My Solar Produces Too Much Power Or How I Store Excess Solar Power

[@140theguy]

Now multiply what you have by 3 kids, a wife and a four-bedroom house. That's why our systems are five times bigger. Simply math. Plus, you try to get a teenager to turn off a light switch off. lol 👍

[@solarcabin]

Yep, like I said kids and teens take more power if you don't teach them to value that power use.

[@philbrooke-little7082]

I’ve been on a boat off grid for more years than I care to think of. I take a different approach. Rather than having loads of different systems and the inefficiencies of charging one from the other I just have one big central system that runs the lot so rather than having extra batteries and gubbins scattered about the place they are all included in the one large battery. I use the same amount of power but I just don’t have to juggle it, I just plug in and use it. Most day to day stuff is low voltage so I have the inverter just come on when needed so no parasitic load. In times of excess power I have it dump into hot water. Most of the year I use it for cooking and have the Propane turned off. For a couple of months in wither I use propane for cooking although if I move the boat I have excess power and so then I cook using it. The key to everything is good monitoring so that I can modify my use to suit what’s available, it’s not a hardship, I never run out of power and I really don’t have to think about it just glance up at the monitor from time to time. I would agree that a portable system is good if you need to have power further away than an extension cord but I think I’d go ,as if I had to juggle all those battery boxes. It’s much cheaper only having one inverter and infrastructure and if I need more storage I just add a battery and don’t need to buy another inverter I don’t need. All the solar just feeds into the one main battery and a quick glance shows me how it’s performing.

[@farnorthhomested844]

thats exactly what i thought. easier to maintain too. im going to comment to him on how much he has invested in all this. im guessing 6 grand.

[@michaelmorris1802]

a lot of those people are even powering large water heaters... that take huge amounts of power.

[@Electronzap]

Good tips. Definitely good to go in stages as you can afford it by getting some small solar generators for emergency power to begin wit, then adding some solar panels to recharge them, then adding larger batteries and inverters to store more power, and then tying them all together and adding more as needed is a good strategy.

[@johnmal5975]

You made a fantastic point at the end there that I started implementing. Using those high draws during daylight hours. I now fire up things like my instant pot around 3 in the afternoon. Stays warm until I eat around 5. My washing machine gets ran always during the day. If its cloudy do wash when its sunny again. Awesome video!!

[@xanataph]

The last few statements are the guts of what it's about. Essentially "off-grid discipline" - which is doing things when the power is available and not so much when it's not. The way I look at it is that when the batteries are full and the loads are being 100% met by the current coming in from the panels then that is truly *free power* - when it has gone into and come out of a battery bank it is NOT. So put your washing machine on in the morning - not the late afternoon when the panels have just gone into shade! The real problem loads are the other people in the household! lol We have a family of five, and as the two oldest boys have now well progressed into their teenage years, yes it has hard to keep up with the demands. For the last week though it has only been me and my six year old home. Talk about excess power! ;) I have a similar approach to you with diverting excess energy into "backup" battery banks, and then I can draw of those before choosing to go to the generator. I also run multiple battery banks for separate categories of loads. This gives some redundancy in case of any failures. It also means the lights don't go out because someone has decided to have a massive feast of toast! Plus, it keeps the direct paralleling of batteries to a minimum.

[@pstoneking3418]

I use my excess solar power to charge my EV. I can also use my EV to power my home up to 7200 watts using my EV on board inverter.

[@lukehereiam9188]

I am learning so much from your videos. Thank you for sharing your knowledge. Cheers.

[@willamettehops]

You have some good tips there! I think people who try to live an on grid life style OFF grid tend to run out of power more often.

[@enigmascape]

I've often wonderd the same thing about all these people with enormous systems. My assumption was that they live in areas where solar is just not that great for whatever reason, and like you said they just pay no regard to attempting to lower their consumption. My guess they must run a/c day and night in the summer, electric heaters day and night in the winter, and run big induction cooktops and ovens and cook thanksgiving dinners after the sun goes down every night or something. Running a/c or heaters off of batteries in a large home are what would require these massive systems I see people with all the time. But, if they were to convert to mini splits they could probably get by on half what they have in the way of solar.

[@danclark4998]

Thanks for the videos!! Keep ‘em coming! 100% agree with you on the other people who live off grid with huge systems and don’t have enough…what are they doing!?!? My wife and our youngest daughter are living on our off grid property, in our travel trailer as we get ready to build our Earthbag house and have 300 watts of solar panels for now and we’re doing ok with that! We’re outdoors people and I’m guessing most of the other folks mentioned are just doing it because it’s a “thing” but they’re still living like they are living in some big city! Kinda goofy!😂

[@edlajambe3002]

Two ways....location and deep freezer....that's how you burn up so much power off grid. You either use a propane freezer or struggle at times, especially in the far north between good solar season and when it's cold enough to move everything to the old freezer outside in the winter.

