Thank's this video! Victron is a fricking good and expensive system, specially the mppts.. For larger systems.. 15kwpi panel with 12kw inverter like Deye / Solark roughly a half ( or lower?) price... and You do not care with the components... All in one.. ( Yeah if something happen, all in one tougher go to the scrap....but the life is dangerous..😂) Greatings from Hungary!
Great video! I was always curious how much different the performance would be between brands, but it seems like you'll be in good shape as long as you have a true MPPT controller.
Don't be too much sure respect this. I installed some cheap hybrid MPPT. For example voltronic or Easun (they are LL the same with different brands). I calculated a top efficiency of 84% in a rapid test. And the worst at very low power, around 60%. And I've confirmed by others videos that show like while victron hybrid give 1474w output, this Garbage give 1100w. And with victron at 350w ,this garbage 200w. Epever is nearly victron efficiency and victron smartsolar is probably the most efficient, also compared with maybe better brands like Morningstar. Epever have a strange strategy at very low power. It stop mppt tracking and make a complete IV curve scan, every hour. I spoke with epever ingenieers and they confirmed my hypothesi. And explained me the reason. But is a bit complex to say in this comment.anyway, that mode maybe cost 20 wh for day. This loose increase when the PV mpp voltage is much greater than battery voltage. Many CZcamsrs say that is SLOW TRACKING. Nothing to do with this. Is a stop of moot tracking in certain conditions
I live in my RV full time, and boondock (dry camp) most of the time. We boondocked for 8 months straight in 2023. We have been using a 50a Epever on a 620w liftable array, charging a 560ah LiFePo-4 battery. It has worked perfectly for the almost 5 years we've had it and is a great value. It has fast tracking and high efficiency too, I'd say it is comparable to the feature rich Victron, just with less bells and whistles. I recommend getting the MT-50 monitor with it for ease of programing/monitoring.
@diySolarPowerFunWithRay We travel the country, visiting National Parks and such, so we've dry camped all over, but mostly out West. Sometimes, when we're in the East, where boondocking sites are harder to find, we dry camp in RV parks, Forest Service and Army Corp of Engineer campgrounds with no amenities. When visiting our son in NC last year we dry camped in an RV park that was full, but they let us stay in an overflow parking area in the back of the park (actually more spacious and beautiful than their regular FHU sites) for only $50 a month. They let us use their dump station for dump and fill every couple of weeks as needed. It was a win-win for both of us. We are expanding our system as I type this. We mounted our liftable solar array on the side of our coach, which left the roof free to rack 8, 550W Sungold Power solar panels (4,400 watts) down the length of our 35ft Class A, 15" off our roof, above our AC, fan shrouds, etc. They will cover the entire roof, providing some nice shade with plenty of cooling air underneath, further increasing solar output and reducing the heat load on the air conditioners too. We bought them for only 51 cents/watt shipped to our door! We bought our aluminum racking material in Yuma, where we're wintering over this year, for under $400. Our solar panels, wiring, breakers, etc. arrived a couple week ago, but we're taking our time to get everything in and installed over the winter. At 67 yrs old, we're moving much slower these days. Our Sungold Power all-in-one 48V, 5,000W Inverter/100A charge controller/battery charger just arrived last month. Our 48v battery bank will use 16, 320ah grade A prismatic cells which only cost us $1,726 from EEL batteries. The 200amp Heltec 16s BMS cost $140 more to keep everything safe and happy. So together with our 560ah 12v bank, we will have a total of 23.5 Kwh of batteries onboard (the equivalent of over 18, 100ah Battleborns) - kept charged by over 5,000 watts of solar. We removed our rear 13.5k btu rooftop Dometic AC and filled the hole it left with a second powered roof vent. We are installing an EG4 28.5 seer-2, 12k btu mini-split heat pump on the upper rear of our MH. This second phase will provide 24/7 off-grid air conditioning, supplemental heat from the heat pump and allow occasional usage of our rooftop mounted, softstarter equipped Furrion AC in the front of our MH during peak afternoon hours, as well as give us whole house 120v ac power. We'll soon have total off-grid electrical independence for a total budget of around $11,500, reserving our generator for back-up use only. Having all the power we need gives us options that most don't have.
