Really looking forward to Shelly update, this is in my plan too. Both the inverter and the batteries! A detailed video on this would be awesome and definitely worth several S.P.A.T’s 👍👍
It is always so much fun to watch your projects. Amazing how much gains are to be had from that tilt, eh? That solar power meter looks pretty cool. I have a friend who has installed 8 large solar panels on the roof of his bus, four on each side. He has mounted them such that he can raise either side from the ground so they tilt towards the south while he is parked. It's a pretty slick system!
Yeah, a tilt system makes a lot of sense on a vehicle. Space is limited so orientation is key. This tilt system I built is gold and produces a lot of power.
I've watched your channel for the past year with complete admiration, having installed my own that more than meets our needs, your testing, educating and sharing of various products gives warmth to know your trying to help people. Your a very articulate man and matching the best ( victron ) to work at a domestic level with various batteries was a number i couldn't couldn't quite crunch at the time, im happy with my system but we missed in time, had I discovered your channel befor my built my own I know it would have more Blue😅. I love nature, trap and bait to give the native species a fighting chance but your not going like what I'm about to say next, get Stihl and sort that shading. 😂
Thank you for your comment. A Stihl will not solve the problem. It is not about cutting down a tree or just trimming it. If you would be here and seeing it, you would understand.
That's good planning Andy, nice production in Winter! All bits help to get your batteries charged. We could all wish for such nice sunny weather (this week lot's of rain in the Netherlands, also good for nature.
Thanks for the up date Andy and it proves all your efforts were well worth while. Brilliant job!! Oh and yes I have the same problem with my misses having to repeat myself about various parts of the system, and she just looks back at me all glassed over! lol But she is happy and that's all that counts my friend!!!
It's impressive the amount of power you can produce once you put some thought into it👍 I'm now fulltime on the road and with my upgraded system produce more than enough power for my requirements @ just over 1kw a day
Very comprehensive. I am happy to see you managed to build a system you are happy with. I admit you did make it bomb proof. The amount of extra power is fascinating to me. Another options my just be a pole saw.
Another great video Andy but the OCD part of my brain is screaming to trim 15 feet off the tops of those trees and then see what your solar production figures max out at..... I bet the cost of trimming vs the cost of more solar works in your favour!
On a off-grid system, having at least som pannels tilted for the winter sun can be a smart idea. In the summer, the tilt will not be optimal, but this is compensated by more sun hours...
Minute 20, i think the Multiplus is throttling down the microinverter via frequency shifting because there's more power than consumption / reached charge current limit
Nice follow up video You need to make motorized pan & tilt system where panels follow sun route. I guess your neighbour have less shades so you can build It to there
I like the idea of a small EW facing system to start and end the day earlier. You should try some vertical bifacials as they can accomplish this without any moving parts.
I could not get one in this size (510W) in a timely manner. Could have order some from China but they would still not be here and winter is coming to an end...
44f is shorts weather springtime here. :D I haven't been keeping up with your channel, sorry, but seems to me the legs from automatic standing desks would be almost perfect to keep solar panels pointed at the sun in one axis. Was taht what you used? I'll go watch later. Ah, from the product link it looks like those are manual. Far cheaper than standing desk motors and legs would be though.
You inspired me to buy one of these cheap micro inverters and I did what you did with 4 panels on a WVC-1400 (my panels are 370Watt). Just a heads up, in the summer these thermal throttle with about 15 minutes on and 15 minutes off. I also have Enphase micro inverters which do not do this.
Hi Andy thanks again for another great video! I understand the route you are thinking with the shadows and micro inverters. But I have a roof full of them and see their limitations. They are less efficient and cannot easy communicate with the victron system when the accu is full for instance. So I was thinking of mppt with an optimizer like the tigo. Maybe this is something to look at? I don't know if they are compatible. But a central DC bus is more easy than a central AC distribution bus.
Don't use optimizers! An MPPT is far better than a micro inverter for sure if you can easily connect your DC from this MPPT to your battery. This is out of question for me due to the distance back to the garage where the battery is.
