Can We Run Our ENTIRE House Off Our DIY Off-Grid Solar Power System?

[@christopherbenjamin9273]

A great nightime heat source for while you're sleeping is a heated mattress topper. Absolutely amazing. Uses only 100w and because you're laying on it all the heat goes straight into you and it's trapped under your comforter. A queen/king size with two zones will use 100w for eat side. Still, one for everyone would still be waaay less than one 1000w space heater. It doesn't get that cold in GA so I think that would just about be a complete solution.

[@DIYorDIE_Off-Grid]

Oh yeah, great idea! That is very economical!

[@christopherbenjamin9273]

Thanks for the detailed info. This was a real eye opener and really stresses how important it is to use high efficiency appliances if you want to be off grid. Especially the stove and heat pump. An induction cook top and a variable speed inverter driven heat pump would save TONS of power. A geothermal heat pump even more so. Of course that means spending even more money.

[@DIYorDIE_Off-Grid]

Yes sir. We didn't get to choose our appliances since they came with the home, so we will be choosing much more efficient options for obuiactual build.

[@christopherbenjamin9273]

@@DIYorDIE_Off-Grid Can't wait to see the rest of the build. Some heat pumps to look into are the Mitsubishi M series SVZ, a very efficient mini split style hp but with an air handler for whole home cooling. For the geothermal route, the Nordic R series are very reasonably priced. Also the Miamihp or Coldflow geothermal hp are cheap too. Just some food for thought.

[@jasoncork9661]

I would recommend you get a heat pump dryer over a regular electric dryer with that setup and add a sense monitor to your panel.

[@christopherbenjamin9273]

Absolutely, those things are amazing. Just watched a review of the new Samsung all in one and it only used 1.5kwh to wash and dry a 10lb load.

[@DIYorDIE_Off-Grid]

We haven't owned a dryer in over three years 😀 we don't have any plans to get one in the near future, but if we did it would probably be that one haha

[@kevinhamm9066]

Great test we upgraded our eg4 's to 18k pv

[@DIYorDIE_Off-Grid]

We hope your 18k PV system works out well for you!

[@KevinChristiansen-i2q]

Great video Justin and Lil

[@DIYorDIE_Off-Grid]

Thanks for watching !

[@louis220558]

Love the run through your solar system , it is gonna help a lot of other people when they look this video Great job

[@DIYorDIE_Off-Grid]

We hope so, thanks for watching 😀

[@Charles-xq6mr]

Happy Veterans Day!! Thanks for your service!! Great test, always good to know your limits!! Have a great day!! As always best of luck!!

[@McDIY]

Nice video, Been running the same to inverters for a couple of years. No 'major' issues.

[@jasanders-6886]

Great video. Have you guys thought about how you will cool and heat the home once built?

[@DIYorDIE_Off-Grid]

Yes, we are thinking about it 😄 I can definitively say that we will not have any electric furnace haha

[@RickMatheny-yi4pg]

I don't have any idea how to use this solar system, still on the learning curve. But yes we have a heat pump on our home, with thermostat set at 74 year round. Our bill from Duke Energy is 130 month. Really not too hateful for a thousand square feet and wife does laundry about every two days. Our home is a total electric. Brother and sister, just keep on doing what you're doing and you will figure it out. May GOD bless your family and keep you safe.

[@AdamDeLayDIY]

Awesome tests! Love it when people do some good load tests on these systems and push them to the limits...and then some! The electric furnace is crazy! I was wondering why you were running that test because I had assumed it was a propane furnace, then when it got up to 99% capacity I realized it was all electric! The 6000XPs will be nice. Myself and a couple other You-tubers just did a live stream where we answered questions about that system. They're work-horses. Just keep in mind at the moment that you will be losing 1kW of output potential overall by going from the 6500s to the 6000s (500W per leg). I still think it's worth the swap though. You'll get a more robust system overall! Thank you for your service as well!

