UK Off-grid basics 1: Electricity
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- čas přidán 16. 08. 2024
- As requested! Covering the basics about off - grid electrical stuff, including solar power, batteries, inverters and generators.
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For a more in depth dive into building your own setup, I recommend reading 'Wind and Solar Electricity' by Andy Reynolds (lowimpact.org) as reviewed in my latest video!
This is clear and informative, more than enough, you are very knowledgeable!
wondering if your still using solar , i know its been a few years since you made this video but we are planning to buy our own land , ive been learning for a few years which off grid system would be best to set up at present we have settled on the alternator method just wondered if you have tryed it or thought about it , great videos and really great content
Just bought the book - arriving tomorrow from Amazon :-)
You should do training days mate. I'd happily pay to take some of you knowledge back to my workshop.
To pay this guy for a personal walk through on this is something I'd paid for.
Who gave this a thumbs down? He's giving you free information that can only be of benefit to you!
There's always someone who feels threatened by people who generously give of their time and knowledge...I know who I would rather be listening to and maybe the thumbs downer knows at heart that he/she is a sad specimen who could never compete. Also, if you look, the same number seem to always be giving the thumbs down. I haven't in this case but often it is just a couple of socially and intellectually challenged people or maybe just one with access to a couple of devices?
Pricks 🤬
I did, as 7th person.
Because, as much as Maximus may be considered an expert in various departments, physics is not his field. Hands-on experience is not enough, when someone lacks fundamental theory and tries to mentor others. Urban legends are born this way.
@@Ansset0 I'll take practical first hand encyclopaedic advice thanks from someone 95% right on a broad range of things instead of being 99.9% right on 2% of what we need to know but clueless on anything else.
I live off grid in a cottage in the middle of the moors, i recently upgraded my lister generator to a new solar/ lithium / isuzu system and it's awesome. The Victron controller lets me set the gennie to come on when the battery bank is 25% and stop when its 75% or manually turn it on via my phone. But so far (as i had it installed beginning of summer) the generator has never had to come on and i work from home on a computer all day, play video games, watch films, use microwave, electric kettle power shower etc. I've even had a 3kw heater on some nights. It's literally like i'm living off mains but without an electric bill.
That sounds great! I look forward to the day I can afford a lithium battery bank - not there just yet!
@@maximusironthumper have a look at Lead carbon batteries, I've just installed 8 x 160AH Victron LC, cost about £2.5k equivalent lithium was quoted at nearly £7k the biggest disadvantage is the weight, totally irrelevant for off grid applications.
How did it go through the winter? I'm very keen to instal something similar in Northern Ireland, but worried about those darker months.
I dont suppose you can give us a run down of your set up? I'm looking to move into a horsebox but the one thing I have concerns about is living off of solar alone. What happens on days without sun for instance?!
Anyway, sounds like a lovely set up you have. :)
Could I ask what this cost you too set up? Sounds exactly like what I want
A few days ago i had no idea HOW to live ‘OG’ (off grid) . Now watching your lectures my brain is taking in all your useful info! You should seriously be a lecturer as more and more peeps will become homeless due to greedy developers wanting £500k to live in a shoe box!
Land value's still extortionate. You'll be lucky to get a good deal on a decent stretch of land.
Just finished your offgrid basics series, and I wanted to say thank you for sharing a bit of your wealth of knowledge. You're an amazing teacher
Been dragged up with this in a not to dissimilar fashion, so can endorse 100% mate
I think lovely man you are going to become invaluable to me. You give me hope that I can back to England. Thankfully I'v already done 4 years on land in portugal.
Max, I love watching your videos and I've watched this one several times but just heard "slightly illuminating".. haha very good, keep up the jokes as well as the videos ..
I'd also just like to say how inspiring you've been as I'm about to do something similar to you. I own five acres in the Dorset countryside, built 2 pole barns (30'x30' and 20'x60' full of timber, and vintage tractors/machinery) and my next step is a traditional Canadian style log cabin which im planning to live in (off grid).
Just collected the last of the round timber, last week and due to make a start in the next week or so. Weather permitting..
Thank you so much for your technical advice, amusing videos and inspiration. You keep me pushing forward. Thanks again
One trick with your fridge freezer if you get a couple of 2liter plastic pop bottles 3/4fill them with water and a cup of salt freeze them and when frozen put them in the fridge it will cut down down the fridge ramping up during the day.the salt water defrost slower than normal I e water. Reg in dublin
great video Max. where i'm from in western Canada almost everyone has a small hunting cabin tucked away somewhere that is off-grid. i've seen all types of batteries and inverters and generator systems and now i'm trying to design my own for my own tiny house/off grid cabin. the information you presented in this video helps to clear up a few misconceptions i had about charging deep cycle batteries and explains why they go dead so fast. i'm really enjoying your channel and am quickly running out of videos to watch. would love to see the gassifier in action. also very impressed with the Land Rover series. i had no idea they were so utilitarian.
