Enough solar power under a cloudy and rainy sky? 🌧️🌧️🌧️🔋

Finally, we are getting some bad weather to test the solar energy production under miserable, cloudy and rainy conditions.
I watch the system during the day and make predictions if the incoming solar production will be enough for powering all our load and also the house.
The Hyundai Shingled and the Phono solar panels seem to be very efficient and we have exactly the power generation which we would need to power the house. Very exciting to watch the Victron VRM during the day...
A large battery will certainly help in these conditions and we can use stored power harvested from previous days.
New solar system, maximum yield test. How much can we expect? ☀️⚡
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[@malalexander3515]

All your hard work is paying off. Well done Andy. Thanks for including us on your journey.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Thanks for being here!

[@ToddDesiato]

I hear you, Andy! I have a small 3.5kW system and today it's raining and cloudy, and it just exceeded 200W. It won't even power my coffee maker.

[@michagooglein5008]

Same situation in the north of Germany in December!

[@thamesmud]

Same in the South East of England. Under 1kwh a day in gloomy Decber.

[@TheRonskiman]

@@thamesmud I'm in the southeast of England also. Just had my worst November since installation in 2015

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

I can email you some power if you subscribe to the channel 😂 In a few months, I will be in the same situation as well and you will be celebrating 🥳

[@TheRonskiman]

@@OffGridGarageAustralia I've been subscribed for a long time. Zero generation today the weather was that gloomy.

[@boatelectricaldiy]

So happy for you Andy! Living the dream. Money well spent my friend, Can't wait to see the house hooked up!

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Yeah, the house.... well, that's another huge project.

[@boatelectricaldiy]

@@OffGridGarageAustralia indeed. Unless you go 100% off grid, there are some major safety measures that need to be put in place to protect linesman from your installation putting power on the grid in a power outage.

[@michagooglein5008]

Congratulations to 50K subscribers, dear Andy!

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Thank you. Unbelievable.

[@zoe..d]

Gooood morning Andy and global friends!

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Hello my friend!

[@ragohy]

Hi Andy, same weather here in "Badisch Sibirien" @ 0°C. Yield today: 24Wh..😀🍻👍

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

24Wh or 24kWh?

[@ragohy]

@@OffGridGarageAustralia 0.024 kWh😭

[@ElectronTinkerer]

Sitting with an empty battery in cloudy winter, I really envy you. I'm crossing my fingers that your system will work better in winter than mine does. That close to winter solstice there is nothing to harvest, especially not with a cloudy sky.

[@garys-half-baked-offgrid-dream]

I am also on the count down to the Solstice. I shall be celebrating with a civilized Beer and a BBQ in the dark. 😎🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[@philippk.5242]

Yo, same here 🇩🇪 We have a quite flat 6° ESE direction. Nice from March till October. But winter should be skipped.

[@liveinfoportal]

I love the part when you said ....."and we know this wont be the last battery" I believe bigger batt will add an advantage . anyways great system I lovitt

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

This project will never finish. It's an ongoing upgrade, replacement and testing environment.

[@marcobrian1619]

Your starting to think like me.....I'm coming up to the shortest day, and you are coming up to your longest day. I'm still thinking of the winter times and here in UK sun light in winter is pretty crap Even in summer I can run off a small set up......but winter....I'm pulling off grid loads and it's not cheap. This time last year grid energy was a 3rd the price of what its now. So solar and battery set up is even more cost effective than ever. Definitely with the payments of energy we put into grid at 1/10 what cost is buy it in at........ storage is the answer. Hats off to to you Andy

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Thanks a lot, Marc. Exporting energy is certainly not worth it anymore. My feed in is at A$0.05/kWh but I still get the A$0.44/kWh on top as per the contract (until 2028), so... I'll leave the grid connected solar on the house connected as long as possible.

[@SoluSolaire]

Good job Andy

[@AveRage_Joe]

BOOOOM!!!!! Thats amazing in those conditions!!! Congrats on 50K!!💥💥💥💥

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Nice shirt, ey?! And thanks, following you along...

[@gumpster6]

I'm really impressed with the output in the bad weather. Looks like the panel layout is just about perfect.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

We will see in winter with the shading of the trees... I'm still not convinced that it will be enough solar... We may have to rely on the good old pool fence system again.

[@jimhanty8149]

That a brilliant test to try.. if you can live with that weather ,it’s all downhill in any other type weather I’m going to try that… stay happy , keep going……..thanks.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Give it a go and see how much you can get.

[@evil17]

Yes! “And we all know this wont be the last Battery!” & “whole house hookup potential”, been waiting for these two subjects to come up, didn’t think it would be too far away. Nice, good job, I like it! More Amps to ya. Cheers

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Slowly, slowly, we're getting it done at some stage. It just needs more planning...