[@AskIveSolar]

Cool video and its very similar to how I try to do things but Im not off grid but I have zones in my house as well that run certain things.

[@KYLE-zo4bm]

wow made me realize i don't need much solar to be comfortable

[@simon359]

This is the problem I run into living in a populated area. Eight months out of the year I don’t have any issues at all, as the problem becomes evident in the winter time, when the sun is lower. I have gas heat and so it takes electricity to run the blower, and that is what takes up most of my energy. Of course, the sun is much lower on the horizon and you have a lot of trees in neighbors yards that block the sun. Also depending on how well your house is insulated, can be a major problem. Also, living in the Pacific Northwest is one of the lowest outputs of sun during the day.

[@solarpowerlifestyle]

This is a great video to show how it works! Thank you. Keep up the great work!

[@mannyfragoza9652]

looks like you got everything under control. I have a rather small solar array about 500 watts, compared to a lot of folks. I only use one Valence 138 Ah Battery to run my chest Freezer. The great thing about my Charge controller it only allows to draw the exact wattage I need to run my chest Freezer which is about 90-95 watts when the compressor kicks on at idle its about 49 watts. Other than that my battery is fully charged. When its cloudy i don't use my solar system I plug into the grid.

[@MannyWC]

Running in series and or parallel makes a difference also!

[@bobswanson8464]

If you are completely off-grid, you MUST have a Back-UP for your Back-UP. If your main system goes down, then you MUST have extra systems to provide power. -Main System = Dual EcoFlow Delta Pro 3600Watt (Total of 7200Watt...Real Life = About 6600Watts) with 1350Watt Solar on Each EcoFlow Pro Running house (Gas stove and heater, so those are NOT on the Batteries) -Two other EcroFlow Pros 3600watt with 550watt Solar Panel on each - running TWO Separate Window AC can swap out one of the EcoFlow Delta Pros if it goes down AND my main batteries DO NOT have to have the AC Load on them -Smaller "EcoFlow DELTA 2 Max" 2000Watt with 550Watt Solar Panel connected - running Refrigerator and small kitchen stuff (Toaster, Coffee...etc) So, I have my Power Drain connect to several Battery Systems and I have backup to my main system. EBAY Refurbished: Delta Pros $1999 Each EcoFlow DELTA 2 Max $1399 Solar About $4000 Total about $16,000 with tax

[@Ethan.s..]

Depending on the environment, cooling can use a good amount of solar power. I’d say heating as does well, but solar can only manage heating a home typically if you have a on grid solar system and stack up your credits during the sunnier months and use them up for heat come winter time.

[@jamesbell5308]

Thanks for sharing your information on your Solar System thanks again be blessed

[@mikeperry2814]

Dang, with the money you paid for all those solar generators, you could have bought another 800watts of solar panels AND 2 more 200aH batteries and bigger inverter to power it all!

[@kendean4278]

So varied, cool stuff.

[@nowayoutstp4]

You are living the dream sir.

[@offairhead]

This was all Greek to me but I’m glad it works for you!

[@dc1544]

My house uses 20kw a day. I have 8.8kw of panels and 50kw of usable battery storage. 2.5 days of rain or snowy days in Michigan is how long I can run. I will add another 8kw of panels and 1 more battery bank then I should be off grid for electric. 10 months a year right now I am off grid for electric. Its winter that is hard to get enough sun.

[@MannyWC]

My biggest drain is my 12v fridge! Ugh! Runs ALL the time…the night time is the killer. It is a new dometic fridge/freezer (about counter high) forgot the model type.

[@kenastl]

Most of my power goes to run two central A/C units in my house (2600 sq ft) for four months of the year in Texas. They are a bit old so when I replace them, they should use a lot less power, but they typically use about 60 kwh per day (only A/C's) since they have to run 24/7 to keep the house at 80 degrees in the summer. The rest of the year, my home uses about 20 kwh per day. The only gas I use is for the furnace and water heater.

[@solarcabin]

Living in an extreme hot climate has it's challenges. I use a 45 watt evap cooler. What are you replacing the AC with?

[@pstoneking3418]

​@@solarcabinDefinitely replace your AC with split inverter units. They are the most efficient AC I've ever owned. And all I've seen are also heat pumps.

