The thing that got me into energy efficiency was watching some Olympian bike sprinter trying to power up a toaster. He did it, but it was quite the workout for him and all he did was make a couple pieces of bread a little brown. You probably used 44 kWh a day last month, not 44,000. (you likely used 44,000 Wh).
It’s crazy to think how much energy it takes to power some stuff. Everyday I try to be a little more conscious on what we use and if we really need to be doing certain things. That’s why I want to be truly on our own and not rely on anyone else. And you are right. Sorry it’s been some long days for me for the last few weeks. Just tired. But you knew what I meant.
@@Treestofirewood I'm trying to go solar as well, although not as much DIY as you seem to be going. Although I might end up having to try and DIY it since my roof isn't in a great spot I wanted to do a ground mount system away from the trees and point south, but everyone I get out here for quote gives me some absurd quote (likely because they don't want to do ground mounts and just want to put it on the roof)
@richarddabkowski2896 any company that comes in is going to be very expensive. Everyone I know who has had solar put in I laugh at what they paid. You can do most of it yourself once you learn a little be and do some calculations. I can’t wait till I’m finally off grid completley.
Thank you. We been thinking the same thing. Kind of wanting to be able to run our camper, maybe the AC, or even just the garage, or even just small portable to start. We all got to get a taste somewhere an mine was firewood an moving from one state to another. With that move along energy rates doubled not counting inflation now. 🍻
It never ends does it. I’m just always trying to improve our situation and make things easier on us as we are only getting older. And if we can save money. I’m going to do that the best we can especially if that means harnessing some energy to offset some electric bills.
A few years ago we had a storm that flooded my basement through a drain cut out in the slab for a basement bathroom. We had the basement renovated and had a sump pump put in. Prob about 5 months later we had a storm that knocked out power for almost 2 days. During that time the water level crept up very high, so high that when power came back on the sump pump ran for like 4 days. At that point I knew I needed to put a UPS on the pump. Ace Hardware had the CyberPower Sump Pump battery backup so I at least don’t have a perfectly working sump pump doing nothing when the power is out during a storm where the water table is also creeping up. Anyway, I’ve recently been looking at whole house battery backups (Anker Solix 4800 or whatever) and either a transfer box or an interlock system. I’ll deal with solar panel setups later. I just want to have an easy, quiet solution for when the power goes out.
Yeah I hear you on all that. Having a back up system is just a piece of mind. My shops will be ran with a transfer switch so if for any reason I need to switch back to grid power I will do so. I’m hoping by late summer I have that all up and running. I can tell you this the Anker 1000 I have is super nice for what it is. I couldn’t be happier. The 4800 I’m sure is awesome. I was torn between that and the ecoflow. I went with the ecoflow because I like how far I can expand it. Either system is a great choice. But being prepared is half the battle. We’ve lost power for 3 days once and I didn’t skip a beat. Last few years people around me have been out of power for weeks because of storms. We were the lucky ones who somehow still had power that’s when I said to myself I’m done with being reliant on someone else.
I have solar on my camper but, I have lead acid batteries and they discharge quickly and recharge really slow and they weigh a ton. I want to convert to LI batteries for all of the reasons you talked about. Running them in a series seems to be the way to go. Make it a 48 volt system. You will need a substantially larger inverter(s) to power everything. I have a 2K inverter and would like to have 2 of them just for my camper. The other part to LI is having an LI charger. A 12 volt charger will never fully charge your LI batteries. A mistake many people make.
Very true. We have LI batteries in our camper and I swear we can run them without being charge forever. Also the charger I have does have a setting for LI batteries. The only reason I have a 1k inverter is just to use it to recharge my other portable power stations really. My eco flow will eventually power everything. Can’t wait till that is all up and running.