Good to know. My wife and I are getting ready to build an off grid RV pad on our property in Northern Nevada... first item on the list is 48volt off grid solar system to power the RV.
@SuperSushidog wow that thing's going to be powerful. I like the idea of removing the air conditioner from the top and putting in a mini split. For my setup I just don't know where I would put the mini split? On the back hitch? I think that would work but it might not look very good back there
@@diySolarPowerFunWithRay we rarely need to operate the A/C unit. We will be under a 30'x40' Steel Building without walls. Hoping that a swamp cooler is all that we will ever need once we are set-up. Considered the mini-split for heating though.
only disadvantage of the victron MPPT mppt charge controller is that these are not repairable, completely cast in the aluminum housing. If you connect the plus and minus battery cables incorrectly, then you can throw away the MPPT controller. The fuse cannot be replaced. No warranty by Victron
That's a really decent overview. I would add in terms of charge controllers... never buy a charge controller with a fan. If the charge controller needs a fan it's because it is a bad design. One might want to externally have some airflow in the box everything is in, that's fine. But charge controllers with internal fans should always be avoided. The Victron 100|20 can handle 12, 24, or 48V, and the SmartSolar version is $88. That is really the sweet spot, I think. Even if someone is just doing 12V or 24V, I can guarantee that anyone who gets enthusiastic about solar and batteries will be wanting to go to 48V in fairly short order. Higher voltage systems massively reduce currents, the wire sizes needed, and heat. In anycase, getting charge controllers that can do everything helps because upgrading the system voltage after the fact can be costly and it will be one less cost to worry about. With a 48V battery (16s, 51.2V LiFePO4 nominal), while charging the battery, voltage will average around 53V. That's over 1000W of solar (~53V x 20A) possible on a single 100|20 charge controller. There is one and only one downside to 48V and that is you need the solar open-circuit voltage to be 60V+. e.g. 4 x 50W panels in series or 3 x 100W panels in series or 2 x residential panels in series at a minimum. Well, also the minimum reasonable 48V (51.2V nominal) battery size is 25Ah (such as the Lithova battery). But in my mind that's really the minimum system anyone should be thinking about when going discrete parts anyway. Any smaller... like if you have just one solar panel, and you might as well just get a power station. -Matt
I have 5 victron charge controllers and a few powmr 100 amp charge controllers. The victron are super nice with the smart app and higher voltage input but actually the powmr 100's have never missed a beat and work great also. My all in one units on the other hand ... Lol
Hello. Thank you verry much. It's really helpfull! Is it possible to use victron mppt as a booster. For exemple i have a ebike with a batterie 48v. 25 amp. And a solar panel 100w 12 v ? I want to charge my bike while riding... let's say with a smal victron mppt. Have a nice day!
I have 2 DIRT CHEAP PWM controllers for more than 2 years. It is perfect for a cheap 12V and USB electricity backup in case of outage I created a set with a 50W solar panel + PWM controller + an electric bicycle battery : Super cheap and i can supply electricity 11h to a 12V led lamp + charging USB devices This DIRT CHEAP PWM has also another advantage : it includes 2 USB ports
If the wiring is perfectly identical, and the controllers are in parallel and IN BULK STAGE (absorbtion and floating stage don't work in MPPT mode, even if almost anyone knows that) the results are reasonably accurate.
I think you and I are the same, we're addicted to buying solar controllers, batteries and panels 😂 You probably know this but it's still worth mentioning, a good way of seeing if a controller is MPPT is to measure the solar input voltage at the solar controller and the battery voltage at the solar controller. If it is MPPT the solar input voltage will be higher than the battery voltage when under load. If it is a PWM controller both the solar input and battery voltage will be the same when under load. There are so many fake controllers out there.
Cool. I actually didn't know that. Thanks! Yes, I have too many :). I'm giving away some stuff right now if you're still collecting :). See my raffle video. I've still got a lot of stuff to give away.