Super useful, thank you Max ☺
You're most welcome!
He's a top Guy, seems very happy with his lot. Its an art to be able to explain technical things in an easy to grasp way.
I've been looking into doing this for a few years now and have been totally overwhelmed by the books advice videos etc all telling you different things!
I have some of my own 'food sources' so to speak but I'm limited to what I can grow etc. I try and recycle water and everything else I use and try to buy as little as possible from shops and places.
Then I found this guy! And in the UK!! I am now so very optimistic and enthusiastic again! I'm now looking for some land where I can start with my 'shed' and gradually turn my life around and live the life I've wanted to for so many years! To be as self sufficient as possible.....a lot of hard work ahead I think but I have the passion and determination which I hope will help me get there!!
Thankyou thankyou thankyou!! 👩🌾🐔
No idea how I ended up here. Have no interest in living off grid, but my god I could listen to you talk about it for hours. Top work
I've plannned for a long time now to buy some land and go off grid the same as you have, i've found your videos extremely useful in educating me on the Dos, Don'ts and solutions to problems i hadn't acknowledged before. Thank you and keep up the good work!
Great video, I've been marathon watching these videos, I think yours is probably the best for clearly explaining your knowledge and reasoning behind your setup. I love it.
I'm a student, doing my dissertation this year on these small scale power systems. I'm investigating the pheasibility of mechanical storage over chemical batteries, options such as flywheels & reservoirs.
Great to hear that you are taking information from sources such as this guy, hope you ended up getting the results you hoped.
Did you find anything interesting regarding alternative storage? Is there some holy grail way of using excess power after charging batteries to run a pump for a reservoir or even lighting and irrigation for biofuel crops or something even more out the box?
Great explanation I actually learn from it thanks again for sharing your information
Thank you sir. You've helped me understand systems I've been aware of. Your narrative is most helpful!
this is useful and informative - really glad people like yourself take the time to make videos like this.
Thank you for making these videos. I wish one day I will live a life like this :)
Thank you for taking the time to do these videos. Fantastic information.
I've learnt more from you than any School
No nonsense get to the point, something you do just fine
My favourite word of all Time is used often in your videos and my life Free Free and Free💡😜
very well explained a perfect way to illustrate in basic no nonsense terms , i'm sure it will help many people , well done
Thank you!
I am 3 minutes in watching this... And it is one of the best videos I have ever seen in you tube. Thank you for the information. Living the similar lifestyle so all the information is well received . I like the style and I like the no nonsense... Good job well done
BRAVO!!! You are simply BRILLIANT! Succinct and fundamental explanations for the flippin’ acronyms at last! Thank you SO MUCH!
The 89% battery explanation is very useful to know, that explains why mine charges quickly via a split charge relay in the campervan. It can go from showing 12v to 12.4v in about 40 mins (90amp alternator) but running it for an hour sat doesn't seem to add much. I need solar on my roof to maintain my battery instead of the foldaway thing I have which is only 40 warts and a faff to get out and hook up. Its out now as the sun is shining today (East Anglia area) and its putting something in which saves running the engine for a change but it won't be much that goes in, an amp or two at best. Good video, thank you for your time and effort.
Thank you so much for these videos, Max. At this point, it seems unlikely i will ever be as independent as you but your videos are non-the-less inspiring and educational. As soon as I get paid I'll try and give you some beer money to go some way to acknowledging the great stuff you do.
I've heard of inverter generators, but did not realise the economic aspect of them, with variable engine speeds. Very informative, thanks.
"My inner engineer" wants to get hold of some of that power that the solar controller is chucking away (Well, in my limited understanding, it's chucking some away).
I love the idea of getting a cheap second-hand UPS to use as an inverter... it's one of those things that's obvious once you say it but I'd never had thought of it until you did,
It's great that we can all learn from your mistakes... even though it must have been a pain to make those mistakes in the first place.
I sometimes make use of the excess power by using it to heat water (immersion heater) or pump compressed air into my big receiver. It does rely on me being on the ball enough to turn things on - maybe one day I'll build an automated and optimised system - maybe!
