Merry Christmas and Happy New Year folks! Thanks for another great year on RUclips, I'm excited to see what 2025 holds for the industry. Order a Sol-Ark 15k with free shipping: practicalpreppers.com/product... Check out our store! practicalpreppers.com/ Order AES Rackmount lithium battery storage: practicalpreppers.com/product...
@jayarnette3757 just send an email to practicalpreppers@gmail.com Also, You can check out practicalpreppers.com and sign up for a consultation. That's how most of our projects get designed and installed.
That was one of several things that always attracted me to the Sol-Ark Hybrids. The ability to use the generator input as an AC-coupled solar connection.
So, it's going from DC to AC, then from AC to DC, and finally from DC back to AC to be consumed? How much loss it that when you factor in all the conversions?
Seems like maybe it would have been better to split the array into 3 groups of 8 and feed the MPPTs in the Sol-Ark directly assuming the buried conduit between the array and the house could hold the wire.
THIS done because you already have the AC system. The AC system works fine, why remove it? AC coupled systems are very expensive. I did this with my SolarEdge setup and added dc coupled to the MPPTs.
@@DerekRhoads It's more efficient than you realize. I'm monitoring it both on the enlighten enphase app and on the my solark app and there's 100 w difference at the end of the day. It is just a great way to take an existing system and not touch it at all. Just grab the AC output and connect it to a system that was designed for battery backup. Of course I would never do this from scratch, but there's a lot of people that have simple grid tied systems that can be converted to battery backup. Yes, I realize that some of these companies have a battery solution but it's very poor from what i have seen.
@@engineer775 Well, I'm guessing it's more than a 100W loss at the end of the day, but I'm not going to beat you up over it. It seems that this was your best option, all things considered. I'm not sure what AWG wire is being run to the combiner box or how many strings are brought into it. It would be nicer and more efficient to see those go directly into the Sol-Art as DC. That's what I would have done if it were my system. I initially considered going with Enphase but quickly abandoned it once I became more educated on other options. I ended up going DC-coupled with Tigo optimizers, a Luxpower LXP 12k inverter, and rack-mounted batteries for a total of 30kWh of storage.
@@engineer775 Enphase have really dropped the ball on the battery front even with the second generation they are just too expensive, and if you don't have IQ8 inverters islanding is a bit of a pain even if it's a 100% Enphase system and them insisting on installers doing their proprietary certification to get access in the tool kit to commission them really left a bitter taste with most. Sol-arc or eg4 are certainly the way to go and if the customer wants to add more capacity they can just cheaply add some DC strings straight into the new inverter and run both ac and DC strings.
I have had my 9000 watts of Enphase for 10 years now. A year ago I bought Ecoflow Delta Pro and added 2,180 watts of off grid solar. I use it to shed loads in the house. When the Ecoflow is full I turn on a 40 VDC power supply that is powered by the Delta Pro. It emulates solar panels and that goes into micro inverters which tie into my grid side of the wiring. If the grid goes down the anti islanding still kicks in.
How does the Sol-Ark fool the Enphase system into thinking they are driving the grid? In other words, how do you get around the Enphase ant-islanding behavior?
I have 9400 W of AC.Coupling going into my y.I.Y twelve k low frequency inverter fir 6 years now. So in the middle of the day time I have almost twenty thousand watts Of two hundred and forty volt split phase power. This really helps out running my tractor store and charging my electric car In the middle of the day. And with my seventy two Kwh's of hours of Chevy Volt batteries.I have ample supply at night.
This is cool since I might do the same thing in the future. I'm getting real close to installing my ~42 kW rooftop Enphase solar setup, but currently have no time of use rates to make it financially better to have a battery. In the future it might work better to add a battery, but I'm not there yet.
@@MrPizzaman09 42kw or 4.2kw? 42kw that's a really really really large system most utilities won't let you connect a system that large unless your on a commercial agreement and if that's the case the feed in rate is super low like 2-3c per kWh so batteries may actually make sense.
@weldchip Also I'm going to use maybe 1/3rd of the production and my parents will take another 1/3rd since they are close enough and can be on my electric bill. Then the last will be sold back at the end of the 12 month period at the generation charge (8-10 cents), full rolling credit bank. Also 3-4 cent credit on all of it from the state. There is an option to go with time of use rates as well, but I haven't done the math yet if that's better in my situation. If the federal credit holds and I install it myself, I'm looking at a sub 4 year pay back.