Advice please. I need 15kwh a day to power for power outages that can last from a couple hours to a few days. I'm in Michigan so my solar hours is 4.48, 1,278 Kwh per 1Kw, says need 4.24 Kwh array I'm looking at a 400w, 36v panel, says output DC 39V, 10.25a max, transfer efficiency greater or equal to 21% A MPPT Charge controller of 100a, says 12/24/36/48v Auto, Max Input 100v. Max charging current 100a. Max Input volts of panels should be 30v-45v (for 24v battery). Max Input power of panels should be 2000w. Output voltage DC5v/1.5a Inverter of 4000w/8000w Peak, Pure Sine Wave Power Inverter, DC24v-AC110 And Battery is LiTime 24v 100Ah, LifeP04 Lithium Ion, Build-in 100a BMS, 2,560 Wh Energy. Up to 4P2S (don't know what that means) 48v battery 400Ah of 20.48 Kwh It's only 1000sq' apartment, 2bd/2ba. Old Kenmore Fridge, elec range, micro, dishwasher (which I'd forgo during an outage), a couple computers and tvs, wifi, lights, a mini-fridge, that's about it. No washer/dryer and if I did use my hair dryer, it's 5 mins or less, but I don't use it every day (and my housemate is bald). For obvs. reasons I wanna keep the heat on and the fridge. We'd unplug things we don't need for a few days, but I'll stick with what we've averaged over the last year anyway just to be safe at the 15Kwh a day. Also, if I'm not mistaken this setup had a good amount of room to grow? The 400w is just one panel so I can add another 400w, etc. and the other components I believe have a lot of room yet? I'm hoping to build a near-off grid home in the next few years, so I'll take it with me as obvs. I can't install anything permanent here. Am I on the right track here? Too much, too little, just right? Any part of this not work with another or could be downgraded or done better/easier/cheaper? Any part of it I don't need? Anything I do that's not here? What I have here is about $1,450. If I'm WAY off on what I think I need, please don't make fun of me. lol I'm learning and this is all new to me, but I'll get it. It's looking less like greek every day. Thanks for your time!
Hi, you will want to watch this video that will help you estimate how much power you will need and how much power you will get from here solar panels. czcams.com/video/z1T-liUaPQ4/video.html
I’m not an expert (which is why I’m watching these vids.) I recently purchased the Anker solix c1000. With 200 watt panels it was around $900. The reason I mention this is it combines the battery, inverter, charger, plugs in a system that somebody else figured out. I figured I paid a couple of hundred more than if I had put it together myself buying the components separately. The warranty, simplicity of use, and convenience are worth it. Other people like Jackery or Bluetti which I assume are good too. Note: I have not bought their extended battery for the unit, but plan on adding a battery separately to increase the juice. Hope this helps.
On a so small production of 200 wh you must to consider the controller consumption and take out of the total. A Bluetooth controller 30A controller consume more than a no Bluetooth 10A controller. The controller consumption don't pass trough the meter
@@diySolarPowerFunWithRayexactly! Meter is After. It reed Only the current to battery/other loads. The controller consumption you can't know. But just multiplies the datasheet value for the hours of the test. Then you add this data to the total of meter wh. Maybe don't change nothing. But is it 😊
hah, glad i surfed on by. i bough 2 lithium batteries as a Xmas present to myself , and it seems the cheap fake MPPT charge controller ...lol.. i guess i will be ordering a better one the solar queen is out of stock right now.
I got a 175w panel, 36v, I use the blue cheap one, 20amps, 110a leisure batt, lead acid, all my stuff is 12v or below, no 12v to 240v, a TV, fridge, led lights, summer time it does me, winter, have to use a inverter Geny, 1000w, for 4hrs every 3rd day, to top up batt, I like to keep it "KISS", keep it simple stupid, :), not like some people,
I think you agree with me that is terrible annoying you cover the table ALL TIME WITH HANS OR LEGS OR BODY. What's the sense of the table if you cover it? Anyway, really good job but I don't understand if the wiring of all controller ls are perfectly identical, including fuses, crimping etc. If not, when the difference is so small, the rest is not credible.
Yeah the mppt controllers were all very similar. Definitely nothing super conclusive here. I was surprised at how close the results were. You could definitely tell the difference between the pwm controller though.