Hey Andy, I just wanted to let you know that your audio (voice especially) is becoming a bit muffled, especially in the outdoor segments. Not sure what to do about that, maybe some kind of mike with a small deadcat or so, maybe?
Thank you, my friend. Hope everything is well in Switzerland. No, that is not possible. DC charging will bypass the car's internal charger and connect and external charger directly to the battery of the vehicle. There needs to be the right communication between car and charger and care been taken to make this work. Certainly nothing you can do yourself on a DIY base.
Andi, did you notice that at 4:07 both your panels were in the same sunshine and panel 1 had 330 W and Panel (in the same full sunlight) only 220 W (same angle and everything). You should investigate this, this is only 2/3 of the output of Panek 1 under (what seems) comparable conditions! But maybe you were just standing in front of the panel when shooting the video and creating some shade, as later on all panels had roughly the same output…
As I said, the data logger in the inverter only updates ever 5 minutes to the online portal. In this time, the sun has moved a bit and the data delayed to what we actually have on the roof. It tricked me a few times. Best is to watch the Victron VRM as this is live production.
hi , have you ever thought of putting reflective material vertical at the sides of the horizontal panels where are most opposite to the lowest points of the sun ? would something like that work ? to put a tilted reflector instead of tilting the panels
Did read in the news today how a house burned and had huge water problems after the cables to the solar cells took fire. The conclusion was that ALL cables had to be in tubes and it is better to just let it burn than pore water over it as the water makes more damage than the fire.
@@Mark-wv6sg Searching "solar cell fire" gives many results, so in principals, it is "playing with fire". Google images shows a very scary situations that should be addressed in these many solar cell RUclips videos.
Ja, der Shelly ist ne gute und günstige Möglichkeit, die Leistung zu erfassen. So habe ich es mit meinem alten Mikroinverter auch gemacht. Super, dass sowas im Venus-OS möglich gemacht werden kann! Danke Victron für Open source!! Aktuell habe ich für eine 8x410Wp- Erweiterung vier HM-600 zu je knapp über 100€ schießen können und akzeptiere overpaneling wegen 0° Neigung. Mittelfristig wird für ein paar € eine Open-DTU gebaut, die anstatt indirekt über Shelly dann direkt die Daten (mal wieder open souce plug-in) ins Venus-OS integriert. Schön, was Victron und die community alles möglich macht, ASTREIN!! 😀 Deepl said: Yes, the Shelly is a good and cheap way to measure the power. That's how I did it with my old microinverter. Great that something like this can be done in Venus-OS! Thanks Victron for Open source! Currently I have for a 8x410Wp- extension four HM-600 at just over 100€ each and accept overpaneling because of 0° tilt. In the medium term, an Open-DTU will be built for a few €, which instead of indirectly via Shelly then directly integrates the data (once again open souce plug-in) into the Venus-OS. Nice what Victron makes everything possible, ASTREIN!! 😀 Many thanks Andy for your great videos and schön, dass du immer Wert darauf legst, die passenden Daten/Bilder/Infos zur richtigen Zeit im Video reinzuschneiden - oft genau in den Momenten, wo ich denke: jetzt wäre schön zu sehen.. ah, da isses. Seelenverwand 😀
Hi how you going love watching your channel. I’m wondering if you could help me in regards to what settings I should set my Victron controllers and multi, plus to charge these batteries You have converted me from AGM and can’t get answers from everywhere in regards to bulk charge absorption charge and float charge
8 kWh is very nice for 4 panels assuming they have a total of 2040 Wp. How does it compare to the flat row of panels on the same building on the same sunny days?
Its all great - i love following this channel - but why has no-one asked the question - in terms of your shading issues ........ why not simply prune the trees?
hey Andy, what do u think would happen, if you put solar charge controller and grid tie inverter in parallel with solar panel,will it still work the same ?i only have 1k solar panel but my battery need too charge aslo .my charge controller is 150v and my grid tie inverter is 4k with limiter .please let know what u think .
This will not work. You can connect only a solar charger or an inverter to one set of panels, not both at the same time. They will both try and get the maximum power point of the panels and fight.