@@MrPizzaman09 that's awesome. Georgia power only allows a 12kw system but us early adopters got full 1:1 net metering, the state gives you nothing in ga. where do you live i might have to move lol
Fine for the roof given the RSD requirement. It is expensive for a ground mount system. Signature solar makes great stuff. 15k is nice AC coupled with enphase no problems.
I don't really understand why one would want to use microinverters on a ground-mount that doesn't appear to have any significant shading issues. Seems unnecessarily expensive to me.
@@engineer775 Yah, that's fine... but then why not just backhaul the DC and use a significantly cheaper string inverter at the home? At least then it could be repurposed without having to mess with the array. Using microinverters means you are stuck with AC coupling from the array.
It would be interesting if you can do a video to go over what settings you used on the sol-arc and the enphase inverters to get it to play nice in all situations. Did you change the grid profile on the enphase inverters to ca rule 21? I think if you do that then the solarc can frequency shift to lower the output of the enphase inverters more tightly if your not feeding back into the grid or if the batteries are full and you just need to meet the demand during a grid down islanding situation. I think if you leave it on the standard grid profile it will just shut them off if the battery is full and your over producing and not exporting but then they take 5mins to come back online when the sol-arc demands it.
It’s really cool that you can do this, but to be honest with you I’m not a big fan of ac systems on ground mounts makes the inverter kind of pointless other than the good warranty it comes with personally I think it would’ve just been better to do a Tesla system and it would’ve been a hell of a lot easier and cheaper
@@christopherconnor1010 I'm sorry I didn't explain the two phases of this project. This was initially at the customer's request. Just a grid tied system. He did not want to do batteries. 2 years later after extended power outages due to hurricanes he wanted to add batteries. This was my suggestion as not only a way to solve his problem but anybody's problem that has an existing grid tied system wanting a serious battery solution. Yes, we would never build it this way from scratch if we knew that it was going to be a battery backup system.
I live in southern New Mexico and have a 12.4 kw Enphase system. If I have the batteries, (probably Ruixu) and a Sol Ark 15k already..what do you think an installer might charge me to wire everything up, (ballpark-I know there are tons of variables). No sub panel..I think the 15k could do the whole house if I'm careful. There are several installers in El Paso and Las Cruces I can call...I'm just trying to get an idea of what I'm looking at. Happy Holidays.!
Is it correct that you as well could keep the whole grid-tied array as is, and just AC-couple the SolArk on the Grid input and it would just follow CT-information for storing energy into the battery? I am aware that in that case if the Grid goes down the power of the PV array will be lost too. But I have a property where I cannot get the outputs of the grid-tied systems wired into the Gen input of the hybrid inverter. Have you ever done something like this with a SolArk?
I just wired in a breaker coming from the generator/ grid to the battery charger so the guy can can never leave it on using the inverter power (again)😅
Perhaps I spaced out, but I have two questions and a preface. I admit to not knowing well how enphase (or any other micro inverter) works only that they output AC and somehow stay in sync. 1) do the micro inverters require a source "clock" by having AC present on the wire before they add to the output power available or are this inverters able to initiate 60Hz 120/240v from nothing on the output bus? Perhaps they have a programming setting for this? 2) the output varies, so say a PEAK output of 9k watts is possible but obviously the output can drops to 4k, how does one configure the generator input on a Sol-Ark (or similar) device to not exceed the output? Does the voltage sag as a form of communication (125V AC with no load down to 110V when "at" the peak micro inverters output). I suspect there is some real-time communication between the enphase controller and the sol-ark to dynamically adjust the max generator demand to "track" the maximum power available?
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year folks! Thanks for another great year on RUclips, I'm excited to see what 2025 holds for the industry.
Order a Sol-Ark 15k with free shipping:
practicalpreppers.com/product...
Check out our store!
practicalpreppers.com/
Order AES Rackmount lithium battery storage:
practicalpreppers.com/product...
FWIW, 1st link gives a 404 error.
What is the best way to contact you about a project? Merry Christmas, thanks.
@jayarnette3757 just send an email to practicalpreppers@gmail.com Also, You can check out practicalpreppers.com and sign up for a consultation. That's how most of our projects get designed and installed.
That was one of several things that always attracted me to the Sol-Ark Hybrids. The ability to use the generator input as an AC-coupled solar connection.
