INFLATED COST Of Our 100% DIY Off Grid SOLAR POWER SYSTEM 👍
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- Опубликовано: 1 окт 2024
- Today we breakdown the cost of our complete solar system. We built our solar system 100% by ourselves, which saved us a ton of money but we didn't skimp on buying quality components. Our goal with our off grid solar system is to be completely independent when it comes to having power.
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We forgot to mention that the federal rebate is 30 percent, which brings the total cost down to $25,930. Kind of a big thing to leave out 😅. Hope this helps. We appreciate your comments and for taking the time to watch our videos.
do you need a contractor to get the rebate?
@Adam D No actually, we don't. Thanks for watching. 🙂
Adam, no - but the equipment has to be new. If you didn’t pay enough in taxes to take full advantage of the tax credit, you can roll the credit over to a subsequent year. Oh and any tools you buy to do the work are also eligible…
@@Poorehouse wow nice thanks for the details!
Great vid! Exactly what I wanted to see. Question though..does that make it so you are completely disconnected from power company?(im on California so pge for me and I know people that have gotten solar power but still have to be connected to them) looking to buy a piece of land and build a small cabin and that’s my main concern. Thanks
Cost of an awesome solar setup $37,043.
Cost of a supportive wife, PRICELESS!
Great video! I've had my Victron system for 4 years now. Mine consist of 4 - 3000VA Multiplus inverters and three MTTP 100 - 50 chg controllers, 12 - 320watt solar panels and 12 Battle Born 24V batteries giving me 600ah of storage. My house is under 1000 sq ft so it provides me with all the 240V power I need to run the house and power equipment. I do use propane for heating, but thinking of doing away with it... I had one inverter fail and Victron reacted immediately and got it to the repair facility in one day! Unfortunately the repair facility didn't provide very good customer service and took over two weeks to repair it. I'm just 50 miles from their facility... So I bought a spare inverter! I live in the Wet Mountain valley in Colorado at about 8000 ft so I get plenty of sunshine.. Keep up the great videos!
Steve
Nice! and Expensive! LOL! A suggestion and for your SAFETY add a Catastrophe fuse and disconnect at the battery box for redundancy! Don't just rely on the BMS system. And at the buss bars going to the batteries move your 4/0 wires from an end bolt to a center bolt on the buss bar to reduce further any chance of buss bar heating and even Amp draw during large voltage draws! Awesome system!
I love her statement at the end about being COMPLETELY SELF-RELIANT and not having to depend on anyone.
Look into adding the Victron smart shunt. It will monitor and report battery utilization and SOC to the Cerbo GX so it can control the entire Victron entire ecosystem based off of the battery data. Just a couple hundred more bux, but will prove very useful for you. Great work!
I'll have to look into that thank you.
I second this suggestion
This will be the best to help in monitoring your battery power. Victron shunt
THIS 100%!!! Install a smart shunt between the two bus bars. It will keep track of the state of charge and perfectly report it to the Cerbo.
@@aboulderlifeoffgrid did you check out the smart shunt from victron? I use a couple of them, for monitoring solar production (non victron charge controllers), and for battery levels. The built in relays are an integral part of my system too, shutting down various components when levels get too high etc.
I would love to see an entire parts list so I can start picking and choosing once I get my house purchased. I fully intend to do something just like this and I'm big on lists and comparing costs of parts in a deep dive. Love to see this kind of video so thank you for all the current info
It's a great tim to start a christmas list
I know as I go through and make videos for my own system, I'm constantly reminded of the cost of my own system. It's hard to believe how much little pieces of metal and wire cost, but it's so gratifying to know that you're making your own power!
In regards to knowing the state of charge of your batteries, one option would be to put a Victron SmartShunt in place which would give you the ability to monitor the state of charge of your entire pack of batteries. Voltage doesn't mean much in regards to LifePo4 batteries, but the smart shunt does a really good job of letting you know where you're at power wise.
Good to know! We'll look into one of those. Thank you!
Yes your correct my. Battery are diy sow I use renogy shunt I have 3840ah on a12v and 960ah on a 24v have you look into a raspberry it made work for you
Cheap cheap cheap! I am of course not talking about your incredible system, rather you cost! That amount of power for 37k is truly a testimony to your level of competence! Great job!
My house is small, but my needs are 200 amps.....So, according to your 100 amp installation;
the price would be somewhere around 80,000 dollars? Or am I wrong.