[@garys-half-baked-offgrid-dream]

I find the noise of the rain on your roof soothing....... It reminds me of home 🤪🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Yeah, the sound has got something...🌧🌧🌧

[@buelentzeyben4316]

Great job Andy!!! You should definitely hook up the house to your current system and streamline the house consumption, i.e. which appliances are the high consumers and how to improve them.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Thanks. We will definitely do this at some stage. It just involves some more planning and design.

[@wayne8113]

Thanks Andy, That's great 😁

[@edwardvanhazendonk]

Andy, very nice, planning a bit can also ease your use od the house, maybe in the future some new equipment which is less power hungry. But I think it will be allright! Also considering your solar generation of the house and contract on it it should be fine in the long run. Thanks for sharing, nice to see you can harvest so much energy!

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Thanks, Edward. Yeah, I could also have planned ahead and fully charged the battery before the weather event happened to maximise available energy for these few days. But it seems to be OK for now. Winter will be interesting, but we usually have less clods then (but lots more shading).

[@edwardvanhazendonk]

@@OffGridGarageAustralia you still have your old pack, assuming you would connect them as well gives you roughly 1 day extra 👍🏻

[@sebydocky5080]

Lucky you are .... here in south of europe in a super gray rainy winter day..... I generated 0.5Kwh over 9.3Kwc.... max lux was about 100.....

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Oh, boy! 500Wh... that does not get you far.

[@Harrycowlton]

So excited with my 36w so I understand your pleasure!

[@jws3925]

That is amazing, Andy. In your environment I think you can easily be self-sufficient with that system. Pretty impressive generating that level of energy from a cloudy, rainy day. Wow.

[@koborkutya7338]

You hit exactly my pain point concerning off-grid. In Central Europe, December and January production is so miserable, we have weeks of overcast weather, is like 20% of May. To run at least most of the time on solar requires crazy over paneling and crazy amount of batteries- so much so that in the rest of the year it is rather difficult to find a reasonable use for that much power. OK one can always shut down some inverters or cool the house even more but all that environmental footprint for just two months, very annoying. Keep up the good work, I liked this test a lot!

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Yeah, I also think there is a point where more solar and storage does not make any sense. But I don't like to use a generator either for that time... I need to find something else...

[@evil17]

@@OffGridGarageAustralia isn’t this where if you have the grid, it makes the most efficient/economical sense as a backup for that small amount you will need to take from it, compared to what ur already feeding back in, the grid could be useful to power some of ur heavier loads occasionally to relieve any unnecessary battery strain. While a backup generator is a nice comfort to have, if ur totally off grid, it is probably a large expense, not to mention noise, to setup if u already have grid power, unless going totally off grid is ur intention of course.

[@clarencewiles963]

Nice T shirt. There’s power in the clouds ⛅️.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Yes, lots;' of power it seems. Still, I'm expecting it won't be enough in winter. More solar is needed.

[@MatthewN8OHU]

This actually meshes with my own experiences with my own solar system. I've only had a few times where I had to find another way to charge my admittedly undersized battery pack over the last year.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Are you still connected to the grid or did you use a generator?

[@MatthewN8OHU]

@@OffGridGarageAustralia I've been completely off-grid since February, so I've used a generator a couple of times.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

@@MatthewN8OHU I thought about such situation and would like to use some of the 12V batteries I have in my garage sitting around doing nothing. They are always charged to 70-80% and that's another 10kWh which I can charge from some spare solar panels just on the driveway. Not sure if this would be a feasible solution when it is really cloudy and dark for a long time, but it would be interesting to explore that...

[@dc1544]

Looking at my graphs I have used almost 300 kw since 16th of November and all was covered by solar. I still have my water heater and couple 20 amp circuits on grid they average 8 kw a day so far. I am in late fall so with16 new 410 watt panels 2 strings of 8 series then parallel together I could make that up easy. You are showing us all the difference in used compared to new panels. Thank you Andy

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Thanks a lot. Great upgrade for your solar. That will help you out in winter...

[@olivierrossard5705]

You just go over 50.000 subscribers, congratulations

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Yes, it flipped over yesterday, thanks a lot!

[@NeverTakeNoCut-offs]

It's all about winter for me!!!

[@trevortrevortsr2]

So pleased for you Andy - you share so much you deserve to win!

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Thanks Trev. It's been a journey!

[@dirk_p]

Congratulations Andy, all Well planned and working in this cloudy conditions👍

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Thank you, Dirk!

[@mrgruisinge]

We have a system almost identical to yours (only 40 kw of battery). It's winter here so not much sun and it is pretty low in the sky. Only 10 kw at noon as opposed to 15 kw in summer. All works well till snow covers the panels. with snow and clouds I get as low as 700 watts per day. That lasted a few days and we ran out of battery with an average 12 to 13 kw of daily use. Rainy days are usually not a problem, not a big yield but, enough. Enjoy your great system.