The only thing don't convince me are the meters. Or better, I ask you if they are very good quality meters. Because if not, it's impossible trust to 3 or 4 watts of difference in a day with 200wh of productivity. A very small deviation or measure error on instant reading, get accumulated along the day. You can mix the meters, in a second or third test in cloudy day, sto see at least if results are confirmed or not
@@diySolarPowerFunWithRay shame 😭. Your test very interesting me. Especially cloudy test with victron "worst" then some other. I say that not for defending victron. But because I know Very well tracer and victron. I use both a lot. And are pretty comparable in efficiency with slight vantage for victron. In The tracking on a established mppV with "perturb and observe" method, victron move up and down the voltage (fractions of voltage) with slight higher frequency. Than, victron make a complete scan of IV curve, every 10 minutes. Epever I don't remember but less frequently. The periodic complete IV curve scan, needed to find in any case the real mpp voltage, even when do to particular partial shadow, 2 or more apparent mppv are created. If a controller only follow the mpp with "perturb and observe " tracking, it can find a fake mpp. But if controller make a complete IV curve scan every tot time, finally find the real mpp. If you don't know, epever have a strange strategy when Power is lower than 10-15w. It stop the tracking. And make a complete IV curve scan every hour. If you don't know I can explain this thing 😁it's very interesting. In The ending, both have same purpose to minimize losses and inefficiency at extreme low power. Victron make this, retarding the start with PV voltage is 5v more battery voltage. Epever start earlier at 2v more battery voltage. But then use this strange strategy.
My big problem is I have 2 PWM charge controllers both Colman one is 10 amps the other is 30 amps and both do not have proper charge parameters only charge to 12 volts and stop when I bought them I thought that was fully charged until I found utube when I first found out proper charge parameters and that doing so the battery should last between 5 to 8 years I thought all I ever got was 1 year on all my booster packs and the manufacturer should known how to charge their products but I had my old black and decker handy so I took it apart to find out who built the battery and find out what they recommended for charge parameters but written right on the battery was was do not discharge below 12.2 volts float charge is 13.4 and full charge is 14.8 and on the built-in charger was output 12 volts so the utube videos were right and they were all built to fail in about a year so a solar charge controller that shuts off at 12 volts is useless saved me a lot of money because I was thinking of buying a solar generator and had looked at 2 Duracell 1440 and nature's generator Duracell was cheaper but only had a 1400 modified sine wave inverter so it was out for all electronic products found out that the amount of solar it could take meant it would take 2 days to charge and it didn't fully charge the battery either nature's generator looked promising with a 2000 Watt pure sine wave inverter but it had the same charge problem and taking 2 days to charge for each day of use might be okay for a emergency power supply but not for everyday off grid use so I'll open up the units and see if I can change the parameters and if not then I need to find a cheap charge controller for my water pumps and other low voltage device's and for that the solar panel is 75 watts and a automotive battery princess auto sells evergear solar generator and I bought the 2000 watt model so how do you! find out what charging parameters a charge controller has
Why is it that people with little electrical knowledge seem intent on putting up these buyers guide video's, you wouldn't buy a prosche and chuck in a mini engine so why get a 250w panel and connect to a 12v battery.
I'm not sure what you mean by stress. But it turns off if u try and pull more than 30 amps. I think I might use a 30 amp a charge controller on my next build For the step down converter
This info is what got me to buy MPPT instead of the cheaper PWM controller. Thanks!
Thank's this video!
Victron is a fricking good and expensive system, specially the mppts..
For larger systems.. 15kwpi panel with 12kw inverter like Deye / Solark roughly a half ( or lower?) price... and You do not care with the components... All in one..
( Yeah if something happen, all in one tougher go to the scrap....but the life is dangerous..😂) Greatings from Hungary!
Great video! I was always curious how much different the performance would be between brands, but it seems like you'll be in good shape as long as you have a true MPPT controller.
Don't be too much sure respect this. I installed some cheap hybrid MPPT. For example voltronic or Easun (they are LL the same with different brands). I calculated a top efficiency of 84% in a rapid test. And the worst at very low power, around 60%.
And I've confirmed by others videos that show like while victron hybrid give 1474w output, this Garbage give 1100w. And with victron at 350w ,this garbage 200w.
Epever is nearly victron efficiency and victron smartsolar is probably the most efficient, also compared with maybe better brands like Morningstar.
Epever have a strange strategy at very low power. It stop mppt tracking and make a complete IV curve scan, every hour. I spoke with epever ingenieers and they confirmed my hypothesi. And explained me the reason. But is a bit complex to say in this comment.anyway, that mode maybe cost 20 wh for day. This loose increase when the PV mpp voltage is much greater than battery voltage.