Even at my outrageous $300 a month utility bill, I will not be alive by the time such an
investment pays for itself. I thought the media has reported that solar installation was
coming down in price all the time.....In the 90's a solar outfit in town could have sold me
a 200 amp system for $26,000 thousand, installed.......Seems the price would now have "tripled".
Just does not work on the numbers side as I am a senior citizen whose working life is over
and my small monthly pension will never allow such an expenditure. Maybe if you are in the backwoods, or on a tundra, far from utilities, and with financial means, it would make sense.
Now, if Entergy goes crazy and starts charging $1,000 bucks a month or more; Then, would
probably have to go back to work and try to swing an off grid system....Then another problem.
It is illegal in my city limits to disconnect from "one utility"......The city computer sees your
property as abandoned and cuts off all utilities.....I hope younger people force politicians to
change that, but I am too old for another fight.
Also, incentives only benefit the well-to-do; you have to earn a lot of money to take advantage
of the incentives which only come in the form of "tax breaks"....If you earn under a certain amount
of money; incentives do you no good......Solar industry should use their lobbyists to canvas
congress to pay back some of the cost of buying a solar system to anyone installing one.
That would help the most people and help get solar off the ground much faster.
I have schnieder SW+ dual and 4 victron 150V/ 100, battery bank is are tesla car batteries , 8 modules total storage so 43,152 watt hours, we plan to add 2 more batteries and expand to 10,000Kilowatt. So far price is right around $40,000. we have hurricanes to duck here..
I built my system for about 30k. Consists of 11Kw panels, 56Kw of batteries, 8K sol-ark all in one. I built the batteries from raw cells. the mounting was unistrut and well pipe, 2 are set up to track 2 axis, 2 are seasonal tilt, nessassary in Minnesota. I have had no issues with the all in one inverter, but something to be said for separate components too.
For forty years, we have been hearing that solar is becoming more affordable each year. Looks like it will take another 40 before it works for the average homeowner. If you MUST be off-grid, your system is awesome! But for someone like me, a $150/month on-grid cost, including all maintenance, makes much more sense. Solar & wind power is sexy, but not practical for the average household.
Lose the background music, it's not needed if you have good content. It takes away frm an otherwise decent video.
I'm surprised you didn't go for the lynx distributor.. no off grid system is complete without EMP shield. Nice touch! Love it!!
Wow your batteries are 5760 watts not the 4200 watts you said. 48v x 120ah. Drop in a Victron shunt and you will be able to see what you are doing usage wise.
Your breakdown helps all of us understand how to pay for and build a system which allows anyone to have independent power. Some may baulk about the price, but the freedom of such an electrical unit is an absolute investment and, when the electrical grid fails (notice I said when) the investment is priceless. No down time. No waiting on big electric to come to the rescue. The independence: how we love to live. Free.
23:50 "Self Reliant" - This is my biggest reason for installing solar. Making your own power and not relying on the electric company. Love the channel
You guys are way ahead of the curve by the way you planned this solar array. Well done. So much work, you have to feel proud. You guys are so sweet together
How long can it last
Wow!! You two are amazing!! Yes it did cost a lot but worth every penny. And the amount you saved on all the hard, hard work you put in is incredible. Not to mention the knowledge you have. Great job!!
The knowledge is key, because systems break. When they do, they won't have to be paying someone an arm and a leg to come out and fix it for them. They know how to do it themselves.
Why can't you have busbars machined out of copper
Thats impressive for me it would be a 14 year pay back depending on electronic failures
That is amazing! Just think, you never have to make another electric payment.
Buy once cry once and no monthly bills
Yeah you can worry about other things
To run an electric line 1 mile is $75000 or more. Solar is coming down quickly, and is a great option for off grid country living .
Yea i only have a small bit of land but to put power all the way to where my house is going to be would cost 12-15k,
So i am going to do a small solar system for 8-10k that will meet my needs and ill never have to pay a power bill..
Thanks for a great video overview of your really nice solar system. The $37K was a fraction of what it would have cost if you hired professional installers to give you that MUCH POWER. You chose top-of-the-line equipment and really laid it out superbly. You can now enjoy it for many years to come. Bravo!
A very profound statement I heard that holds true in life : "How you do anything, is how you do everything."
The attention to detail and thorough research done commands respect. The future planning along with allowing for a system that will be outputting far below it's true abilities extends it's life expectancy as well. This was truly enjoyable to watch, and easily earned my "Like" and "Subscribe" . Great video !!!
