Fixing my power problem (and surviving a hurricane) with a BIG BATTERY
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- Опубликовано: 6 авг 2024
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0:00 Intro
0:30 My current solar setup
1:22 Anker SOLIX F3800
2:52 Hooking up the battery to my panel
4:48 Recharging with solar
5:38 Let's actually show it being used
7:16 This battery saved me during Hurricane Beryl
8:17 Overall thoughts 
Наука
For clarification: Don't make a male-to-male cable for safety reasons. Do as I say, not as I do :)
Too late, already made the "Forbidden Power Back Feed Cable"
@@LAWRENCESYSTEMS ELECTRICIANS HATE HIM
🎵 You heard there was a secret cord that you could make to meet the lord. 'Cuz you don't care 'bout power safety do you. 🎵
I would install a recessed male connector on the wall, and attached a female-to-female adapter to it, allowing me to easily detach the adapter and connect my system directly to the battery when desired. I am not sure if this would be up to code, but it would eliminate the need of a suicide cable.
Still better than The Breaker Finder. Cut an extension cord near the plug, then tie the positive and negative wires together.
In an upcoming video, we'll see him replace the suicide cord/plug setup for the proper one lol.
But most likely probably not 🙃
Or we won't be seeing any more videos at all 😂
@@RaidOwl Nah man it's brilliant. Show everyone how to do it in an emergency. Then come back and go "Now here's how it's legal". Two videos.
@@Solkre82 Lol I actually already fixed it
I have being told that using a suicide cable (cable with two male connectors) is a big no-no.
Yeah don’t do wiring if you don’t know how electricity works
@@RaidOwl And especially not mains power haha
Meanwhile in Europe where all of this stuff is even more rigid/strict because even 5W LED light runs on 240V and 10 to 16 AMPs breaker ... You can buy a DIY solar "balcony" kit that is technically same as his 17KW solar array (just something like 17 times smaller).
On one side you have those DIY solar panels, and on the other side you have a male power connector.
Its a no no because if you don't do things in the properly order, you can potentially have a live cable with exposed connectors. Just pay attention and don't be scared.
@@JordosTechShack I agree with the sentiment in general if you live alone. If you have kids at home you would need to find a way to lock it up.
I Just Inherited my Grandpa's UpNorth Property from My Dad a few months back.
Currently Its an Empty Lot we cleaned out a few years back to Start Fresh with a lil Fishing Cabin.
We Finally got a New Power Pole Installed before my Dad Passed, but I want to make the Place 100% Self-Sustainable.
I don't mind watching this ad, if it's paying your bills lol
I like getting paid to make content for things I'm interested in. It's a win-win lol
Living in Texas, I don't mind this ad. 🙄
To really power your entire house look into server batteries. Basically they're rack mountable LiFePO4 batteries. They can easily daisy chain several battery packs together. Since you already have solar panels this would be the way to go.
I am using a similar device (although I have less capacity) on my server rack. It is acting as a UPS essentially - and works great. My rack already has two lead acid battery UPS'. These get plugged into my solar generator (which is not using solar). I get about 3 hours of battery back up. I have been eyeing the SOLIX F3800 and similar devices for other parts of my house - lights, refrigerators, etc. The other thing I don't think you mentioned is how long the batteries will last. The lithium iron phosphate batteries have a much longer life than lead acid batteries - I think my current one says it will have 80% capacity after 10 years of usage.
Found this helpful as a Houston area resident. I’m a home renter and don’t want to mess with tie ins to the breakers, but want to save the food in the fridge and run fans/charge 18v batteries for fans and other items. I’d rather have more than I need than not enough and have been looking at the current sale on this model with the solar panel.
You need an interlock between the mains and battery/gen input. Honestly get a hybrid inverter and a mains contractor and get this setup properly. It’s worth it. Jank is fine for networking but not electricity which kills.
Unfortunately, I’m not buying anything from anchor ever again. They won’t support a headset, not powering on. What do you think they’re gonna do for your very expensive battery system?
Is that a widowmaker cable you're using?
Super cool, looking forward to the solar panel video! 👍
Just a tiny correction. With "grid tie", when you have no grid, your solar installation does not work. It's because your system is grid-connected and if you "upload" you can fry linemen working on the lines.