I second looking into higher system voltages. 48V is awesome in terms of system scalability. You can go from very small to very large with 48V, all without having to worry about dealing with insane amounts of amperage. Plus running long cables will have far lower losses at 48V (cable losses go by the square of the current so cable losses at 48V are 1/16th the losses at 12V). Note that you can buy discrete 48V LiFePO4 batteries (aka 51.2V nominal, 16s... don't buy 15s "48V" LiFePO4 batteries). This way you don't have to worry about wiring up whole-battery balancers on discrete 12V batteries in series. The absolute smallest 48V system one can have is pretty tiny. e.g. like 2 x 75W panels in series going into a boost charge controller (like a PowMr) and then into a 48V LiFePO4 bank. So it isn't hard to start with 48V even for a small camper. 48V just takes a bit of getting used-to for people who are used to 12V architectures. -Matt
That's a decent use-case for a small solar system. Just be careful not to charge them when the temperature is below freezing (not all battery BMS's have low-temp charging protection so check whether those do or not). Below-freezing charging, or allowing a battery to remain completely discharged for too long (like a few months), is about the only thing that can destroy a LiFePO4 battery. At this stage of your foyer into solar and storage systems all you really need to do is learn the basics about calculating what can actually be run with the storage and for how long. You seem to have a good head-start on that (already talking watt-hours instead of amp-hours is a good sign!). Ultimately you will be limited by the solar panels. But no need to rush... play with what you have for like 6 months or even more before you start working up a buy list. And I would consider putting your systems together with discrete components instead of power stations. i.e. solar panels, charge controllers (like a Victron SmartSolar 100/20 for example), using higher system voltages (12.8V is really limited, seriously research going straight to 48V, aka 51.2V nominal (16s)), a discrete inverter, and so on and so forth. I think for your purposes you will be much happier with discrete components instead of power stations. Power stations are really premium-priced and the convenience is short-lived as one tries to scale-up the solar system. -Matt
Those are some great points. I know exactly what you are talking about there. As of right now I’m using what I have to learn how everything works. Charging capabilities and discharging. I have them there for now but will move them into my heated shop over the winter. I’m always so busy it was just convent to put the there for the time being. Eventually I will have made a solar space in my shop just for all the new batteries and solar charging. I will look into the products you have mentioned. Always willing to learn.
Nice demo of your system 👍 Thank you for sharing
It’s a work in progress. Hoping to expand the capabilities this year.
That’s cool using those solar panels. Batteries charging super smart. Great content.
One way to be more efficient. Might as well use them.
Yes, more energy independence stuff is good! Mostly to fight high utility bills and in case of big storms.
Yeah. Always have to try and be prepared.
The thing that got me into energy efficiency was watching some Olympian bike sprinter trying to power up a toaster.
He did it, but it was quite the workout for him and all he did was make a couple pieces of bread a little brown.
You probably used 44 kWh a day last month, not 44,000. (you likely used 44,000 Wh).
It’s crazy to think how much energy it takes to power some stuff. Everyday I try to be a little more conscious on what we use and if we really need to be doing certain things. That’s why I want to be truly on our own and not rely on anyone else.
And you are right. Sorry it’s been some long days for me for the last few weeks. Just tired. But you knew what I meant.
@@Treestofirewood I'm trying to go solar as well, although not as much DIY as you seem to be going.
Although I might end up having to try and DIY it since my roof isn't in a great spot I wanted to do a ground mount system away from the trees and point south, but everyone I get out here for quote gives me some absurd quote (likely because they don't want to do ground mounts and just want to put it on the roof)
@richarddabkowski2896 any company that comes in is going to be very expensive. Everyone I know who has had solar put in I laugh at what they paid. You can do most of it yourself once you learn a little be and do some calculations. I can’t wait till I’m finally off grid completley.
I think the firewood did it for me. That was the first “taste” of independence and I’m hooked
Oh yeah. Can’t beat free heat
Thank you. We been thinking the same thing. Kind of wanting to be able to run our camper, maybe the AC, or even just the garage, or even just small portable to start. We all got to get a taste somewhere an mine was firewood an moving from one state to another. With that move along energy rates doubled not counting inflation now. 🍻
It never ends does it. I’m just always trying to improve our situation and make things easier on us as we are only getting older. And if we can save money. I’m going to do that the best we can especially if that means harnessing some energy to offset some electric bills.
A few years ago we had a storm that flooded my basement through a drain cut out in the slab for a basement bathroom. We had the basement renovated and had a sump pump put in. Prob about 5 months later we had a storm that knocked out power for almost 2 days. During that time the water level crept up very high, so high that when power came back on the sump pump ran for like 4 days. At that point I knew I needed to put a UPS on the pump. Ace Hardware had the CyberPower Sump Pump battery backup so I at least don’t have a perfectly working sump pump doing nothing when the power is out during a storm where the water table is also creeping up.