Hi Andy, I am a novice so excuse my question: how come your pv's are charging at different rates? I thought that if one batter had part shade, all the others would be affected as much, or is this only when the pv's are in parallel sequence (joined as one into the inverter)?
They only affect each other if they are in series. I have mine in parallel connected to this inverter. So if one is shaded, it affects only this one panel.
Thank you so much for your reply Andy@@OffGridGarageAustralia The Other Thing: A solar off-grid supplier and installer has informed me that the Gvt is changing the law about D.I.Y. kits and will no longer allow us to do this without an installer and licensed electrician?
... Maybe should have the panels mounted 90° rotated so the sun moves accordingly full panel to full panel overtime ...? (only some additional struts would be needed ...)
Man Andy, your opening on that clear, cold morning was an ASMR moment that brought back that just felt different than anywhere else in the world! Does it ever ware off or do you forget how different (better?) it feels to waking up back in Europe or America or just about anywhere else?
Yeah, I know. That will cost me quite a bit of money just for these winter months. I'm using around 5kWh for hot water in Winter and less than 1kWh in summer per day. It would be only for these three months where I don't have enough energy from solar ...
Electric hot water tank 140L with a 1.7kW resistive heater. Using 5kWh per day for 3 months over winter, less in other times and only 1kWh per day in summer. I thought about a heat pump but could not really justify the spending. Yet.
Hi Andy, greetings from sunny Puerto Rico. I'm just wondering, why you just cut the top of your trees to reduce shade? Is it that your laws prohibit doing this?
Maybe if you know someone that might have one of those trucks used be grid companies (with basket), you might be able to cut just the top or perhaps near the middle of the trees!
Maybe if you know someone that might have one of those trucks used be grid companies (with basket), you might be able to cut just the top or perhaps near the middle of the trees!
Ever thought of just using a simple ‘Solar Tracking Mount’ system, to just rotate some high efficiency Panels to follow the movement of the Sun, instead, Andy...? Seems likely to me, to be, far, more efficient, and a whole lot less, expensive, in the long run, compared to all, of what you’ve already, spent, on all of this ‘less efficient’ stuff, so far..? Also, and yes I know this is stating the obvious, you could gain an immediate large improvement to your daily energy harvesting by simply getting rid of, or at least, removing ‘the tops’ from all of the tall nearby trees that are causing all of the heavy shading of your Panels each day.
In my younger days I way a tree trimmer. Those tree's could be trimmed back, in strategic places to gain alot more sunshine. And it's health for the tree's to be thinned, and pruned about every 2-3 years. OK love this part of your show. Adding more panels, that's my idea of fun.
Great vid Andy, question though, I am off grid on ax coupled system, what would happen if I had no load to put the solar into (say battery already charged and no load) does the micro inverter shut down?
Yes, I sometimes turn on the hot water or charge the vehicle during the day when the micro inverter delivers the most, so using up this AC power directly.
@@OffGridGarageAustralia my installation is smaler and grid parallel, so if my Solarcharger produces enough to recharge the battery during the day, I disable charging for the MP2. Otherwise I would have loss when charging from the inverter and after the Battery is charged I have loss from feeding the solarcharger surplus to the grid. Over the year the difference are some S.P.A.T
Going by the morning sun, you would be better off with the panels mounted in Landscape. The bottom panel will get full sun first, and the top panel will get full sun longer.
I tested that. Because they are half cut panels, they work better that way as only the bottom part is shaded while the top part still produces full power.
Yes, that would be ideal. I have plenty of space on the other side of the roof and could build the same setup again. Just not sure with the cabling. The sparky won't be happy connecting both systems (4kWp) to one 2.5mm cable.
I would definitely not use a Shelly switch but instead use a Shelly EM(3). A switch has limited functionality and you don't want the relay inline with the solar equipment. I have a EM3 and with a little script it reports to the Cerbo/VRM.
I thought about that but found the switch of the 1PM plus can easily handle 16A and it could be another disconnection point in case the inverter does not throttle down when the battery is full. I could just use HA to say if SOC is 99% turn off this relay. The micro inverter should be off by then anyway due to frequency shifting. It's just another layer...