[@DIYorDIE_Off-Grid]

Thanks Adam, new battery bank is installed and it's definitely a game changer! Especially in winter! We are planning to upgrade to the 6000XPs over the holidays. So we probably didn't explain this fact in the video, but we had no say in which appliances we got, they all came with the house. Important point because lots of people are confused about why we didn't go with minisplits heat pumps etc haha we will consider those options for our actual house build for sure.

[@HellTriX]

I run my 2500 sqft house off of two EG4 6000XP's. Induction range, oven, well pump, 4 mini-splits, microwave, heat pump water heater and 3 computers. I think we have only overloaded one in the past year. We dont have a dryer hooked up, they are a waste of power. And for our mini-splits, we use EG4 AC only 18k BTU units. They are super efficient, and usually run at around 300-500 watts each.

[@HellTriX]

Also your 12kw furnace puts out only 12kw of resistive heat. If you used a heat pump for heat, you would use only 3-4kw to put out that same 12kw of effective heating. The mobile home probably only needs 2-3kw of heat pump heat to keep entire sq/ft heated comfortably in the deep winter.

[@DIYorDIE_Off-Grid]

That sounds great! We are planning to go with minisplits for the house for sure. Definitely will NOT have any electric furnace haha we have had no issues running all our other electric appliances. We also do not have a dryer, have not had one for three years now.

[@HellTriX]

@@DIYorDIE_Off-Grid Yeah, we stopped using our dryer about the time we installed solar 4-5 years ago. We have a nice little amazon drying rack we put up in the living room if the weather is poor and have a nice Midea dehumidifier we blow on the clothes if we want them dry by the next day.

[@Robertbush-s7t]

Congratulation on your new home. Now you have the man off your back you can work on your house as you can and not be rushed When are your new power system going in

[@DIYorDIE_Off-Grid]

Thanks, ambatteries are installed and working great! We will be upgrading our inverters to the 6000XP over the holidays.

[@ProfDrWolfgangHThome]

Not seen such attention to detail before and I watch a.lot of similar channels, great information for anyone using or thinking of installing a solar system. Thank you!

[@DIYorDIE_Off-Grid]

Thank you! We try to share videos that we would have appreciated years ago, when researching systems and possibilities.

[@neopioneer]

Pellet stoves are great for Solar. They only pull about 70-100 watts for the fans once they are running

[@DIYorDIE_Off-Grid]

I really want a wood burning stove in our house, but code requires the primary heating source to be thermostatically regulated, so we shall see.

[@mikec1773]

@@DIYorDIE_Off-Grid You have the primary heat source installed, but that doesn't mean you have to turn it on. Use your wood or pellet stove and keep the electric heat as backup. Pellet stoves are nice because you don't need as much clearance to the wall.

[@curtisbartle4381]

She Is Gonna POP Pappa

[@DIYorDIE_Off-Grid]

That's not how it works 😆

[@curtisbartle4381]

@@DIYorDIE_Off-Grid I Was Talking About The Wife

[@DIYorDIE_Off-Grid]

I was too 😆

[@stephenkennedy9205]

very interesting video and very informative God Bless from your Canadian Friend.

[@flowerstone]

I put in a heat pump water heater and it draws a third of what the electrodes does. Still has an electrode for back up. Might be worth looking at?

[@JohnWick-xz9tc]

he has one in the video

[@DIYorDIE_Off-Grid]

Yeah, we have a water heater with heat pump and electric elements and the heat pump is a game changer for off grid use

[@loucinci3922]

Enjoyed the video. Thanks for sharing

[@arnoldreiter435]

you should look into mini-splits for your heat and AC needs. they are very efficient and work well with solar systems. a space heater will give you a one for one energy output and mini-splits will give you a three to one energy output. it is possible you could change out your main heater system for a heat pump heat system and then be using 3kw for the same heat output you are getting now.

[@DIYorDIE_Off-Grid]

That’s a great idea, we will look into that when we build the new house.

