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I am a "pro", install pv, rainwater catchement, indoor vertical gardens, greenhouses and such for a living. I still learn from seeing what people do to arrange the systems. Constantly seeing new techniques and accessories make an improvement in my skill at integration of solar electric systems...

I keep on hearing this. I have multiple charge controls, mppt, pwm, stecca, zantrex, outback, morningstar. I have left them with pv input on and no battery for a year at a time without damage....... who has had a failure from this.? Show me the smoking circuit board!

Welding cable happens to be widely available. We cannot use it in pv systems as it does not usually have proper listing (nor marine/boating cable unless you are looking a litany of listings down the jacket) even though the material is quite useful as a conductor its main attributes of high power...

The higher the freq the higher the skin effect.

You could get some back from the wear caused mis-match by matching outputs to similar strings or with optimizers. Optis cost min. 45$ each, if panels are cheaper id go with more panels in some situations. The condition you describe is a classic solarized, sun zorched panel description...

I jse them heavily. 32v max..... And i second..... have a bus and have an extra space on it.

One of 4 or so of my go to control selections, Midnite Classic. Outback FM/MX, Morningstar, Schneider/Zantrex. Cool thing. The trace/zantrex gear, outback, midnite all the same core engineers who have given us heroic RE equipment. Best of the best for 30 years.... I wish everyone here would...

You can have 12V battery electrical with the mppt control. It will be flexible. You will also be able to deploy the second module without imbalance of the pv circuit by using parallel arrangement if you need.

They are ul listed, take up to 4 380W modules each and are made in usa! cyboenergy.com

Your best bang for the buck will be a 220Ah -245Ah golf car battery. You could get four and have 550Ah for under 500$. Or have two batteries and be able to fund cables, fuses, supplies, box etc., for the 500 or less. Golf car batteries are true deep cycle batteries and are heavy duty. They are...

It almost seems like the installer is trying to avoid admitting that the install and settings allowed improper charging which resulted in several expensive sets of destroyed batteries...... liability if they admit. Id get a second opinion from a reputable pro who will put reputation and...

I think you answered your own question with looking at other panels. Do not discount environmental effects. Smog particulates, humidity could offset otherwise proper operation of your existing gear. Test conditions.... I would suggest buying a Hanwha Q cells or other premium module. Sunpower...

I would say that the same dollar might get a heavier duty battery. Crown, Deka, others. Availability matters too. Lead acid is fine as long as it is sized to do the job when old and cold. On a budget system, especially a donated one, there is not generally room for full monitoring and comms...

O Yes, 96 million miles away and behind the best of shielding........ its awesome.

Rooftop passthrough, combiner, junction, rapid shutdown all in one box if you like! I have seen this auestion pop up a bit and i like to share, so here is one of the nicest pieces of equipment for bringing wire together and through a shingled roof deck. The bus, fusing/breaker options are din...

I absolutely know. I have three 4x 12' hydronic collectors, 2 air heaters, and 4500w of off grid pv all diy, except for parts and equipment. My point was if you simply buy the materials you will not come ahead on cost. If you attempt to build much less design a hydronic collector amd its system...

"Milk crates - all the ventilation you would ever need with almost nowhere to mount stuff!" Priceless!

Thing is for special "projects", tinkering, amusement, hobby, demonstration, casual use, etc. Most of these amazon items are ok. Powering up the kids play fort out in the yard, yes epever it up..... if you need home power with high reliability, flexible function, and moderate continuous power...

Its why i passed you my helmet yesterday....... you were on your way to bumping your head.......or catching incoming...... keep your head down for a minute until you are squared away. Its hard not to get excited, but i will tell you point blank that i eat my shoes some days...... been eating my...

No. Plus the enphase inverters are line to line no neutral. The modified wave will not be accepted as grid amd the modified wave inverters could likely never sync to anything much less each other. A good hybrid inverter will do it.

These are supposed to be great. Lots of user reports in other forums of this type. I heat water in vaccum tubes as a demonsration. There is a hybrid electric model at go sun, cant post a link for some reason. Always wanted to build a sun kettle for coffee and tea but since the array is out...

26 cents a watt...... half price of new. Not sure of the manufacturer. Likely fine.

they could exceed the charge current unless there is an adjustment in at least one of them, best to divorce them or otherwise control them.

I use poe liberally right from the 24v bus baby...

J, one thing i can say is that it might save money to use ironridge or equivalent rail amd accessories to mount. Unistrut and other similar materis can run 10$ a foot or 80$/ 8 foot stick amd ironridge rail, xr100 (mid size, strong) 35$ 14' in black of you like. If you are not using flashed...

Torqueedos are spensive too. I liked the e drive, but at that price point, id have to build something converted. There are some nice drives, the sailboat stuff is astonomic in cost but what is needed in that persuit. The thing about efficiency and hydrodynamic drag is drag has a heck of a...

They probably do if you are Dutch!

Solder is generally bad news in high current dc connections. If they are crimped and then soldered mayhaps. Everyone is going to habe a practice but mine is to use the devices as designed. Crimp connectors are not designated 'crimp/solder connectors' (ok some are, and are batt cable but special...

Yes, it has to do with making the most of the available power. Over time a couple percent adds up. Also some circuits rely on low loss for calculation amd response to the system requirements. 2% has long been the t%arget for proper pv wiring and acceptable loss. 3% is maximum legal loss. It...

Some batteries will have been in float for a week or more at a time and used for an hour then hung back up. Most trucks will get new batteries when they wont do it anymore.... but some will be ok because they could only do what was being asked of them at 80-90% of original capacity. This kicks...