My offgrid solar setup for under $4000

[@Ulbre]

G'day mate, Really interesting stuff re the BMS. Already a big fan of active balance and they are so cheap too. I live over in Thailand and a lot of the videos, in Thai, on how to build a battery will most always have an active balance and a BMS. I was a bit blown away that you got your 25KW battery for 1200 bucks and that was a few years ago. Just now I can possibly build a 25KW battery here using 200Ah LiFePo4 cells for around that same price, but year ago add another 25% and 2 years ago add another 25% to the year ago price....A lot of solar gear is a lot cheaper here in Thailand and also shipping from China is cheaper as they can truck it in.........that's why I'm so impressed with those prices you achieved. Well done buddy and best of luck with the membrane :)

[@Rowow]

sadly battery costs havent changed and in some times have increased. I really hope I can develop this battery technology soon as its much simplier to ship and deploy. All you would need is the fuel cell and obtain the chemicals locally for the solution

[@honeybadger6127]

all great information. I've done VERY similar to this set up with nearly the same equipment too. You should do a video of what materials you used to keep the cost of your mounting/racking system down for cheap panels. It looks like 2x4s, some l brackets, and some 4x4 post.

[@joeb3300]

Yes, when you sell power to the utility you get paid a lot less than when you buy it. That makes sense. When you buy electricity you are paying for (1) someone to generate it, (2) someone to ship it from the point of generation to the point of distribution (called transmission) and (3) someone to distribute it locally (your utility). You also pay for some state and federal taxes. When you sell it you are only the generator and only get paid for generation.

[@davefroman4700]

In ten years time the utilities business model will be obsolete. It will end up being cheaper to be self sufficient? Than merely paying them for the pleasure of delivering that energy, before the actual cost of the power is added to the equation. We are already way past grid parity today. The next chapter? Is being called god parity.

[@SarahStuff-p5u]

As your batteries age, will need to lower the float down a bit till things balance out on the bunch, that and bulk needs to be adjusted down slightly as they age.

[@leetaves9143]

i been buying used i set the controller at 13.9 they seem to balance out at 13.3 and stay their for a long time,even the new ones will charge up at13.9 then drop to 13.2 or 3 they work fine for me off grid buying more batterys and not panels

[@SarahStuff-p5u]

@@leetaves9143 Running a 48v system myself, and with default settings it was pushing cells so close to overvoltage it made me cringe and got a few warnings, I just turned them down a hair and issue disappeared. It really depends on the cells in your own bank and their status I would assume.

[@leetaves9143]

what do you run your48 system at 56v my 24 volt system run during the day goesto28.2 but drops to 26.6@@SarahStuff-p5u

[@SarahStuff-p5u]

@@leetaves9143 Honestly at this point I can not pull up the exacts on how much lower I set mine on bulk/float sorry, my Growatt inverter is kinda garbage and the display now does not work without a full reboot of system.

[@leetaves9143]

@@SarahStuff-p5u i have the cheap battery monitors from ali express on each battery they all do different readings the lowest ready i get is 89% very seldom go below 96% to me the batterys have a mind of their own they say there suppose be 14.2 to 14.6, but at 13.9 i feel safe they do what i want. have a good day

[@NickWindham]

Great info. Thanks

[@leetaves9143]

i see you got my charge controller they kick but i have been buying from battery hook up i put a 10amp balancer only for about 20.00 i stop buying from the hook up and buying new now for as low as 135 a peace now battery i fix that are bad i just replace the bms with battery balancer they work fine

[@TheRainHarvester]

Are you saying the glass was cracked, or the cell? I dont think cracked glass will hurt.

[@Rowow]

Cells are cracked in some panels. Some panels its just the glass. The cells still work as long as the metal wire running through them stays. Otherwise the section after the crack isnt connected

[@SarahStuff-p5u]

From personal experience, having panels horizontal with no pitch will lead to quite a bit of issues, especially with damaged panels.