[@Gwenivere60]

We run a 10,000 watt inverter to run everything in our home at the same time without problems we even run welders in the shop

[@SarahStuff-p5u]

Double what you got for your loads and your set.

[@DIYorDIE_Off-Grid]

Good advice

[@LouiseAuger]

Can you remotely monitor the inverters from the house?

[@DIYorDIE_Off-Grid]

No, we can't. There are systems that have Bluetooth capabilities, but we are trying to stay away from that.

[@Mazlem]

Changing 10+ degrees would put a big load on the furnace and run all its elements, but when just maintaining a set temp it should be much less, so that may be ok.

[@DIYorDIE_Off-Grid]

Good point!

[@Vinny-i8o]

Nice video my friends 👍

[@littlegriffoffgridalberta6837]

Great way to test what you can use lol ! A regular gas furnace Really don't use much power, But electric range or hot water tank will break anyone trying to have enough storage to live off grid, I'm 100% off grid for 11 years now & slowly building a bigger system all the time so I can run longer for cloudy weather, We just have to learn & understand what all appliances you want to use & what power they use before going off grid, My big power user is my coffee make :) Can't give up the coffee lol, I would need big battery storage to run electric furnace at -40c when it would run 24/7 & only 4hrs of sun if it was not snowing ! Better get that wood stove plumbed in for your heat :)

[@DIYorDIE_Off-Grid]

Totally understand about the coffee 😆. That was kind of the point of our test - to determine how much each appliance uses and how we can work around our battery bank and sunlight. The house we are building will have some gas appliances, but we couldn't get that in a prefab. So it's going to be an extra challenge! Where are you located?

[@littlegriffoffgridalberta6837]

@@DIYorDIE_Off-Grid North end of Alberta can't go much further or you fall out lol, More your range is the killer I'd drill a hole & run a propane line :) Unless it's a rental, But I'd probably still do it lol :)

[@DIYorDIE_Off-Grid]

Yikes! It must be cold up there. Haha, we would like to not alter this prefab at all since it is a temporary living situation. We had to make a lot of different factors work and we knew we would be pushing our system to the limit. But that's part of off grid living - you gotta live within your means and for us, that means the sun! Fortunately we get plenty of sunshine down here.

[@billelsener6192]

Great test. The oven will cycle when it’s gets up to temp. I assume you y’all have a generator for extended days without sun. I watched another off girder the was using containers for the house. He built a thermal hot water “pre heater” to reduce electrical usage. I find his page and post it later incase you’re interested. 😊

[@DIYorDIE_Off-Grid]

That sounds really neat! Once we finish the house we will have more time to dedicate to those types of projects

[@jimmason5738]

Happy Veterans Day.

[@DIYorDIE_Off-Grid]

Thanks!

[@josephmiller6866]

2 12k eg4 inverters if one couldn't work. But also if o es fails you won't be out of power you can fall back on the other. Also for heat look at the mr hester propane heater. My dad gets them up in northern Indiana in winter. The radiant one is best and with the blower you can heat alot of area

[@josephmiller6866]

It's a good back up but also just a good save energy tool

[@mdntrdr1]

Look into a pellet stove. Easy to install. And they use very little power.

[@DIYorDIE_Off-Grid]

That's a great idea. This is a very temporary living situation, so we'll have to decide how much we want to alter the prefab. If space heaters work out fine and don't suck too much power, we might go with that over installing a stove.

[@Hptrontic]

2 eg4 12000 xps will give 24 kw at 100 amps 240 volts

[@DIYorDIE_Off-Grid]

Thats a lot of power, but we are good with what we have right now! We can run everything we need no problem at the same time, as long as we don't run the electric furnace. We will have other means for heating in the winter.

[@JR-xw5dk]

If you can keep the heating strips on the heating system you should be able to run the heat pump. You may be able to do it on the thermostat. Take a look at this and see if it is a possibility.