Many CZcamsrs say that is SLOW TRACKING. Nothing to do with this. Is a stop of moot tracking in certain conditions
Great video! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for watching!
I live in my RV full time, and boondock (dry camp) most of the time. We boondocked for 8 months straight in 2023. We have been using a 50a Epever on a 620w liftable array, charging a 560ah LiFePo-4 battery. It has worked perfectly for the almost 5 years we've had it and is a great value. It has fast tracking and high efficiency too, I'd say it is comparable to the feature rich Victron, just with less bells and whistles. I recommend getting the MT-50 monitor with it for ease of programing/monitoring.
Thanks for the comment. nice, set up. Where do you dry camp?
@diySolarPowerFunWithRay We travel the country, visiting National Parks and such, so we've dry camped all over, but mostly out West. Sometimes, when we're in the East, where boondocking sites are harder to find, we dry camp in RV parks, Forest Service and Army Corp of Engineer campgrounds with no amenities. When visiting our son in NC last year we dry camped in an RV park that was full, but they let us stay in an overflow parking area in the back of the park (actually more spacious and beautiful than their regular FHU sites) for only $50 a month. They let us use their dump station for dump and fill every couple of weeks as needed. It was a win-win for both of us.
We are expanding our system as I type this. We mounted our liftable solar array on the side of our coach, which left the roof free to rack 8, 550W Sungold Power solar panels (4,400 watts) down the length of our 35ft Class A, 15" off our roof, above our AC, fan shrouds, etc. They will cover the entire roof, providing some nice shade with plenty of cooling air underneath, further increasing solar output and reducing the heat load on the air conditioners too. We bought them for only 51 cents/watt shipped to our door! We bought our aluminum racking material in Yuma, where we're wintering over this year, for under $400. Our solar panels, wiring, breakers, etc. arrived a couple week ago, but we're taking our time to get everything in and installed over the winter. At 67 yrs old, we're moving much slower these days. Our Sungold Power all-in-one 48V, 5,000W Inverter/100A charge controller/battery charger just arrived last month. Our 48v battery bank will use 16, 320ah grade A prismatic cells which only cost us $1,726 from EEL batteries. The 200amp Heltec 16s BMS cost $140 more to keep everything safe and happy. So together with our 560ah 12v bank, we will have a total of 23.5 Kwh of batteries onboard (the equivalent of over 18, 100ah Battleborns) - kept charged by over 5,000 watts of solar.
We removed our rear 13.5k btu rooftop Dometic AC and filled the hole it left with a second powered roof vent. We are installing an EG4 28.5 seer-2, 12k btu mini-split heat pump on the upper rear of our MH. This second phase will provide 24/7 off-grid air conditioning, supplemental heat from the heat pump and allow occasional usage of our rooftop mounted, softstarter equipped Furrion AC in the front of our MH during peak afternoon hours, as well as give us whole house 120v ac power. We'll soon have total off-grid electrical independence for a total budget of around $11,500, reserving our generator for back-up use only.
Having all the power we need gives us options that most don't have.
Good to know. My wife and I are getting ready to build an off grid RV pad on our property in Northern Nevada... first item on the list is 48volt off grid solar system to power the RV.
@SuperSushidog wow that thing's going to be powerful. I like the idea of removing the air conditioner from the top and putting in a mini split. For my setup I just don't know where I would put the mini split? On the back hitch? I think that would work but it might not look very good back there
@@diySolarPowerFunWithRay we rarely need to operate the A/C unit. We will be under a 30'x40' Steel Building without walls. Hoping that a swamp cooler is all that we will ever need once we are set-up. Considered the mini-split for heating though.
Good one, i have mppt too (manual mppt trimmer), was very cheap, like 10$
Thank you
only disadvantage of the victron MPPT mppt charge controller is that these are not repairable, completely cast in the aluminum housing.
If you connect the plus and minus battery cables incorrectly, then you can throw away the MPPT controller. The fuse cannot be replaced.
No warranty by Victron
That's a really decent overview. I would add in terms of charge controllers... never buy a charge controller with a fan. If the charge controller needs a fan it's because it is a bad design. One might want to externally have some airflow in the box everything is in, that's fine. But charge controllers with internal fans should always be avoided.
