Great advise, we recently gone off grid, north island NZ 18 used panels 30 used 100ah vented agm batteries and 10 kw total of 3 inverters wood stove, wet back, bottle gas hob, direct solar panel to water cylinder for summer hot water without the fire, all done for around 7k nzd including the new wood stove, house electrics are not integrated we made it stand alone like a solar generator our water is gravity fed direct from the river through the property to filtration system no pumps and potential for hydro power, great feel the benefits of self-reliance and free power expect payback in around 1 year
Thanks folks. Will be showing this to B tonight. We have the panels (7kW back to grid), so would just need the batteries & upgraded inverter to cut the cord to the grid.
@@RobsAquaponics most welcome! Feel free to hit us up with any questions. Sorry we missed your and Bianca’s live on the weekend, hope all is going well 😁👍
Well done guys we are on a small acreage and have gone with solar and batteries and survive 98% of the time on our own power, 14.6 Kwh on the roof and a 12.8 Kwh lithium battery we start to suffer after 2 days of cloudy rainy weather ( still grid connected) but being smart about your power usage is key, Our last bill was $13.60 so very happy with that. The system we put up was just under 20k so a few more years till we are square, Well done guys and loving the life style Cheers Mark
@@markdebsauzzietravels awesome work mate, def love this lifestyle and adjusting behaviour to suit what power is available makes a big difference in usage 💪
Awesome run down on your system. The beat part is the simplicity. There are so many systems out there that are very and overly complicated. The quattro is a very versatile bit of kit. It has some very easily utilised controls that could near double you output using the passthrough feature and another remotely controlled inverter. (victron or other brand). Also great work on reusing parts that may have other wise gone to scrap or waste.
Great video......left Aussie in 98 so love just hearing the accent :) Going from a 5K to a 10K inverter also means that the 10K inverter won't work as hard because generally it will only being supplying the watts that the old 5K did......so it will last a lot longer
Awesome video guys. Very informative. I'm planning on doing this myself within the next year or so (5 years back in suburbia is enough for me, I'm done). I've got to admit though, the thought freaks me out. Despite my many trade skills and all sorts of experience, electrickery is one thing that completely messes with my head. 🥴 I'm going to need a LOT of help. 😂
For sure! Thankfully there’s way more info around than there was even 5 yrs ago. We originally got into solar from building a small system for self sufficient camping.
@@ROCKPILEOffgridHomestead - I've seen quite a few do the same on youtube. They learn from setting up their camper or caravan first. Maybe I should buy a caravan. 🤔
Great video guys .... any particular reason you went with lead acid and not lithium? I've built one smaller system (lithium) but i will be building a larger on our homestead, so I interested in the why!
@@barraponicsnthings9690 if budget wasn’t a limiting factor we would’ve gone with lithium. Every choice has its cons but lithium is more recent tech and can be drained down more than lead.
Have you considered wind power and/or a backyard bio gas digester for producing your own cooking gas and liquid fertilizer at the same time? For example the bio digester from HomeBiogas? The HomeBiogas 4 is 2340 AUD and it can produce up to 4 hours worth of gas and 16 liters of liquid fertilizer daily. They also have a cheaper smaller version for 1740 AUD with half the capacity, and a much larger version for farmers, the HomeBiogas 8, but you have to contact them for the price from the big version. Anyway, thanks for sharing 👍
We’d certainly consider a homebiogas system. It’s something we’ve discussed! We’ve actually done an interview with one of the founders over on the Australian Homesteaders channel 👍
building your own Lifep04 48 volt battery banks are 1/2 the price from 4 years ago. I seen I can get 32kw (32 cells) to make 2 banks for $2500 USD which includes 1 BMS for each one so 2 total. That would greatly increase your capacity.
But even our smaller welder we use off a generator because we’re wary of the way a welder draws power and we don’t want that to potentially negatively impact our inverter if that makes sense.
Generally what is your daily depth of discharge at sunrise? We ran a 3kV inverter / charger for bout 6 years was quite that challenge until we upgraded to a 10 kv, all your troubles will go away
My setup 2 5k inverters 2 strings of solar 9kw total 4 14.3kw battery banks @ 48 volt LFK 280ah 8000 cycle (64) I also bought used panels and built my system for a total of $14,800 USD 2 years ago. Looks like my batteries will last me over 30 years.
In your calculations did you take into account the Western Power head works costs? For my place the head works were going to be around $500k so it made solar a no brainer.
We didn’t get an exact cost but conservative estimates would be at least 10s of thousands. Hundreds of metres across rocky terrains and a 60m elevation change. So yeah, like you it was a no brainer.
@@ROCKPILEOffgridHomestead Thanks Corey and Amanda, i wouldn't be without my solar system after 18 years one battery change and now a major revamp, looking to move to electric cooking and hot water to move totally away from gas.