[@electronpower2758]

amazing results Andy, thanks! Can't wait to connect my 13.8kwp panels for the summer

[@jimmurphy5355]

This is great for a cloudy day - but it is also mid-summer. Longest days of the year. What about several cloudy days in June? Hours of sun will be lower, and the sun will be coming in through a lower angle and the path through the clouds will be longer.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

In winter, it's usually sunny. We have the wet season during summer. But I have more shading in winter from the trees.

[@Adrian-foto]

Hello Andy, great to hear experience you shared with us :) I have now 17W (es, 17 Watts :D ) from 8kWp array when snowing :D (inclined roof quite steeply, so snow rolls off continually, no snow cover of panels). I feel like a space satellite around Pluto :D

[@gflow7]

Yes Andy, great achievement. You and Joe are awesome keep up the good work ☺️👍

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Thank you!

[@FutureSystem738]

Awesome Andy, and yes, I’m envious. Fabulous result big 👍 and yes, mind blown indeed. I’ve used the same logic in my caravan, enough solar to keep the minimum (lights and fridge) even in inclement weather. (I can switch cooking and water heating to gas in poor weather, but use NO gas in good weather.)

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Excellent, I have to have a look at your trailer at some stage.

[@navidpourjafari]

Amazing observation! considering the worst condition of 2KWh energy production insufficiency per day, you can practically survive such heavy raining weather condition at least 20 days with single battery charge cycle on your 40KWh battery pack. This shows that it is practical to run houses on solar pannels and allocate the production of currently installed and operational power-plants to supply EV charge stations.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Yeah, pretty impressive what the system did during that time. I definitely want to connect the house now to test this out over a longer period of time. Teaching my wife what appliances use how much power right now, so she can judge what to run at the same time and what is too much. Not an easy task though 😁

[@evil17]

@@OffGridGarageAustralia Happy Wife, Happy Life!

[@Arishomestead]

Great Andy. I think you can turn off that grid switch and see how long you can go. I have a good feeling about it.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

I would love doing this test but we still have this grid connected solar...

[@oseng0010]

Same here in the Philippines... but can fully charged my 12v 120ah 32650 my 450watts panel

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Nice!

[@romeowhiskey1146]

Anxious to learn more about your transitioning the HOUSE to the system. Transfer SWITCH? With my EXISITING AC panel...I'd want SOLAR as the primary and GRID as standby. Please share you chats with the SPARKY!

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

No transfer switch. With the current contract in place (high feed-in tariff) I cannot connect anything new to the grid in terms of solar or battery. Even a transfer switch is considered a connection. Grid connection comes with a lot of restrictions, regulations and challenges. I would rather go off-grid altogether.

[@DanBurgaud]

6:25 4.2KW! under bad weather the panels still delivers 25%! NICE!

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Yeah, I was really impressed about the performance as well. Didn't expect that.

[@jasonmann5019]

Well done Andy. I have a question for you that involves some math which is right up your alley and the answer will be very helpful for many viewers. Can you calculate for us, if you haven't already, how long will it take for the energy cost savings to cover the costs of your setup? I know it isn't all about the money, it is about being self sufficient. Maybe you can do a brief video and share how you calculate this throughout all seasons on a best guesstimate? Thank you for sharing Andy and again, well done. Best wishes, Jason from Melbourne Victoria.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Thanks Jason, that is very difficult to say as I haven't connected the house yet and have only a few loads connected to the battery so far. So, I'm not sure how much energy I would actually be able to save. I also bought a lot of equipment for testing to get an understanding how they work, like the 3 different BMSes in the shelf. I'm going to replace them sooner than later with something ... different. I have this video idea on my list though and as soon as I can spit out some useful numbers, I'll make a video. What do you mean with 'brief video' though??? 😂

[@jasonmann5019]

@@OffGridGarageAustralia Lol, brief like 45 minutes or you may lose some viewers. Nothing brief about the math of my question. Great point Andy. Thanks for sharing and love your channel. Jason.

[@philippk.5242]

Last year I installed 3,8 kWp on the Car Port of our Weekend/Holiday House in Germany. From March till October we are 100% self sufficient. Including water heater, water pumps... But in November I have to disconnnect everything as the 9kWh LiFePo4 battery is going below 0°C and cannot be charged anymore. But as this house is not used during winter, this is a suitable solution. On cloudy days we also experience 20-25% power of installed kWp. That is really nice. But winter sucks 😬

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Can you not heat the battery from solar during winter, instead of charging it? Even a few hundreds of Watts should be enough to keep it warm to accept charge again... Would be an interesting project.

[@celinedavis2189]

I got my new Eco flow Delta2Max and 220x bifacial panels and after two sunny days got it up to 81%. Today turned out to be heavy fog. I am determined to get it fully charged via solar power. Up to 84% and not going to get a full charge today. Figure I better figure this thing out before I really need it. Their case/kickstand is a pain. I see that they have a new model. Going to see if panel can be retrofitted with new kickstand.

[@wideawaketotruth5301]

BOOOOOM. NICE ANDY!

