Overview of OFF GRID SOLAR POWER SYSTEM UK: VICTRON and PYLONTECH DIY OFF-GRID SET UP

[@greggillies1320]

Great Video Fraser! Very similar to what I'm building at the moment so very helpful and nice to hear a fellow Brit rather than another American accent!

[@peterroe9417]

Thank you for putting the time and effort into creating and sharing this. I've been looking for UK based experiences so I can set up a system, this is fantastic 👍🏻

[@The_OffGridFamily]

Thank you for your comment. We are really pleased you have found the video useful 😊👍

[@evil17]

Great video, nice job, totally agree with the logic of knowing how ur system works so you can understand if something goes wrong and make ur own repairs, rather than still be reliant on getting an Electrician out every time there is any simply fixed issues at hand. Thanks for this overview of ur beautiful system. Cheers

[@8uhayat]

Superb tour! Love how you have prioritized safety. Good work, keep the vids rolling. Thanks

[@The_OffGridFamily]

Thank you for your comment 😊 We are so glad you enjoyed the video and that you found it interesting 👍

[@gregs909]

Hey from Minnesota.. Thanks for the tour. LIke the lightning suppression plan. Can never be too careful.

[@The_OffGridFamily]

Hey 😊 Thanks for your comment. Glad you enjoyed the video. We feel much happier now we’ve got the lightening protection. Like you say, can’t be too careful 👍

[@rubydoobstylie]

Great vid and exactly (more or less) what I'd been considering myself for the last year. So pleased I have found your channel 🙂and saw that it actually works. Our average usage is approx. 10Kwh per day so this system is ideal. The backup generator I was considering was an LPG Pramac genset, being more cleaner etc. Thanks so much, you are both so inspiring! Congrats on your new addition!

[@The_OffGridFamily]

Thanks for your comment and kind wishes 😊 We are so pleased you’ve found the video useful. All the best with your system 👍

[@4x4electric]

Watched all you Victron video's this morning, very informative, thanks! We need a same kind of setup for our trip to Africa, where we want o charge our car with solar panels we take with us

[@The_OffGridFamily]

Glad you found the videos useful 😊 Have you looked at Explorist Life? That’s a great channel and uses Victron 👍

[@4x4electric]

@@The_OffGridFamily I will check them out. Difference for our situation is that we take ~10kWp of flexible lightweight solar panels with us in the car which we will put in a field when charging the car.. We are in contact with Victron about this, luckily for us, it is a Dutch company 🙂

[@MrPadraigmccarthy]

The DC isolators are 3 phase but wont make any odds. I think the cable your trying to name well into your video is call 3x6 TRS, well that's what we call it here in Ireland. Another great video Frazer. Looking forward what's to come in 2022. Happy new year to yourself Rachel and Grace.

[@The_OffGridFamily]

Happy New Year to you too and thanks for your comment 😊 This is where we got the DC isolator from: midsummerwholesale.co.uk/buy/AC-and-DC-isolators They do sell 3 phase isolators, but on their website they say the one we've got is designed specifically for PV installations so that should mean it's not 3 phase? We've seen lots of electricians having rows about this on forums though... seems like it's a hotly debated topic! 😁

[@zjzozn]

ISPD is for direct lightening, but good for lightening strokes 👍 Great vlog and great installation 👍👍

[@50mplusdivers67]

hi, thank you for sharing your expirience. will you only ever need one inverter (hence you went for the large one ?) even if you connect different arays from different roofs. Is that waht the charge controller (mppt) is for ? So you can combine all arays from your property into one inverter ? Please correct me if my understanding of that is wrong. thanks in advance

[@georgedodds9281]

Thanks for the video, this has given me some useful ideas for a small 4 pv panel off grid system to learn from, with the option of expanding/upgrading at a later date.

[@The_OffGridFamily]

We are so pleased you’ve found the video useful. All the best with your set up 👍😊

[@damok71000]

Hi there is your multiples loud when under load ?

[@twistedtube1310]

Top over view off your system. I would have gone victron if I was starting over again but have stuck with sma. Info for my system is hard to find not so for victron some good info about. Just put a wind turbine up and seeing if it make any difference to the system. Video out in a couple of days. Cheers.

