-Grid Solar Power

mobile-solarpower.com

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Re: DIY Off-Grid Solar Power

#191

Post by fpgaminer »

willprowseiv wrote: post #156
jacquesm wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but I will have to go through a couple of months worth of youtube history, I was binge watching anything about Lithium Ion when I was working on this: https://jacquesmattheij.com/long-range-ebike/ As a result I have a very long article on Lithium Ion battery safety and pack construction in the works, but exactly for the reasons the GGP lists I'm pretty careful about releasing that, I want to triple check everyt…

Just because I am young doesn't mean anything. I know what I'm talking about. I started coding and building robots when I was 13, and circuit design at 15. Solar power is dead simple. Yeah I can work with raw terminals because I don't make silly mistakes. I've been working with low voltage DC for decades. Most of the systems I throw together are for educational use. Those balance wires were probably a rapid prototype…

> I started coding and building robots when I was 13, and circuit design at 15. Solar power is dead simple.

Similar, but I would _never_ play fast and loose around batteries of those sizes just because I felt like I won't make "silly mistakes". Everyone, even professionals who have been doing dangerous work for decades, make silly mistakes. That's why professionals don't fuck around. One wrong move with large lithium cells and you've got a massive jet of fire in your workshop that can't be put out.

Similarly, I'm a woodworker and while I feel like I know what I'm doing around a table saw these days, I _always_ make sure to have my adrenaline pumping when making cuts. I Point and Call my safety checklist every single time. I wear my safety glasses for even the simplest cuts off the table saw. And guess what? It has saved my bacon. It's the simple, mundane, "I don't make silly mistakes" days that cost you.

> And wow you're so dramatic

It's better etiquette to address the content of a comment rather than lob insults against the commenter. The former is less argumentative and can be more informative. Strive to enlighten and inform. Nobody learns anything useful from phrases like "you're so dramatic", "Give me a break", "you are giving me a hard time", "Are you kidding me?", "You have no clue what you are talking about", etc.

Re: DIY Off-Grid Solar Power

#192

Post by LinuxBender »

Solar2 wrote: post #174
LinuxBender wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't tell how Youtube decides what to keep and what to remove or if my comment was removed by a bot or by the channel owner. On a traditional forum a moderator would tell me if something was out of line. For what it's worth if you are the Will Prowse from Youtube I do appreciate the videos you make. Your channel has exposed me to companies I didn't know existed. The Hysolis tear-down was interesting and saves me f…

I spent an hour yesterday deleting spam, and then I get emails from long time viewers stating that their comments have been removed. I cannot tell you how frustrating it is. I try to fix this every single day, and I get my long time viewers to report the spam. Youtubes system is awful. Thank you!! Hysolis is awesome, and with the LF inverter, you can easily work on it yourself. I am glad my videos help :) There are t…

There are tons of scams online these days, and I love exposing them.

Please keep up the great work. That is a very worthy battle and will save people a lot of frustration and money.

I plan to get 3 of the Hysolis portable units. Last I checked they didn't have the external battery available as an option yet so I've been holding out. I'm also hoping they have custom shipping options because Amazon uses UPS and they track snow into their trucks which isn't great for electronics. That inverter is heavy so it will be on the floor of the truck for sure.

Re: DIY Off-Grid Solar Power

#193

Post by knorker »

Solar2 wrote: post #177
AYBABTME wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mate, I've been following you for a while and have a generally positive opinion of you. I think you're not going to have a good experience coming here with your guns out. I watch all your videos, but wouldn't I be a fool if I just absorbed what you say as gospel? You don't do this yourself, don't you? I'm happy for you and your success and I'm very happy there are people out there like you changing their life outcome…

No of course not, I just see people on this site stating to use recycled NMC cells that are capable of burning down their house with one wrong move, then saying my videos are dangerous. I cover safety all the time, more so than any other channel I know. I do not understand why people are saying these things. I work very hard to make my videos, and people here on this site who do not understand batteries are trying to…

Just a tip that while HN looks like reddit, it's not reddit. And deliberately so.

E.g. you can't downvotes responses to your own comment. This to steer into a different type of conversation.

I can't say I've fully internalized it, but it does make for much less shitposting compared to reddit.

The downvotes i don't think are due to disagreement or even anger.

I understand your frustration (especially since the critique is so unspecific), but i believe the downvotes don't mean what you think they mean, and it's not personal.