[@sneakypete830]

How do y'all got the 4 strings of PV hooked up to the inverters, do you have any protection (breakers, fuses) between the pv and the inverter?

[@nunyabidness1972]

My cookstove, furnace, water heater, and clothes dryer are all propane. If you wanna an all electric house, you'll need to upgrade the inverters at a minimum.

[@DIYorDIE_Off-Grid]

Yup. The house that we are building will have propane appliances to alleviate some of the electrical load. This is our temporary living situation, so we are learning what we can make do with. It has all electric appliances, so it will be tricky for a while.

[@andrewpowellnz]

Need more battery storage. especially for when you move into the house. and 4 inverters & more solar.

[@DIYorDIE_Off-Grid]

Battery upgrade completed 😎

[@Anthonyshmanthony]

My favorite part was when you crashed the system on purpose 😂

[@CSJ-CSV]

yup, you need propane for Hotwater and cooking 👍

[@DIYorDIE_Off-Grid]

That's in the works for the house we are building, but the prefab is 100% electric! We sure miss the propane hot water and stove in the RV. Even on 2% battery we had hot water and cooking ability.

[@houseofancients]

why ? electric can be self generated, propane cannot

[@CSJ-CSV]

@@houseofancients fine, Natural Gas then...regenerative and able to perform no matter what

[@CSJ-CSV]

@@DIYorDIE_Off-Grid I knew I was telling someone who knows 👍 Great Job on your Family!

[@houseofancients]

@CSJ-CSV same issue, you cannot "make" natural gas yourself, therefor you keep depending on others.. Add more ( cheap) solar panels and you will be independent.. Or alternatively a wood stove/boiler

[@MurDocInc]

All inverters have surge power rating over the continuous power rating to run for couple minutes. This is to overcome the initial high startup wattage of appliances/tools and not trip the inverter. Is the furnace a heat pump or heat element?

[@joyceandjohngrambush9488]

That’s way above my pay grade and so is the love of God.😊

[@Dag12324]

just need to turn off ac/heat while cooking

[@Robertbush-s7t]

I think you should add a 3rd EX3 6000xp to give you 75 amps That is what I have great this far

[@turtle1723]

Reach out to EG4.. the new 12k unit might be good as it has a high surge rate.

[@daddio7249]

Now that you have more electrical devices you will have to budget your power usage. The Device monitor app that comes with the 6000XPs will help with that. You will also need to run your generator more. I have 11,000 watts of panels and only made 13 kWh of power today. I have a gas stove and only two people but most days I use 26 kWh or even more if my wife runs the dryer. I have grid power and have wired the grid pass through breakers on my 6000XPs, I have the AC charge set to atart cxharging my batteries at 30% and stop at 40%. That usually gets me through the night. I have ten 450 panels I am going to mount when it gets a bit cooler, I can't work when it is hot. The 6000XPs have a dry contact circuit to remote start a generator when the batteries get low. You might have get a different generator if yours does not support that. We are wondering if your A/C is a heat pump with heat strips or straight cool with heat strips. Like some have said multi zone mini splits are the most efficient way to heat and cool.

[@HellTriX]

I hear that. I have 14KW array and only got 12kwh today too in the southern states. We also use around 15-25 kwh per day. Best solar days were around 75kwh total. But our battery storage is only 45kwh right now with plans to take it to 180kwh. We have grid to use as backup and I will be getting a duel full genny to back up that backup this winter.

[@DIYorDIE_Off-Grid]

Yep, the point of this test was to determine how much we can pull at one time and how we can live within our energy means. We knew it would be tricky with all electric appliances!

[@HellTriX]

@@DIYorDIE_Off-Grid Good testing! The 6000xp: SURGE CAPACITY 12,000W for ≈3.5 seconds | 11,000W for ≈5 seconds These units are usually rated to handle surge power so you are generally safe pushing them.