It is kindof another way of saying "Whatsoever you do unto the least of these, so also you do unto me." I'm not religious, but grew up that way and your comment reminded me of that. I usually say "if its worth doing it is worth doing right".
Great Video!! I have not built mine yet, but will do so as soon as we move to the property, and this video is a fantastic guide! I want to make a suggestion.
If you accidentally dropped a wrench down behind the battery case, you would have a nice firework show if it landed on those buss bars. It might add some safety if you put a wood or plastic cover above the buss bars to avoid a falling object shorting out your batteries.
Just finished our off grid solar, we did it ourselves. Did it for well under $3k . Be interesting to see how it goes. Got lithium batteries super cheap as the Government in Australia changed the contract on building electric buses. So was 1000 cheap batteries, we got our share. Solar panels (450 W ) for $25 each with all free railings, wire and clamps to join battery’s with a free case to house them in. Just got to meet people in the know.
Pfff close to 40K$..... it's a lot.... Ok you have top quality elements inside. I have 9.3Kwc + 30Kwh/48V LFPO4 DIY batteries (302+320 AH) + 8Kva inverter (chinese :( ) + 2 x 250V/60A controler (chinese :( ) + structure (built over pergolas mostly) for a total of 13K euros for everything..... A Total of 4 strings... Anyway, I repeat, you have top quality elements. Maybe for your next batch of battery, you can assemble some directly from prismatic LFPO4 cells. It's super easy. Cheers from France.
Great video! I am also on a DIY fully off-grid system and have upgraded all of my electric appliances and even have full AC and heat running off of my system. I will be adding videos soon but have not had time as of yet. Our system has 800ah of batteries and 13kw of inverters and runs our entire house with zero issues including electric range, oven, washer/dryer, 5x mini spit AC/heaters, etc.
Thank you for sharing!
Price does not meter if wife helps to build it :) God bless you
And you placed smile on my face :)
6:55 You really should protect that busbar, even though its behind that cabinet if you had a short there it would blow your whole battery bank.
Agree, I've used & found a Busbar Metal box is better...esp. since u spent ~$700+ on those 'busTbars' * alone! The large metal Box with busbars inside is same cost, Eliminates dual cable sets, & removes all those 'stapeled' wire runs also🌻🌅🗽
My 17,000 watt system is right at $52,500 with SolArk 15K & 44,300 WH battery bank. I never put a dime out I figured on getting back. Instead I rest easy knowing I am invested in a Electrical Insurance Policy. Grid down I never noticed until my neighbor calls.
Most do this simple interest calculation..."I will pay 100$/mo. for decades"...you won't❗. Ever hear of Inflation? And it's Compound Interest...Utility rates of Inflation avg. ~5.5%* (some have been recently 40+%!!) for US electric Rate increases. So at *traditional avg. U.S. rate increase (prior to 2020), 1200$/ year becomes ~3,500.$ in year 20. Conclusion, if use same amt. of kWh/mo. over next 20 years at *traditional avg. rate increase , then you will avg. ~$1750$/ yr... or cumulative ~35,000.$$ over 20 years!!🧐 (if rates don't increase*...good luck with dreaming🤪. + if you qualify, there are pot. State Incentives for solar+ a Fed. Tax Credit of 30% off cost of PV systems🤠
Amazing work, congratulations on your previous lottery win! j/k Seem like a 6 year payback ....the peace of mind and autonomy is priceless. You guys earned a like and sub!
I am living in australia and If I had to buy that capacity in rack mounted LiFePO4 batteries (including JK inverter BMS) as of August 2024 would be about AUD$7600 or US$5000. Prices are coming down. Good job on your power independence.
Price far better than bying EcoFlow Delta +. And it offers large, large power than it's 7.2kW.
You should have built your own battery. You don't get enough kW from your $2k, I've built my own 15kW battery from cells and BMS in a wooden box. Only $2k a piece , or $133 per kW. And easier to maintain... What if you need to replace a cell or % BMS. Too many cables as well, large capacity means less cables, smaller bus bars, etc...
Includes the cost of the sheet rink, haha, love it. Great vid.
That's kinda sad, hearing the price. But not knowing what your "capacity" is in terms of kilowatt hours, or how many kilowatt hours you use per month. Would be nice to know how much your "paying" in up front costs vs. 10-20 years of operation.