Re: DIY Off-Grid Solar Power

#194

Post by jacquesm »

Syonyk wrote: post #185
ctime wrote: post #2

Will Prose seems like a really great person. If you’re interested in what you see on this site, check out his YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/c/WillProwse

> Will Prose seems like a really great person. My opinion of him after his attempts to interact in this thread (turn "show dead" on - a bunch of his more arrogant/abrasive posts have been killed, and it looks like he's posting as Solar2 as well) is now far, far lower than it was.

Ditto. I had him pegged as well meaning but sometimes a bit less knowledgeable than he wanted to come across but that didn't stand the test of interaction.

Re: DIY Off-Grid Solar Power

#195

Post by jacquesm »

roeles wrote: post #190
mkeespiet wrote: post #118

Together with my girlfriend I’m planning a trip. Driving from the Netherlands to South Africa and back with an EV. We want to charge the car with solar panels we bring with us. See our website for more details: www.4x4electric.com Challenge for now: how to charge the car with ~60m2 of flexible solar panels. We need a threephase offgrid solar system, but did not find a suitable solution yet. Any ideas?

Leuk idee! Perhaps it makes sense to have a chat with Solar Team Eindhoven/Twente/Delft? Or have a chat with the people at Lightyear. They have a lot of former teammembers.

That's a great idea, it might even lead to contact with potential sponsors for a trip like that.

Re: DIY Off-Grid Solar Power

#196

Post by jacquesm »

m0ngr31 wrote: post #34

I live in an off-grid house. Solar isn't perfect, but it's been pretty good all things considered 6 months in. Converting an airport shuttle bus into an RV now, so I'll have to look this over for that.

Cool, I'd love to see the write-up on that if you have the time.

Re: DIY Off-Grid Solar Power

#197

Post by jacquesm »

rklaehn wrote: post #75

This is a nice resource. I am building an off grid / backup solar install for a house in rural Romania. I want it to be off grid capable, but also be able to use the grid when available. One thing I am curious about: do the all in one systems like Growatt or MPT also provide voltage stabilization? The grid here has really bad voltage stability. Sometimes the voltage drops down to 180V (should be 220V in Europe). Some…

What you want to look for in an inverter is called brownout protection capability. This is usually the higher end of the inverter ranges but quality gear can sometimes be bought second hand from marine salvage companies.

Re: DIY Off-Grid Solar Power

#198

Post by Syonyk »

sandworm101 wrote: post #165
zoba wrote: post #8

I 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…

>> 1) These Controller+Inverter combo units require a battery to turn on Which is why you want to install disconnects between your battery bank and the electronics. In a worst-case scenario of total discharge you can then bypass the dead batteries, hook the control electronics up to car batteries if necessary (be careful about voltages) and perform some diagnostics or at least read the logs of what went wrong. But th…

> But the controller+inverter should be running if supplied with voltage from solar/wind/generator regardless of how the batteries are doing.

Most of them don't operate that way. They need the battery bank connected first, and run off the battery bank side, while controlling the panel side.

Some may tolerate that sort of recovery from deep discharge, but it's not a safe bet, and some controllers are pretty clear that if you connect the input side before the batteries, you'll damage the controller.

A dumb PWM controller stands a better chance of doing this, but something like an MPPT controller, unless it's explicitly designed to fail into a PWM configuration at low battery voltage, won't - they need power to drive the buck converter circuitry (the controlling ICs and oscillators and such) in order to get power out of the panels.

Re: DIY Off-Grid Solar Power

#199

Post by mattr47 »

sandworm101 wrote: post #132

Marketing. I would take everything on this website with a grain of salt. Take it from someone who has actually built an off-grid system, one that is relied upon for 24/7/365 living rather than mere vacation cottage. For example: OP re lead-acid battery options: "Heavy, cheap, easy to use and they work! Typically will last about 3-5 years. Slower charge rates than lithium, much heavier, and they cost way more in the l…

Car batteries are good for 4-5 years.

Re: DIY Off-Grid Solar Power

#200

Post by WalterBright »

lazide wrote: post #130
WalterBright wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems to me that if you want to solar heat a cabin, a solar panel is going around the horn. Design the cabin to be a solar collector, like a greenhouse.

You’d still need backup heat production (heat pump, or wood burning, or fossil fuel, or electrical off batteries) for the inevitable month long ‘gray and cold’ stretches, or you’re gonna freeze. Single purpose but not reliably there heat capture methods add cost and maintenance. It’s often more cost effective to have a general purpose method that while not as efficient in one case is generally more overall (cost) eff…

Passive solar heating should be very maintenance free. It's the point of it.

Sure, a backup plan is a good idea. But it doesn't have to be very good or very efficient, as it will be rarely used.

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