Building an Off Grid Growatt Integrated Solar Power System - Part 3 of 3 videos

[@pequodexpress]

That AC-in for low DC/solar power is fabulous. First time I'm seeing this option.

[@BrightSparkIdeas]

The Growatt Off-Grid Integrated system is working great. I started with only two 100amh of batteries, so being able to have the grid seamlessly provide power when needed, works perfectly for me.

[@ijapol]

This is brilliant! Exactly what I needed. I've watched Will's videos on the Growatt, but yours goes into fuse and breaker usage, which I desperately needed. I am proud subscriber #514. Thanks!!

[@BrightSparkIdeas]

Will's video's are amazing, an incredible source of accurate information. My solar system has been running great for over a year, and I doubled the solar panel capacity which really helps. I am pleased you found it helpful. Thank you for subscribing and please let me know how your system works out for you. John

[@jc305cc]

super clean system my friend I have the same set up powered by a bigbattery 2.4kw , not as clean as yours but you've inspired me to clean up mine , keep up the good work.

[@BrightSparkIdeas]

I have been looking at the bigbattery options too. I need to keep mine mobile, so weight is always an issue. Clean an tidy is good, but functional the most important ;-)

[@WiSeNhEiMeR-1369]

HOWdy B-S-I, thank you for Part #3 in your BATTERY BOX - what Size FUSE did you decide on ? COOP ...

[@garyg4076]

Showing connections would be a nice addition though for newbies trying the project

[@BrightSparkIdeas]

You are correct, when I was a building this I was not only a solar newbie, but also a newbie to making a video, so I missed a lot of the build. Hopeful I will improve.

[@davidkettell6236]

great setup

[@BrightSparkIdeas]

David - Thank you, I hope it was helpful and gives you some ideas to build your own system. Let me know if you do.

[@lonniefrench5013]

Nice informative videos, I found this very helpful and just what I have been looking for. Please provide more information on the parts you used and where you purchased them

[@BrightSparkIdeas]

Glad it was helpful!

[@craigheron9961]

Are you running a separate monitor screen from the USB of your GroWatt? If so can you give me details of what can be monitored or set via that additional screen please. Thanks, nice set up!!

[@BrightSparkIdeas]

Hi Craig. When I originally setup my system I connected the Growatt to an old laptop, using the USB cable provided, but unfortunately, the app was never stable and kept shutting down. Could have been the app or my old laptop. Once everything was setup and running, I really did not need to monitor the system, so never bothered to solve the problem with the app. Sorry, but that is a long answer, I could have just said don't known ;-) Just as a side note, if I needed to monitor how my system was functioning regularly, as the Growatt is down in my basement, I would probably purchase the WiFi dongle.

[@philfr212]

Thanks for the series! How did you hook up your panels? Series or series-parallel? What is your solar voltage and current coming into the GroWatt and what is the minimum required solar voltage to feed the GroWatt?

[@BrightSparkIdeas]

Pmcfly - Good questions. I have 4 X 100 watt polycrystalline panels made by Rich Solar connected in series / parallel. So, the first two panels are wired in series as are the second two and by using two MC4 branch connectors, the two sets are then connected in parallel. Connecting in series / parallel, still provides 400 watts of power and the supply at 40 volts and 10 amps still meets the minimum requirement of 30VCD of the Growatt solar charger. I originally had all 4 panels connected in series giving 80 volts and 5 amps at the solar charger as the lower amps means you can use thinner wire, but I sometimes had problems with shading of some of the panels, so I went with a compromise using the series / parallel configuration. I am currently clearing an area, that might allow me to add four more 100W Rich Solar panels or two 200W. This will give me better consistent coverage this year.

[@WillyBegee]

Is there a need to ground this system to a ground rod?

[@BrightSparkIdeas]

Hi Willy, I am not sure if it is necessary for the "system" to be connected to a ground rod. However, for connecting and protecting the Solar Panels input to the system I am using an ECO-WORTHY 4 String PV Combiner Box with Lightning Arrester, which is connected to a ground rod. So, that is how mine is grounded. I hope this helps. If anyone else has a definitive answer please add to the comments.