We would like to run everything on electric (range, clothes dryer, water heater, etc.). The size of the system is a good start, and we'll add to it if and when needed. We have a 30 percent federal rebate that we forgot to mention in the video, which brings the price down considerably. Thanks for watching. 🙂
Why so many 300 watt panels, if it's for your own usage? I live in Australia which has the highest solar irradiation in the world I can get by with around just five 300 watt panels for everything except air-conditioning . I mean isn't this overkill?
We want everything to run on electricity. Water heater, clothes dryer, range, you name it. Thanks for watching. 🙂
i personally have a 5k panel, 4k inverter, 9k batt (walmart deepcycle) / (propane), got lot my stuff second hand and build as i go (seen deals) spent overall 6k, my problem was i bitcoin mine, weld, and electric heater, i would need upwards 30k hr so i put upgrading on hold, but form you system you coulda definitely saved 10k $ from misc items
We average around $130 a month for a totally electric home. It would take 23 years to break even. Would the panels and batteries last that long?
Forgot to mention that we get a 30 percent federal rebate. Panels should last 30 years. Batteries can last 10 years, 20 years, or longer. It depends on a few factors. One major factor is the depth of discharge. Batteries that are discharged to 25 percent every night verses a discharge down to only 75 percent every night will result in a shorter lifespan. Lots to consider. Thanks for watching.
Nice work on the video. Someone else may have mentioned it above. But those inverters are technically 10k va. That isn’t the same as wattage. Technically they are around 8kw inverters. Which definitely isn’t a low amount of power. I just figured I’d point that out. Victron for some reason rates all their inverters in VA. Again, great job.
Let me put this in perspective... Last August my Dad passed away, he had a Toyota Prius - was a good car, but it was his car. I'm a bigger person, and don't fit well inside it. I went and traded it off on a Tesla. It was $68k.
I'm a locksmith in Wyoming, and decided to order a new Electric Ford Transit... I sold the car, guess for how much... Lol..😂
$34k. Elon might be a great guy, but he keeps jacking with prices. What I lost on my car, nearly paid for your solar system.... Maybe the van isn't the smartest choice either, but I'll use it everyday in work, whereas the car is just a toy.
Your system isnt that big, but sounds expensive for what it is. Im looking at 30kw of solar, 150kw of batteries 12kw 415v plus 4kw 240 volt. pricing it up, its about 80k,or about 55kusd and that is with mostly victron. For a workshop, so tax deductable also. Considering getting 3 phase out to the farm would be 30k, its worth it.
So 70g if you had it installed, which is what I've heard other places. Have you figured out the lifetime kwh cost. I'm betting 10 to 15 cents the installer who quoted 60 to 80g for 10 kw, well, solar is a luxury market unless it's the most basic grid tie. Good luck moving that batter box when fully loaded. GREAT POST
I'll stay with Power from my PUD at 7.5 cents a Kwh. Actual usage of electricity about $ 15.00 a month + $ 32.00 Basic Charge.
Stand $1400 if you can find most of it for free.
Solar Panels $6570 without installation
Breakerbox +extra $646 without installation
Controller room +Batteries $28093 without installation and would be illegal in most places to put up yourself if you're not certified.
Total cost $36709 without installation cost of excavating, welding, wood work, and like idk 200 hours of electrician work total cost? maybe $100K or more.
In conclusion, living off grid is a luxury most people can't afford.
The video was awesome. The power it puts out is sick. Loved all of it except for the cost. Dear God man are you going to energize a small town? And there are some things you could have made....like the bus bars. But as long as you're happy with the performance I'm happy for yall.
You were smart to use a heavy duty, high surge capacity, long lived, low frequency, transformer based inverter charger instead of a high frequency, transformerless inverter charger that everyone else is hawking on the Internet. The Chinese made high frequency inverters on today's market (and they're ALL Chinese made) are not only short lived and weak when compared to conventional off grid inverters, they can also be dangerous. You'd be lucky to get even two years of service from these 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 inverters lack a very critical component. That critical component is an iron core, copper wound output transformer. Without an output transformer to act as a buffer to absorb 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, essential shortening their life.
You might be able to start and run some high surge loads when these high frequency inverters are new, but every time you fire up one of those inductive loads, you're shortening the life of the MOSFETs in these inverters.
Lightweight. high frequency inverters run much hotter than low frequency, transformer-based inverters which makes the low cost, off spec, Chinese made components such as capacitors, diodes, resistors and ICs that are used in the cheap inverters that are used in these inverters, far more prone to early failure.
