3KW EG4 ONE YEAR REVIEW - Offgrid Solar Powered House You can support the channel by getting your solar supplies from Signature solar here: signaturesolar...
My burn out in less than a year , no a good unit , was installed professionally , my victrons are working much better and no problems so far. Stay away from this units Eag4.
Thanks for your experience. Mine have been flawless now for... 3 years straight running. Very good for me, and i have 2 for redundancy, one goes down, the other stays up while i order a new one or fix it or something. I run split 120 240 with 2 units.
Is your AC from a non GFCI and AFCI circuit? My system trips the GFCI outlet when I have the AC out plugged into the manual transfer switch and AC in plugged in and starts to charge the battery. I have to unplug the AC out to charge. PV charging alone works fine.
Thanks for the comment. a) I like redundancy of 2 separate units and b ) i can't afford the xp now, already spent money on these. If i have lots of money, i probably would upgrade :) They have worked flawlessly for me though continuously used to power our house for 2 years or more now straight.
I have 2 3kw units now, for 240 split mode, works great. The main cost was batteries. spend 14k doing it myself. Cheaper than a grid tie install anyways
Could do, but then i need to pay for gas which is increasing and which in someplace they are trying to limit. My plan would rather be to put more load on the offgrid stuff, or continue to build it out to be able to handle those loads. it does the water heater mostly ok but i need a lot more solar panels now to keep up
After getting out of a big city I built a 16x40 mine Mansion. Open floor plan for my son that is in a wheelchair. I haven't gotten my Frankenstein Soar system back together. I was able to get it back to recharging my batteries but haven't gotten it ran into the mime Mansion. I got a old Hot water tank and I am going to build a box to preheat my water so my hot water heater will either not come on or just be used very little. I have the heat as you go hot water system / tankless and this works well when it's hot like it is now. Most of the time the hot water heater will stay off. I take showers most of the time in the late afternoons 4-6 O clock so unless there's been a lot of bad weather it works well. I painted the old tank flat Black and will have a box with Plexiglass to cover it. Run the hot water from the tank into the water heater and it will heat if needed. With tankless it only runs when in use, so with hot water running through it it will stay off unless the water gets below 120 degrees. I put 2 shy lights on each end in the mine Mansion and don't needs lights in the day time. I should be able to be almost grid free soon if need be. Planning on getting a big water storage tank soon also. I will catch rain water for flushing the toilet and use the storage tank for potable water.
Hi. I built a water heater using a 5 gal bucket and a solar panel and a couple diesel engine glow plugs wired direct to the solar panel. it heated over 100 deg in about an hour or so, it proved the idea and function. I have it setting on a shelf with rest of preps just in case. This idea should work for a larger volume, I only have needs for max of 1 to 3 gallons of hot water in an emergency situation. If the water gets hot enough it could also disinfect it but do your own research on that subject. It's a way to save fuel and costs over time. I saw the setup on a video from an India villager. Here is one example video title: How To Make Solar Water Heater/geysers Under 10$?? Have a great day.
Agreed, Will Prowse speaks well about them as well. I've had zero issues after a full year of constant use supplying our whole house. Just my experience but its something. I have a second inverter on the way so I will have 240 volts, hope to put a vid up about that one as well! Can't wait!
@@MicahGallant Good day to you. Love the update. I just recently bought one of the 3000kw unit (the newer version) I am not planning to grid tie it but like you charge from the grid when solar is not available. My question is how did you set it up for that, considering the treatment of ground bond neutral that I am still trying to understand for this unit.
yes, I just have ferrite rings that i wrapped the wires around just to do something / anything in terms of stopping or limiting RF. I still need to turn off my solar panels as most of the RF comes from my panels because they are right under my copper loop antenna
@drewmichael401480 meter full wavelength copper loop antenna is what i have, which goes right over the solar panels and a portion of it tracks above the exact path of the solar cables coming into the house as well so its a bad config for RF but I don't have many other choices
Nice Video. I had an all-in-one failure and no off-grid ac. I like function over appearance, and your modular system resilience ideas. I run 3 victron charge controllers on 3 strings of panels for a total of 3500w. 2 diy 24v 310ah dc batteries I made from some of Will Prowse's videos. both batteries are working fine. each has a slightly different ah discharge rate of about 5ah's over 2 cloudy days. I'm assuming this is due to a 1-year difference in cell pack internal resistance and versions of 250a 24-volt bms's, different Shunts. Since cells are no longer cheap, try to get entire pack of cells at same time and matched, if you can. Have a great day.