[@janvanderwalt2207]

very good video. thank you. I have a similar setup with a growatt and 24v setup. what would the max reading be on the inverter for volts when fully charged. mine showes 27v. is that within safe parameters? im afraid i might overcharge my batteries. thank you once again

[@BrightSparkIdeas]

Jan, good question, sounds like you are certainly safe. I would follow the battery manufactures guidelines. I have two Battle Born 12V batteries wired in series giving me a 24 V system. I just followed the Battle Born recommendations as follows: “Bulk/absorb 28.4 - 29.2 V (we usually recommend 28.8 V) float 27.2 V or lower”. So, to be on the conservative side, I set up the Growatt parameter #19 at 28.5V which works well for me. I hope this helps.

[@trevilights]

@@BrightSparkIdeas Nice video. How about the setting #12 and #13. What are your values here?

[@Noah-qt3rq]

Thanks for the video. Do you know the idle consumption of the growatt with no loads? My one concern with these is they are running 24/7 and drawing power. Were you able to calculate the wattage it draws just being on?

[@BrightSparkIdeas]

Hi, unfortunately i do not know the answer. However, I purchased my Growatt from Ian at Watts247 and he is a good source of information. Give Ian a call at : 801.403.0336 or send him and email: [e-mail] or check out his website: Website: watts247.com/. I hope this helps you get an answer, if it does please let me know.

[@edness9111]

Great video. I just picked up this 24v Growatt for my off-grid cabin here in Alaska. This is exactly the setup I had envisioned and there it is in your videos. I was wondering if using 1/0 battery cable is good for this setup? I know the manual recommends #2 awg. I am using 420ah lead acid batteries since it frequently gets below sub-freezing temps. Can I use 1/0? Pros and cons or would #2 awg works just as good? Thank you in advance.

[@BrightSparkIdeas]

Hi Edness, good question. I think you might be limited by what gauge wire the battery input terminal on the Growatt will allow. If it says #2-gauge, that might be your limitation. However, I would test to see if it will accept the 1/0-gauge. As for my system, it has been working perfectly with the #2-gauge wire since November 2020, but I have a very short run between the batteries and the Growatt inputs. If you have a very long cable run, you might want to consider using 1/0-gauge to the circuit breaker under the Growatt and then #2 gauge into the Growatt, if #2-gauge is really a limitation. I am only using two 100ah Battle Born batteries, but upgrading to four 100ah batteries in a couple of weeks. If you have not already purchased your batteries there are a lot of new very reasonably priced batteries that have low temperature cut offs and heating pads built into the batteries. I hope this helps, please let me know have the system works out. Best regards John

[@edness9111]

@@BrightSparkIdeas Hello John, 👋 Thank you for the quick response. My battery bank currently is 10 feet away so the #2 wire should be fine. I was using 1/0 on my current portable solar generator but the cable is at the cabin. I will test fit the 1/0 next week and will pick up some #2 for safe measure. I plan to wire my Growatt similar to your setup less the Anderson battery disconnect at this time. When I leave the cabin I usually undo the battery terminals. I currently use (4) L16 6 volt lead acid batteries, which works decent but still have venting challenges. I will look into the new lithium batteries with heating elements. I live up here in Alaska and the weather can be quite cold for months. Thank you again Sir for the extremely helpful information. 👍

[@BrightSparkIdeas]

Gary, I do show the connections to and from the Growatt. The other connections are 120V AC and should be done by a qualified electrician.

[@jamesedwards387]

Can you give info on circuit breaker box and type breakers

[@BrightSparkIdeas]

James, this is what I used - Circuit Breaker Distribution Box, Outdoor Waterproof Distribution Box Breaker for 5 WAYS Circuit Breaker from Amazon. EHAKL - DZ47-63 C40 - 40 Amp 2 Pole Din Rail Mount Circuit Breaker UL 110 Volt 50/60Hz 4500 Amp EHAKL - DZ47-63 C20 - 20 Amp 2 Pole Din Rail MCB Circuit Breaker 4500Amp @ 110V 50/60 Hz

[@jamesedwards387]

@@BrightSparkIdeas Thank you,

[@derekvictory]

@@BrightSparkIdeas Since it's 120V are you passing both L and N through the 2 pole breaker? Is that bad? Thanks

[@BrightSparkIdeas]

@@derekvictory No, just L, I used the double pole breakers to give the ability to expand my system.