All that solar and still no power. Those trees are killers. In sunny weather like that my solar starts dumping around 11.00am. We're the opposite, we need more storage but it's enough for what we use. 50kwh in batteries and 10kw in solar. More than enough plus 3 backup gens.
Trees are over 35m high and I would need a company to do that. Cost me huge amount of $$$. for the money, I install more solar. That was part of the challenge from the beginning if you remember. Also cutting trees for solar is so against what we are trying to achieve here.
@@OffGridGarageAustralia I wouldn't want to live under a 100ft tree. It's good going to fall sometime, might as well chop it down for safety. If your neighbors are distant just angle it away from your house. If you have neighbors close I hope it doesn't fall on them. Sounds dangerous!
Thanks for the video, any "inverter" in the DC circuit leads to losses... (My dream is a 50KWh battery in my garage(now have ~15 (from "Transylvania..."😁)), that will be enough (50KWh) for my EV (not in winter).. 🦘🌅
Can’t wait for the video on setting up the Shelly with the Victron system
Really looking forward to Shelly update, this is in my plan too. Both the inverter and the batteries! A detailed video on this would be awesome and definitely worth several S.P.A.T’s 👍👍
It is always so much fun to watch your projects. Amazing how much gains are to be had from that tilt, eh? That solar power meter looks pretty cool. I have a friend who has installed 8 large solar panels on the roof of his bus, four on each side. He has mounted them such that he can raise either side from the ground so they tilt towards the south while he is parked. It's a pretty slick system!
Yeah, a tilt system makes a lot of sense on a vehicle. Space is limited so orientation is key.
This tilt system I built is gold and produces a lot of power.
Absolutely brilliant, love how you go into the production with so much detail, so much knowledge and enthusiasm thank you
Thank you very much Paul. Just needed such comments when I'm sick at the moment. More videos are on the way...
@@OffGridGarageAustralia take your time getting better my friend, hope all well 👍🏻
Heya, having differant kinds of solar systems is a must
Like #52 I can Stihl help with that shading problem ;-)
I've watched your channel for the past year with complete admiration, having installed my own that more than meets our needs, your testing, educating and sharing of various products gives warmth to know your trying to help people. Your a very articulate man and matching the best ( victron ) to work at a domestic level with various batteries was a number i couldn't couldn't quite crunch at the time, im happy with my system but we missed in time, had I discovered your channel befor my built my own I know it would have more Blue😅.
I love nature, trap and bait to give the native species a fighting chance but your not going like what I'm about to say next, get Stihl and sort that shading. 😂
Thank you for your comment. A Stihl will not solve the problem. It is not about cutting down a tree or just trimming it. If you would be here and seeing it, you would understand.
That's good planning Andy, nice production in Winter! All bits help to get your batteries charged. We could all wish for such nice sunny weather (this week lot's of rain in the Netherlands, also good for nature.
Yea 10 days of rain here but if it don’r rain all day its good to go
Amazing production from the tilt system... well worth it. Love the figures/graphs.
Thanks Andy, that has worked out well for our winter 👍
Thanks for the up date Andy and it proves all your efforts were well worth while. Brilliant job!! Oh and yes I have the same problem with my misses having to repeat myself about various parts of the system, and she just looks back at me all glassed over! lol But she is happy and that's all that counts my friend!!!
Nice overview. A day in the life. Thanks for sharing
💗 Love Your Videos, Andy!! Thank you for taking the time to make them and share them with us.
This is amazing Andy, well done!
It's impressive the amount of power you can produce once you put some thought into it👍 I'm now fulltime on the road and with my upgraded system produce more than enough power for my requirements @ just over 1kw a day
Very comprehensive. I am happy to see you managed to build a system you are happy with. I admit you did make it bomb proof. The amount of extra power is fascinating to me. Another options my just be a pole saw.
A pole saw?
They reach way up in to trees so you can cut branches. :-) @@OffGridGarageAustralia
Triming the "high noon tree" by 2 meters would boost the energy production significantly.