@@maximusironthumper I'm a software developer in my day job.... I could imagine a control system getting very complicated very quickly.... keeping you eyes on things sounds loads easier, even if you do "miss" occasionally.
@@edgeeffect Yes, agreed, Mark's forever telling me how easy it is to automate things - he's not convinced me yet!
Thank you
Covid 19 talk so much sense and integrity Thank you very much. I also like to fix or create and feel blessed that a fifty year career in metal bashing gives me a feel for what might be possible from a collection of unlikely components.
Again many thanks Stay home stay safe look forward.
Very cool mate ... thanks for that. I can certainly understand that you haven't the time to design or provide step by step instructions for systems ... but equally what you do provide is just as valuable for those who want to avoid pitfalls you've discovered. I for one would love to see some of the stuff ... the gassifier for example. It wouldn't need to be running, just showing us and explaining how you built it would be fascinating. As MarktheOddJob mentions in his comment ... even though many of us are unlikely to ever rebuild a tractor engine, we enjoy seeing you doing it and we learn a bit more along the way.
Thanks, it's good to know that's some people out there enjoying this stuff! The gasifier may well get it's own video at some point - stay tuned :-)
You're brilliant you know. I only discovered your channel today and you have given me answers to heaps of things that have been worrying me about when I get the solar/wind hybrid system and heaps of other things that you have better ways of doing. You really should be a lecturer as I have followed everything so far (my late father was a marine engineer and I was the token boy in the family so some stuff I had a grasp of but others were way over my head...thanks).
And now I want a bread maker whatever it does Lol! It just seems like one of the best ways to use extra solar...of course there's probably heaps of things like that....it's my stomach speaking Lol!
Excellent Maximus😂
running a washing machine off a ups. i love it.
You are inspirational my friend. If you wrote a I’d buy it for sure. Cheers
Excellent video. You make it so much easier to understand. Thank you very much.
Excellent information!
Wow I learned a lot! Thanks for sharing this information!
Another great video Max, what I know about solar power is very basic, possibly postage stamp material, your explanation of the alternate options for charging, and the differences between the controller and inverter types may well have brought me up to the realms of a postcard. (A big improvement for me.) ;)
I have a few small panels sculling about, to run a single led bulb in a remote woodshed for example and another to charge a car battery which runs an exhaust fan to keep the poly tunnel from going into meltdown by sucking hot air out.
Unfortunately I can't really afford any kind of proper solar array, a single panel would be expensive let alone the batteries and controllers, etc., but when I can get a system together I now feel a lot more confident in understanding the further reading I would need to do to design a basic system.
Thank you vey much for your time Max, these videos will help many of us who find these concepts a little too unfamiliar.
You're a star Sir. (y)
Kane
Thanks for the feedback. If you're really skint try keeping an eye out on ebay and the like for broken panels, these are very cheap panels damaged in storms etc with broken glass. They don't work as well but even 60% of a 250w panel is a fair amount of power.
Your videos are a treat! Well-done to you my Viking friend!
Good job man, thanks.
Wonderfull simple explanation! I am quite a bit into electronics, and sometimes struggling with how to explain to someone else. Great video again, will share it with some friends over here. For the off grid living, love this way youre living. Here in Holland you almost won't find it. Due to lak of space and to much regulations. Cheers ;-)
Its just like when I uased to have actual lessons at school, well presented, but I got distracted by an animal outside the classroom (cat at 6:19)!
ha ha i saw that too lol
Yes me too, and had to rewind!!, :)
Dyslexics are us! The cat, me too!
Be careful out there, there's a panther roaming the area at 6:15
Great video by the way (y)
This video has been immensely helpful. Thank you so much.
It looks like a I'm about to move into a yurt (which is currently full of sheep shit). Excited and maybe more nervous than i expected. Looking forward to messing about with getting a power supply, if only for a few leds. Thanks for the inspiration and straighforwardness, you are a good teacher. :)
A brilliant basic explanation of the basic important points concerning a solar battery system. The explanation on the multi stage charging of batteries was spot on especially concerning bulk vs. absorption charging. Kicking in the bulk charge with the big generator and then switching to the mini generator is a useful concept that most people miss. A little more detail on your smart meter use and function would be nice , but overall well done video.
Love the clipboard, makes you much more authoritative!
I enjoy all of your videos even though I live in London and am unlikely to be able to live off grid or rebuild a tractor engine in the foreseeable future. I do love my Series 2 though.
Anyway, keep up the good work.