Another major consideration with these lightweight, high frequency, transformerless inverters is safety. All it takes 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 inverters can 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.
Another consideration that is never mentioned by those high frequency inverter hucksters, is that the vast majority of these inverters are non-repairable. After the warranty runs out, you're not going to be able to ship these units back to the manufacturer in China and have them repair them. And at a typical shop rate of $125 per hour here in the US, with no schematic and limited parts availability, it won't make economic sense to even attempt to repair one of these units. Once the FETs have fried and have burned a good portion of the inverter's PCB, (And trust me, sooner rather than later, they will fry.) they basically become a brick.
So helpful! Thank you so so much for giving me some kind of idea of what goes into such a beautiful long lasting system. A+x 5!!!!! Just fantastic
You can change the BMS’s in those batteries to something like JK BMS’s and then the will talk to your Victron Cerbos GX 9 (whatever its called).
Cost of system after tax credit... $25,930.
Comfortably going through a storm with the lights and heater on... priceless.
Electric Company wants 5,000.00 to make the connection and I have to trench and provide wire and supplies and labor on my side. Solar it is. .
Ok say you pay electricity
$300 a month
× 12
$3,600 a year
×. 8 years
$28,800
That's how much you'll be paying for electricity bill for 8 years if you paid $300 a month and I think most people pay even more. I would say having solar pays off after 8 years and if there's no major problems like needing new batteries or panels etc and you can light up your house 24/7 I think it's awesome.
TO CONSIDER:
1. Your electric bill is not going to stay $120 or $150. It will double roughly every 10 yrs or (prob less than 10). No crisis taken in consideration like we saw in Europe where prices went x5.
2. The batteries will not last 30 yrs. Not even 10. Convertors will also not live 30 yrs.
3. We are at a time where we need alternatives for the batteries as we know them. They are developing new ones as we speak. Are they better? Are they bigger? will they last longer? will they take a lot of time to recharge? Are they gonna be as or more expensive per kw of storage? are they safe(r)?
4. When the government loses taxes on you, they probably will invent new taxes or other shit to make you pay for the loss they suffered.
5. I love my wife and children.... No further comment.... 🤪
Wow that's a lot of power! Our inverter is 6,000 watts, and it does everything we need to live off grid, and to run all of the power tools to build our house. The propane for our gas stove will cost us less than $200 a year, and we can take the tanks in ourselves to have them filled.
"We like power". Brilliant!! Nuff said!!
Fortunately, the price of almost all of those components is coming down significantly. I just bought a battery for $700 for 4KWh
The price of those bus bars though. Victron has the Lynx Power In rated at 1000 amps and they go for like $160 and that includes the positive and negative bars and 4 fuse spaces.
The cost of power today has nothing to do with the coming costs of power.
I don’t know if you are aware but the government has made every indication possible that energy costs in the future will be nothing like they are today.
Beware of thinking things are going to stay the same.
I am installing a solar system that has (112) 450 watt panels and (4 ) 15k inverters with 180kw of battery backup so NO ONE can tell me what temperature I can have in my house or how much energy I can utilize per day.
We currently pay 11 cents per kWh for power but if our power goes like California costs have gone then I could be paying as much as 8 times more per kWh and my system will pay for itself in no time, not to mention that I’m free from those crazy costs in the future and I can live as I please.
A great thing you have done, congratulations. I didn't quite catch where you have your home, Arizona I understand. With the angular location of your V-split solar array, I wonder if you'll get there in December with the harvested power. but you are not on the ende, lets see whats happend. Good luck from Berlin.
Great video. OMG so many questions. Would like to know how much power you use average per day, sf of you dwelling, how much you generate, do you charge EV cars, are you hooked into the power grid (if so do you sell power to them?). Have you gone through a season with minimal sun. After 5 months what if anymore changes do you Rx? Appreciate your work!
Well done on doing your own rack for solar panels. I am just about finished with my 19kw off grid system, for the materials of a good metal solar rack it was going to cost $14,000. I decided to just build them out of pressure treated wood for less than $3k, this also gives me the flexibility to move each rack of 5 panels slightly to the east or west for testing which way is the most efficient for providing power throughout the day.