Cut the tree 🌲 it’s carbon negative if you grow another
@@trollking202 It's better to trim instead of cutting it all off. Just trim the tip. On the bright side, he would have some fuel for the fireplace.
Mal wieder sehr interessant! 👍Du kannst doch die PV3 und PV4 steiler stellen! Bringt im Winter mehr Leistung und dahinter steht nichts mehr.
Another great video Andy but the OCD part of my brain is screaming to trim 15 feet off the tops of those trees and then see what your solar production figures max out at..... I bet the cost of trimming vs the cost of more solar works in your favour!
Doing good following the sun. Without any shortcuts. Still adding up at the end of the day 😊
Yes, I'm pretty happy with the result and it is a lot of energy for winter production.
On a off-grid system, having at least som pannels tilted for the winter sun can be a smart idea.
In the summer, the tilt will not be optimal, but this is compensated by more sun hours...
Minute 20, i think the Multiplus is throttling down the microinverter via frequency shifting because there's more power than consumption / reached charge current limit
Very well explained.
For more solar you can make a patio and the roof for the patio from solar panels
Nice follow up video
You need to make motorized pan & tilt system where panels follow sun route. I guess your neighbour have less shades so you can build It to there
I like the idea of a small EW facing system to start and end the day earlier. You should try some vertical bifacials as they can accomplish this without any moving parts.
I could not get one in this size (510W) in a timely manner. Could have order some from China but they would still not be here and winter is coming to an end...
@@OffGridGarageAustraliamaybe an interesting test next winter?
@@evil17 replacing the panels again... Maybe I'll get two for testing purposes so we can see the difference.
44f is shorts weather springtime here. :D
I haven't been keeping up with your channel, sorry, but seems to me the legs from automatic standing desks would be almost perfect to keep solar panels pointed at the sun in one axis. Was taht what you used? I'll go watch later.
Ah, from the product link it looks like those are manual. Far cheaper than standing desk motors and legs would be though.
You inspired me to buy one of these cheap micro inverters and I did what you did with 4 panels on a WVC-1400 (my panels are 370Watt). Just a heads up, in the summer these thermal throttle with about 15 minutes on and 15 minutes off. I also have Enphase micro inverters which do not do this.
Hi Andy thanks again for another great video! I understand the route you are thinking with the shadows and micro inverters. But I have a roof full of them and see their limitations. They are less efficient and cannot easy communicate with the victron system when the accu is full for instance. So I was thinking of mppt with an optimizer like the tigo. Maybe this is something to look at? I don't know if they are compatible. But a central DC bus is more easy than a central AC distribution bus.
Don't use optimizers! An MPPT is far better than a micro inverter for sure if you can easily connect your DC from this MPPT to your battery. This is out of question for me due to the distance back to the garage where the battery is.
Hey Andy, I just wanted to let you know that your audio (voice especially) is becoming a bit muffled, especially in the outdoor segments. Not sure what to do about that, maybe some kind of mike with a small deadcat or so, maybe?
As always, super videos. Off the chart question: Can we "supercharge" the Tesla? DC to DC from the batteries to the Tesla?
Thank you, my friend. Hope everything is well in Switzerland.
No, that is not possible. DC charging will bypass the car's internal charger and connect and external charger directly to the battery of the vehicle. There needs to be the right communication between car and charger and care been taken to make this work. Certainly nothing you can do yourself on a DIY base.
When will you use a 2 axis tracker to compare a similar 2kW system?
Andi, did you notice that at 4:07 both your panels were in the same sunshine and panel 1 had 330 W and Panel (in the same full sunlight) only 220 W (same angle and everything). You should investigate this, this is only 2/3 of the output of Panek 1 under (what seems) comparable conditions! But maybe you were just standing in front of the panel when shooting the video and creating some shade, as later on all panels had roughly the same output…
As I said, the data logger in the inverter only updates ever 5 minutes to the online portal. In this time, the sun has moved a bit and the data delayed to what we actually have on the roof. It tricked me a few times.
Best is to watch the Victron VRM as this is live production.