Nice Setup! Codos!! Late last year I took a dive into a DIY solar setup as well. I went with the PowMr 5000W Hybrid Solar Inverter 48V. I have a small array of 6 donated solar panels hooked up in a 3x2 array generating about 1800 watts at peak. (180v max output). I set up a 4x4 array of 12v 40ah lead acid batteries which should total 7680 watts (48v). I doubt it is that much capacity now given the batteries are a few years old. These batteries were also donated, used batteries from a computer room UPS system. I never intended this project to power my house. Rather to help charge my PHEV. As the entire system is built on and in my garage. The car's battery max capacity is 18kw. I built this system on the cheap as a proof of 'wishfull-thinking' concept on my part. So far, it appears to be working as intended. With full sun and full batteries, I can get maybe 4 hours of light charge to the vehicle. (I have it set to only draw its minimum 8 amps currently.) At night, if the batteries are at full charge, I can get upwards to between 1-2 hours of charge before batteries are depleted. If there is no solar or battery input the Hybrid inverter switches back to Grid. My desire for the next step is to upgrade this setup with far more solar panels and if finances permit, switch over to LifePo batteries like your setup. Again, great setup!
Thanks for the comment. Yes, great experience is gained by starting small, then building. Thats what i did, and i did it in such a way that i can expand as I go. Coming shortly is another eg4 inverter that i will hook up in parallel with my existing one for 240 volts! This system, though expensive (mostly the battery) saves us $50 a month on our electricity bill, better than nothing but long payback when it comes to the overall cost of the hardware, 15 years... i need a larger battery bank to collect solar all day as my 5kwh battery fills up quick and then my panels just idle all day.
@@MicahGallant Noice! Same here. Starting small and cheap. With secondhand panels and batteries. Learning as I go. Started as more of a 'can I get some solar miles on my car.' It's not much, due to my lack solar capture and storage, but the basic concept is working. I can knock an hour or two off the average 12-14 hour charge for a depleted battery before it switches to Grid for the rest of the charge. I would love to cut that on-grid charge time at least in half. (or more). The car's battery is only 18kw. Obviously LifePO batteries are the way to go. Along with more panels of course. Just need to make the initial investment. So far, the only money spent was on the Hybrid inverter and associated cabling.
One question would be, is the new 14kw battery work with the 5kw you have? It is a little lower cost kw wise than the 5.2kw. I'm glad it is working for you. The new 6 kw inverter might be an option and have the 3k as a back up.
Yes, the new battery has same voltage as my sig solar battery so you can hook them up in parallel for 20~ kwhs of batteries. If I had the money I would do that but i need to recover some costs
Ive been running the same inverter for over a year now non stop 24/7 in my cabin . 2 life power 5k batteries. The thing is a work horse. Never had a problem. Great unit. I did hear somewhere on YT that a concern was for the dust on the 480 volt inverter building up an possibly causeing a fire hazard? Idk about that but, i do plan on shutting it down tue first of the year an do a thorough cleaning and inspection.
Yes, been running mine stead well over a year now, flawless. I have a rebuilt one from Sig Solar and the fan is getting noisy on it but otherwise flawless. Good idea on cleaning dust though, get some compressed air and a vacuum for sure
If you really want to step up to two of those inverters, I would look at a rack of 4 of those batteries and will need prob 3kw of panels, though over panel is always nice for cloudy days.
Yes, but don't have money for a fancy new one, $2000 CAD for fancy new ones. I don't know who can afford them. Right now i have 15Kwhs of batteries, which is a better fit than one 5kwh battery
So adding another inverter will give you 2 x 3000 watts or 3000 watts@240v? if so 3k at240 will be insufficient to run your average hot water heater which runs at 4800 watts.