[@The_OffGridFamily]

Glad you enjoyed the overview 😊 Sorry to hear you’re have difficultly finding info about your system though. We find there’s quite a lot of info on Victron, but then with some areas there’s surprisingly little and sometimes there’s conflicting information out there too. Makes it tricky! We would definitely like to add a wind turbine at some point so would like to hear more about your set up. We’ll keep an eye out for your video 👍

[@dansonamission]

Which SPD are you using on your string outputs?

[@peternew8274]

Hi again, what sort of generator do you have and what is the longest you’ve had it running? Looking at options prior to grid connection and no solar. Thanks

[@harryk1266]

I was looking at those same blue sea disconnect switches but they say they are only good to 48V. So when the batteries are charged they can put out 54-60v.

[@barryhaeger4284]

Thanks for the video. Just found your videos today and will watch more of them. I guess the view is a good place to start. I'll look out for one (if you have done on) on how you decided on configuring you DC and how/why you seem to have combined your PV strings rather than have each string on its own MPPT channel? Maybe you've said this elsewhere (as I say I've only found and subscribed to your channel today) but how many kWh/year is your system designed to support and how many kWh do you use on average and peak demand days. For example in the last 12 months I've used 7900 kWh but about 1900 kWh have been EV charging an in winter excluding EV charging my average is 12-14 kWh and on a EV charging day once or twice a week there is an extra 20 kWh. However, currently I still have Gas heating and I'm working to replacing that with a Heat-pump which will add a further chunk to the electrical load although since I already have a 10.4 kWh Heat Battery (heat store) this could be really helpful in buffering the load.

[@The_OffGridFamily]

Thanks for your comment 😊 We hope you have found our other videos informative and helpful. If there is anything else you would like to know, or if you have any suggestions for future videos, please let us know 😊 Thanks for sharing info about your own system. It is always great to hear what other people’s set ups are like 👍

[@russellscott1151]

Super video thanks. Would love to go off grid and do all this. Have 4Kw solar panels on the current house but not sure I’ll go the battery route this time as might only stay here another 7 years and doubt it’d pay for itself :(

[@The_OffGridFamily]

Thanks, glad you found it useful 😊 Completely understand especially as batteries are such a big financial lay out 😩

[@hemplimeoffgridder2236]

Thank you for all the clear explanations. How did you calculate your earthing cable diameter for all the legs of the system? Does the earth need to be an equal or larger diameter than your largest cable in the system? Many thanks.

[@johnkrow5582]

Hi, fantastic video, what solar disconnect are those? what Amp? where to buy?

[@delbranker]

Hi,can I ask how big is your generator and how much it cost to run on what you used it for a year,thank you

[@mobilesrvservice1692]

Great video! Keep up!

[@randacnam7321]

The thing with lightning surges is that they are very fast, and by the time the magnetic trip element (assuming those are normal thermomagnetic breakers) did its job the downstream damage would have happened. That also assumes that the breaker would trip in the first place. What I did with my systems was install an enclosed knife switch (the gray box type with a lever sticking out the right side of the box) on each PV home run circuit, and these get shut off whenever there are thunderstorms in the area. You don't have anything similar, unfortunately.

[@malvinchadzamira7197]

Can you send a link to what u are describing. Also combiner boxes do they note provide adequate protection?

[@randacnam7321]

@@malvinchadzamira7197 I use mostly Square D HU361 switches for my 300V solar disconnects. Other American/Canadian electrical companies make similar switches. UK and European disconnects tend to much smaller and flimsier rotary disconnect type switches that don't provide anywhere near the same level of isolation. I have seen British disconnects similar to ours in more than half century old installations, but know of nothing like them available new. The job of a combiner box is so that should one string short out, the combined short circuit current (which can be hundreds of amperes for a big central inverter with a single MPPT) doesn't burn up the string wiring in the shorted string. A combiner box providing surge protection requires that that extra surge suppression be installed, and I have seen cases where even that was not enough.

[@petersort2192]

Sorry im late to the party but just found this video I would be concerned connecting a small wire to carry lightning in to a building if you got a lightning strike the earth run will heat up and catch fire better if there is risk to install an external lightning conductor straight to ground but don’t give it a route into a building

[@randacnam7321]

@@petersort2192 Depends on the surge current characteristic, surge duration and wire resistance.