[@SkypowerwithKarl]

Hey Andy. My system set a record yesterday! For the least power made for a 24 hr period. Point three kilowatt hours (.3)! In in central California sky was very dark all day. A good summer time day is 24Kwh for reference.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Hahaha, yeah, that's pretty crap. You would need a lot more solar to keep the lights on under these conditions.

[@SkypowerwithKarl]

@@OffGridGarageAustralia Luckily we don’t get too many coal dark sky’s in a row and I’ve got enough battery to wait to charge in off peak pricing.

[@SciBee]

Glückwunsch zu 50k Abonnenten 😀

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Yoh, danke Dir! Unglaublich!

[@greenbimoon]

Angenehm Andy, Aber that's sommer sun, I'd like to see ya do that test again with winter lighting as a comparison, and see then what ya panels pull! I've got an Array that I use only in winter. All sommer its turned off.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

We will repeat this test in winter, for sure...

[@fernandinand]

Next phase...total offgrid!!

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Not the next one but it's coming...

[@marijnvroegindeweij5001]

Andy ! And you have solar panels on the roof of the house too! Go off-grid i'd say😎 Having an ice cold S.P.A.T. on that, cheers !

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

The house system is grid connected with a high feed in tariff. It's under contract and I cannot touch or change it. The electrician is working on a plan to leave this system grid connected but take the whole house off-grid. It's complicated...

[@marijnvroegindeweij5001]

@@OffGridGarageAustralia When you cut the grid, the solar panels are not yours?

[@FutureSystem738]

@@marijnvroegindeweij5001 They’re still Andy’s - but you lose the excellent legacy feed in tariff if you modify/upgrade.

[@bloodcarver913]

Today in south Spain we also had steady rain and dense clouds. My system generated 23kwh compared with summertime around 60khw.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

That is a great outcome and a lot of power for a day...

[@kimmogensen5390]

i had weather like that for atleast the last 10 days except 1 making 50watts on a 3 kw system i am offgrid and are very happy for my old millitary generators and my tiny power usage of about 1 kwh per day

[@rickharold7884]

Cool. Yes clouds reduce power but our new Panels still work as well. We have to plan for winter as we are off the grid entirely. In Utah, and it gets down to 15°F. Panel angle key and power efficiency using direct, DC appliances to reduce loss. Love the experiment

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Thanks Rick. Nice, that's a bit of a challenge, I wouldn't mind myself. Finding these last bits of efficiency everywhere if needed. I would nto like to use a gen set but find some alternatives instead.

[@andrewradford3953]

Welcome to the monthly megawatt club! So are you considering ditching the feed in and grid connection altogether with some more storage? PS. Guess how many sunny days into the month it takes my system(40kW of panels 30 export) to make a MW..

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Thanks Andrew. NOOOOO, I'll keep the high feed in and free money 😉 (Sparky is working on a plan...) Yes, made over 1MWh since the installation 4 weeks ago. INSANE!

[@paulcurtis5496]

Like# 5! It’s been raining all flipping day long here in “Always Hot & Sunny Tucson”, 74 watts an hour - ugh. I have run the generator in nearly 9 months, just before I doubled my panels…

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Not much sun over there, ey? A generator... yeah, I would really like to find an alternative solution for that if I go all off-grid...

[@paulcurtis5496]

@@OffGridGarageAustralia raining all day today too, battery reached 11%, I had to run the generator 😢

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

@@paulcurtis5496 NOOOOOOOO!

[@paulcurtis5496]

@@OffGridGarageAustralia I made 2.2kWatts today. I use around 15-25kWatts/day

[@paulcurtis5496]

⛈️⛈️⛈️⛈️⛈️⛈️⛈️⛈️⛈️⛈️⛈️⛈️

[@markbrettnell3503]

Definitely should consider some more panels on the house roof before going full off grid. Better to overkill the solar then to sell yourself short. Also keep in mind that there is always phantom power draws that are hard to account for. 😋Just a tidbit of experience for 1 off grid guy to another. But definitely mind blowing how much power that you're generating on a crappy weather day.🤯👍👍👍👍

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

It will be a step by step process. Once the house is connected, we' will still have grid power if needed to recharge the battery. This will be the most exciting project of my life!

[@netrocker9990]

You can use online calculators to calculate energy generation at different seasons.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Yeah, they are not very precise though. And they don't factor in shading (just the paid version does).

[@netrocker9990]

@@OffGridGarageAustralia yup

[@netrocker9990]

You can use ACCL to use your off-grid system to House load when grid is down.

[@nigelcharles511]

Your real test will be during cloudy weather in the winter. However you are better off than a lot of us because you are only 28 degrees from the equator. Here in the UK (51 degrees latitude) in winter I am struggling with shorter cloudy days with low sun elevation. This is a system with 20kw PV and 100kwh of usable storage showing that there is no such thing as too much solar or storage.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

I have great conditions for such a setup, no doubt. Due to the lower sun and the shading from the trees, I guess, I still need more solar in winter though. If we have such cloudy weather, it's usually just for 2-3days before the sun come out again and I can fully recharge. We don't have these longer periods of cloudy weather down here.