Just owing a Series get you plenty of cool points in my book! Thanks for the feedback
Having lived on a yacht for years iam amazed you dont use a wind turbine too i can hear the wind on the video
A brilliant explanation for beginners, I am just learning myself, to cut a long story short I divorced and ended up keeping a run down urban semi, not my ideal thing, I would love to live more off the land like you.
However, I am trying to make the best of what I have available and my tiny monthly wage which keeps getting smaller with inflation.
The first thing to go after my divorce was the TV, I had to cut back to survive on my own, the next thing to go was the gas boiler, for around 5 years I survived on very little heat, in fact during the winter of 2010 I recorded a lounge temperature of minus 1 degrees.
For five years I had a brand new Dunsley Yorkshire stove sat on a pallet, I had bought the stove but could not afford the flue liner and vermiculite to fit it.
My only form of heat became a stove I desperately welded up from scrap metal one weekend and botched into an old fireplace.
Luckily I have had a homemade solar thermal system since 2002, so hot water between February and October never was much of an issue, immersion heaters were also an option but they had to be run at night on cheap rate.
2012 was interesting, British Gas sent me a letter, up until that point my quarterly gas bills were around about £20 for winter time and around £0.50p for the summer months, I only ever cooked on gas nothing else, and I used camping stoves outside during good summer weather with free gas bottles people gave me.
The letter said that they were introducing standing charges, this was going to make my bills around £90 a year just for the luxury of owning a gas meter, not surprisingly I instructed them to remove the meter from my property ASAP.
For around a year I run a camping stove on the top of my nearly new natural gas cooker, this was not ideal but unfortunately, my cooker was of a type that could not be converted to run on bottled gas.
Eventually, I traded some of my time to do some work for someone, in return, I got a bottled gas type cooker, this was still not ideal because of the gas bottle being indoors next to the cooker, in a former job I used to do gas work, and I even had a ticket at the time so I quite conversant with LPG, so I made up a vented stainless steel housing for the gas bottle to live outside, and using the existing gas piping from the old natural gas system I managed to safely pipe the LPG indoors and use an LPG rated cooker flex.
My journey into off-grid living is still ongoing with so much more to get done as and when time and money allow, I had some roof repairs done, so I managed to fit 8 x 100watt 12-volt panels, but it was then two years or more before anything was done with them.
Although during the roof repairs I fitted the Dunsley Yorkshire and piped it into my old central heating system, which now works a treat.
I eventually made the panels off into two banks of four panels and connected them to a nice thick four core wire armoured cable which I had the pain of dragging through my walls, at the same time I was chopping up some Yew tree for firewood, not the easiest to split, between those two jobs I virtually lost the use of my arms for nearly two weeks such was the strain.
Years ago I remember a TV program which came out with Major Dick Strawbridge, it was called "IT'S NOT EASY BEING GREEN" those five words certainly are very true.
The PVs on the roof doing nothing were eating away at me, during a crisp cold winter day I managed to light an old incandescent 100watt light bulb quite brightly and draw an impressive arc of the end of the cables.
The feeling cannot be described when you feel the raw power of solar energy, to people who do not appreciate the safest nuclear power plant we have (The Sun) it is hard to explain.
Many years ago I had put a drop of water into my homemade solar thermal panel in a bid to prevent any desoldering of the copper joints to give me time to connect up the plumbing, I was in the loft and the sun came out, I could hear the water start to boil, I foolishly put my hand across the top outlet, the steam gave me quite a burn.
Anyway, I had fitted a nice change over switch to go between grid electricity and my full sine wave inverted which was still sitting in a cardboard box under the bed.
Then last year it happened I found some batteries which were still ok, which I could buy for scrap value a tenner each.
I used an old display freezer tipped horizontally on its side, I figured it would make an ideal battery box, insulated against heat and cold extremes and with a see-through door, I set about wiring it all up with 70mm crossectional area welding cable, crimp on lugs and battery clamps YIKES THE COST! how much a meter!!! I nearly fainted, maybe I should have used flattened copper pipe links like other youtubers.
When I switched it on and put the changeover from grid to home power on and everything worked fine, the feeling was something else, I still need more batteries and panels, but I am working on that.
I already have some panels sat in carboard boxes doing nothing, I chose an electric company called Ebico to supply my electricity at an increased unit rate but with zero standing charge.
My winter electricity bill would usually be around £60 with British Gas, but with being frugal and using solar at times I got it down to £17, my bill for the last three months of last summer was £4.
Yes, I do live frugal, because I live in a town, if I want something frozen, I go and buy it from Lidl or Iceland, I let the supermarkets pay to keep stuff frozen or cold, my small box fridge and box freezer are seldom switched on, I do not drink Tea so no energy boiling kettles, and no energy keeping milk cold.