The Victron 100|20 can handle 12, 24, or 48V, and the SmartSolar version is $88. That is really the sweet spot, I think. Even if someone is just doing 12V or 24V, I can guarantee that anyone who gets enthusiastic about solar and batteries will be wanting to go to 48V in fairly short order. Higher voltage systems massively reduce currents, the wire sizes needed, and heat. In anycase, getting charge controllers that can do everything helps because upgrading the system voltage after the fact can be costly and it will be one less cost to worry about.
With a 48V battery (16s, 51.2V LiFePO4 nominal), while charging the battery, voltage will average around 53V. That's over 1000W of solar (~53V x 20A) possible on a single 100|20 charge controller.
There is one and only one downside to 48V and that is you need the solar open-circuit voltage to be 60V+. e.g. 4 x 50W panels in series or 3 x 100W panels in series or 2 x residential panels in series at a minimum. Well, also the minimum reasonable 48V (51.2V nominal) battery size is 25Ah (such as the Lithova battery).
But in my mind that's really the minimum system anyone should be thinking about when going discrete parts anyway. Any smaller... like if you have just one solar panel, and you might as well just get a power station.
-Matt
Thanks! Very good points!
You forgot one extra reason to avoid charge controllers with a fan. If the fan fails, it's guaranteed to overheat and possibly can caught on fire
Excellent comment!
I have 5 victron charge controllers and a few powmr 100 amp charge controllers. The victron are super nice with the smart app and higher voltage input but actually the powmr 100's have never missed a beat and work great also. My all in one units on the other hand ... Lol
You're the only one units definitely have a few more quirks
Didn’t realize you were a prepper the LDS food storage gave it away you should do more content on it.
Haha, maybe in the future. My food storage is in low supply. :-)
I got the srne voltx 50a mppt + dcdc charger in one and its a game changer
Cool, I'll have to check that one out
Hello. Thank you verry much. It's really helpfull! Is it possible to use victron mppt as a booster. For exemple i have a ebike with a batterie 48v. 25 amp. And a solar panel 100w 12 v ? I want to charge my bike while riding... let's say with a smal victron mppt. Have a nice day!
I have 2 DIRT CHEAP PWM controllers for more than 2 years. It is perfect for a cheap 12V and USB electricity backup in case of outage
I created a set with a 50W solar panel + PWM controller + an electric bicycle battery : Super cheap and i can supply electricity 11h to a 12V led lamp + charging USB devices
This DIRT CHEAP PWM has also another advantage : it includes 2 USB ports
That's a good point. I should have pointed out the USB ports. Great for running 12 volt lights with the push of a button on the charge controller.
If the wiring is perfectly identical, and the controllers are in parallel and IN BULK STAGE (absorbtion and floating stage don't work in MPPT mode, even if almost anyone knows that) the results are reasonably accurate.
Morningstar makes very reliable commercial quality MPPT charge controllers.
Nice. I've never tried those
I think you and I are the same, we're addicted to buying solar controllers, batteries and panels 😂
You probably know this but it's still worth mentioning, a good way of seeing if a controller is MPPT is to measure the solar input voltage at the solar controller and the battery voltage at the solar controller. If it is MPPT the solar input voltage will be higher than the battery voltage when under load. If it is a PWM controller both the solar input and battery voltage will be the same when under load. There are so many fake controllers out there.
Cool. I actually didn't know that. Thanks! Yes, I have too many :). I'm giving away some stuff right now if you're still collecting :). See my raffle video. I've still got a lot of stuff to give away.