[@jackoneil3933]

Very Inspiring Andy! I wonder what full moon output will be?

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

3-4V under full moon. Per roof!

[@jackoneil3933]

@@OffGridGarageAustralia Well, perhaps useful power from moonlight is a bit too much magic to expect

[@mikejones-vd3fg]

very cool, this reminds me when I doubled my panel power from 80w to 160w and couldnt believe the performance, chargings 6 power banks while runnings my laptop an external monitor and even a subwoofer speaker and chargins the battery! then the clouds and rain came and I could still run the laptop setup but not be charging any battery banks, fair enough. But i gotta tell ya winters a different story. ON a seemigly less cloudy day today then i remember int he summer time, full overcast however, just not thick, and i can barely manage to charge 2 battery banks without going under let alone any of my laptop setup, like 1/12th the power. Winter might be a differnet story down under, then up over here in canada where im located though ,but im really seeing the performance hit during the winter, not just because of less sun, but im assuming less optimal angle from the sun as well, not getting that full cone of energy apparently. But dont let my results discourage you, i actually dropped one of my pannesl from a 3rd story window and it kind of just shattered the glass , but seemed to work fine, just a caveat, it coulld be faulty, but as far as i can tell its just as good as the other one. Definatley need more panel for winter though. Im affraid, too much. Or is there such a thing of too much panel... i dont think so.

[@adamkuklych6672]

Melbourne, where I am living, finally is getting some sunshine, batteries are full and i generated 15kWh today (4kW of panels). Some days I am lucky if I generate 2kWh.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

It's Melbourne. My son just moved there. Not because of the weather 😁

[@JN-ou9ws]

Hi Andy, why not get a small wind turbine to make up some of shade/clouds days.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

There is no wind here, we're in a valley... would be not worth it.

[@putteslaintxtbks5166]

Now you could get some solar on a tracking system for getting that low winter sun or a wall of reflective material to direct that low winter sun onto them, though you could only do that on the most southern row, up here in the US that would be the most northern or am I upside down? Good day.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

That was the test with the pool fence system. It's right on 70° and makes good production in winter. A tracker is not worth it in my eyes as it needs to withstand harsh winds and storms.

[@putteslaintxtbks5166]

@@OffGridGarageAustralia Yep. In most cases it would be better to just put up more pannels, though I'm trying to see for my RV, if I can put together a tracker that would flatten in high wind and get the most out of a very limited space with just a couple big bifacial pannels. For going on two years my RV is my full time home and my aim is as much off grid as I can. Thanks for all you share.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

@@putteslaintxtbks5166 Makes sense for an RV, I guess as you want the most out of your panels in this situation. Thanks and stay charged!

[@abelramos8983]

The combined Hyundai panels with a low voltage start mmpt inverter gives you the best yield possible under those conditions

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Yeah, it seems to be working very well. I'm really impressed.

[@abelramos8983]

@@OffGridGarageAustralia i recently swaped my SMA for a DEYE, wich It has lower voltage ranges, better yields with the DEYE on rainy cloudy days

[@ltcmdrdata4611]

Never saw a solar guy being so happy that it´s cloudy and raining outside 🙂

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Yeah, right. Since the installation, we never had a cloudy day to test the system. Summer and sun is easy... but clouds...

[@TheRonskiman]

@@OffGridGarageAustralia Very nice, and you've hit 50,000 subscriber's, congratulations.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

@@TheRonskiman Thank you. Just yesterday. I was watching it live. UNBELIEVABLE!

[@NeverTakeNoCut-offs]

Are you kidding solar guys obsess over cloudy days. We wait for them just to validate our amazing designs

[@ltcmdrdata4611]

@@NeverTakeNoCut-offs Of course I´m joking but not everyone is understanding this kind of humor 🙃

[@bubbawubba2307]

Big difference in power output between summer and winter in cloudy/ rainy weather. My inverters will not even receive enough voltage to kick on in the winter when it's raining

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Oh, wow, I never had this with my house solar. It sometimes stops during the day when we have really dark clouds and heavy rain, but it will kick in again after the clouds have moved.

[@thamesmud]

I have an old ( 13 year old) 3.5kw rooftop system in the South East of England and I am looking to put another 10kw on ground mounts and 30kwh of battery. Based on last year's performance I think that would leave me short about 90 days over the year. Like Andy we also use about 20kwh a day. I am considering putting in a mains gas powered CHP generator to fill in the gap if I can cobble it together for a low enough price

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Nice. Would even more solar reduce these days even further?