Victron Lynx Shunt 1000 for battery monitoring or the Victron BMV-712 (this is what I have) with a 500A capacity. This takes away the need for the batteries to play nice with the Cerbo. And for the bus bars, Victron Lynx Power In or Distributor if you want to fuse each item. Each of these handle 1000A in total and you can combine them for extra connectivity. This is an awesome video and it looks like you have gone to a lot of trouble to get this up and going and it looks fantastic. Totally enjoyed watching this and viewed to the very end including bloopers! Warm greetings from Melbourne in Australia!!!
Great information. Thank you Adam!
Wasn't the Lynx causing a bit of a rumble as most people found it should have only been rated for 500A?
20 kW-hr isn't very much storage capacity at all. One heat pump could drain that in less than 10 hours without any other loads.
I'm pretty confident you are going to at least double if not triple your battery capacity plus add a backup generator for extended cloudy periods during cold winter months.
assuming you live in a place where you don't get many cloudy days ~6000W of solar is enough assuming you have a LFP battery, reason being is that you can optimize for generating the maximum amount of power over the day and don't have to worry about not generating much power in the early morning and late evening because that have 5000 cycles assuming you cycle them from 100% to 0% every day thats over 13 and a half years of batteries and that charging and discharging is at a 2C rate I believe so with solar and a big battery system you wont be charging at even close to 1C, and really you are unlikely to be discharging the battery at 1C for long periods of time so from a pure cycle prospective your porbably talking about more like 15 - 20 years.
And that is only to degrade them to 80% of their from factory capacity you can continue to use them safely past that point, but then there is just calander degredation which means that if you are not using the battery it will just degrade on it's own so it's best to just use it to optimize the maximum amount of power.
Because I assume the reason why you have your panels angled they way you do is to catch the morning and afternoon sun by sacrificing peak solar to reduce the load on your battery, which is I think honestly kinda silly.
Ummm you all need to look into SOK batteries. All the features your asking for with the same operating specs you have, for $500 less per battery.
Note Prices have come down a lot since this system was made. a 48v 100aH battery can be had for $1300 now,
If the batteries need to be replaced every 10 years on average that’s ridiculously expensive. It would take me 25-30 years to break even just assuming there’s no repair needed to the solar system. If the batteries need to be replaced, even though the price may come down and technology improve in the next decade, it doesn’t make financial sense for most people.
You shouldn't build this league battery house closer to yours so right because the further you go away from your raid the more loss that you lose in your. Warring and the father you go from your battery area. Your powerhouse to your trailer travel trailer is more power that you're losing down that way too in the line so. You gotta think about it. You lose in a lot of power down by. Being further away
The power loss you are referring to is called voltage drop. The way that is fixed is by installing larger wire sizes. We installed larger wire from our array to the shed and larger wire from the shed to the trailer. Thanks for the concern. Take care. 🙂
Probably been said a 100 times in the comments, fit a Victron Shunt, and that will calculate the SOC, the batteries can remain dumb.
if i was ready for such system i would go for a slightly smaller about 6kw one with tracking platform!!!! . i mean you still can try and upgrade or add some tracking tricks . you cant be sure about tracking but for sure you can make an automation for every 3 months 4 daily cycle programs in total if its online it can change on its own!!! . !!! and even ad some tiny changes every 45 days to maximize production!!!!
Very nice installation, I see that you have no wind generators and from the sound on your microphones, you have plenty of wind, would be useful for those long sunless days, could you have mounted the solar panels on a motorised mount so it follows the sun and you can never have enough batteries, I made an enquiry for a solar installation, got a phone call from a sales rep, a full system for £2400, I asked what solar panel are they fitting and they don't know, as far as I know, It could be £2400 just to charge a mobile phone
Seems like all this stuff probably qualifies for various tax credits.. For some people that might amount to over 30% off?
Agreed, contractors are very very expensive, and tend to cut as many corners as they can. It's really a question on how much they can rip you off without you knowing better.
They know you get a rebate back. So they charge like a wounded bull.😑
Just add in a suitable Victron SmartShunt. You already have a nice split between the battery storage and charge/consume. It will fit in really easy and tells you the state of charge of your batteries accurately enough.
Nice rig, well done. Question- why did you not mount your batteries in a 19" electronics rack? Since you bought and paid for rack mount batteries?
The batteries can be stored in any position. But to be honest, I'm not sure why we didn't just buy the rack for them 😅. Consider it a noob mistake. 🙂
at 13:30 that piece of metal is probally quality copper thing is that having it exposed is not the best with humidity you can lose electricity unless you have the positive and negative at more than 1 m or 2 foot distance i know that sound crazy but i say about 4% power up to 7% outside where humidity is at max. for not saying that is better to protect them because someone can touch them. Just put some plastic sheet over at least. As about the battery i will monitorize more the temperature on those battery (take a loook at the hazard of lithium battery) . Nice setup cool vid.