[@petersort2192]

having seen a house fire because lightning took the easy route, yes have a cutout system for disconect but give lightning an easy route to ground

[@Qosmio1955]

Regarding surge protection: Is your metal roof earthed? Having worked in telecommunications for a lifetime, I'm not so sure that I like the idea of a surge racing through cables that are inside my house. Lightning is lazy. I have seen instances of lightning deciding not to go around a bend in a cable, preferring to burst through the sheath and track through another close-by path to ground. I have also seen an instance of a direct hit that literally vaporised the earth cable. In my instance, half of my panels will be on a metal roof and the other half on a clay tile roof. The metal roof is on a metal outdoor shed so everything will be earthed, on the outside of the building. On the tile roof I will run an exterior earth cable that will be bonded to the racking that supports the panels (Aluminium bars) and the panels themselves. I will ponder internal surge protection, but I'm not keen on the idea. Regarding fuses: Inrush current of things like motors can be very high momentarily. I see you have a 10kW inverter. This unit is capable of short-term surges of double that capacity, which means it could theoretically draw 416 Amps. Spread across 8 batteries it would mean 52 Amps from each battery. So, if you are fusing each two batteries with 80 Amp fuses as you say in the video, then it is possible that the fuses can blow when 104 Amps goes through them. Something to consider?

[@craigchamberlain]

Were you ever tempted to split your large PV array into two smaller arrays and use say two 150/60 MPPTs instead of the 250/100 one? I'm planning to fit a 16 x 425w panel PV array in the coming weeks to drive two Pylontech US5000C batteries and a Multiplus-II 48/5000/70-50 inverter and I'm in two minds whether to get one big MPPT or two smaller ones. Having two gives some element of redundancy but having one larger one is simpler. I'm also thinking of adding a "winter PV array" comprising maybe 4-6 panels mounted to the vertical south facing wall of my building and obviously these would need to be on a separate string and MPPT. So I'm thinking maybe I should go with the 16 panel string on a 250/100 and the smaller string on something much smaller. Or I could have 150/60 x 2 and a smaller MPPT. The dual 150/60 could deliver 120A to the batteries instead of 100 which is nice although unlikely in central Scotland... Advice welcome! :)

[@asedcopf]

You're probly done by now but if not id go a single mppt - more mppts = more points of failure, not really gaining much.

[@timlucas4014]

Hi The O/P from the Lynx power in , feed by the main solar I/P must be at 100 Volts or so .... Those bare terminals can Kill Also the bare 48 volt terminals on the lynx can gib=ve you a good tickle Also do you think that the earth wires from the lighting protectors will handle a few million volts at X amps There would be black lines and the ligting protectors would be impaled on the other wall Other wise a interesting system

[@NirreFirre]

yeah, it's all fun and good planning ahead and not being dependant on electricians when the times comes but "learn as you go" with my house and family lifes' in the mix...nope. Also, in Sweden, this video would be evidence in the trial against the owner, we have laws that regulate work on low voltage (up to 1000V) systems, certification and so on. 😢 Just because you're putting others (family, neighbors, grid workers etc) in danger, this is stuff professionals actually do best. I'm planning a victron based PV system but will have my electrician teach me (have a masters degree in engineering so should be a good learner) as we install it together.

[@chrisfryer3118]

What sort of board did you mount it on?

[@The_OffGridFamily]

We used fire board ☺️

[@incarctentertainment2491]

Have you earthed your pv frames against lightning as well in the end? My equipment is very similar to yours, but I'm still in the planning phase and not sure how is best to earth everything... I'll need two rods as well... I don't think three would be recommended. Any info would be greatly appreciated, thank you and all the best living off grid!

[@The_OffGridFamily]

No we haven’t earthed them yet and had a thunder storm the other night and were absolutely sh!tting ourselves! 😱😱😱 it’s something we’ve got to do and when we do we will make a video about it 😊👍

[@incarctentertainment2491]

@@The_OffGridFamily glad everything is OK after that thunderstorm. Do you know if you'll earth the panels to the same ground rod as with the lightning protection you showed in the video? It's a burning question that I can't find the answer to... there's little information online about earthing fully off grid systems.