I'm south of Darkan and Western Power is pestering me to go onto their "off grid" system. They are pulling down the power grid after 50 years and say they won't put up the price??? I'm going to be forced to do something soon.
I know power is expensive but i dont know how two people consume that much energy at $3k per year, were you growing marijuana in huroponics lol i pay under $400 a qtr for a family of 5 in NSW
@@Scotty_AU 😂😂 it’s easy when you don’t pay attention. And we weren’t two people then, we had four adults in the house. We had a 20kw fully ducted reverse cycle ac that was on nearly 24:7 in a large house. In the kitchen, 3 ovens plus a commercial grade electric hot plate, multiple fridges and every appliance was MAX power. 3 phase power to shed, 3 phase bore pump to dam, big power draw tools, 3.5kW water pump for house. It was ridiculous looking at it now but just a very standard (to our mind) lifestyle. Our friends were much the same 🤷♀️ part of why we tell our story is so people who are like what we were stop and think 👍 it’s good to question things
![The REAL cost of our off-grid build | Step by step from bare ground to sealed box [ALL the details!]](/img/1.gif)
The Rocky shirt 👌
Really good rundown.
@@Bush_Edge_Homesteading_Aus we thought it was kinda on brand 😂😂
Great review and re cap guys, thanks for sharing.
@@plowestory most welcome!
Very informative. Thanks guys!! x
Great advise, we recently gone off grid, north island NZ 18 used panels 30 used 100ah vented agm batteries and 10 kw total of 3 inverters wood stove, wet back, bottle gas hob, direct solar panel to water cylinder for summer hot water without the fire, all done for around 7k nzd including the new wood stove, house electrics are not integrated we made it stand alone like a solar generator our water is gravity fed direct from the river through the property to filtration system no pumps and potential for hydro power, great feel the benefits of self-reliance and free power expect payback in around 1 year
@@deanhenley3677 sounds good mate 👍
More Power to you! Great explanation, super well-presented info 🥰🐝
@@BronnieBee Thankyou!
Thanks folks. Will be showing this to B tonight. We have the panels (7kW back to grid), so would just need the batteries & upgraded inverter to cut the cord to the grid.
@@RobsAquaponics most welcome! Feel free to hit us up with any questions. Sorry we missed your and Bianca’s live on the weekend, hope all is going well 😁👍
Great video explaining actual usage!!!
@@judithmaurer7622 Thankyou!
Well done guys we are on a small acreage and have gone with solar and batteries and survive 98% of the time on our own power, 14.6 Kwh on the roof and a 12.8 Kwh lithium battery we start to suffer after 2 days of cloudy rainy weather ( still grid connected) but being smart about your power usage is key, Our last bill was $13.60 so very happy with that. The system we put up was just under 20k so a few more years till we are square, Well done guys and loving the life style
Cheers Mark
@@markdebsauzzietravels awesome work mate, def love this lifestyle and adjusting behaviour to suit what power is available makes a big difference in usage 💪
Awesome run down on your system. The beat part is the simplicity. There are so many systems out there that are very and overly complicated.
The quattro is a very versatile bit of kit. It has some very easily utilised controls that could near double you output using the passthrough feature and another remotely controlled inverter. (victron or other brand).
Also great work on reusing parts that may have other wise gone to scrap or waste.
@@HomeGrownAlchemy Thankyou! Glad you enjoyed 😁💪
Awesome work thanks for the information 🍷🍷
Most welcome 🙌
Great explanation on real life usage.
@@Steven-cx9pf cheers mate 👍
Great video......left Aussie in 98 so love just hearing the accent :)
Going from a 5K to a 10K inverter also means that the 10K inverter won't work as hard because generally it will only being supplying the watts that the old 5K did......so it will last a lot longer
@@Ulbre cheers mate, good point about the inverter 👍
Awesome video guys. Very informative. I'm planning on doing this myself within the next year or so (5 years back in suburbia is enough for me, I'm done). I've got to admit though, the thought freaks me out. Despite my many trade skills and all sorts of experience, electrickery is one thing that completely messes with my head. 🥴 I'm going to need a LOT of help. 😂
For sure! Thankfully there’s way more info around than there was even 5 yrs ago. We originally got into solar from building a small system for self sufficient camping.
@@ROCKPILEOffgridHomestead - I've seen quite a few do the same on youtube. They learn from setting up their camper or caravan first. Maybe I should buy a caravan. 🤔
I just installed a ac/dc split reverse cycle 7kw system brilliant all diy in Wandering WA 100% solar no battery
@@aaronhunter7062 they’re great aren’t they?!
Great video guys .... any particular reason you went with lead acid and not lithium? I've built one smaller system (lithium) but i will be building a larger on our homestead, so I interested in the why!