My system was around 230k and it makes me around 16k a year without the Srecs I’m saving them when to sale at a hire price.
That's huge but you could have cut costs even more. But I do understand that victron may be the best option.. but.......
I'd been wondering about your design requirements to justify an array of that capacity. I've been a PV solar advocate for years, and have kept tabs on the state of the industry for that reason, so I had an approximate idea of the generating capacity you were building. The phrase "You get what you pay for" remains just as accurate as ever, so spending the money on quality infrastructure is a wise investment, rather than cheaping out on garbage gear. You'll never regret buying good equipment.
Of course, it doesn't help that the cost of copper is more than double what it was 5 years ago, so you kinda had to eat poop on that aspect. Regarding the bus bars, I strongly feel that there's some profiteering there because the manufacturers are supposedly making a product just for solar power applications. I think you might be paying for the certifications attached more than just the actual chunks of metal, especially when I am quite confident that you could have picked up some copper bars then drilled/tapped holes in them for connections for FAR less money.
I'm guessing your PV panels have a 25 yr or 30 yr warranty on them. It seems obvious to me that trying to build a heliostat of any sort was a non-starter as a DIY project, and your split-angle design for maximum exposure was a deliberate compromise based on your long-term design requirements and anticipated maximum load/draw.
That's a lot for a system, but it looks great and at least it's a good tax deduction.
A good BMS will help you to comunicate with Viktron. Good and honnest episode!
just so you feel a bit better i install off grid solar for a living and getting batteries to communicate with third party hardware is always like pulling teeth dont know why they cant standerdize something.
Surprised we aren't seeing manufacturers creating DC appliances with the rise of solar powered homes. It would eliminate the need for the inverters, which is half the cost not to mention the inefficiency and power loss in the conversion.
So it's a 25 k system...30 something grand...cool
Those batteries are built to be rack mounted, so you could have welded a rack together much cheaper than $500.
Oh just saw someone recommended the shunt and lynx distributor etc. But with your BlueSea buss bars you can just get a stand alone Victron smart shunt.
Nicely done. Have you figured out how much consumption you use on average a day/week and how that compares to your storage capacity? How much does the electric range draw to make a turkey in the oven.
Santan solar best place for used panels!
I watched your video because you were giving the cost. I’m still not sold on solar. But it sounds like this is the only way for you to get electricity. I would also hate living that far from the rest of the world.
so either more batteries, genset, in case of long power outages....my village loses power for nine days occasionally and during the winter - no sun.
Victron makes shunts to monitor your batteries. They will communicate with your system.
Looks like you should have gone with larger casters. Nice job though.
I am surprised it cost you that much just do everything you did priority been a little cheaper but it bought a stand and I'm still surprised it took so much to build your battery box mine only cost at what maybe about $120 constanza relatively free for my solar panels I mean I did get a bunch of beans for free maybe except for gas and sansei $20 I did buy some lumber so my stand costed maybe $92. And 20 more dollars in gas sence friend hald it for me. The batteries are still got to get. But I had a bunch of better that I lost seven of them this past winter and I had 24 of them lead-acid batteries 1000 amps 135 amp hours. Replace them but I think I'm just going to replace all my batteries I mean hey did last me one heck of a long time about 24 years some of them even longer so the last 20 years longer than your supposed to. I going to get more solar panels and that was running everything in 12 volts but if I get real batteries that are rated for solar panels. But in the process of it I'm also going to get some more solar panels I'm not getting rid of any sort kind of them in they still give me the same watts they did when I bought them twenty years back or so and what they said you were going to give me twenty-some years ago when I bought them new so they're still good solar panels. But depending on what size solar panels I did I may have to replace some of them anyway.
We may have gone a little overboard on the battery box 😅. But it works well and looks good too now that the doors are on it. Thanks for watching. 🙂
@@aboulderlifeoffgrid I like your show thank you.
i think the only advantage having a solar system is that you have electricity independent of the grid and if you don’t want to spend on energy in the future but have invest in energy up front. i don’t think if savings is your goal, fossil fuel energy is the cheapest.
How much would it have cost you yearly to have your current power available amortised over the years? And be free of a power company?