[@Rowow]

Out of curiosity such as what? Have had them for years with no issues. Other than water build up. Definitely would do it sloped next time though

[@SarahStuff-p5u]

@@Rowow water and nitrogen will end up with algea, if there are any leaks corrosion will occur on the internal electronics as well. Best to shed off the water asap in general.

[@Ulbre]

@@Rowow probably talking about snow issues and didn't pay too much attention to your mention of "Miami".

[@Rowow]

@@Ulbre never mentioned Miami that's a very sociopathic lie?

[@Ulbre]

@@Rowow except for when you mentioned it @7seconds into the video :)

[@TheRainHarvester]

Whoa! Congrats on the membrain! Did you study chemistry? Hey grab a copy of my "GatorCAM for cnc"...I'll give you a free key. I developed it because all the other CAM for cnc were lacking in one way or another. Cool that you are developing stuff too! Cant wait to see more on that redox battery.

[@Rowow]

Thank you and no I didnt study chemistry. I have a partner im working with on this project who is more knowledgeable about chemistry. I was looking at the underlying theory for a while and the entire concept and was searching for a cheaper way to produce these membranes when we came across each other. And I really appreciate the copy of gator cam! Ill make a review on it. I havent been working on my CNC machines in a while, been busy with other stuff. My email is [e-mail]

[@TheRainHarvester]

(The link to download is on my channel)

[@TheRainHarvester]

@@Rowow oh just saw your reply. Thanks for offering to do a review! I've been following that iron redux guy but i think he gave up. I'm amazed you got it! That's a BIG deal!!

[@Rowow]

@@TheRainHarvester yeah that iron redux guy is going the completely wrong path. I'll make some videos soon of really good results

[@TheRainHarvester]

@@Rowow how did you even begin to come up with membranes? I'm not a chemistry guy....just software and electronics.

[@SolarizeYourLife]

Makea better mount system...winds will rip that right out of the ground...

[@Rowow]

Survived 4 direct impact hurricanes already

[@ronpaul2012robust]

[@davefroman4700]

Actually the most common reason for solar farms to replace panels today? Is to increase production and efficiency. There are a lot of farms out there with 300 watt range single sided panels. And it makes a LOT of financial sense to upgrade them to the new 400+watt bi-facial panels. Which can produce over 500 watts with the bi-facial gains.

[@Rowow]

Thats definetly a major reason. But I dont see the purpose when we have lots of available space to put up panels

[@kenniharder1680]

Two of my lithium batteries I took the BMS out because all the BMS is is a BS. I just don’t like it.

[@johnjakson444]

check on Wikipedia for Per Capita Energy Use, for the US it is 300GJ per person per year, of course in the US NE, the spring and fall production is about 25% each of annual, the winter is 8% while summer is 42% giving 5x the energy production in summer over winter. Now take a std 1.5m2 panel rated at 250W peak, it will make 1.1GJ/yr or with some daily battery use maybe 1GJ/yr. So in my case 15 panels on a roof for 5 people only makes about 1% of all total primary energy use. So what is the point, we are ignoring the giant use of energy outside of electric use. So 300 panels per person would make the same amount of total primary energy use annually and it would be hugely skewed to the summer and would need battery to make it work daily except for winter. So glad that nuclear is coming back with Microsoft, Google, Amazon etc, perhaps maybe we can be carbon free and won't need 300 panels of area per person. Also see LLNL Energy Flow Graph, and the free pdf book by David MacKay, "Without The Hot Air"

[@Rowow]

uh I think you are very confused or misinformed. Not sure where you got your numbers from. I think you are looking at entire energy use. aka what it takes to build the car you use, the electronics, roads etc. US average annual energy consumption is only 4000kwh. Peaks at 8000kwh in some states. Or 11-22kwh per day. 10kw solar panels can be purchased for under $1600. And you would only need 1-2 hours of sunlight a day to generate enough power for your whole home... www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=49036