My Solar setup

[@CBGRAPHICSAirbrushArt]

Thanks for sharing. Just watched all your videos about the Growatts. I will be ordering two 48v 3000 watts and 6 or 8 battle born batteries at the end of the week. Upgrading my first solar generator that I built. 👍🏽

[@lovesmykitties9672]

Looks nice. Running most house now on bluetti eb240 w panels getting up to 450w for about 5-6 hrs in Oct. short term. Like to put in on 5kwhr peak8kw to run small ac n fridge. Looks nice

[@witness1449]

Hi Andy, Guess I missed this video. Your really challenged with all the shading. Well I ordered my GroWatt inverters today. Trying to find some good used panels so I can invest in more batteries. Looks good hope the GroWatts are still working well. Not sure what I'll end up with for batteries. Not brave enough to build my own. Be safe and have a great day Bob

[@andycanfixit]

Yeah, though I'm still pulling in about 15-16kwh a day on these shorter winter days when the skies are clear. Average for November was 11kwh a day, still enough to offset almost a third of my daily power needs. So I can't complain, still limited by the size of my battery bank. Plan to 16 176 to 205 amp hour or 32 100-105ah prismatic Lifepo4 cells when I get my bonus in January, for about $1800-$2000ish which should give me between 9.5 to 11.5kwh additional storage and let me capture more each day as on good production days I simply don't have enough storage to take advantage of it all. So far the growatts keep on humming along just fine, no issues.

[@witness1449]

@@andycanfixit I wish I had more knowledge on building batteries. Since I have none I've been leaning towards the SOK 12V 100AH LIFePo4 batteries. Are you using 48 volt or 24 volt in your system. I'm going 48volt, gets kinda expensive when you want to expand your system 400 Ah at a time. I've checked out Santan solar and they have some decent new panels but not to many used ones. Still looking for a deal. I'm retired and don't have extra funds to install everything at once. Kinda doing it in 3 phases. One reason we invested in a hybrid hot water heater so we could have hot water ran off of solar. Only had it in for 6 weeks but it's averaging 34 cents a day for our family of 4. About 3.1 kw Day Runs almost totally on the heat pump and only draws 300 watts. The system is 15 amp 240V 80 gallon Richmond Hybrid with rebates, and tax incentives our final cost about $900 This was a no brainier on the grid $150 a year Solar free! Will pay for it's self in a year. Way cheaper than propane or Natural gas. Just thought I would pass that along. Hope to have phase 1 up and running by Jan of 21 still have to finish my permanent chicken coop. Really cold here in southern Indiana today. We are also going more self sufficient like you. Big garden canning and chickens. Raising a few turkeys next year. Good luck 👍

[@andycanfixit]

@@witness1449 My system is 48 volts. I try to keep an eye out for deals on batteries but I also want to stay with Lifepo4 chemistry as it doesn't have the fire hazard issues of lithium ion chemistries and much longer lifespans too. My current battery setup is 2 banks, about 14kwh total. Building your own bank for this stuff isn't too hard, 16 cells in series gets you to the right voltage, and then you need a BMS, with new cells a Daly BMS is easy, I'm using what's known as an ANT-BMS, only limit to the ANT-BMS is they can only handle 50 amps max charge rate, however with two banks each with their own BMS I can run 100 amps into the banks. Each additional group of batteries gets it's own BMS so there is redundancy in that as well, BMS is about $120 each. I have a limited budget for my stuff too, spent about $6500 on what I have so far, another $2k should keep me in good shape for a few years, though I'm also looking at possibly picking up one more Growatt inverter for some extra 120 volt loads that I'd put on a second sub panel. With the expanded battery bank I should be at 2/3rds of my needs for a good part of the year. I've seen those SOK batteries, actually plan to order a couple for a project at work to replace a big lead acid 200ah battery we use in a truck for inverter loads, 2 in parallel would be a good swap for it and eliminate replacing it every couple years as we have to now. Bit more pricey than build your own, but as you said, it does eliminate having to do the build yourself. Check out DIY Solar Power with Will Prowse for good vids on building your own if you'd like to learn, He has great explainers for it. Good luck! By the way the turkey was fantastic for turkey day. ;)

[@witness1449]

@@andycanfixit Hey Andy I have watched all of Will P videos and at one point was considering trying to build one myself. After his video on the SOK 206 ah battery I was sold on investing the extra money for the 7 year warranty. Today was my order day for about 90% of my system. I will have about $6500 invested also but will be adding another 6 panel 1920 watt array next year. I'm using new panels ground mounted and tiltable for maximum use of the winter sun. I'm on 12 acres with fairly unobstructed area 150 ft from my house. I've been planning this for almost a year. This is my first attempt at anything solar but I'm confident in my ability to have a great system. Due to shipping delays probably won't have the batteries until mid January. I have several indoor projects to do this winter. This is our part of our gradual move towards self sufficient living and preparedness. We're in southern Indiana. What state do you live in? I'm 69 and still kicking pretty hard. It's been great sharing information with you. Thanks for your help and input. Totally excited about this new adventure into solar. Take care

[@AGhostInTheMachine]

@@witness1449 Will you be posting any videos of your upcoming projects or your hot water system?