[@larryperry2094]

Nicely done. I am waiting for a new battery in the mail. I have a small system I have been slowly growing for only about 8 months maybe. New charge controller,a bigger inverter now a lithium battery and soon a few more panels and a victron shunt in the future. I love my little system but it has been rainy and cold and very overcast. 5ah 7ah 2ah just doesn't cut it. Gotta fire up the generator sometimes. Can't wait for that new battery lol!!!

[@davidmills2266]

SUPERB!!!!!

[@thamesmud]

It would be nice to know what lattitude you are at what your total installed panel power is.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

We're at -27° S and I have 14.2kWp installed right now.

[@BackyardAussie]

Now we have to wait till winter time when the sun angle is much lower down to see how it goes.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Yep, that will be the ultimate test then. My guess is that I still need more solar...

[@laurenhoward8397]

As I remember, you were not allowed by the power company to add more panels to the grid tie system on the house. Can you take the house entirely off-grid, and route all the power generated by the house roof system back to the power company to make a monthly profit?

[@asabriggs6426]

Great to see the plan paying off. Thinking of the periods of bad winter weather, would a 9N% approach (e.g. accepting non-solar energy 2 or 3 days a year) be the more pragmatic approach? Perfect is, after all, the enemy of good enough. I'm sure all those trees near your house offset some carbon emissions were you to use a (HVO) generator. Also many congratulations on reaching 50k subscribers!

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Thank you! Once we go off-grid, we probably stay connected to the grid for 1-2 years to see how everything goes. I will be able to recharge the battery from there if necessary.

[@Dutch_off_grid_homesteading]

Heya, that's the goal to produce enough even on cloudy days

[@diysolaradventures7894]

I probably have the smallest solar system on here 1.7 in solar 5 355w all black panels I see a lot of y'all still complaining with huge solar systems I wish I had that I'm just trying to reach 500 watts on a overcast cloudy rainy day at least some of y'all is reaching a thousand Watts of charging power while still running ur loads what's there to complain about.

[@quilmore]

I have the house connected to the inverters + batteries, but don't have the solar panels up on the roof yet, the batteries get charged by ultra-low kwh rates from 2am to 5am, will still use the utility charging for rainy days when the solar panels are installed

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Yes, that is possible too. Staying grid connected just introduces a lot of regulations and restrictions, so there is also that to consider.

[@quilmore]

@@OffGridGarageAustralia don't connect the system to the grid, just a charger, a single element that uses the grid, a dumb load, not the victron system that could imply you sending electricity back, having just a charger connected to the grid is no difference than having an oven on, they won't see the difference

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

@@quilmore Yeah, that is the plan. I won't have this fully connected to the grid. Exporting energy is not worth it anyway and a simple 1kW battery charger will do the trick if I'm in need of energy.

[@diysolaradventures7894]

Andy what is the spat test with the bear can ? Are u looking for a shadow or seeing if the can will tilt over? What determines the proper angle ?

[@jeffpowell1616]

Interesting point about the ‘generator’ I.e the extra inverter. Is it possible to reconfigure the generator/inverter to count as consumption, having it as an AC load? I also have a similar set up which pulls an extra inverter in as a generator when needed. It feels a bit ‘hacky’!

[@jensthomsen3334]

Great video as always, best channel ever to watch. how is your panels on the different roof connected, i mean are they mostly in serial, paralel, or a combo of both ?

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Thanks a lot Jens. They are super low voltage strings. Only two panels in series and 5 strings in parallel per roof. Lots of videos here on the channel on how they have been setup.

[@maxmeyer7299]

What is DC load and how do you measure it? If necessary, you can build a small hydroelectric power station for rainy days...or a windmill.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Dc power in the VRM is everything which is not reported by the inverter.

[@effbee56]

Rainy days and Sundays don't always get the solar guy down!

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Nope, not at all...

[@Harrycowlton]

Likewise cloudy, cold and horrible in the UK at the moment. My 1.5 KW potential system is generating 36w. So 2.4% of capacity. Whats yours doing? 10am here btw.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

36W! That is insane. So it just uses this to operate the MPPT basically... You can always see my system on the Victron VRM: vrm.victronenergy.com/installation/100328/share/d0ebad4e We're back in sunshine and 10am is around 5kW

[@dc1544]

Andy you have solar on your house also right? how do they perform? How are they setup?

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

That's a grid connected system. All info here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/m6fYqaqfjp2tZ7s

[@diysolaradventures7894]

Well I rearranged my panels today I'm getting a 100 watts more on full cloudy days I wasn't even getting a 100 watts now I'm up to 200 or a Lil more I only have 5 panels though but 200 is great for my lil solar system it stay cloudy here in the winter

[@solarandwindinsouthtexasda1473]

Wake me up at and the last 25 days we had got two sunny days I know exactly how you feel

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Oh, wow, what a sh!t weather over there. I thought it's always sunny i Texas!

[@TruWrecks]

It's been raining and cloudy here in the Northern hemisphere and my 12 kw system have been making up to 4.5 kw peak when the sun peaks through or 1 kw when it is cloudy. lol

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

That's not too bad, very similar to mine. We must have the same type of clouds...