Hi Andy, wie woher kommen die Balkendiagramme at 17:10 ? aus dem Victron Smart shunt ? Gruss aus Österreich vom Bodensee
Andy, do you have an updated link for the solar panels or the company name in china they were purchased through?
Andy you should use a shelly 1pm to visualise the earning from the micro inverter to in the vrm. I can help you if you are interested.
Ups, should have looked until the end 😂
😂 Thanks
hi , have you ever thought of putting reflective material vertical at the sides of the horizontal panels where are most opposite to the lowest points of the sun ?
would something like that work ?
to put a tilted reflector instead of tilting the panels
Did read in the news today how a house burned and had huge water problems after the cables to the solar cells took fire. The conclusion was that ALL cables had to be in tubes and it is better to just let it burn than pore water over it as the water makes more damage than the fire.
That’s what happens when you don’t use the correct cables and not a bad idea to put them in conduit also could electrify the roof🙂
@@Mark-wv6sg Searching "solar cell fire" gives many results, so in principals, it is "playing with fire". Google images shows a very scary situations that should be addressed in these many solar cell RUclips videos.
I think you need more tilt systems on that roof.
Maybe you need a 2 axis solar tracker.
Min 12:50, best moment of the day B-)
Ja, der Shelly ist ne gute und günstige Möglichkeit, die Leistung zu erfassen. So habe ich es mit meinem alten Mikroinverter auch gemacht. Super, dass sowas im Venus-OS möglich gemacht werden kann! Danke Victron für Open source!!
Aktuell habe ich für eine 8x410Wp- Erweiterung vier HM-600 zu je knapp über 100€ schießen können und akzeptiere overpaneling wegen 0° Neigung. Mittelfristig wird für ein paar € eine Open-DTU gebaut, die anstatt indirekt über Shelly dann direkt die Daten (mal wieder open souce plug-in) ins Venus-OS integriert.
Schön, was Victron und die community alles möglich macht, ASTREIN!! 😀
Deepl said:
Yes, the Shelly is a good and cheap way to measure the power. That's how I did it with my old microinverter. Great that something like this can be done in Venus-OS! Thanks Victron for Open source!
Currently I have for a 8x410Wp- extension four HM-600 at just over 100€ each and accept overpaneling because of 0° tilt. In the medium term, an Open-DTU will be built for a few €, which instead of indirectly via Shelly then directly integrates the data (once again open souce plug-in) into the Venus-OS.
Nice what Victron makes everything possible, ASTREIN!! 😀
Many thanks Andy for your great videos and schön, dass du immer Wert darauf legst, die passenden Daten/Bilder/Infos zur richtigen Zeit im Video reinzuschneiden - oft genau in den Momenten, wo ich denke: jetzt wäre schön zu sehen.. ah, da isses. Seelenverwand 😀
I love being self-sufficient with solar. Have you run the numbers of the payback period for this system?
Hi how you going love watching your channel. I’m wondering if you could help me in regards to what settings I should set my Victron controllers and multi, plus to charge these batteries
You have converted me from AGM and can’t get answers from everywhere in regards to bulk charge absorption charge and float charge
Andy, could you top cut the trees?
Have you considered a pole mounted solar tracker, with 4 of the big 500w panels?
Is there a low AC voltage setting on the micro inverters that might be causing them to disconnect?
8 kWh is very nice for 4 panels assuming they have a total of 2040 Wp.
How does it compare to the flat row of panels on the same building on the same sunny days?
I wonder if Emporia has Home Assistant integration to check power use and generation...
It seems so: github.com/magico13/ha-emporia-vue
Its all great - i love following this channel - but why has no-one asked the question - in terms of your shading issues ........ why not simply prune the trees?
hey Andy, what do u think would happen, if you put solar charge controller and grid tie inverter in parallel with solar panel,will it still work the same ?i only have 1k solar panel but my battery need too charge aslo .my charge controller is 150v and my grid tie inverter is 4k with limiter .please let know what u think .