[@davidpotter9462]

Im going to get a third battery 🔋 from your link 😁👍 in two weeks. That will let me take some of the lead acid batteries and make a separate 12 volts system with the wind generator. It just works better on 12 volts. I already have another inverter but I'll need another charge controller. It's a modified sine wave inverter but I can run some things off of it. I can put 400 or 600 watts of panels on that side. I was charging 30 amps at noon but I had a big chicken breast in the oven. Voltage was staying at 27.1 . My inverter is working better from the higher voltage ⚡. Four of my solar panels are in the shade until 2 p.m., and lucky to get sun very long, they're in between two buildings. So I'm going to move those to the other side to get morning Sun 🌞. I'm thinking 🤔 that two 2000 watts inverters should be good for me. That will be plenty to run whatever electric ⚡😎 stuff I need to. That's about as big as my stuff is going to get, other than a little bit bigger wind generator. That's complex enough without going crazy about it. I went by the truss company to get scraps to burn ❤️‍🔥 and they gave me enough lumber to finish the greenhouse 😁👍😎. Only thing I have noticed about big systems, they have like three or four 24,000 watts inverters running. I guess they must be well off city people that just went off grid but still wanted to use all the power they want to. Probably scared of not having enough wattage so they overdo it a little bit. I saw one where a guy had two 48,000 watts inverters, and was thinking about getting another one. It's nice, but gosh, above my pay grade. I'll have the system I used to dream about with 4000 watts maxed out. And two inverters going...lol. That should be fine. That's the plan for the rest of this year. The lithium batteries have a standard discharge rate of twenty amps, and my inverter max draw is like 78 amps. The other inverter is an Ampeak. It works good, just uses a lot of amps. But I have plenty of batteries. My batteries charge up quickly in the morning, then I have power all day. Once they're charged up, the voltage ⚡ doesn't drop very much when I use the oven, like it used to. The higher voltage is making my inverter charger run cooler, so it's working better. I said, okay, I'll get one more. The lowest these two have been is 26.2 volts, full is 26.6 v. . I was thinking three would last a very long time with what I have. They'll probably stay above 26 volts so not a lot of cycling there. It's pretty chilly outside, 83 degrees inside so the battery bank stays warm. I have some 12 volt stuff that I could use if I have a separate 12 volts system. So I guess I will go there next. I can't imagine needing more power though. Thanks again for the great batteries. I think I like them better than most I have seen . I know they are going to be awesome 👍😎. About New Year's Day, when there's an ice fog outside, I can still make some brownies 😁👍. Or have a heat lamp on, or something...it will be a good upgrade coming soon. I guess it was just time for it.

[@solarcabin]

I used mod sine for many years but for a microwave, stereo, and computers a pure sine is better.

[@meesiphht2769]

Yeah, some of these guys run machine shops from their off grid sites so they need quite a lot of power because that's what they do for a living. I think off grid is just a term for people who want to disconnect from the Big Corporations so that when they shut everything off they won't be at their mercy (which, dead Things don't have any of). So yeah, you in your situation will be different than them so while you live off of very little power -- which is great -- they're just as off grid but with different needs. You are like me though. I have a small system but bigger than yours but I run my stove and sometimes my furnace with propane. What will I or you do if they cut off the propane? I'll have to burn wood but what happens when the wood runs out? Those guys with the bigger systems might be looking pretty smart then. It's all about we're fighting a war with the Major Corporations and they control the supply lines. Yes, this is a war and we're in it.

[@solarcabin]

I also use electric heaters and an electric blanket and run an evap cooler all summer. I live in the oi patch and near the mountains so propane and wood are always available here. I think they are running bit coin or using large tools and appliances most people don't need.

[@unclechris3958]

I don't fully understand why they run out of power so fast to I have a power station I built and I can run my 20 amp welder with it for over an hour and it's only got 2.6 kw of power in it and that's just the portable one my main system is bigger and its little over 5 kw I don't ever run out of power the panels have only got .8 kw it does me fine even during the winter I live on the western side of Colorado recently we have been having just a few days of sun I'm still fine

[@davidpotter9462]

Well, obviously, you're closer to the Sun 🌞. 😎⚡😁🤔😄

[@francellua3333]

I need help deciding on a solar kit for enough power to run a small air conditioner, and a small fridge, a coffee maker.

[@solarcabin]

solar.com/solar-information/offgrid-calculator

[@jeffreykropp7664]

Children and a non-conservationist minded wife may complicate our solar efforts…..

[@regenerativelifewayne]

They keep those same modern fancy energy guzzling appliances! Am converting all my appliances such as refrigerators to 12volt no more big fancy overpriced energy guzzling appliances for me it’s a lifestyle change folks don’t want to give up !

