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My wife and I made the transition to off grid life 7 years ago. Built my own house. Did everything, framing, plumbing, electrical, and solar. Was one of those McMansion owners for many years. Suffered hurricane ike in Ohio, and we decided to be as independent of the system as we could, be cause...

This is my "freebie" project. Im a semi retired 52 yo in N Ga. Work part time 3 days a week at a "warehouse shopping type place" to get out of the house, and they had all this warehouse shelving/racking in the loading dock. Six 14 foot support racks, 70+ red 7 foot bars that hold the wire racks...

I use a backup charger from Progressive Dynamics. They have them for LA/AGM/GEL and Lifepo4.,12 and 24v options. Used to charge RV batteries when connected to shore/generator. I chose it when I upgraded to lifepo4 from LA rather than replacing my inverter/charger altogether.

Thought I got the pics up...sorry. Here are a few. I have since added the other 5 BYD packs to the top rack, 15 in all. Cleaning up the wiring and fuse placement still. Replaced the front Molex on each pack with a JST-XH 8s connector. Plugged in a cell meter on each which will be secured to the...

Who could forget Prodigy. That WAS the internet back then.

I purchased this 1000w Inverter off Amazon for testing my BYD packs. At 1000w they stated in the instructions to limit continuous use at 70% (700w). So, obviously, I completely ignored that. I ran 3 load test on the system using this inverter. 748w for 46 hours 868w for 38 hours 1100w for 16...

Can someone explain the difference? When would you want one or the other? Benefits?

I'm afraid you may be jumping in before fully understanding the problem. Which are your requirements. In your situation if you determine that your requirements are what you must have to live a comfortable lifesyate I would suggest staying connected to the grid until such a time you can install...

I appreciate thw info guys and thanks for the diagram Will. That's what I was looking for on Google but couldn't locate. I have 5 (soon to be 7) 60ah lifepo4 banks in 8S (24v) total 420ah with 330ah usable. Problem is I set my MPPTs at 26.6 (80% charge) but still find 3-4 cells somehow hitting...

One thing to consider is here in Georgia it gets very humid in the Summer requiring AC all the time. While over paneling will be needed to cover daytime consumption and still charge the batteries, about half of that 100kw of storage would be used in just AC alone (if no compromise was made) over...

Been looking for terminal bar connectors. Various sizes to pick from (center hole to center hole) would be very helpful. Google apparently has nothing to offer except contempt and disappointment... Thanks for the help!

Absolutely, but rather than worry about that, and the temps, or long expensive cable runs, I keep my lifepo4's in a large cabinet in the corner of my living room. Large battery cables going out the back of the cabinet and through the wall to the outside utility room, where all the solar goodies...

All things considered lead acid too has it market and production cost issues. Mainly being lead is no longer smelted/refined in the US, but primarily countries we have tenuous relationships with (china...). I personally also do not expect lifepo4 or even PV to get cheaper, only that it has...

Very well done video. You went in such detail on the internals it actually got me thinkong of building one myself (lots of time on my hands). For the moat part, Amazon has the parts. The only one I'm having trouble finding are the diodes. But as my system does not get any shade do you think they...

Please post your results, and a link to the product if you find it usefull. I have one cell on one byd pack that just won't play well with the others.

RJ reached out this morning. Said the 60ah is out of stock. Are giving me 75ah instead....nice.

Not as bad as advertising 9600mah 18650's! That always makes me laugh.

Man...you must really like toast! With that one battery you can run just your toaster for 45 min and have a dead battery. Your freezer...about 2.5 hours before dead, and the stove...maybe 45 min. Thats just running any ONE item. Run 2 of any of them and your inverter can't handle it. Expanding...

Title says it all. Blow up about a foot from my face. Don't ALL red wires go on top? ?

Is 3.5v right after charging? They usually drop after a few hours resting. Other may have a different answer, but 3.5 is not 100% full. Long term storage (months to a year or more) 40-50% is recommended. 3.5 for a few weeks should be fine.

That's my setup. Single large array to 30kw battery storage supplying 2 invertors. One feeding 110v to my house (100 feet), and the other supplying 240v to sons house (200 feet). Smallish amp draw, so it works great. Having to maintain/watch/temp control a single setup was preferable.

Ok. So, what Scclockdr stated would be best. Lets determine what its using power wise. A Watt meter will tell you a lot. I know my local Harbor Freight store carries them too. Just plug it into the outlet and your freezer into it. Leave it for 24 hours. Record the watts being used, but you want...

Separate would be simple. Pure Sine inverters come in all shapes and sizes. So find one that best suits your arrangement. Then use a Progressive Dynamics charger. They're small for what they do and priced right (they have different ones for the various battery chems and charge amps). The good...

Well, the real question is how much do you need? What are you wanting to power? Its impossible to answer what you asked....

Good call. I did not look specifically for 3.2 1S when the items heading said 36v/48v/.... That was poorly written but good catch on your part. Ordered it, and thanks for the heads up.

Got it working...thanks for looking.?

If I find that my lifepo4's are below freezing, say high 20's low 30's, and I get the room to say 75-80F, how long before I should consider safe before charging again?

How cold does it get? Typically you don't need to be concerned about flooded. Yes, power availability will be reduced but not by a lot.

Its recommended to go 90% SOC to get the most life out of the batteries. Also, going no less the 75% DOD as well. Though I rarely get below 50%.

Unfortunately, no, a 36v battery will not work with a 24v system. However, if it's made of individual 2v cells, like a fork truck battery, its possible to connect to 12 cells (24v) instead of all 16. So long as you have access to each cell. So you have 4 36v batteries? What are the specs? Model?