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Disclaimer: No insult to the Small DIY guy, or anyone that doesn't have an education in electricity, EVERYONE'S education lies in different areas, Some of us are 'Nerds', head full of factoids we don't put into practice, Others are 'Geeks' that actually get *Something* wired up, usefulness is...

Over 30 years off grid, not by choice when I started... You used to have 2 HUGE issues, now it's down to 1. Storage (batteries) were inefficient, expensive, short lived and constant maintiance. That has mostly changed with Lithium. Not nearly the maintiance, much longer lived, much more...

Binding a harness, I gave up 'Zip' ties a few years back, expensive, won't allow you to add or pull a wire from the harness/bundle, good ones are expensive and cheap ones are more trouble than they are worth, etc. When you are first laying out a harness, twist ties like come on bread, then bind...

WHAT I SEE... Proper heavy cable, wide contact surface area lug to get AMPERAGE from cable THROUGH the lug to component. EVERY terminal end/lug is added Resistance to make convince in connections, assuming copper or at least brass, the thicker and wider the better the current passes. EVERY AC...

An entire semi truck load of panels that are nearly 6 feet tall, 250-350W An entire semi truck load of inverters, meters, combiner boxes, etc. So much I can't even inventory most of it. This most definitely is NOT the 'Hobby' stuff, all high end panels, high end, but older inverters, all...

Two entirely different types of electricity that have very little in common other than moving electrons. This is an argument every single time when AC & DC guys meet on forums... Virtually noting in common between AC & DC other than electrons and materials that will conduct/transmit electrons...

I feel it all over again reading this! My grandpa had me shovel about 100 yards of 3 foot deep snow so he could get to the barn shop. Of course that damn near killed me, but I got it done. Told grandpa it was done, we walked to the barn shop and he lit the stove, sit in his chair, propped his...

24 years ago I moved onto reclaimed coal strip mine property, the coal mine left behind 'Junk' that had been sitting for more than 10 years. That 'Junk' included two mobile office trailers, big truck parts, a big truck flatbed trailer, 20' shipping container and 2 each 40' shipping containers...

This is something I did for vehicle wiring diagrams. An Electrical Schematic is a very precise technical drawing of electrical circuits. A Diagram, or Pictogram, shows representations of the components you will be using, and showing the wiring in between. 'CIRCUIT', BY DEFINITION, MAKES A...

When you pull wire through conduit, pull another string along with it... One string always in the conduit allows for easy expansion/pulling more wiring. Just leave the string hang in junction boxes at both ends, no crap fight trying to snake a pull tape around corners, getting tangled up in...

Everybody starts somewhere. What got me started was a solar PV 'Battery Maintainer' that was about the size of a battery box lid... Then it was solar sidewalk lights around my camp site, Then it was an embarrassingly low watt panel to recharge cordless tool batteries. Now I'm off grid running...

Not an issue at all, that's what the forum is for! Not the resistance I think about since I tend to over gauge wires a little (Safety Margins). What I find is battery resistance to be the biggest issue. Resistance shoots way up as batteries reach full State Of Charge (SOC) and it's hard to...

I've seen people pay HUGE money for installs and can't name a single component other than the panels... I can't help myself, I have to know what everything is even if I'm not sure how it works. ;) My wife and I are the same, we'll help ANYONE that's trying to learn, and we'll learn from anyone...

Having rebuilt Alternators for a living, I would like to pass along something that fits the needs of DIY types quite well in my experience. This is a Leece-Neville alternator... And it has some interesting features that DIY types will find interesting, and they are in salvage yards everywhere...

The first install will be a vet down the road. Two Bronze stars, a Silver star, a dead son in the sandbox, and he lives in a travel trailer under a metal barn lean-to roof that faces directly south... And the current administration just cut his disability AGAIN this year while the rural...

So, at 7:00AM, The owner said he 'Smelled Smoke' and wanted someone to have a look, he's about 2 miles down the road... We have a 'Handy Man/Jack Of All Trades' type in the area, and I just want to smack this guy sometimes... Not the first time I've had to clean up after him, This morning, an...

It's property tax in some states. How we helped a few folks were old house trailer frames/wheels. Now it's a home built trailer, and if it never hits the highway it's not taxed. Doesn't matter what's ON the trailer. I ran into this myself by accident. I had a ground mount, decided to build...

I caught that too, BUT, when I show a simple work around to the issue, it's ALWAYS a crap fight! You have to know how a voltage regulator works, and know electrical current takes the path of least resistance... The BATTERIES are in Parallel, The voltage regulator only senses ('Sees' or samples)...

Charge density, but return on charge input. I battled with lead/acid and the voltage drop issue for 25+ years... Lithium changed all that, it just took WAY too long to get through my thick head to accept that. 3X to 5X the RETURNED useable potential before voltage drops off. It used to be...

Since Will posted his experience less than a month ago, The charge controllers you claim to have blown up "YEARS" ago would be entirely on you. I've been doing this about 20 years, I saw the MPPT hardware show up, and remember all the little charge controller companies come & go...

I've heard this debate for nearly 50 years, and for 50 years I've seen with my own eyes what happens to electrical connections Vs. structural connections getting confused... I've been off grid for over 30 years, and that long building industal machines. Small barrel type crimp terminals will...

An atom sits down on a bar stool, orders a double, Bartender asks, "Rough day?" Atom says, "I lost an electron." Bartenders says, "Are you sure?" Atom says, "I'm Positive."

There is a reason they drink warm beer and walk everywhere in Europe in the 70s/80s... Lucas refrigerators and vehicle electrical systems. WAY back when, about 1981 or 1982... I had a girlfriend with a 70's Fiat Spider with the usual ignition/charging system problems. I had enough, rewired...

BEING THE KING OF RANDOM... Two posts, two hinges, two panel mount (top & bottom, where wind force gets leverage on the panel!). Wood where it's effective, metal where it needs, simple and clean. Panels are triangulated in the mounts, they aren't going ANYWHERE! Notice he used hinges at the...

1. The 'Newly Converted' are ALWAYS the loudest 'Experts' in the room. (Brother, have you heard the 'GOOD NEWS' about our savior, LiFePo4?) Unless I'm DEAD SURE, with about 20 years experience, I NEVER talk brand names or specific products. After about 20 years experience and the company is...

Just a confirmation of what I learned, If you can't drive there and kick someone's butt, don't buy it there. Use a credit card with INSURANCE! The most you are usually out is $50. I never thought I'd say this, but you have a MUCH better chance with resolution on PayPal than Amazon.

The things you learn building from scratch (and finding every mistake along the way)... I built a big capacitor bank thinking I could do away with batteries. (Expensive Mistake). The charge density isn't there. In conjunction WITH batteries/power source (what nearly every other application in...

This is a modern version, mine is an old one from Radio Shack. Wind speed, direction, temp & humidity. I got mine because it had a buzzer you could preset for wind speed, I used that buzzer feed to trick the panels into thinking the sun was overhead, so they go flat/horizontal on the post &...

I believe so... Local power grids are WAY more economical, less prone to damage/outtages, have WAY less power losses... And let's face it, we have reached the point where this stuff is almost 'Plug & Play'. Around 2000 the government/military had a study done, the military/DOD listened to...

And why I refuse to discuss politics with most people, lack of understanding/education... Takes too much time correcting the basics/educating then trying to get the person to update the 'Opinion' on the new, correct information. No shade on the other person, this is America and they can...