In winter I tend to hang carrier bags of food that needs to be chilled from an "S" hook under a door canopy.
But when I have lots of spare power in the summer, yes I may run the fridge.
My biggest game changer this year will be my 12volt Fridge I will wire up very soon, already my 12volt system is taking shape with a 12volt socket and a voltmeter in my bedroom, my bedside lamp has 12volt led bulbs in it and a cigar plug replaced the old mains plug.
Using 12volt directly is far better than using the inverter all the time and suffering the power conversion losses.
On a final note, I had my 500watt sander running the other night, for quite some time trying to get planer marks out of a Teak plank I have had sitting around for nearly 30years, it was amazing to think about the fact that earlier that day, the energy running through the sander had started life millions of miles away when lots of heavy Hydrogen nuclei smashed together releasing massive amounts of heat.
The stupidity of not harnessing solar energy to me is just totally insane, but then to a psychopathic, elitist energy fat cat whos only love in life is money and he is not really bothered about the planet not even for the future of his own kids then you can understand why these scumbags downplay the potential of correctly harvested solar energy.
More sunlight energy falls on the planet in two minutes than what the entire energy consumption needs are in a year.
But I do believe the tide is turning, and folk like us are taking a stand against a very corrupt and deleterious system which is failing the whole of mankind be they be rich or poor.
Very interesting story of your journey! I well know the frustration of having projects only part completed due to lack of funds - when I put in the poles for my barn, another 3 years went by before I could afford the wood to join them all together. I have gone the other way with power, I got a very good deal on a secondhand super efficient inverter and most of my lighting, gadgets etc is now 240v, my fridge is an A+ mains fridge. The trouble I had with 12v fridges was that unless you get a very expensive one they tend to be unregulated and just get colder and colder. I agree they are optional items, I went 10 years or so without a fridge and used the same technique as you of letting the shop pay for the cooling!
@@maximusironthumper The Fridge was free, apparently, it works although I have not tried it yet and it was off an expensive hire boat fleet, they changed them routinely regardless of their condition, it is a compressor type, but the insulation never seems to be very thick on boat fridges, maybe it is to save space.
I have kept stuff cool before by leaving water in the sink and using a wet tea towel for a wick to take advantage of evaporative cooling.
A few years back I went walking with a friend, it was a bitterly cold January day, and on returning to his old BMW car the windscreen had frozen and I remember thinking it was going to take ages to get everything warmed up.
To my surprise on turning the key hot air almost immediately blasted out of the blowers, I was puzzled, the car had been sitting about five hours.
It turned out the car had a PCM box, PHASE CHANGE MEDIA, it comprised of a box surrounded by Aerogel insulation and a special Eutectic mix of special salts, Lithium Nitrate and Potassium Nitrate I think it was in the right quantities. The salts in the box melted from waste engine heat and they stayed molten for around four days, on starting the car 45KW of heat is suddenly dumped back into the engine circuit as the salts in the box changed back to a solid.
Ever since that day I have wanted to experiment storing excess solar heat in a PCM, the chemicals of choice, might be either Candle Wax or Sodium Sulphate with some added Sodium Chloride. I am still at the research stage for this though.
Another informative video Max. I thought I knew most stuff about batteries, chargers and solar, but I learned a few things from this 😀
While I’m not off grid, I use this stuff in vehicles etc and it’s good to know more and therefore get better life from batteries etc.
Fascinating stuff, the whole series has been really interesting to watch so many thanks.
Thank you :)
Thank you for your video, wow, you really are a weath of knowledge. Much appreciated
Very useful thanks
That´s why driving small stretches with your car is worthless for your battery, it never fully charges and looses a little from it´s original voltage until it won´t charge anymore.
What we really need is a new generation of batteries, that would be able to go down low and still be able to be charged up to workable capacity, over and over again.
Also, exide(and other producers) sells smart chargers for a good price(~100 pounds), that will maintain or trickle -charge your battery after it´s "full", never making it boil. I´ve used one at work for 10 years now, almost every day, without it breaking.
Just found your channel and it's great! Thank you so much for taking the time to share all this information with us. You're literally living the dream! I think it's great that you're not putting pressure on yourself to be completely off grid 100% of the time. I can see that it works so well and that you are very happy. I have vehicle envy ;) Enjoy the Spring!
Great video a run though on typical costs, ie battery bank, panels ,inverter etc on the system you have would make a great followup vid tks
You should be running the country max
Measuring the density of the battery acid is the best way to be sure of the charge level :)
That man has the hands and forearms of a semi-professional strangler lol..... Great explanation!