Anyway, I’ve recently been looking at whole house battery backups (Anker Solix 4800 or whatever) and either a transfer box or an interlock system. I’ll deal with solar panel setups later. I just want to have an easy, quiet solution for when the power goes out.
Yeah I hear you on all that. Having a back up system is just a piece of mind. My shops will be ran with a transfer switch so if for any reason I need to switch back to grid power I will do so. I’m hoping by late summer I have that all up and running. I can tell you this the Anker 1000 I have is super nice for what it is. I couldn’t be happier. The 4800 I’m sure is awesome. I was torn between that and the ecoflow. I went with the ecoflow because I like how far I can expand it. Either system is a great choice. But being prepared is half the battle. We’ve lost power for 3 days once and I didn’t skip a beat. Last few years people around me have been out of power for weeks because of storms. We were the lucky ones who somehow still had power that’s when I said to myself I’m done with being reliant on someone else.
Man, I’d like for sure to see more, anything to be more self-sufficient
I hoping to keep growing the system and truly be off grid. More to come that’s for sure.
I have solar on my camper but, I have lead acid batteries and they discharge quickly and recharge really slow and they weigh a ton. I want to convert to LI batteries for all of the reasons you talked about. Running them in a series seems to be the way to go. Make it a 48 volt system. You will need a substantially larger inverter(s) to power everything. I have a 2K inverter and would like to have 2 of them just for my camper. The other part to LI is having an LI charger. A 12 volt charger will never fully charge your LI batteries. A mistake many people make.
Very true. We have LI batteries in our camper and I swear we can run them without being charge forever. Also the charger I have does have a setting for LI batteries. The only reason I have a 1k inverter is just to use it to recharge my other portable power stations really. My eco flow will eventually power everything. Can’t wait till that is all up and running.
I second looking into higher system voltages. 48V is awesome in terms of system scalability. You can go from very small to very large with 48V, all without having to worry about dealing with insane amounts of amperage. Plus running long cables will have far lower losses at 48V (cable losses go by the square of the current so cable losses at 48V are 1/16th the losses at 12V).
Note that you can buy discrete 48V LiFePO4 batteries (aka 51.2V nominal, 16s... don't buy 15s "48V" LiFePO4 batteries). This way you don't have to worry about wiring up whole-battery balancers on discrete 12V batteries in series.
The absolute smallest 48V system one can have is pretty tiny. e.g. like 2 x 75W panels in series going into a boost charge controller (like a PowMr) and then into a 48V LiFePO4 bank. So it isn't hard to start with 48V even for a small camper.
48V just takes a bit of getting used-to for people who are used to 12V architectures.
-Matt
That's a decent use-case for a small solar system. Just be careful not to charge them when the temperature is below freezing (not all battery BMS's have low-temp charging protection so check whether those do or not). Below-freezing charging, or allowing a battery to remain completely discharged for too long (like a few months), is about the only thing that can destroy a LiFePO4 battery.
At this stage of your foyer into solar and storage systems all you really need to do is learn the basics about calculating what can actually be run with the storage and for how long. You seem to have a good head-start on that (already talking watt-hours instead of amp-hours is a good sign!).
Ultimately you will be limited by the solar panels. But no need to rush... play with what you have for like 6 months or even more before you start working up a buy list. And I would consider putting your systems together with discrete components instead of power stations. i.e. solar panels, charge controllers (like a Victron SmartSolar 100/20 for example), using higher system voltages (12.8V is really limited, seriously research going straight to 48V, aka 51.2V nominal (16s)), a discrete inverter, and so on and so forth.
I think for your purposes you will be much happier with discrete components instead of power stations. Power stations are really premium-priced and the convenience is short-lived as one tries to scale-up the solar system.
-Matt
Those are some great points. I know exactly what you are talking about there. As of right now I’m using what I have to learn how everything works. Charging capabilities and discharging. I have them there for now but will move them into my heated shop over the winter. I’m always so busy it was just convent to put the there for the time being. Eventually I will have made a solar space in my shop just for all the new batteries and solar charging. I will look into the products you have mentioned. Always willing to learn.