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Making heat with electricity is best left to a large system built with those large loads in mind. Anything that CAN be done with propane or natural gas should be. While you have shown you can operate a hot plate with a single 12 volt battery the load on that single battery will drain it very...

I have a separate dedicated 12 volt panel and battery running this unit. The small end goes into the battery box, the large end hangs outside the box. It actually starts frosting up when the humidity is high. The frost ends up turning to water and I have cut a small chute under the unit which...

Cool article. I had a big piece of tempered glass I wanted to cut down once. Long story short. I ended up shattering it. I think I'll try drilling an old solar panel with some diamond core bits and water. I have drilled a lot of glass bottles so have a feel for it. Meanwhile I'm going to guess...

Would these Amphenol connectors work for you? The contacts are solid and superior to MC-4 types. Of course you need the correct die for crimping.

In other words parallel 2 cells at a time and treat each pair as a single battery.

Panels in the 250 watt range are likely 10 years old. I wouldn't pay more than 30 cents a watt for them. So, $75 max. Multicrystalline cells have a visible crystalline structure but it is quite faint and dull as compared to poly cells which can be very sharp and bright.

This Morningstar inverter, while not the cheapest, is most likely the best you'll find. https://www.morningstarcorp.com/products/suresine-classic/

What do you call a man without a car? Joaquin. ??

I have crimped hundreds, if not over a thousand MC-4 connectors over the years. IMO a properly crimped contact will not fail or go high resistance and heat up. Mismatched connectors may be a problem but solder isn't going to remedy a mismatched connector. I think solder is not necessary and not...

So, have you spent any time in Mexico. Do you know anything about its culture? Funny how Mexico is perceived by ignorant US residents. It is much safer down here than nearly any city in the US. The media will always show some of the brutal killings that do happen down here and highlight these...

I like the four pole mounted arrays. Reminds me of a friend's triple pole mount setup. She has all three connected with cable and a single latch system so that she can swing all three quad 550 watt panel arrays in unison. it looks so cool swinging all three at once.

By now you are aware the consensus here is those may not be the best deal on panels, especially because they may be faulty. I wanted to add one more reason to reconsider. At 170 watts , these panels are less than half the power of more modern panels. Factor in the extra cost in S-5! mounting...

Maybe, apples and oranges but I can say, I have been using hardwired 12volt solar panels to radiator fans for about 9 years now and they have lasted for years. the speed of the fans vary, depending on the intensity of the sun but in my case (moving hot air out of my garage) the more intense the...

Don't trust the controller. It's no more accurate than the info put in it or it is guessing the SOC from reading the voltage. I would expect the BMS to be accurate.

Some modern panels have all connections potted in some form of hard jell Best to leave that stuff alone.

I have added Din Rail to these Square D boxes for those type of breakers.

Tell me about it. My first 8, 280 ah. cells ended up looking like the fat kid in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory. They're still working but I have my doubts on how long a life they will have. It all worked out well as I ended up ordering 16, 230 ah. cells from Jenny at Doucan and...

In your hot tub... Stu. Him and his brother hanging by the window.....Curt n' Rod. Out in the lake....Bob

Here's an example of a fake MPPT controller. It is listed for less than 15 dollars. I would think if you had 100 amps running through it, it would end up a molten blob of plastic.

Look at their warranty. They generally perform slightly better than the warranty coverage. Again I believe you are overthinking this.

I was sent this article from a friend. Trying to figure out whether to write it off as BS or if any of it makes sense. Anybody elses thoughts?

Wow! pretty deep thoughts for a shoe salesman Al, right?. I do agree with your thoughts and am glad I'm one of these Forum member types. We are hearing rumors of the grid coming down from San Felipe, (25 miles away, the end of the grid is about 15 miles away), and given the choice I'll keep my...

Looks like we're going to have to agree to disagree here. You can get near full VOC. under indoor light . Tempratute has a clear effect on cell Voc. as you have shown. Cloud edge effect is not a temperature related phenomenon. It is an increase in solar intensity which has everything to do with...

I realize not everyone understands the general rule is to always connect battery first and disconnect last.

All the extra parts and tools including MC-3 dies are a waste of your money. I can pretty much guarantee you will never use the MC-3 dies. Even if you did you would need a special tool $$ to insert the contacts into the rubber housing. A personal preference of mine is the blue MC-4 crimper...

From my experience hot and batshit crazy usually go hand in hand.

I believe that type of equipment depends on the weight of all those batteries for stability. Lightning the battery pack may not be a good idea.

You can buy a single 550 watt solar panel for about $200. You might spend more than that in connectors, fusing and mounting hardware for those crappy, old 40 watt panels.. You can pick up a 3000 watt, 24 volt AIO inverter/charger for under $400. This would be quite cost effective and simple to...