This will not work. You can connect only a solar charger or an inverter to one set of panels, not both at the same time. They will both try and get the maximum power point of the panels and fight.
thanks ok .good thing we have you
Hi Andy, I am a novice so excuse my question: how come your pv's are charging at different rates? I thought that if one batter had part shade, all the others would be affected as much, or is this only when the pv's are in parallel sequence (joined as one into the inverter)?
They only affect each other if they are in series. I have mine in parallel connected to this inverter. So if one is shaded, it affects only this one panel.
Thank you so much for your reply Andy@@OffGridGarageAustralia The Other Thing: A solar off-grid supplier and installer has informed me that the Gvt is changing the law about D.I.Y. kits and will no longer allow us to do this without an installer and licensed electrician?
It all depends on the AC or DC voltage you're working on and local regulations.
... Maybe should have the panels mounted 90° rotated so the sun moves accordingly full panel to full panel overtime ...? (only some additional struts would be needed ...)
Man Andy, your opening on that clear, cold morning was an ASMR moment that brought back that just felt different than anywhere else in the world! Does it ever ware off or do you forget how different (better?) it feels to waking up back in Europe or America or just about anywhere else?
It never wears off. It's great! 😂
If you log direct into the microinverter with the ip, you can change the update time.
I tried that. there is no setting I can change.
Time to swap out your old hws for a heat pump hws. That will free up some juice for other loads.
Yeah, I know. That will cost me quite a bit of money just for these winter months. I'm using around 5kWh for hot water in Winter and less than 1kWh in summer per day. It would be only for these three months where I don't have enough energy from solar ...
12:45 BEER o'clock!
Yes! 💪🍺
Hey mate, have you got a video about the gui mods you have done to vrm/cerbo
solar need tilt systems period 🤑
What sort of hot water do you use?
Electric hot water tank 140L with a 1.7kW resistive heater.
Using 5kWh per day for 3 months over winter, less in other times and only 1kWh per day in summer. I thought about a heat pump but could not really justify the spending. Yet.
@@OffGridGarageAustralia I’d go solar hot water
Hi Andy, greetings from sunny Puerto Rico. I'm just wondering, why you just cut the top of your trees to reduce shade? Is it that your laws prohibit doing this?
The trees are over 35m high. Tell me how to 'just' just the top 😉
How about a drone with metal props?
Or build a tree climbing robot trimmer.
Maybe if you know someone that might have one of those trucks used be grid companies (with basket), you might be able to cut just the top or perhaps near the middle of the trees!
Maybe if you know someone that might have one of those trucks used be grid companies (with basket), you might be able to cut just the top or perhaps near the middle of the trees!
@@fernandofigueroa1534There is no access for such a truck to get even into our property...
Ever thought of just using a simple ‘Solar Tracking Mount’ system, to just rotate some high efficiency Panels to follow the movement of the Sun, instead, Andy...?
Seems likely to me, to be, far, more efficient, and a whole lot less, expensive, in the long run, compared to all, of what you’ve already, spent, on all of this ‘less efficient’ stuff, so far..?
Also, and yes I know this is stating the obvious, you could gain an immediate large improvement to your daily energy harvesting by simply getting rid of, or at least, removing ‘the tops’ from all of the tall nearby trees that are causing all of the heavy shading of your Panels each day.
In my younger days I way a tree trimmer. Those tree's could be trimmed back, in strategic places to gain alot more sunshine. And it's health for the tree's to be thinned, and pruned about every 2-3 years. OK love this part of your show.
Adding more panels, that's my idea of fun.
The trees are over 35m high. The company want's an arm and a leg for that.
Remember that a used SPAT calibration device is worth 10c, Your wife is going say "what MORE PANNELS!!!!?"
What about raising the angle of just the back row?
And a bit of a clean 😃
If I raise the back row, I would need to move it further from the roof edge as per regulations.
Great vid Andy, question though, I am off grid on ax coupled system, what would happen if I had no load to put the solar into (say battery already charged and no load) does the micro inverter shut down?
@@OffGridGarageAustralia Why is that? Is the shadow dangerous?
@@wingnut771 regulations for installing solar systems
Keep in mind that the MP2 has also 10 to 15% loss when charging. So if you can use AC Power directly, you are better of.
