The EG4 6000XP Secret To My Off-Grid Power Plant

[@budd7824]

Great build. I don't think many realize how hard this is.

[@offgridroadrunnerranch]

Thanks for comment and support

[@WiSeNhEiMeR-1369]

Thanks COOP ...

[@solarcharging9743]

Even today, after more than 25 years of product development, You'd be lucky to get even two to three years of service from these Chinese-made high-frequency, transformerless XP inverters, especially when powering high inductance loads like full-sized refrigerators, large power tools, portable AC units or large microwave ovens. The reason for this is that all of these lightweight, high-frequency inverter chargers lack a very critical component. That critical component is a heavy duty, iron core, copper wound output transformer. Without an output transformer to act as a buffer to absorb the electrical surges provided by the “Flywheel Effect” inherent in the physical amount of a transformer’s iron, these surges and damaging reverse voltage spikes must be handled directly by the inverter’s MOSFET transistors, essentially shortening their life. Another major consideration with many of these lightweight, high-frequency, XP transformerless inverters is safety. First of all, many high-frequency inverters don’t have any isolation between the Neutral and Line, which increases the risk of a shock hazard. And second, during a catastrophic failure of the inverter’s circuitry, all it would take is for the AC output monitoring circuitry to fail, and one of the MOSFETs in the inverter's H-Bridge circuit to short to ground, and these high-frequency inverters can send dangerous, high voltage, high amperage DC current straight to your connected AC loads which will not only damage most AC appliances but can also set those AC appliances on fire.

[@offgridroadrunnerranch]

I agree they won't last forever, and a more analog coil last longer. The xp comes with a full warranty for 5 years, so it is a good deal considering the cost. I have been running the eg4 6500 for 4 years now, and they have been flawless. A couple of things the new xps have is a separated neutral/ ground. The best solution would be the 18k eg4 it has a iron coil that has a 10-year warranty, but the cost goes up considerably. Thanks for comment.

[@solarcharging9743]

@@offgridroadrunnerranch Search Google or KZbin, and you'll find that the majority of 6500EX inverters haven't been running flawlessly. Most have failed and are now being offered as refurbished units,

[@hithere7382]

We have a 45kw natural gas generator for this and to run our whole house and 8 tons of air conditioning plus the electric kitchen and a 42u rack and some other things like 2 BEVs and a bev zero turn mower. It runs 1,800 rpm and is liquid cooled. We also have a 22kw diesel on a trailer, a multiquip with dial a phase on the screen for Winter outages and longer duration ones where the natural gas isn't available for some reason. It's 1,800 rpm too but also turbocharged 4 banger diesel instead of a v8 natural gas, propane, and gasoline in the 45kw. In the Spring, Summer, and most of the Fall the natural gas is only used for hot water and to dry our clothes (tankless heater and a 9 cubic feet gas dryer) and 2 100k btu gas furnaces, 2 40k btu gas fireplaces so we like having the diesel in heating season if we need it. I hired an electrician to do all of this stuff though. He pulled the permits and subcontracted the 30kw of solar too, it was all installed in 3 or 4 days. House has 200a of service and 2 200a braker boxes.

[@offgridroadrunnerranch]

Sounds like a nice system thanks for the comment

[@billsmith1647]

Greetings from up North. I have two 6000xp's to install this coming spring. I enjoyed your video very much and it was good to see this setup can be stable using the generator input instead of an external charger. What capacity battery bank was being used when you did the install? Cheers!

[@offgridroadrunnerranch]

It was a 200amp hour or 2 eg4 server rack 100amp hour batteries. The minimum for 2 6000xps

[@billsmith1647]

Thanks!

[@coreygillum12]

I think for half the price i would have bought a 105000 tri fuel genmax with ats

[@aaroncottrill7426]

What would a kwh per gallon be? Is there a way to maximize it by setting rpm?

[@offgridroadrunnerranch]

The way to maximize is to charge as fast as possible and then only charge between 20 percent to 80. It takes about the same time to go from 0 to 80 percent as it takes to go from 80 to 100 percent. As for cost per kilowatt, it is hard to do the math because the is running during the charge, but we live desert and the ac is 90 percent on the power we use and per day in summer was costing 1 1/4 gallons of propane so solar is really needed to reduce cost but it works if you lived in a dark climate like Alaska

[@FaraFox-e4w]

seems like solar panels may have been easier?

[@offgridroadrunnerranch]

Ya i agree but in order for them to get there occupation permit they did the gen and then they are adding solar later. If they did solar first they need engineering and more permits to get the occupation cert

[@FaraFox-e4w]

@@offgridroadrunnerranch good to know thanks

[@offgridroadrunnerranch]

@FaraFox-e4w could be applied to areas that don't get alot of sun though

[@mwolrich]

This is my plan as well, bought a 22KW Honeywell from COSTCO on sale (made by Generac), to replace a failed Cummins 20KW.. it’s currently connected through a 200A Cummins transfer switch. I also have a 10KW Enphase microinverter system, line side connected.. next will be an EG4 GridBOSS and FlexBOSS21, along with (2) of the EG4 PowerPro WallMount 14.3KW Lithium batteries.. the house uses 50KW/day, so on low solar or grid failure days, the generator will startup for a few hours to charge the batteries back up…. So should always have power, even during extended winter storms and grid down situations.. already bought the 2 wire start kit, to be ready. Now just need $14K to get all the EG4 equipment 😬

[@offgridroadrunnerranch]

@mwolrich sounds like a solid system

[@Madsci-zy8wm]

Too bad you're not promoting the far superior Schneider Conext XW PRO series line of inverters that Siganature Solar sells. They last far longer, offer a much greater surge capacity, and they're much safer for residential applications because of their galvanically isolated output transformer than these cheap high-frequency inverters. The 18kpv doesn't even have an output transformer and can damage your appliances when their MOSFETs fail.

[@offgridroadrunnerranch]

I agree that mosfets fail and transformers are better in the long run. I am also not promoting any of these products. I was just entertaining the thought of pushing as much power into batteries with a generator as your primary source of power and how economical it is or usnt. I am running a signature solar lv6500 inverter and 20 solar panels and no generator but I will look into what xw pro. Thanks for the comment

[@mattcwagner]

I looked at doing this with my 10/11kw Generac, but EG4 says you must use an inverter-generator with no more than 3% THD. Generac says these generators have a THD of

[@offgridroadrunnerranch]

I believe most of the thd comes from under sized generators. Eg4 suggested to use double the sizes gen to make sure it doesn't struggle with load and this system is more than double the inverter size. Thanks for comment.

[@mattcwagner]

@@offgridroadrunnerranch Yeah, I agree that THD comes from undersized generator. Well, if EG4 suggested it, then you're good to go. Nice for me to know also. Do you happen to know, in the 6000xp settings can you limit the load on the generator like you can with a Chargeverter? My Generac isn't as big as yours, I'm a little afraid of causing it too much load.

[@offgridroadrunnerranch]

@mattcwagner the eg4 alowws you to set the size of the generator so I am assuming that is what limits the draw. Not sure 100% but I believe the 26kw gen was larger than the biggest setting i could put down for gen size i believe the 2 eg4s had a max setting of 24kw