[@gabrielstern4992]

I think you guys need to when you can just get 2 18k inverters from eg4. But for starters just do the third inverter for now and you defenetely need more solar panals and more battery storage. Another tip for your heat pump water heater try putting it in hybrid mode of or has it. And hybrid mode is where it will briefly use the heating elements when needed then use the heat pump the rest of the time. And finnally I recommend replacing the central ac and heating system with a gree flex 3 ton they have inverter technology and come precharged. And then add the 10kw heat strip kit even though you will almost never use it Even when it's cold out. And for the final house build get the ao Smith 50 gallon hybrid heat pump water heater from Lowes as I hate Rheem. And again for the final house build a 3 ton gree flex unit. And hint the Mr cool universal is a, rebadged gree flex. But I recommend the 3 ton gree flex for your needs or a 5 ton gree flex. But defentaly get more panels up and set up the third inverter. But you will need to then add 2 18k inverters as well. Welcome to the world of off grid and farm life.

[@margarita8442]

dont think eg4 will cut it

[@billelsener6192]

It’s “life uncontained”

[@DIYorDIE_Off-Grid]

We have seen some of their videos 😄

[@thomaswhite5871]

Get the 21k Eg4 boss

[@Capoe3]

Eg 4 6500 ex are junk. The new 6000 xp are just ridiculously better. Galled me to no end to use the upgrade program but I did and don’t regret it from the point of the new inverters but still bothers me that they put that junk out as a “usable” system. Had to add voltage regulators to make them not destroy electronics. Wish you guys the best of luck with them.

[@Capoe3]

Made it to the end of the video. Glad you have the 6000 xps on standby need a third one or a 12000 xp if it can sync with the 6000.

[@DIYorDIE_Off-Grid]

😄 yes, we are excited to install the 6000XPs over the holidays

[@Robertbush-s7t]

Remember you only have 50 amps to use

[@Defianthuman]

13kw is still a lot of power

[@Max-cd7xd]

You know your heat test wasn't the heatpump test but a test of the Heat strips ... There is a difference..

[@DIYorDIE_Off-Grid]

Which appliance and test are you referring to? Our water heater has both heat pump and two electric heating Elements and we tested both in the video. The electric furnace does NOT have a heat pump, only electric heating Elements and we tested that in the video.

[@alliewolf71]

❤😊❤😊❤😊

[@Tehran.Market.Antalya]

💚🤍❤💯💯💯💚🤍❤

[@trevorwilliams3622]

You do the load test with everything turned on in the house and see how it works. Should’ve put a gas range.

[@DIYorDIE_Off-Grid]

Yep. That's in the plans for the house we are building, but there weren't any prefab homes with gas appliances. It sure would make a difference!

[@dfj555]

Makes no sense. You have a power pole at the corner of you lot. Hook your property to power and stop torturing yourself and your family.

[@johndeiorio1808]

Listen here asshole. You've done nothing but talk shit on multiple videos. Clearly you are not understanding what the purpose of this channel is. These folks are the backbone of our great country and stand on their principles and values no matter how difficult it is. I doubt you'd understand something like that. They have contributed more to our great country in a week than you every will. If you don't have anything positive to share keep your mouth shut.

[@DIYorDIE_Off-Grid]

The power pole is on our neighbor's land, about 1/2 mile away. While that would cost a pretty penny to run a line all the way out to our house site, the whole point of our channel is to pursue energy independence and sustainability! We had a blast doing this test, and are living quite comfortably on our dream homestead. Thanks for watching and supporting our channel!

[@BruceWitcpalek-ws1rh]

@@DIYorDIE_Off-Grid exactly !! The whole idea is to be off the grid. You got this all figured out, so don’t let comments get you down. I watched every single video, but I very seldom comment, but I just had to comment on this one !! Best of luck going forward and may God bless you and your family 🙏🙏✌🏼😎🥇

[@cliffstriker3614]

Just do your own thing, looks great.