@@barraponicsnthings9690 short answer, budget. Also availability… that set was there at the time we got Alt-tech to price up our system.
@@barraponicsnthings9690 if budget wasn’t a limiting factor we would’ve gone with lithium. Every choice has its cons but lithium is more recent tech and can be drained down more than lead.
Have you considered wind power and/or a backyard bio gas digester for producing your own cooking gas and liquid fertilizer at the same time? For example the bio digester from HomeBiogas? The HomeBiogas 4 is 2340 AUD and it can produce up to 4 hours worth of gas and 16 liters of liquid fertilizer daily. They also have a cheaper smaller version for 1740 AUD with half the capacity, and a much larger version for farmers, the HomeBiogas 8, but you have to contact them for the price from the big version.
Anyway, thanks for sharing 👍
We’d certainly consider a homebiogas system. It’s something we’ve discussed! We’ve actually done an interview with one of the founders over on the Australian Homesteaders channel 👍
building your own Lifep04 48 volt battery banks are 1/2 the price from 4 years ago. I seen I can get 32kw (32 cells) to make 2 banks for $2500 USD which includes 1 BMS for each one so 2 total. That would greatly increase your capacity.
Sure would, worth looking into thanks
Great video, thank you! One question however, do you use anything with 15amp, like welder etc? How would that work with this solar setup?
Our welder is the one thing we use directly off a generator 👍
But even our smaller welder we use off a generator because we’re wary of the way a welder draws power and we don’t want that to potentially negatively impact our inverter if that makes sense.
@@ROCKPILEOffgridHomestead it does make sense, thank you for your reply. Thanks also for sharing your information in these videos. Much appreciated!
Generally what is your daily depth of discharge at sunrise?
We ran a 3kV inverter / charger for bout 6 years was quite that challenge until we upgraded to a 10 kv, all your troubles will go away
@@alanblyde8502 generally in the morning the system is around 50 volts
@@ROCKPILEOffgridHomesteadwould that be about 70% ?
Not bad, I never took ours below 70%
Do you use gas for anything other than your BBQ? Its getting so expensive but i love how quick gas hot water is
Gas cooking appliances inside, gas bbq, gas instantaneous water heater with electric start.
My setup
2 5k inverters
2 strings of solar 9kw total
4 14.3kw battery banks @ 48 volt LFK 280ah 8000 cycle (64)
I also bought used panels and built my system for a total of $14,800 USD 2 years ago. Looks like my batteries will last me over 30 years.
Nice! 👍
I would buy another inverter the same as the one you have and then you have double while having 2 so if 1 goes down you wont be without power.
Good way of looking at it cheers mate
In your calculations did you take into account the Western Power head works costs? For my place the head works were going to be around $500k so it made solar a no brainer.
We didn’t get an exact cost but conservative estimates would be at least 10s of thousands. Hundreds of metres across rocky terrains and a 60m elevation change. So yeah, like you it was a no brainer.
@@ROCKPILEOffgridHomestead Thanks Corey and Amanda, i wouldn't be without my solar system after 18 years one battery change and now a major revamp, looking to move to electric cooking and hot water to move totally away from gas.
@@ROCKPILEOffgridHomestead that's interesting, so technically you broke even on the first day, if headworks costs were included. NICE.
@@stevenjohn350 I like that perspective!!!
I'm south of Darkan and Western Power is pestering me to go onto their "off grid" system. They are pulling down the power grid after 50 years and say they won't put up the price??? I'm going to be forced to do something soon.
Hey mate, not familiar with WPs off grid system. Can you tell us more about what they’re trying to do?
Western Power hates the wheatbelt though. We have so many power outages is a stinking joke 😂😭 off grid is probably way more reliable
@@BiancaH1120 so true! Never seen so many power outages before. Feels like every couple weeks 😂
I thought the batteries would need to be changed soon?
We expect we’ve got another 3-4 years before needing to change them 👍
I know power is expensive but i dont know how two people consume that much energy at $3k per year, were you growing marijuana in huroponics lol i pay under $400 a qtr for a family of 5 in NSW
@@Scotty_AU 😂😂 it’s easy when you don’t pay attention. And we weren’t two people then, we had four adults in the house. We had a 20kw fully ducted reverse cycle ac that was on nearly 24:7 in a large house. In the kitchen, 3 ovens plus a commercial grade electric hot plate, multiple fridges and every appliance was MAX power. 3 phase power to shed, 3 phase bore pump to dam, big power draw tools, 3.5kW water pump for house. It was ridiculous looking at it now but just a very standard (to our mind) lifestyle. Our friends were much the same 🤷♀️ part of why we tell our story is so people who are like what we were stop and think 👍 it’s good to question things