I am about to get solar and the kind of "ideal" system you mention is always referred to as "hybrid". It is a smart(er) inverter that is capable to charge batteries form solar or grid (as needed), it can run *stuff* from battery, solar and grid, with preference of source (e.g. pull solar, if none, pull battery, unless battery is below X and have grid, then pull from grid and preserve N charge for an outage.
This can also completely disconnect from the grid if there is no grid. So it doesn't "upload" anything at any time. If there is an outage it keeps your house's wiring completely isolated from the grid, feeding it from the sources. Some even have a generator connection. Very useful when you are in a 2-day long storm. I live in Costa Rica which is not actually that bad, but if a tree falls at the wrong place you can be without net and power for a day or two.
Currently I have Starlink as a backup and a 4KW generator. The problem is that Starlink doesn't work in overcast (or very spotty), and I cannot run the generator at night or my neighbors show up with pitchforks. I would probably have to offer them internet and cell phone charging so they don't strangle me ....
I had a "ghetto UPS " (marine batteries with gutted UPSes, but slowly all the UPSes died as they are not designed to run large desktop machines for hours ....
Anyway, I am looking into a $15-20K of investment for a 20KWh battery bank and 12-14KW of solar panels. Still looking for a silent generator, or I will have to dig a generator thing into my garden with sufficient sound isolation and ventilation.
Yeah I didn't wanna get too technical but yes, I'd like a hybrid setup but that would require more hardware and a panel/battery setup that can inject a frequency for my microinverters.
Would some of those gas - sorry for US that would be like propane - generators be any quieter?
BTW while diesel is better than gas/petrol/benzine for longer term/prepping type of situation - so few months for petrol/benzine, and 2-4 times longer for diesel. For propane/butane (let's just say difference between the two doesn't matter for in/near house use) it's more like years instead of months.
@@techcodenet It might. But generators are not performance cars or bikes. They run on crap gasoline just fine. I don't know how bad you can go, but I have pretty old gas in mine and I had to run it for 3 hours about 3 weeks ago and it was fine.
Ideal solution is definitely solar + batteries.
BTW, if you have a gas car you can also rotate the gas... literally, every 2 months just put it in your car, fill up jar, store it for 2 months, repeat - until you need it.
That jar outside is so old now I wouldn't dare to put it in my wife's car .... and I have an EV and a diesel :O
I enjoyed the burp transition when you cut power on your panel
Did you factor in the carbon made during the production of the panels and those batteries in that "reduced carbon footprint"?
Yeah
how are you able to deal with heat in the garage during such hot summers? my equipment would melt.
I have a mini split AC unit
@@RaidOwl thanks...just noticed the lab tour video and saw that. might do same. 100+ deg summers
So, if that's a sub panel, can you not kill your main panel breaker and allow the on grid inverters for those solar panels to see when you plug in your battery backup to get them to work again? Though i'm not sure how charging would work as i doubt that unit will charge through the 240v output plug. I've read people try to do this with generators; but they don't often produce good enough power to get the typical grid tie only inverter to turn back on; but i've read other people saying using inverter power would usually work. But without the breakers in the main panel in the proper setup with an interlock, it wouldn't pass any code anywhere.
I mean, you made a bad plug to connect the battery/inverter to the panel, you might as well try this. You could possibly power more in your house if needed.
I wish it worked like that but the micro inverters need a specific signal/frequency connection through the solar controller panel.
I would find a way to harness those rooftop solar panels. They output a DC voltage that goes to a charge controller, batteries and ultimately to an inverter.
Nah mine use microinverters.
Hope you and your family are doing well
Thanks Tony! All good here :)
Deye Hybrid PV inverters is cool and more better :)
Doesn’t this electrify the grid when the power is out? Making it more dangerous for lineman to fix the power
I believe you need an interlock kit in order to make this safe
I have an interlock kit for when my solar is on. When the power is out my main panel is off so nothing is going back to the grid.
@@RaidOwl awesome :) just wanted to make sure since I was going to do the same thing hooking my generator up to the panel
But Brett, what about a transfer switch to switch back to utility? Are you going to explode?
Love you.
Yeah that would be optimal, but this is how I've always done it lol
I was so much hoping that you tried to make the Anker pretend to be "the grid" - in a way that your solar panels still give you 17K W (in full sun et al).
Those micro inverter (converters) that are grid-tying solar panels, technically only need a bit of actual power (milli-amps?) that has sinusoid looking frequency... And although they wouldn't be able to "give power back to the grid (in this case Anker that's giving the initial signal)", anything else in the house might still get full power.