Advice please. I need 15kwh a day to power for power outages that can last from a couple hours to a few days. I'm in Michigan so my solar hours is 4.48, 1,278 Kwh per 1Kw, says need 4.24 Kwh array
I'm looking at a 400w, 36v panel, says output DC 39V, 10.25a max, transfer efficiency greater or equal to 21%
A MPPT Charge controller of 100a, says 12/24/36/48v Auto, Max Input 100v. Max charging current 100a. Max Input volts of panels should be 30v-45v (for 24v battery). Max Input power of panels should be 2000w. Output voltage DC5v/1.5a
Inverter of 4000w/8000w Peak, Pure Sine Wave Power Inverter, DC24v-AC110
And Battery is LiTime 24v 100Ah, LifeP04 Lithium Ion, Build-in 100a BMS, 2,560 Wh Energy. Up to 4P2S (don't know what that means) 48v battery 400Ah of 20.48 Kwh
It's only 1000sq' apartment, 2bd/2ba. Old Kenmore Fridge, elec range, micro, dishwasher (which I'd forgo during an outage), a couple computers and tvs, wifi, lights, a mini-fridge, that's about it. No washer/dryer and if I did use my hair dryer, it's 5 mins or less, but I don't use it every day (and my housemate is bald). For obvs. reasons I wanna keep the heat on and the fridge. We'd unplug things we don't need for a few days, but I'll stick with what we've averaged over the last year anyway just to be safe at the 15Kwh a day. Also, if I'm not mistaken this setup had a good amount of room to grow? The 400w is just one panel so I can add another 400w, etc. and the other components I believe have a lot of room yet? I'm hoping to build a near-off grid home in the next few years, so I'll take it with me as obvs. I can't install anything permanent here.
Am I on the right track here? Too much, too little, just right? Any part of this not work with another or could be downgraded or done better/easier/cheaper? Any part of it I don't need? Anything I do that's not here? What I have here is about $1,450. If I'm WAY off on what I think I need, please don't make fun of me. lol I'm learning and this is all new to me, but I'll get it. It's looking less like greek every day. Thanks for your time!
Hi, you will want to watch this video that will help you estimate how much power you will need and how much power you will get from here solar panels. czcams.com/video/z1T-liUaPQ4/video.html
Don’t the mptt stop batteries from over charging?
Yes but I wanted to keep my battery low so the test would run the full day
How do attach it to the battery
Attach the battery first and then attach the solar panels.
pls i am sorry to ask, but do you have any training courses on how to build a small solar generator
How small? Something similar to what I show in this video?
it can be smaller than that, just for 3 lights, TV and fan. Thanks@@diySolarPowerFunWithRay
I’m not an expert (which is why I’m watching these vids.) I recently purchased the Anker solix c1000. With 200 watt panels it was around $900.
The reason I mention this is it combines the battery, inverter, charger, plugs in a system that somebody else figured out. I figured I paid a couple of hundred more than if I had put it together myself buying the components separately. The warranty, simplicity of use, and convenience are worth it. Other people like Jackery or Bluetti which I assume are good too. Note: I have not bought their extended battery for the unit, but plan on adding a battery separately to increase the juice. Hope this helps.
On a so small production of 200 wh you must to consider the controller consumption and take out of the total. A Bluetooth controller 30A controller consume more than a no Bluetooth 10A controller. The controller consumption don't pass trough the meter
The meter is after the charge controller so it should account for that
@@diySolarPowerFunWithRayexactly! Meter is After. It reed Only the current to battery/other loads. The controller consumption you can't know. But just multiplies the datasheet value for the hours of the test. Then you add this data to the total of meter wh. Maybe don't change nothing. But is it 😊
@@diySolarPowerFunWithRayyes you are right. I confuse myself.🤦 But you understand what I mean..
hah, glad i surfed on by. i bough 2 lithium batteries as a Xmas present to myself , and it seems the cheap fake MPPT charge controller ...lol..
i guess i will be ordering a better one the solar queen is out of stock right now.
If you wire both your 12v batteries in Series then you'd have a 24 battery and you would be golden!
I got a 175w panel, 36v, I use the blue cheap one, 20amps, 110a leisure batt, lead acid, all my stuff is 12v or below, no 12v to 240v, a TV, fridge, led lights, summer time it does me, winter, have to use a inverter Geny, 1000w, for 4hrs every 3rd day, to top up batt, I like to keep it "KISS", keep it simple stupid, :), not like some people,
I think you agree with me that is terrible annoying you cover the table ALL TIME WITH HANS OR LEGS OR BODY. What's the sense of the table if you cover it? Anyway, really good job but I don't understand if the wiring of all controller ls are perfectly identical, including fuses, crimping etc. If not, when the difference is so small, the rest is not credible.
Yeah the mppt controllers were all very similar. Definitely nothing super conclusive here. I was surprised at how close the results were. You could definitely tell the difference between the pwm controller though.