[@peternew8274]

Hi there, I am just starting to look at off grid solar as we've been quoted £12k from our electricity supplier for an electricity connection to our self build! We were always planning to have solar but are now thinking off grid. Does your system supply enough power all year round? Thanks

[@The_OffGridFamily]

We have a generator as back up, and over winter (Nov-Feb) 17% of our power came from that. The rest of the time the system covered our needs and in the summer we have excess power ☺️

[@peternew8274]

@@The_OffGridFamily do you think overdimensioning the panels eg adding another 6 or 10 will solve that? Just trying to dimension my system.

[@limekilnfarm9657]

Hi, Great video, I am about to build a sizeable barn with a decent south facing roof. We don’t have mains and we were quoted many thousands of pounds to get us connected to the grid. I like your idea as although the upfront cost is high you no longer reliant on others for power and apart from component failure and battery ageing you don’t have the energy costs buying from the grid. My biggest hurdle is I don’t feel confident building such a system. You ever considered offering this as a service?

[@The_OffGridFamily]

Thank you, we are really pleased you enjoyed the video 😊 We are a long way from being professionals in the area of solar power so wouldn’t feel qualified enough to work on other people’s systems. It’s scary enough working on your own 😂 But with a lot of research it really is possible. Many companies sell kits too which simplify the process hugely 👍

[@a-c-g]

What's the largest wire that you managed to connect to the 150/35 MPPT? I'm battling the same problem of lack of megafuses for 48v systems... I'll have to up the wire to fit 125A megafuse, not sure if it fits the MPPT though.

[@The_OffGridFamily]

Have you already bough the MPPT? If so it should say in the manual ☺️ If not let us know and we will see if we can help 👍

[@bccb491]

Why didn't you put the proper voltage fuses between batteries and the victron distributor like those from victron? I mean 80A for 48 V. I saw the videos where you mounted those fuses and I read on them and I am pretty sure they aren't for 48V. Did you monitored the voltage that enter into the victron equipment in parallel with the reading of the Pylontech battery software? I should have no essential differences.

[@Croi_Fiain]

I've only just found your channel. Really useful info here and in your other videos, thanks! I'm just starting a desire to get off oil for heat and hot water, but not go off grid fully yet due to budget. I'm in rural, western Ireland which is often cloudy but often very windy so will be looking at a turbine. For info: after watching lots of videos recently it seems istabreeze (eg 1500w) turbines seem good (you mentioned you'd be looking at turbines). HTH! Question 1: you said you're not electricians - how did you learn to correctly and safely size the wires, fuses, amps, no of panels and then decide on how much / what kit you needed? Question 2: DIYing all this onto wooden mounting boards - how has this install affected your house insurance? 🙏🏻

[@The_OffGridFamily]

Thanks for your comment ☺️ We are really pleased you're finding our videos useful. Thank you for the info about wind turbines. That's really helpful to know. In answer to your questions: 1. We used Explorist Life (KZbin channel and website www.explorist.life) to help us with planning the arrays, calculating the MPPTs we needed, the size of wires we needed etc. There are good wire guides which tell you what amps different wire sizes can take. We used the Midsummer Energy online tool to plan out how many panels we could fit on our roof: easy-pv.co.uk 2. It's mounted onto fibreboard and it is situated in a barn loft rather than our house ☺️

[@Croi_Fiain]

@@The_OffGridFamily Thank you 🙏🏻. Those sites look very useful!

[@The_OffGridFamily]

Sorry that should say fire board not fibreboard!😩🤦‍♀️🤦

[@samhartfieldlewis5247]

Mega, really like it nice one

[@The_OffGridFamily]

Thank you 😊

[@randymch]

Great video, thank you. Random question. If you were building a new 4 bedroom house in the UK would it be feasible to build a system similar to yours that could cope with a daily usage of around 45kWh and enable the property to be off grid? If so, what do you think the costs would be (ballpark)?