Great question, glad you asked, as I had not thought of it that way. I measured it, so its consuming 12 amps per leg of the 120 volts, aka 1500 watts. And I think i spoke incorrectly, the hot water heater consumes 3000 watts at 240 volts. So based on what i'm measuring, it only pulls 1500 watts per leg, totally 3000 watts. So two of these units should work
I would go at least 2 x what you think you will need. 3000w running 3000w load will kill that machine. I run a 6500w inverter and rarely get over 2500w. I can if needed run my AC and microwave at the same time or the AC and some other cooking equipment like instant pot etc.
@@miketlane you can always add a low wattage heater element. They are cheap and a great way to store excess solar energy instead of giving it to the power company at wholesale rates
I recommend this cheaper model, $1419 here: signaturesolar.com/eg4-lifepower4-lithium-battery-48v-100ah/?ref=vBPxa1lWHkhTM0 You don't need the screen on it necessarily as you will be monitoring generally using the inverter or other tools
![DDG & G Herbo - Nosey [Official Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/I9Ra0Zc2NlQ/mqdefault.jpg)
You should check out Reliance transfer switches, lets you switch between solar and grid with the flip of a switch for each breaker
My burn out in less than a year , no a good unit , was installed professionally , my victrons are working much better and no problems so far.
Stay away from this units Eag4.
Thanks for your experience. Mine have been flawless now for... 3 years straight running. Very good for me, and i have 2 for redundancy, one goes down, the other stays up while i order a new one or fix it or something. I run split 120 240 with 2 units.
Is your AC from a non GFCI and AFCI circuit? My system trips the GFCI outlet when I have the AC out plugged into the manual transfer switch and AC in plugged in and starts to charge the battery. I have to unplug the AC out to charge. PV charging alone works fine.
Yes, i do recall an issue with the gfci, not using it anymore. The grid power is straight from my main panel.
I just set mine up with 6 250w pannels and 4 12v deepcycles. It wont run a portable ac for more the 5 min:(
But why, your batteries won't hold up? I suspect the voltage sag is the issue there, not the inverter
$1000 for basic eg4 battery but shipping might be high
just got this set up with 10 solar panels, free shipping
Throw that unit in the garbage. And just get the eg4 6000xp. I have both units
Thanks for the comment. a) I like redundancy of 2 separate units and b ) i can't afford the xp now, already spent money on these. If i have lots of money, i probably would upgrade :) They have worked flawlessly for me though continuously used to power our house for 2 years or more now straight.
What a mess.
10-15 years? How mutch did the whole system cost you?
I have 2 3kw units now, for 240 split mode, works great. The main cost was batteries. spend 14k doing it myself. Cheaper than a grid tie install anyways
Recording this from space I see. Sounds like moon landing audio.
Can you get a gas dryer and waterheater? Those would save a lot and also greatly drop your electrical demand.
Could do, but then i need to pay for gas which is increasing and which in someplace they are trying to limit. My plan would rather be to put more load on the offgrid stuff, or continue to build it out to be able to handle those loads. it does the water heater mostly ok but i need a lot more solar panels now to keep up
@@MicahGallant Batteries, panel and inverters don't last forever. For now at least gas is cheaper. It's worth a bit of your time to run the numbers.
After getting out of a big city I built a 16x40 mine Mansion. Open floor plan for my son that is in a wheelchair. I haven't gotten my Frankenstein Soar system back together. I was able to get it back to recharging my batteries but haven't gotten it ran into the mime Mansion. I got a old Hot water tank and I am going to build a box to preheat my water so my hot water heater will either not come on or just be used very little. I have the heat as you go hot water system / tankless and this works well when it's hot like it is now. Most of the time the hot water heater will stay off. I take showers most of the time in the late afternoons 4-6 O clock so unless there's been a lot of bad weather it works well. I painted the old tank flat Black and will have a box with Plexiglass to cover it. Run the hot water from the tank into the water heater and it will heat if needed. With tankless it only runs when in use, so with hot water running through it it will stay off unless the water gets below 120 degrees. I put 2 shy lights on each end in the mine Mansion and don't needs lights in the day time. I should be able to be almost grid free soon if need be. Planning on getting a big water storage tank soon also. I will catch rain water for flushing the toilet and use the storage tank for potable water.