Sadly, another dying trade.
Great videos!
If you've got even a small stream on your land you can also consider making a small water wheel generator. Even if its 100-200w it's 24x7 so worth a lot and much more preferable to wind IMHO. I like solar best of all as it's nor mechanical, water then and last wind...
Think about, or research, tying a wind turbine to a big weather balloon and tethering it to your barn. Possibly big heights to be attained, clearing the top of the forest foliage?
thank you for the info. very well explained.
I
Need approx half to one acre of land for building a pole barn and
siting a Polly tunnel.
Can be rough - wooded (pref) whatever that needs clearing and work say
but not a low lying/flood zone area.. Pembrokeshire - west Wales area is
a main interest but will look/move as far as north Yorkshire too. Cash
buyer if needed at a lower price. A Sustainable living project plot has been a goal for me for a good spell. Workshop build to construct tiny homes too. Thanks.
Your a very knowledgeable man, thanks for your videos, your experience helps a lot
240VAC is RMS value. The voltage goes RMS * 1.414 -/+ over 360 degrees. So roughly -340Vpeak to +340Vpk. RMS is used because you can't say average as it would be 0V.
True, thank you for pointing that out. My explanation was poor. I can't edit the video now unfortunately, but I don't think it is quite a big enough error to take it down either. I'll pin this post to the top of the list and hopefully that will be enough clarification.
Great video mate! Well done!
I'm a new subscriber, what excellent video , i like the way you try to simplify everything into layman's terms ,looking forward to more of your work :-) :-)
Great videos. Reminds me of visiting my grandfather back in the 70’s so a step back in time.. Notice you have a hill in the Russian truck video. How about putting IBC containers at the top and bottom of the hill, connect via pipes and then use a solar powered pump to create a water store that you can release at night to recover power from?
Something I have considered from time to time, maybe one day I'll get around to trying it!
Sadly gravity as a force is weak as fuck.
You need many many IBCs to get any decent amount of storage from them.
A car battery like the one in the video will store about 1.5kwh when fully charged.
To get 1.5kwh out of gravity storage you need a whole load of water.
Lets say you have a very generous 50m height difference.
1.5kwh is 5.4MJ
Gpe=mgh
So m=Gpe/gh
So m=5.4e6/9.81*50
m=11000kg or 11 tons.
For a magical 100% efficient system you'd need 11 IBCs to replace 1 tiny car battery.
Big thank you for this valuable information and your experience.
Blimey even I understood most of that. Thanks. 👍🏼
wind turbine (mine is '600w' 24v) on a 6m scaffold pole, three guy wires. Its the cost of connecting to batbank, as cable needs to be fat for a long run. Also shitting yourself when a big storm runs through is no fun. On the plus, general day and night trickle feed, with winter peak generation. A dump system a definite requirement, into your water tank?
Great video stay safe and happy
Impressive..... thank you.
Quick way to tell if batteries are sulphated is to feel the sides, if they are bulging out then they have had it.
They can often be recovered
brilliantly explained....
You ever thought about making a couple wind veins to spin a bank of alternators/generator's because your area has a fair amount of continuous wind power?
Love the idea of living like this and videos like this help alot good job :)
No doubt you're inspiring a huge number of people. I'd like to ask you about the hardest part of off-grid living that you've experienced?
Great video as ever. Thanks. I'm learning a lot.
I admire the way you explain it, well worth learning from others, for free! yet on batteries yes they do (well lead acid batteries) have charge from new, if as i had to to in an industrial setting replace electrolyte in lead acid batteries they can last, almost indefinitely, you mention UPS yes where i worked with, we had a UK 50hz supply whereas the US computer mainframe was set at 60hz so the UPS system via a huge Glass (submarine quality) battery bank in 380v .thus the batteries were both supply and batteries (vai a converter) a back up.
the pertinent point her is the batteries could be stripped and in Pyrex you could see the damage always repairable at this larger level.
Thank you for the effort you have put into this video,It was very interesting and easy to understand.
Excellent video...I am looking into solar...
Hi Maximus, if you want cheap (eco-friendly) batteries take a look at saltwater batteries they take up a lot more space but are very cheap.
Also I dont think Li-ion is the future, this only counts when you are restricted in space and also they are less save (like in your house :s)
@@paulbolus9399 If weight and space is no problem , then considering lifecycle cost of batteries per kWh then oversized slightly discharged flooded cell lead acid batteries have a lot of mileage. For camper van or expedition truck use, lithium is very light and now fashionable, but there are still some temperature , safety and damage concerns as well as usually inability for emergency engine cranking use. Maximus will no doubt acquire a crashed Tesla at some point and cannibalize the lithium battery !