[@The_OffGridFamily]

Thanks for your comment :) Glad you found the video useful. We have had a look at our stats and focused on our monthly stats. We used 315.41kwh in November, which was our highest month consumption wise. We aren't in a 4 bed house, but we have a washing machine, tumble dryer, fridge and 2x chest freezers, as well as other appliances. What are you planning to run off of your system? 45kwh a day seems quite a lot :). Cost wise, our system cost approx £22K. You can see a breakdown of the cost on this video if that is of help kzbin.info/www/bejne/o17SgJ2Yr9KSga8

[@ajaxharg]

Again thanks for the break down of what you did. I am in the reading/planning stage right now so these videos are invaluable. I am curious why you split the Pylontech into four banks when all the Victron documentation shows them in two banks of 4. The cables are rated at 120 amps. Also the Quattro has two connection points for two pairs of wires on the DC side. Did you go with one big wire in order to use only one fuse?

[@The_OffGridFamily]

Glad you have found the videos useful 🙂 There were a range of reasons why we didn't stack them in 4s, quite a lot of which was to do with the building they are situated in. They are in the loft of a barn so we stacked them in 2s to spread the weight across the joists. We also had limited wall space due to it being a loft, so keeping the stacks lower meant we had more room for everything else. We did originally consider 2 stacks of 4 and it can be done that way, it just didn't work for our set up and where it is located. All the best with your set up 👍 Is there anything else you are stuck on and would like us to cover in future videos? We are always keen to hear people's ideas 🙂

[@michaelcoghlan9124]

Yes like I said before, you have made a really nice set up. But do you think your lightning protection , wire to the grounding rod is heavy enough to take the current? l do not have that install on my system yet so very interested.Also I have got a two KWwind generator from a firm in the US which works well an I am very happy with. If you are interested I will send their details to you. Thanks for your input, very best regards to the three of you. Michael.

[@The_OffGridFamily]

For the surge protection device that we have installed we have used the thickest wire it will take (as far as we are aware!) and hope this should handle the current. We are not electricians though! Thank you for the offer of additional details about the wind generator. Do you have a Victron Cerbo GX or Pylontech batteries and if so does it work well with these? Thanks for your kind wishes ☺️

[@MagicMarvin33]

Did you ever look at the tesla battery's? They look good but are really expensive.

[@The_OffGridFamily]

We looked at them at the beginning of the process but disregarded them because of the price. Like you say, they’re expensive! 😊

[@craigr1296]

Great vid. Random Q. Did you choose to go down the solar power route due to getting mains electric connection cost was much greater? Or you wanted to be fully off-grid and self reliant?

[@The_OffGridFamily]

Thanks, glad you enjoyed the video 🙂We knew it would cost a lot to get onto the grid as we are a long way from the next house, so that is what led us down the solar route. But once we looked into it we knew that we would rather make the one-off payment and then be self-sufficient than pay to join the grid and be beholden to rising bills 👍

[@johnmknox]

I don't think lightning is drawn to metal, it is drawn to the least resistant path to earth which is usually the highest point regardless of what it is made of. Quite often that will be things like trees or other talls things over the area where the lightning is occurring.

[@beresheeth]

10 000watt Quattro can give 20 000 watt for a short while... probably for switching loads. The 20 000 Watt mean 400 Amp @ 50v. Thats whey Victron fuse amp rating is so high. Victron use a 125 Amp fuse on the 3000 VA Multiplus.

[@The_OffGridFamily]

Hi 😊 yes definitely need fuses that sort of size for inverters but for fusing the MPPTs we needed something smaller 👍

[@mirola73]

Generator still running on good old dino juice. Tut, tut, not so environmental friendly ! Thinking about installing a 2nd array on my house as well and off grid. Electricity prices are just getting bonkers

[@The_OffGridFamily]

A little bit of CO2 to feed the trees 😉 The generator situation isn't ideal and we are avoiding using it as much as possible now that fuel prices are through the roof. All the best if you do choose to add to your solar 👍

[@v-nation5120]

I don’t think you want a disconnect on your ground, this cuts the safety grounding.

[@bloodcarver913]

Your cabling is a little messy.

[@TerrySutton-mc8mv]

Should the lightning arrestors not be before the switches and not after the switches, mppt etc as a bolt of lightning will blow and melt those parts before getting to the arrestors, not to mention possibility of arching to the other devices on the board. .