So, it's going from DC to AC, then from AC to DC, and finally from DC back to AC to be consumed? How much loss it that when you factor in all the conversions?
Seems like maybe it would have been better to split the array into 3 groups of 8 and feed the MPPTs in the Sol-Ark directly assuming the buried conduit between the array and the house could hold the wire.
THIS done because you already have the AC system. The AC system works fine, why remove it? AC coupled systems are very expensive.
I did this with my SolarEdge setup and added dc coupled to the MPPTs.
@@DerekRhoads It's more efficient than you realize. I'm monitoring it both on the enlighten enphase app and on the my solark app and there's 100 w difference at the end of the day. It is just a great way to take an existing system and not touch it at all. Just grab the AC output and connect it to a system that was designed for battery backup. Of course I would never do this from scratch, but there's a lot of people that have simple grid tied systems that can be converted to battery backup. Yes, I realize that some of these companies have a battery solution but it's very poor from what i have seen.
@@engineer775 Well, I'm guessing it's more than a 100W loss at the end of the day, but I'm not going to beat you up over it. It seems that this was your best option, all things considered. I'm not sure what AWG wire is being run to the combiner box or how many strings are brought into it. It would be nicer and more efficient to see those go directly into the Sol-Art as DC. That's what I would have done if it were my system. I initially considered going with Enphase but quickly abandoned it once I became more educated on other options. I ended up going DC-coupled with Tigo optimizers, a Luxpower LXP 12k inverter, and rack-mounted batteries for a total of 30kWh of storage.
@@engineer775 Enphase have really dropped the ball on the battery front even with the second generation they are just too expensive, and if you don't have IQ8 inverters islanding is a bit of a pain even if it's a 100% Enphase system and them insisting on installers doing their proprietary certification to get access in the tool kit to commission them really left a bitter taste with most. Sol-arc or eg4 are certainly the way to go and if the customer wants to add more capacity they can just cheaply add some DC strings straight into the new inverter and run both ac and DC strings.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and yours. Thanks for the episodes.
I have had my 9000 watts of Enphase for 10 years now. A year ago I bought Ecoflow Delta Pro and added 2,180 watts of off grid solar. I use it to shed loads in the house. When the Ecoflow is full I turn on a 40 VDC power supply that is powered by the Delta Pro. It emulates solar panels and that goes into micro inverters which tie into my grid side of the wiring. If the grid goes down the anti islanding still kicks in.
Thank you for this one. I also have an Enphase system and wanted to know about adding batteries.
Time to play with EG4s new equipment.
How does the Sol-Ark fool the Enphase system into thinking they are driving the grid? In other words, how do you get around the Enphase ant-islanding behavior?
Yes. This. Is the Gen input actually connected to the grid?
Solark you can have grid in Gen run at the same time.
Get them setup with SolarAssistant.
I have solaredge setup just like this on my SolArk.
Merry Christmas to you Scott and the team! 2025 is going to be a great!
I have 9400 W of AC.Coupling going into my y.I.Y twelve k low frequency inverter fir 6 years now. So in the middle of the day time I have almost twenty thousand watts Of two hundred and forty volt split phase power. This really helps out running my tractor store and charging my electric car In the middle of the day. And with my seventy two Kwh's of hours of Chevy Volt batteries.I have ample supply at night.
That’s a genius move. A lot could benefit from this.
I wish I knew what you were talking about
@@freedomcowboy6274 If you would like to know you can sign it for consultation and I will explain everything I know about solar, water, etc.
This is cool since I might do the same thing in the future. I'm getting real close to installing my ~42 kW rooftop Enphase solar setup, but currently have no time of use rates to make it financially better to have a battery. In the future it might work better to add a battery, but I'm not there yet.
@@MrPizzaman09 42kw or 4.2kw? 42kw that's a really really really large system most utilities won't let you connect a system that large unless your on a commercial agreement and if that's the case the feed in rate is super low like 2-3c per kWh so batteries may actually make sense.
@weldchip 42 kW. Max is 50kW for my utility. I have a neighbor who already did this with a very similarly sized system.
@weldchip Also I'm going to use maybe 1/3rd of the production and my parents will take another 1/3rd since they are close enough and can be on my electric bill. Then the last will be sold back at the end of the 12 month period at the generation charge (8-10 cents), full rolling credit bank. Also 3-4 cent credit on all of it from the state. There is an option to go with time of use rates as well, but I haven't done the math yet if that's better in my situation. If the federal credit holds and I install it myself, I'm looking at a sub 4 year pay back.