[@SigmaWorksSW3D]

Nice and neat system ;)

[@BrightSparkIdeas]

Thank you. Because it is mobile, I wanted to keep it compact, simple to assemble and disassemble, and easy to access.

[@SigmaWorksSW3D]

@@BrightSparkIdeas yup :) im making my own system like that so it can be transported anywhere :)

[@BrightSparkIdeas]

@@SigmaWorksSW3D Great, let us know how you get on, we would love to hear about your finished system.

[@CBGRAPHICSAirbrushArt]

Great video. How’s everything going with your system? Have you had any problems with the Growatt and Battle Born Batteries? Reason I’m asking is because I’m about to invest in two Growatt 48v Inverters and 8 Battle Born Batteries. I’m undecided if I want to get two Victron’s or the Growatts. Growatts price and AC output is better.

[@BrightSparkIdeas]

Great question, the quick answer is yes, everything is great. No problems with either the Growatt or the Battle Born batteries. I have added added two 200W 24V solar panels which has doubled my solar input, which has helped. I would like to purchase two more Battle Born batteries, when I get some extra cash.

[@chapter4travels]

How hard was it to go through the setting to match your battery chemistry and other parameters?

[@BrightSparkIdeas]

Hi, I found it pretty easy to setup, as mine is a basic system. I would suggest reading the manual a couple of times to get use to the terminology. I have been meaning to do another video to go through all the settings and what they do, but I remember seeing a video on this very subject. Okay I found it. It is a KZbin video by Andy P called Growatt LVM 3000 watt Inverter Overview. Andy does a good job of explaining all the codes and the set up. I hope this helps, let me know if it does.

[@andycanfixit]

Nice vids, clean setup.

[@BrightSparkIdeas]

Andy, thank you. My first videos, so still learning how to make better video presentations.

[@katiewood5219]

what type of AC cable did you use?

[@BrightSparkIdeas]

Hi Katie, I used 10 AWG Gauge, 3 core (stranded) cable that I purchased from Home Depot, for the AC cable into and out of the the Growatt. I hope this helps.

[@katiewood5219]

@@BrightSparkIdeas thank you yes it helps!

[@katiewood5219]

I picked up a Growatt 24v and the manual recommends a 40A AC input and most people recommend using 8AWG wire for it. How much AC are you 'sending' yours? Do I need to send it 40A ?

[@BrightSparkIdeas]

@@katiewood5219 Katie, I am not a qualified electrician so, please I am only telling you my situation. My appliances, washer, gas dryer, small refrigerator and large refrigerator / freezer, were all on a standard 30-amp circuit, so, I am only providing AC into the Growatt, from a normal circuit, protected at the main box with 30-amp circuit breaker. I added a 40-amp circuit breaker just before the Growatt, in case I ever changed that. I did look for 8-gauge wire, but HD only had the 8-gauge in the stranded flexible cable and I did not think the 10-gauge solid core wire would work with my input socket because it would be too large. My system has been running for 3 months without any issues, so it works for me. I purchased my Growatt from Ian at Watts247 and he is a good source of information. Give Ian a call: 801.403.0336 or send him and email: [e-mail] or check out his website: Website: watts247.com/. I hope this helps.

[@andycanfixit]

@@katiewood5219 It really comes down to the max loading you are going to place on it. The inverter can put out a maximum of 3000 watts continuous but can surge up to 6000 watts for a few seconds. Depending on the power factor of the devices your running, most household items range between .8 to 1 power factor, 40 amps at 120 volts is enough to supply 3800 watts at about .8 power factor up to 4800 watts at a power factor of 1. Pure resistive loads like space heaters or heating elements are close 1, some digital loads with switching power supplies can be less. 30 amps would give you about 2900 to 3600 watts max. Keep in mind the breaker won't trip instantly when the load is exceeded for a few seconds, which is all the inverter can supply, its surge capacity is between 5 and 10 seconds depending on the surge amount. However by code your breaker is supposed to be sized so that the load in continuous use never exceeds 80% of the breakers capacity. So if your loads are close to 3000 watts for a continuous period of time you should use a 40 amp breaker. If it's well under that you could go with a smaller breaker, you'd just run the risk of the breaker tripping if you end up running close to max. Romex handles 30 amps at 10 gauge, 40 amps at 8 gauge. Those are NM-B or UF-B. If you run conduit and use THHN wire you can run 40 amps on 10 gauge and 55 amps on 8 gauge. So if your running Romex you'd want to use 8 gauge if you want to have any headroom on your wiring, you could go lower than that if your loads are less but it wouldn't be to code. If you use THHN wire in conduit you could use 10 gauge and be totally fine, or 8 gauge and you'd be overkill. If your ac source is a generator, and you plan to run close to max capacity your generator should be able to deliver about 3500-4000 watts continuous. Hope this helps.