[@TruWrecks]

@@OffGridGarageAustralia It started snowing this morning. Tonight I have 7 inches of fresh snow frozen to my roof and panels. It will be a few days before it melts off so I can get any more solar power. ;-)

[@zodiacfml]

i don't even have solar yet but I predict running out of things to do on solar pretty fast like here. what about wind turbines, would you consider that? I'm thinking that a single wind turbine reduce battery required and secondary power source for weather like this

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

A wind turbine would nto work well over here. We're in a valley and the wind is very inconsistent, if we have any at all... that would be not worth it.

[@PatrickG60]

Hi Andy, im Norden der BRD haben wir seit 2 Wochen nur Regen und Nebel… 6Kwp ergeben 1Kw/h am Tag 😢

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Sei froh das es regnet...

[@zoe..d]

Does the amount of energy produced on the VRM equal what goes in to the battery available for reuse or do you still have to factor in losses for converting it DC then back to AC again with inverting? Hooray for the new arrays!

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

There are few numbers in the VRM: PV Chargers: incoming energy what the chargers put into the DC system. Not all of that goes into the battery though as we have loads using this solar energy directly. Battery charging/discharging: what goes in and out of the battery AC Loads: what the inverters output to the garage, pool, vehicle charging on the 220V site. Obviously, it takes more DC power than it outputs as AC. The efficiency is at around 80%-98% depending on the load (more efficient with smaller loads)

[@asderven]

I have a question Andy, today was sunny so I did a little load test. I turned off the solar and grid electricity, the whole system ran on battery. Inverter output voltage went from 230 to 218v. When the dispenser started heating water, it takes 3.5a, total house consumption was 4.8a, 220v system. The voltage dropped to 183v across the house. When I turned on the heating function in the air conditioner, the voltage dropped too low for too long and my voltage protectors kicked in and disconnected the electrical supply to the ac. I turned on grid+battery, but used Solar, Battery, Utility setting. The ac ran from the battery, voltage stayed at 230v. Is this an issue with my inverter setting? BMS problem? Connection problems in terminals? Tomorrow I’ll try a different setting on the inverter. I am waiting for my friend to get back, they have a new inverter released in Feb 2022. Mine is from 2017. I will ask them to do the same thing, I was under the impression if there is no solar or grid, the battery 15kwh should be able to provide the amps and volts. The ac is inverter ac, it starts off at low amps and slowly ramps up to 3.7a max for heating (about 10-15 seconds). That is 814w, battery should be easily able to handle this load

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

It should not lower the voltage by that much. The inverter should keep it pretty constant, regardless of if the power comes from your battery or grid. Where did you measure the voltage? What was the battery input voltage like at the inverter?

[@asderven]

@@OffGridGarageAustralia I measured the voltage at the appliance, the input voltage at the inverter was 218v. The inverter is on the roof, by the time I turn on the appliance and get back to the roof, things would turn off. The inverter doesn't have data logging capabilities. But I will try it out and ask someone in the house to turn something on. I can't figure out why the inverter when operating on the battery only, would do that. If I run solar+battery or grid+battery, there is no voltage drop. Could be a problem with the inverter?

[@asderven]

@@OffGridGarageAustralia I checked again today. The washing machine was running, the AC was running in heat mode. It was drawing 3.5a. when I went on battery only the AC turned off but the washing machine kept on running. The voltage at appliances was going between 180 and 220v depending on the load requirement of the washing machine, when it spun the voltage dropped, when the drum stopped spinning voltage came back to normal. Lights were flickering as well. The output from the inverter was showing a constant 230v. But in the sockets there was fluctuation in the voltage. Have I got my wires mixed up? I measured with a multi meter and I have voltage current protector at appliances to help protect the appliance from voltage fluctuations.

[@asderven]

@@OffGridGarageAustralia Hi Andy, I did more testing. I think I figured out the problem. Thank you for all your videos, watching them the past few years have helped me significantly. I bought the battery as 48v, 300ah, LiFePo4, 16S1P, that is what I told them. When I peaked under the hood I found it is 8S2P. I checked the voltage at the MCB near the inverter, the voltage output was constant 230V. The battery voltage was constant. The battery amps were constant. When I turned solar and grid off, in the first few seconds it managed to power the load, voltage was constant. When I checked the amps coming from the battery, the first few seconds was fine, but after 40a the battery amps dropped down. I have voltage protection devices. In this scenario I had set the voltage protection device to turn off if the voltage drops below 180, the load was my AC. When the ac is running the total house load is 1kw~1.3kw. assuming 48v draw from the battery, that would mean 21A for 1kw. If we assume 24v BMS (8S), that would mean 42a. I am assuming the turnoff voltage for the BMS is set around 40a. Sometimes the AC takes more power and goes to 1,700w, the whole thing turns off. When I run small loads under 700w, everything runs fine like lights, fans, washing machine (with fluctuations as the temporary amp spike causes volts to drop). Will speak with the manufacturers and ask them to reconfigure the battery to 16S1P and use a proper BMS board for that.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

@@asderven Weird. An 8s battery is only 24V, not 48V. If the battery voltage sags with the load, there could be a cabling/contact problem somewhere. Does the battery have a smart BMS so you can check the cell voltages under load?