So in theory - you could flip/flop between two solar generators - one pretending to be the grid, and other charging from "grid" (so in full sun that's solar).
"Being perfect shouldn't stop you from being better." This is where it's at.
Australia is soon to be making solar panel users pay to put power back into the grid according to EEVBlog. BTW you should fit a safety breaker on the system that lock the main supply off if you connect the battery pack to the house system.
Reasonable, if inconvenient.
Aside from the special needs cable, i think code wise, and probably legally, you're supposed to have a way to prevent the grid power, and inverter from feeding the pannel at the same time, but that may be a state-by-state thing
Often times it just needs a simple physical blocker to prevent you from closing the inverter input breaker, without first opening the grid input breaker, so that as you're opening the main breaker, it is no longer blocking the inverter breaker, and, if you flip back to grid, it automatically disconnects the inverter.
Edit, this is so you dont fry someone working on the lines outside the house while the power is down, and protect the inverter from the grid's system when the power comes back.
offgrid homelab when? lol
cool setup!
I could just throw my mini rack on top of this and call it a day lol
@@RaidOwl lol
I think you paid way too much for 17kw but whatever - at least you got it done - you should think about a disconnect so you can pivot and make it more optimum - more hurricanes are on the way, likely, it is a long season - do a followup when you get it more dialed - this is a good first step
This feels like a sponsored video. Is it? Is that declared anywhere?
Yes at the beginning RUclips shows a banner
damn, pumping out quality content like crazy
I would not consider a video using a suicide cord to be "pumping out quality content"!
Same
@@rpsmith ok
You look like someone who would be named Brett
That is a terrifying, please be very, extremely, careful as you could accidently kill a lines person trying to fix the power cables to your house by backfeeding to the grid when the power is out.
The app is annoying as it doesn’t log for more than about 1 minute so you can’t keep an eye on what’s been used and when.
how does this video not have 1 million views yet....
You only lost power for 2 days? Those are rookie numbers. Day 5 here and still going strong. Funny enough I have an Anker C1000 with 200w of solar and it's been running my fridge all day during the outage, I'm running a 3300w generator during the night to top up the battery and run fans.
BET
@@RaidOwl aight BRETT
Your that rich and you went with solar that is grid dependent? That defeats like 50% of the reason to have solar. Someone as techy as you I would have thought you had a way better system then this. Especially since power cuts can damage equipment. This video screams ad, a better video would have been showing it work with your current panels or similar to how jerryrigseverything video with these. Yea I know you said your setups not perfect and cost is why you did the panels that way. It just seems half baked. Love your content.
I went with this solar setup to save money on my monthly energy bill. Would you like give me $20k for the batteries that will be used a handful of hours per year? No? Cool
I hate when people talk about lowering their carbon footprint. Great, it's ok locally and into the short term future. But what about the history of the panels and batteries. What about the future as the panels and batteries become old? It's just a power credit card, you're just shifting the costs from one place/time to another..
Are you suggesting getting power from the sun and using panels/batteries is less environmentally friendly than typical gas/goal generators?
@@RaidOwl Other countries are supplying the majority of the elements used for manufacturing batteries. Like China where they are adding coal powered power plants at an alarming rate to further industrialize their country. So maybe the USA is "greener" because you are using solar power, but the world as a whole is not. Then there's the problem of replacing the batteries, solar panels and turbine blades. What happens to all the worn out components? I was seriously interested in going solar, but the companies selling them are not telling the whole story. Some day everyone will be using it and they will have all these issues worked out. I hope!
@@RaidOwlI’m suggesting that when you’re burning fuels it’s happening now and where it’s burned. When you’re using solar cells, the “burning” is just done somewhere else when you’re making the cells. Same with the batteries.
As a technician in solar energy, your introduction is super weird to me 🤨 even the cheepest chinese inverters can operate in a solar-first grid-second mode , i ve never in my life installed a system where the panels cutoff if the grid is down ! What the hell lol ! Who made u that shity system!????
Have you ever heard of a grid-tied system with micro inverters?
@@RaidOwl ತ_ತ yes ! And they work just fine ! Look up the tech sheets of any chinese manufacturer and get back to me !
these ads are getting absolutely exhausting, unsubscribed
I’m sorry you had to go through that trauma. I hope you’re okay 😢