[@mbafamily193]

SPF 3500W ES

[@BrightSparkIdeas]

Mine is the Growatt SPF 3000TL LVM - 24V with an integrated 3KW rated output

[@JjMn1000]

Kool

[@BrightSparkIdeas]

Thank you, I hope it was helpful, and encourages you to jump into the fun of solar.

[@scottweinstein4255]

I appreciate the effort, but 3 videos called "building" and you didn't do any building. Repeated views of the finished system with no assembly or instruction. After saying you didn't need to demonstrate wiring everything (again, that's the build part) you then spend 1/3 of the video on how to crimp a wirewith your tool? So nothing was built, connected, or demonstrated in 3 videos. I think there's a lot of potential here, but these missed the mark for me.

[@BrightSparkIdeas]

Scott, I am sorry you were disappointed, perhaps the title is misleading. This was the first time I ever made a KZbin video and it was getting very lengthy. I am not quite sure how watching me connect wires to the Growatt or to the circuit breakers would have been helpful as it is time consuming and not easy to video. Also, if you do not know how to connect 110 volt wires you should not be attempting to build an off grid solar system as you are working with electricity that can kill you and you should have a qualified electrician do that for you. My intent was to show how I choose to build a compact system that was modular and movable, not a step-by-step guide to building one. I am sure that there are lots of KZbin videos, showing how to connect wires or screw electrical boxes to a piece of plywood. I thank you, for taking the time to leave your comments and will take them into consideration if I expand my system.

[@steveanderson7168]

I am a new sub and I have a question but first I found your video very informative. In the portable power video 3 of Growatt plus battery backup you said the yellow plug was the ac input which kicks in when the solar panels and battery aren't providing enough power . My question is ...When the solar panels and battery aren't providing enough power and the ac input kicks in does the ac input send charge to the battery through the Growatt invertor and in turn the powered appliances draw energy from the battery which would be connected to the house panel ? In essence is it correct to say that the ac input charges the battery while at the same time appliances needing load are drawing the energy from the battery. Or does the ac input bypass the battery to feed the appliances until the solar power has recharged the battery. My mother lives in a place where the electric supply is somewhat unstable causing breakers to flip when using the air con and lets say microwave oven at the same time so I thought I would purchase from bigbattery.com an off grid battery and Growatt inverter kit to make the environment more stable . My thinking is, installing a 5.3 Klw battery and 3000 watts Growatt invertor plus solar would make the environment for power consumption more stable and when there isn't enough solar the ac input from the grid would replenish the battery and "at the same time" the battery would power her appliance through her homes electrical panel. Thank you so much and I hope to hear from you as soon as possible ...... P.S. I do know that the growatt inverter has a setting hat allows the battery to be replenished with solar and shore power simultaneously but i hope that doesn't mean appliance cannot draw power while the battery is being recharged. If this isn't true, then purchasing this bigbattery, growatt inverter kit from bigbattrey.com is useless to me and would only serve as a backup battery. In this case a backup generator is the answer but noisy and troublesome to say the least. Have you noticed the price of gas ? Thank you in advance, My name is Steve and my email address is [e-mail]

[@BrightSparkIdeas]

Steve, great question and good supporting information. It sounds like you have put a lot of thought into the system for your mother. Yes, the Growatt is capable of using the utility AC to power the property while recharging the battery at the same time if there is insufficient sunshine during bad weather. This can be configured when you set up the Growatt. Program 01 allows you select the charging priority - SOL, is solar first - Utl, is utility first. Mine is set to SbU, where solar is first priority, then battery, then utility. Program 14 will allow you to set SNU, where solar energy and utility will both charge the battery. You will have to do some calculations as to how much of your mothers’ home the Growatt will support, but it will certainly be a great back up solution when the power goes out. If you are considering this only as a backup solution, the utility first (Utl) would work for you. I hope this helps.