[@BobHannent]

I was wondering if you could charge the garage from the house panels? I don't remember if that's allowed under your grid tie contract?

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

These two systems are not connected. I could of course use a grid charger and charge the garage's battery. That would make no sense though with this high feed-in tariff...

[@matthewburgess2471]

👊 I know this is a stupid question but what about a wind turbine? I'm new so sorry if I missed this.

[@Flowing23]

👍👍✅ good for you sir

[@annabellemanuel189]

On cloudy days with a mppt ..dose it matter parellel or series ?

[@IncognitaLabs]

I wonder if panels last longer in cloudy areas? It seems like they might, less sun damage.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

You get 25 years warranty, so I would not worry about that.

[@chrisroyle4813]

Andy, I know it's early days - do you think that modern panels handle cloudy days better than those from 10-15 years ago ? i.e. is the success you're seeing due to over-provisioning or are modern panels inherently more effective in sub-optimal conditions ? It might be a subject for a video where you compare modern & old panel(s) in the same orientation and compare % of generation vs peak generation under the same weather conditions.

[@Adrian-foto]

Hello Chris (and Andy as well) I can confirm, that yes. In the lower 5% range of the nominal I see, that my old Longi 310 produce half od what JA460 can produce. However we are speaking here about getting 40 vs 80Watt from 4 kWp arrays when raining. Under regular overcast (around 10% of rated kWp) results (efficiency) equalize.

[@junkerzn7312]

Yah, not just hours in winter, but also the sun's path through the sky. Being so much lower in the sky, the fixed angles of the panels will be less optimal. A good rule of thumb is that winter generation is roughly 50% of summer. There's a quick little exercise we can do here. One can ask the question: "How much additional continuous power do I need to make my renewables-based system 100% reliable 365 days a year?". Taking your system, lets say you had an additional 500W continuous feed from "elsewhere". Would that be enough? It doesn't seem like it would be enough, but actually it could be. 500W continuous is 12kWh/day. Added to wet-weather solar generation and that would probably be enough. And of course it would not have to actually stay on all the time in reality, just when the solar can't make ends meet. Say, if the batteries ever get below 30% in an off-grid setup. One can also ask the question... how much would it cost you to get that equivalent assurance via additional solar expansion? Compare against (say) a propane-based generator? The answer should be obvious. Adding sufficient solar and batteries alone would cost a fortune. You would need a system roughly four times the size of your current system. A fixed propane installation (500gal or 1000gal tank + small highly efficient generator) would cost far less. This is the same issue that renewables-heavy grids have to solve on a larger scale. In Australia or California for example... clearly a lot of grid-scale storage needs to be added and is in fact being added. And a lot more solar and wind. But it isn't possible to make the grid 100% reliable 365 days a year just from solar, wind, and batteries. At least not without spending a gazillion dollars! Hence why, in the future, we will need some continuous base load to ensure that reliability economically. Hopefully nuclear. But as we saw from the exercise above, it does not have to be very much! California could probably do it with less than 10GW of nuclear. Solar, wind, storage, and a meer 10GW of nuclear is all CA needs. -Matt

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Thanks Matt, I could also look for more energy efficiency inside the house and for example replace the old hot water tank with a heat pump hot water system. I could also stay connected to the grid just for the sake of having a backup in case I need it. I could have this trickle charger connected which kicks in at say 15%SOC and runs at 250-300W. Staying connected would cost me around A$1 per day. That's probably as much as a generator would cost me including fuel and maintenance per year. So there are options. I guess in terms of a global green energy transition, we will be still relying on gas peaker plants for a while which can kick in if renewable energy is not enough. Nuclear is not an option for most countries. Thankfully it will never come to Australia.

[@manuelgolderer1883]

Hallo Andy,du hast es gut im Australien. 2 Tage ohne Sonne😁😁 ich hab die sind seit 2 Wochen nicht gesehen. Die berühmte dunkel Flaute. Meine victron Anlage hat Langeweile. 13KwP Ost \West 14,4 kwh pylontech Speicher 2 Phoenix 48/5000 parallel. Diese Woche gerade einmal 12kw an Sonne 😪😪 Viele Grüße aus germany

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Yeah, that was one reason, amongst many others, for us to move to a sunnier climate.

[@pr5991]

Any plans to install cheap wind turbine?

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

No, this is not a windy area. And there are no cheap turbines 😁

[@ByteRipper]

Oettinger is available in Australia? Really?

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Na klar!