Thanks for your videos man!
As a teacher can I thank you for getting the bit about there being no electricity in a battery right. Of course there is no such thing as "electricity" , but I will leave that rant for another day.
Also thank you for stuff I didn't know about lead acid batteries.
Hi Max,
I already have a good appreciation of the basics of a solar setup from watching other CZcams videos. What I would like to see is the specific details of what kit you actually use and how you use it. You touched on using generators to charge your battery bank and your immersion heater for instance but I don't really get much feel for what your whole setup is or how you power various elements of your system like lights, fridge etc. Could you possibly do a future video where you detail your solar array/charge controller/battery bank/generators etc. and what is your electricity usage and how it varies day to night and maybe season to season?
Well this video was only intended to be a basic overview of the topic (as are all the videos in the series). I am happy to answer any questions you have on my setup, it's not secret, I just didn't think it would be of much use to this video to add lots of details on my setup as everyone's needs are different. I'll consider doing a follow up video but it won't be possible for some time yet - already many videos in the pipeline!
I didn't want to upset your schedule of videos because I know what it's like as I have my own channel and I realise how hard it is to get this stuff out there. It's just that what I find most interesting is when people detail their setup and how they overcame the various problems etc. including what works and what doesn't in your experience. This is especially relevant for me as you are in the UK rather than the majority of posters on the off-grid topic seem to be somewhere in the wilds of North America. :o)
I realise everyone's circumstances and requirements may be different but just describing how a battery bank charges from a solar panel via a charge controller doesn't really add much to the sum of knowledge on the subject. That's not meant as a criticism just an observation as there are a ton of videos on CZcams on that topic already. What I think people really want to know are things like how big is your solar array? What do you regularly run off off it? How do you cope during Winter with heating and lighting etc? You mentioned things like that in passing in this video but personally I would like to know more details of what works and what doesn't work for you.
Although my requirements and setup might well be different to yours, given that sort of detail at least I can make a better estimate of what I do require. Also it might stop me buying kit or going down a road that you may have identified as pointless. You mentioned the underfloor heating in this video as well being something that didn't work for you but the cast iron radiators did. It's stuff like that that people really need to know.
I hope this doesn't come across as some sort of rant because it's not meant to. Just some (hopefully) constructive observations about what others might benefit from with respect to your obviously extensive experiences in this area.
Love the Land Rovers vids by the way - just working my way through them at the moment. Don't know if I'll ever get round to doing something similar but it does appeal. I'm thinking about an electric conversion!!
Well plenty of detail to wade through in the land rover vids! I've considered a electric conversion too, easiest way would be to use a motor coupled to the PTO on the transfer box, giving a hybrid land rover! Heating and hot water will be next in the next video. Thank you for the feedback by the way, it does all help.
Thank you.
I'd have liked to see what manufacturers and models of equipment you're using for everything, but especially the solar controller and inverter.
Current controller is a Victron 50/100 mppt, inverter is a Studer 2300, but bear in mind those are very old models now. I didn't go into exact details on my system as my system is only a cobbled together mess! The video is intended only as step along the road for people to find what might work for them.
@@maximusironthumper That's very userful info anyway. It get's me on the right track so that I can follow the trail of these products. Also, it stops me buying cheap rubbish.
Great video, super informative.
Really enlightening. Thanks :-)
great video, good job
We seem to be leading parallel lives... I have a bigger setup than yours (10KW solar PV , 24x1000AH batteries and 9KW generator)... installed by cowboys as it turned out - who left me in the lurch with 75% installed and no operating instructions! Had to figure it out for myself.. Great explanation - 2 things to add on battery care though. 1) you need to constantly monitor electrolyte levels weekly and 2) you need to equalise the battery bank every month or so. I'm looking into a 3KW VAWT next year and I'm visiting a guy in California in a couple of months who is developing a SEG Serle Effect Generator - look into that. Tesla batteries are 5 years away yet.
That's a impressive setup! Certainly dwarfs mine. I only check the water level every few months and I've not yet needed to top up at all. Agree about equalising charge but was just trying to give an overview and not get too technical!