Hi. I built a water heater using a 5 gal bucket and a solar panel and a couple diesel engine glow plugs wired direct to the solar panel. it heated over 100 deg in about an hour or so, it proved the idea and function. I have it setting on a shelf with rest of preps just in case. This idea should work for a larger volume, I only have needs for max of 1 to 3 gallons of hot water in an emergency situation. If the water gets hot enough it could also disinfect it but do your own research on that subject. It's a way to save fuel and costs over time. I saw the setup on a video from an India villager. Here is one example video title: How To Make Solar Water Heater/geysers Under 10$?? Have a great day.
@@mikemcguire5859 Thank You I will check it out for sure.
Great job! Certainly the best battery and inverter combo bang for the buck available today! 👍😁
Agreed, Will Prowse speaks well about them as well. I've had zero issues after a full year of constant use supplying our whole house. Just my experience but its something. I have a second inverter on the way so I will have 240 volts, hope to put a vid up about that one as well! Can't wait!
Give it another 6 montjs to a year. High frequency inverters simply don't last.
@@MicahGallant Good day to you.
Love the update. I just recently bought one of the 3000kw unit (the newer version) I am not planning to grid tie it but like you charge from the grid when solar is not available. My question is how did you set it up for that, considering the treatment of ground bond neutral that I am still trying to understand for this unit.
nice setup! I just purchased one myself with similar intentions as you. can you elaborate on the RF chokes you have installed on the DC in/out side?
yes, I just have ferrite rings that i wrapped the wires around just to do something / anything in terms of stopping or limiting RF. I still need to turn off my solar panels as most of the RF comes from my panels because they are right under my copper loop antenna
@drewmichael401480 meter full wavelength copper loop antenna is what i have, which goes right over the solar panels and a portion of it tracks above the exact path of the solar cables coming into the house as well so its a bad config for RF but I don't have many other choices
Nice Video. I had an all-in-one failure and no off-grid ac. I like function over appearance, and your modular system resilience ideas. I run 3 victron charge controllers on 3 strings of panels for a total of 3500w. 2 diy 24v 310ah dc batteries I made from some of Will Prowse's videos. both batteries are working fine. each has a slightly different ah discharge rate of about 5ah's over 2 cloudy days. I'm assuming this is due to a 1-year difference in cell pack internal resistance and versions of 250a 24-volt bms's, different Shunts. Since cells are no longer cheap, try to get entire pack of cells at same time and matched, if you can. Have a great day.
Thank you for sharing this!! I have that inverter and am trying to figure out which battery to go with. Your information helped!!
Nice Setup! Codos!!
Late last year I took a dive into a DIY solar setup as well.
I went with the PowMr 5000W Hybrid Solar Inverter 48V. I have a small array of 6 donated solar panels hooked up in a 3x2 array generating about 1800 watts at peak. (180v max output).
I set up a 4x4 array of 12v 40ah lead acid batteries which should total 7680 watts (48v). I doubt it is that much capacity now given the batteries are a few years old.
These batteries were also donated, used batteries from a computer room UPS system.
I never intended this project to power my house. Rather to help charge my PHEV. As the entire system is built on and in my garage. The car's battery max capacity is 18kw.
I built this system on the cheap as a proof of 'wishfull-thinking' concept on my part.
So far, it appears to be working as intended. With full sun and full batteries, I can get maybe 4 hours of light charge to the vehicle. (I have it set to only draw its minimum 8 amps currently.)
At night, if the batteries are at full charge, I can get upwards to between 1-2 hours of charge before batteries are depleted. If there is no solar or battery input the Hybrid inverter switches back to Grid.
My desire for the next step is to upgrade this setup with far more solar panels and if finances permit, switch over to LifePo batteries like your setup.
Again, great setup!