[@duggerray]

Modern day fridges/chest freezers are in no way energy guzzlers. I have a french door fridge with a bottom freezer, water, and ice maker in it that uses 82 watts per hour. I have what many would call an "apartment fridge" - standard like 6 foot tall, one door with a top freezer - that uses 45 watts per hour. I also have a chest freezer that is 7.5 cubic feet that uses 36 watts per hour. Having them all at least sort of stocked adds mass and allows them to kick on less frequently, but yeah - these things are not at all the energy hogs they used to be. Same thing with a washing machine. I can only speak to mine, but it's only a few years old and a typical load of laundry, using the cold water setting, uses 130 watts (not per hour, per load). What actually eats energy like crazy is anything with a heating element. Stoves, heaters, ovens, coffee makers, hair dryer, toasters, air fryers. Your typical electric stove with 1 burner turned on high will use 3000-4000 watts per hour. Get an induction cooktop and that drops to 1200-1500 an hour. And induction heats up quickly. I can fry up three eggs - one at a time - by the time my electric stove has heated up a skillet quick enough to even start cooking one egg. And I can do that on low (about 700 watts per hour). Your air fryers are around 1250-1500 watts per hour. A clothes dryer? You're talking 4500-5500 watts an hour. The little personal electric heaters you can plug into the wall? 1500 watts an hour. Cooking. Heating. That's where so much of the used energy goes. Air conditioning is also pretty high, though not quite on par with heating.

[@jimsteele7108]

Hey Lamar, when you’re filled up on battery storage how about running an electric heater to off-set propane?

[@jimsteele7108]

Obviously only do it only during the day with good sunshine

[@solarcabin]

I do and my dump load is an IR quartz heater in winter and an electric blanket.

[@wildandliving]

Heating. Cooling.... lots of power electric stove ect

[@solarcabin]

I run a swamp cooler in summer and my dump load in winter is an IR quartz heater but we don't get extreme heat and my cabin is small and super insulated.

[@farnorthhomested844]

i was looking on your recc amazon site and it seems you have a lot of differant systems. how much money do you have wrapped up in this?

[@solarcabin]

My main systems with batteries you could do for between $3-4K but power stations are expensive. A 400 watt system is around $1k which is what I tell people to start with.

[@HamrickCE]

They run out of power because they don't have the lifestyle change. You had to change your entire lifestyle and build from there to become more efficient with your resources. Most of these other people build systems to attempt to maintain their energy consumption.

[@green285]

Dont you worry about the fire danger with those lithium batteries?

[@solarcabin]

LIFEPO4 are very safe and I only charge power stations when I am around to watch them.

[@Ethan.s..]

Just avoid Lithium-ion batteries, they are the explosive ones.

[@billbaumea3420]

👍☮️

[@realeyesrealizereallies6828]

My inverter allows me to run my loads directly from the panels once my batteries are full..So that is when I do laundry, or vacuum, or do any welding, or cook in the crock pot, charge other batteries, etc...But ya, people who get solar systems, and live the normal wasteful American lives, are guilty of sacrilege..The object is to decrease energy usage..Which is good for our solar systems, and ourselves and the planet..We are also heating the planet with "waste heat" that comes from all of our various devices, which is adding to the heat absorbed by the oceans..Once the oceans cannot absorb any more heat, which won't be long, the planet will heat exponentially..There is a peer reviewed paper that crunches the numbers and concludes that the waste heat will boil the oceans away in 4 hundred years, if we remain doing what we are doing now, which won't be possible for much longer...LOL...

[@margarita8442]

teenagers and wives darlinks.. hair dryers,, irons,, play stations ,, air con

[@ferhatdemir7233]

🪂🪂🪂🪂🙋🏻‍♂️🙋🏻‍♂️🙋🏻‍♂️🪂🪂🪂🪂👍👍👍👍🪂🪂🪂

[@jasonbroom7147]

You say you use a micro washing machine, if'n ever you wash your clothes, and you understand some people have familes, so 4 or 5 times as many people in the house, none of whom are obsessed with using as little power as possible...but you're confused about why some people have much larger needs than you. It's great, what you're doing, but let's not be disingenuous about who has what needs, and who is willing to live with a lot less.

[@solarcabin]

I was very clear that having kids and teens means more power use in the video.

[@jasonbroom7147]

@@solarcabin - OK, and most households in America are made up of more than 1 power-conscious individual. I think the ways you store excess power from your PV arrays makes a ton of sense, but you know exactly why most folks use and "need" more power than you do. No need to pretend it's a mystery, or that they could solve the problem with lots of smaller power stations. The answer is to use a LOT less power, like you do.

[@solarcabin]

Sometimes I am a bit controversial to get people to think about their own situation. They have to come to that conclusion themselves.

[@davidlackey4873]

i'm going for a system like your's probablly make it a 24 volt system...been experimenting with 12 volt system 400 watt solar and it has served me well for what i'm doing, not totaly off-grid but will be soon...started out just wanting to run t.v. and icebox, that worked like a charm and been hooked ever since...thinking of getting mini-split heat and air for my little 600 sq. ft. place..., they have them that run off 110, crunching the numbers to see what it will take as far as batteries and panels...any suggestion's would be appreiciated...been a good weekend so far here in oklahoma, hope your's is as well,great vid, thanks.

[@solarcabin]

Mini splits work in moderate climates and use about 600 watts. Not great for very cold climates for heating.