The only thing don't convince me are the meters. Or better, I ask you if they are very good quality meters. Because if not, it's impossible trust to 3 or 4 watts of difference in a day with 200wh of productivity.
A very small deviation or measure error on instant reading, get accumulated along the day. You can mix the meters, in a second or third test in cloudy day, sto see at least if results are confirmed or not
That's a good idea.. I'm not sure I'll do another test though.
@@diySolarPowerFunWithRay shame 😭. Your test very interesting me. Especially cloudy test with victron "worst" then some other. I say that not for defending victron. But because I know Very well tracer and victron. I use both a lot. And are pretty comparable in efficiency with slight vantage for victron. In The tracking on a established mppV with "perturb and observe" method, victron move up and down the voltage (fractions of voltage) with slight higher frequency. Than, victron make a complete scan of IV curve, every 10 minutes. Epever I don't remember but less frequently.
The periodic complete IV curve scan, needed to find in any case the real mpp voltage, even when do to particular partial shadow, 2 or more apparent mppv are created.
If a controller only follow the mpp with "perturb and observe " tracking, it can find a fake mpp. But if controller make a complete IV curve scan every tot time, finally find the real mpp.
If you don't know, epever have a strange strategy when Power is lower than 10-15w. It stop the tracking. And make a complete IV curve scan every hour. If you don't know I can explain this thing 😁it's very interesting.
In The ending, both have same purpose to minimize losses and inefficiency at extreme low power.
Victron make this, retarding the start with PV voltage is 5v more battery voltage.
Epever start earlier at 2v more battery voltage. But then use this strange strategy.
not every panel produces the same output ...
What man owns a hairdryer 😂😂😂😂😂
Lol 😉
Bought that dirt cheap mppt crap. Now I know it's crap. It still on its way to me from Ali. Now I need to find better one w/o breaking the bank.
My big problem is I have 2 PWM charge controllers both Colman one is 10 amps the other is 30 amps and both do not have proper charge parameters only charge to 12 volts and stop when I bought them I thought that was fully charged until I found utube when I first found out proper charge parameters and that doing so the battery should last between 5 to 8 years I thought all I ever got was 1 year on all my booster packs and the manufacturer should known how to charge their products but I had my old black and decker handy so I took it apart to find out who built the battery and find out what they recommended for charge parameters but written right on the battery was was do not discharge below 12.2 volts float charge is 13.4 and full charge is 14.8 and on the built-in charger was output 12 volts so the utube videos were right and they were all built to fail in about a year so a solar charge controller that shuts off at 12 volts is useless saved me a lot of money because I was thinking of buying a solar generator and had looked at 2 Duracell 1440 and nature's generator Duracell was cheaper but only had a 1400 modified sine wave inverter so it was out for all electronic products found out that the amount of solar it could take meant it would take 2 days to charge and it didn't fully charge the battery either nature's generator looked promising with a 2000 Watt pure sine wave inverter but it had the same charge problem and taking 2 days to charge for each day of use might be okay for a emergency power supply but not for everyday off grid use so I'll open up the units and see if I can change the parameters and if not then I need to find a cheap charge controller for my water pumps and other low voltage device's and for that the solar panel is 75 watts and a automotive battery princess auto sells evergear solar generator and I bought the 2000 watt model so how do you! find out what charging parameters a charge controller has
Been there brother.
He is not mentioning likely the best, Helios, or one of the 6 re-brands.
Thanks, I've never used a Helios. I would like to try out one of their power stations though.
Why is it that people with little electrical knowledge seem intent on putting up these buyers guide video's, you wouldn't buy a prosche and chuck in a mini engine so why get a 250w panel and connect to a 12v battery.
This was a good video who want to learn more starting from scratch.
These lithium batteries can accept a lot of power. 250 watts is nothing for a 12 volt lfp battery.
Many STEP-DOWN converters are FAKE, is your $30 fully spec'ed in under stress??????????
I'm not sure what you mean by stress. But it turns off if u try and pull more than 30 amps. I think I might use a 30 amp a charge controller on my next build For the step down converter
@@diySolarPowerFunWithRay They are not BUCK or similar, of ANY KIND (lete alone MPPT), they are simple and very inefficient PWM ONLY!!!!!!!!!!!!