Thanks for the comment. Yes, great experience is gained by starting small, then building. Thats what i did, and i did it in such a way that i can expand as I go. Coming shortly is another eg4 inverter that i will hook up in parallel with my existing one for 240 volts! This system, though expensive (mostly the battery) saves us $50 a month on our electricity bill, better than nothing but long payback when it comes to the overall cost of the hardware, 15 years... i need a larger battery bank to collect solar all day as my 5kwh battery fills up quick and then my panels just idle all day.
@@MicahGallant Noice! Same here. Starting small and cheap. With secondhand panels and batteries. Learning as I go. Started as more of a 'can I get some solar miles on my car.'
It's not much, due to my lack solar capture and storage, but the basic concept is working. I can knock an hour or two off the average 12-14 hour charge for a depleted battery before it switches to Grid for the rest of the charge. I would love to cut that on-grid charge time at least in half. (or more). The car's battery is only 18kw.
Obviously LifePO batteries are the way to go. Along with more panels of course. Just need to make the initial investment.
So far, the only money spent was on the Hybrid inverter and associated cabling.
@MicahGallant as the price of electricity goes up your payback period will shrink though
@@johnfitbyfaithnet Yeah. Wish I had the funds to upgrade quickly.
Do you have ferrites integrated into your system?
One question would be, is the new 14kw battery work with the 5kw you have? It is a little lower cost kw wise than the 5.2kw. I'm glad it is working for you. The new 6 kw inverter might be an option and have the 3k as a back up.
Yes, the new battery has same voltage as my sig solar battery so you can hook them up in parallel for 20~ kwhs of batteries. If I had the money I would do that but i need to recover some costs
Ive been running the same inverter for over a year now non stop 24/7 in my cabin . 2 life power 5k batteries. The thing is a work horse. Never had a problem. Great unit. I did hear somewhere on YT that a concern was for the dust on the 480 volt inverter building up an possibly causeing a fire hazard? Idk about that but, i do plan on shutting it down tue first of the year an do a thorough cleaning and inspection.
Yes, been running mine stead well over a year now, flawless. I have a rebuilt one from Sig Solar and the fan is getting noisy on it but otherwise flawless. Good idea on cleaning dust though, get some compressed air and a vacuum for sure
If you really want to step up to two of those inverters, I would look at a rack of 4 of those batteries and will need prob 3kw of panels, though over panel is always nice for cloudy days.
P.S. if your fridge is using 1800 watts.....you need a new fridge....
Yes, but don't have money for a fancy new one, $2000 CAD for fancy new ones. I don't know who can afford them. Right now i have 15Kwhs of batteries, which is a better fit than one 5kwh battery
So adding another inverter will give you 2 x 3000 watts or 3000 watts@240v? if so 3k at240 will be insufficient to run your average hot water heater which runs at 4800 watts.
Great question, glad you asked, as I had not thought of it that way. I measured it, so its consuming 12 amps per leg of the 120 volts, aka 1500 watts. And I think i spoke incorrectly, the hot water heater consumes 3000 watts at 240 volts. So based on what i'm measuring, it only pulls 1500 watts per leg, totally 3000 watts. So two of these units should work
I would go at least 2 x what you think you will need. 3000w running 3000w load will kill that machine. I run a 6500w inverter and rarely get over 2500w. I can if needed run my AC and microwave at the same time or the AC and some other cooking equipment like instant pot etc.
Propane water heater.
@@miketlane you can always add a low wattage heater element. They are cheap and a great way to store excess solar energy instead of giving it to the power company at wholesale rates
best yewspewed channel name I have ever seen !
well i appreciate that :)
What's the cost for the 5kw battery?
1655 USD as I see it, you can see it here, click batteries: signaturesolar.com/?ref=vBPxa1lWHkhTM0
I recommend this cheaper model, $1419 here: signaturesolar.com/eg4-lifepower4-lithium-battery-48v-100ah/?ref=vBPxa1lWHkhTM0 You don't need the screen on it necessarily as you will be monitoring generally using the inverter or other tools
price is now "EG4 LifePower4 Lithium Battery | 48V 100AH | Server Rack Battery | UL1973, UL9540A Price: $1,259.00@@MicahGallant 👍