Maybe 5 years ago FLAB were still worth it, but for offgrid use it's all about the lithium phosphate batteries which for £1500 you can get a 5kWh battery (which is roughly equivalent to 10kWh of flooded lead acid barriers due to you being limited to 50% discharge) which is enough to get by on if you are careful with your power usage, and with lithium phosphate battery they have a 7000 cycles until 80% capacity assuming you are charging and discharging them between 20 and 80% and 5000 cycles to 80% capacity if you are doing full charge discharge cycles.
Which for solar you are at a maximum going to be discharging them once a day so that is just over 19 years if your carful to make sure you only charge them between 20 and 80% and 13 and a half years if you are fully charging and discharging them once every single day and at that point it's going to be calander degradation that actually degrades the batteries and that is in the highly unlikely case that you are fully charging and discharging the battery every single day, but a safe assumption would be that at the 10 year mark you are likely going to be at that 80% capacity due to a combination of charge discharge and calendar degradation.
But you can continue to use the batteries you just wont get the full capacity, so I would say you could easily push a lithium phosphate battery for 15 years before you probably should replace it.
Which a FLAB array if is going to significantly degrade in 3 - 5 years of usage if your using it hard and I mean they will be dead at that point, not just the capacity being degraded, so to me LPBs are well worth the investment.
Personally I don't believe lithium to the future of batteries let alone the present. Their advantages apply to mobile use rather than static storage. The ones in use for home storage are simply not robust enough to rely on (check out 'the off grid family' here on you tube for details on their issues with Pylontech). For my use I have switched to Lead Carbon sealed gel batteries (see my more recent video updates) and I have massively increased my solar PV. This means in the summertime the batteries are now barely cycled at all, they act more as a buffer for high load situations. I run much more on electric now including all summer cooking, air-con and hot water - the batteries tend to be 100% dropping to 90% overnight. Even in the winter they rarely drop to 70% or below. This way I am expecting a decent life from them without worrying about the finickety charging requirements and fire risks associated with lithium. All that said I do intend to dabble with lithium in the future but that will be as part of an EV project!
@@maximusironthumper First because it is the most important part, you are talking about lithium cobalt batteries when it comes to catching on fire, lithium phosphate batteries while they might outgas they don't catch fire because the thermal runaway in a lithium phosphate battery isn't hot enough to catch the electrolyte on fire and will boil it off hence outgassing, also it's less likely to do that, apparently battleborn has tested cells to destruction putting them in a 93C environment and they still didn't catch fire for example.
second charging being fiddly I don't know what kind of charge controllers you have come into contact with, but all you need to do on a good charge controller is put the absorption voltage in, put in the max charging voltage and the cut off voltage which you battery will say what those are in the manual.
All the "fiddly" stuff is managed by the controller having a data link with the battery
and if you are reffering to this video: czcams.com/video/0bsxVMwnutI/video.html
Like thats just a connector / wire gauge thing and dealing with the ampage, you have to deal with that whether it be lithium, FLAB or AGM. To be fair it is also an issue with the connectors on the battery not being sutable for 2 gauge cables, but again that not a solely lithium issue.
The battery I was referring to was an SoK battery that does have large terminals suitable for even 1 gauge wire.
Thrid lithium phosphate batteries are not ideal for mobile use due to their weight vs Lithium cobalt batteries, like for a camper sure you can use Lithium phosphate batteries and I probably would because of how many more cycles you can get.
But for an actual EV Lithium phosphate batteries are completely out of the question due to them being so much heavier which the weight of lithium cobalt batteries is already an issue.
Also I would like to point out that £1500 battery is equivalent to 8 x 100Ah FLA or AGM batteries in capacity, compared to AGM the upfront cost isn't even THAT bad and the lithium phosphate batteries will last much much much longer so that the it will end up being cheaper in the long run.
I made this mistake. I got a optoma yellow top battery to run a powerful stereo in my car. Discharged it below 10.5 volts a couple times... Really didn't like that...
Love your video's, do quite a bit of binge watching. Can I ask about charging your lead acid batteries with the generator? Do you disconnect them from the rest of the installation to top the charge up. I've seen some inverters that have a generator or mains input built into them. An internal switch senses voltage on the input and switches to charging the batteries from the generator. My batteries rarely drop below 65% but have never stayed at 100% for long. Just want to stick the generator on every now and then. Thinking about going totally of grid with electricity, standing charge will be costing me more than what I use by April.
Started drinking rainwater a while back, chlorinate it, filter it and boil it. Drank from a puddle once in my twenties after a very heavy cider night and sleeping in a bush and still here so cant be that bad for you.
Take care Chris.
No, the batteries are always connected to the system - whether charging via solar or generator. That way the charge source covers the load(s) plus provides as much charging as the battery needs.