Yes, I sometimes turn on the hot water or charge the vehicle during the day when the micro inverter delivers the most, so using up this AC power directly.
@@OffGridGarageAustralia my installation is smaler and grid parallel, so if my Solarcharger produces enough to recharge the battery during the day, I disable charging for the MP2. Otherwise I would have loss when charging from the inverter and after the Battery is charged I have loss from feeding the solarcharger surplus to the grid.
Over the year the difference are some S.P.A.T
Some Victrons have a programmable AC relay you can trigger, say if the battery reaches say 80% or greater.
Going by the morning sun, you would be better off with the panels mounted in Landscape. The bottom panel will get full sun first, and the top panel will get full sun longer.
I tested that. Because they are half cut panels, they work better that way as only the bottom part is shaded while the top part still produces full power.
Do you have a weather station that shows your Solar Radiation?
The weather station is great as it records history. We had about 600 watts per sqm in NSW in June.
No, I don't have one. I may get one and connect it to Home Assistant at some stage.
@@OffGridGarageAustralia Thats another 20 videos worth of content just in a weather station!
@@TheOffGridShop at least... 😂
I would have tilted the back 2 panels the correct angle and keep the front 2 at the angle you have
1 more microinverter and 4 more panels then ...
You should probably get a wind turbine, just to show everyone how useless it will be ;)
Yes, that would be ideal. I have plenty of space on the other side of the roof and could build the same setup again. Just not sure with the cabling. The sparky won't be happy connecting both systems (4kWp) to one 2.5mm cable.
Bien ! 👍
you need to put those solar panels above the trees.
Or OR put the trees below the panels.
I recon the missus disagreed with this, though.
510watts @8 solar where ?
I would definitely not use a Shelly switch but instead use a Shelly EM(3). A switch has limited functionality and you don't want the relay inline with the solar equipment. I have a EM3 and with a little script it reports to the Cerbo/VRM.
I thought about that but found the switch of the 1PM plus can easily handle 16A and it could be another disconnection point in case the inverter does not throttle down when the battery is full.
I could just use HA to say if SOC is 99% turn off this relay. The micro inverter should be off by then anyway due to frequency shifting. It's just another layer...
@@OffGridGarageAustralia Hopefully you make a video about it showing the thermal image after 4 hours of >10 amps. "not good?" 🥵 or.. 🥶?
Why do you have ll those trees in your solar arc ? Do you not know what a chain saw is for ?
You must be new to the channel 😂
I have three trackers I make 30 % more power compared with them in their park position
Yes, great!
All that solar and still no power. Those trees are killers. In sunny weather like that my solar starts dumping around 11.00am. We're the opposite, we need more storage but it's enough for what we use. 50kwh in batteries and 10kw in solar. More than enough plus 3 backup gens.
Amazing!
🐸🐸🐸
You made it my friend: 🥇
A couple of hours with the chainsaw and you will be cooking!
If only those trees were shorter, they could shade the house and not block sun. Maybe cut the tops off, if possible.
Trees are over 35m high and I would need a company to do that. Cost me huge amount of $$$. for the money, I install more solar. That was part of the challenge from the beginning if you remember.
Also cutting trees for solar is so against what we are trying to achieve here.
Plant more trees to the South of your panels… trim the ones on the North. 😁
@@OffGridGarageAustralia I wouldn't want to live under a 100ft tree. It's good going to fall sometime, might as well chop it down for safety. If your neighbors are distant just angle it away from your house. If you have neighbors close I hope it doesn't fall on them. Sounds dangerous!
@@OffGridGarageAustralia My comment was actually ‘tongue-in-cheek’. I agree with your intentions and find the solutions interesting.
An astrolabe will find the slope of the sun at a given time.
6th! ;-)
Can't find a medal icon for that medal 🍌
Thanks for the video, any "inverter" in the DC circuit leads to losses... (My dream is a 50KWh battery in my garage(now have ~15 (from "Transylvania..."😁)), that will be enough (50KWh) for my EV (not in winter).. 🦘🌅
Hej Andy undskyld min bemærkning , måske beskærer nogle toppe