@@MrPizzaman09 that's awesome. Georgia power only allows a 12kw system but us early adopters got full 1:1 net metering, the state gives you nothing in ga. where do you live i might have to move lol
Fine for the roof given the RSD requirement. It is expensive for a ground mount system. Signature solar makes great stuff. 15k is nice AC coupled with enphase no problems.
excellent info & overview, ty 👍
love the videos but you make me sea sick with all the moving around. would be great if you get one of those gyro stabilized mounts for your phone
I don't really understand why one would want to use microinverters on a ground-mount that doesn't appear to have any significant shading issues. Seems unnecessarily expensive to me.
@@junkerzn7312 The customer wanted a grid tie system that wasn't on his roof. He did not want batteries at first.
@@engineer775 Yah, that's fine... but then why not just backhaul the DC and use a significantly cheaper string inverter at the home? At least then it could be repurposed without having to mess with the array. Using microinverters means you are stuck with AC coupling from the array.
This guy doesnt age😉
@@kevreilly7 lol
It would be interesting if you can do a video to go over what settings you used on the sol-arc and the enphase inverters to get it to play nice in all situations. Did you change the grid profile on the enphase inverters to ca rule 21? I think if you do that then the solarc can frequency shift to lower the output of the enphase inverters more tightly if your not feeding back into the grid or if the batteries are full and you just need to meet the demand during a grid down islanding situation. I think if you leave it on the standard grid profile it will just shut them off if the battery is full and your over producing and not exporting but then they take 5mins to come back online when the sol-arc demands it.
Is there a way to use different manufacturer batteries together. We have storz batteries now and wanting to expand. Thinking maybe eg4.
It’s really cool that you can do this, but to be honest with you I’m not a big fan of ac systems on ground mounts makes the inverter kind of pointless other than the good warranty it comes with personally I think it would’ve just been better to do a Tesla system and it would’ve been a hell of a lot easier and cheaper
@@christopherconnor1010 I'm sorry I didn't explain the two phases of this project. This was initially at the customer's request. Just a grid tied system. He did not want to do batteries. 2 years later after extended power outages due to hurricanes he wanted to add batteries. This was my suggestion as not only a way to solve his problem but anybody's problem that has an existing grid tied system wanting a serious battery solution. Yes, we would never build it this way from scratch if we knew that it was going to be a battery backup system.
@@engineer775 it would be awesome if you could do your one line explanation through the video it would be really cool to see
I live in southern New Mexico and have a 12.4 kw Enphase system. If I have the batteries, (probably Ruixu) and a Sol Ark 15k already..what do you think an installer might charge me to wire everything up, (ballpark-I know there are tons of variables). No sub panel..I think the 15k could do the whole house if I'm careful. There are several installers in El Paso and Las Cruces I can call...I'm just trying to get an idea of what I'm looking at. Happy Holidays.!
Don’t forget tayco, optimiser issues integrating
Is it correct that you as well could keep the whole grid-tied array as is, and just AC-couple the SolArk on the Grid input and it would just follow CT-information for storing energy into the battery? I am aware that in that case if the Grid goes down the power of the PV array will be lost too. But I have a property where I cannot get the outputs of the grid-tied systems wired into the Gen input of the hybrid inverter. Have you ever done something like this with a SolArk?
I just wired in a breaker coming from the generator/ grid to the battery charger so the guy can can never leave it on using the inverter power (again)😅
Interesting for me
Perhaps I spaced out, but I have two questions and a preface. I admit to not knowing well how enphase (or any other micro inverter) works only that they output AC and somehow stay in sync.
1) do the micro inverters require a source "clock" by having AC present on the wire before they add to the output power available or are this inverters able to initiate 60Hz 120/240v from nothing on the output bus? Perhaps they have a programming setting for this?
2) the output varies, so say a PEAK output of 9k watts is possible but obviously the output can drops to 4k, how does one configure the generator input on a Sol-Ark (or similar) device to not exceed the output? Does the voltage sag as a form of communication (125V AC with no load down to 110V when "at" the peak micro inverters output). I suspect there is some real-time communication between the enphase controller and the sol-ark to dynamically adjust the max generator demand to "track" the maximum power available?