featherlite
Solar Enthusiast
Bummer!!
What was your worse DIY solar mistake ever?
- Thread starter Mattb4
- Start date
OffGridForGood
Catch, make or grow everything you can.
100 feet of direct bury cable in tough ground...now I need to up-size...should have used conduit. Crap. 
hwy17
Anti-Solar Enthusiast
At night I lie awake and think of all the creative ways that 3/4" still can be enough lol.
Brucey
Solar Wizard
Thinking large culvert style big enough to crawl through yourself. Just in case.... Also good bugout escape tunnel dual use.
Brucey
Solar Wizard
In seriousness though if one was to build a power house in the backyard to avoid risk of catastrophic fire, I'm thinking connect to the house via a 240/50A inlet and transfer switch by the grid meter, like if I was hooking up a portable generator. Then the only potential UL code requirement in the house would be the transfer switch/method. Could even do an interlock on the main panel. My big loads are all propane except central AC and that's only 2 tons. But then for the grid input to the inverters...another 240/50A in the other direction, from house to powerhouse.
If the powerhouse was in a trailer....nothing for code enforcement to get their panties in a twist about
If the powerhouse was in a trailer....nothing for code enforcement to get their panties in a twist about
ruralsolar
New Member
Forgot the last two tie downs on my sinclair rack, don't remember how/why (other than being in a rush), more than a few wind storms everything was fine, finally after one winter time high wind storm (tho no snow...), noticed the following after seeing reduced power on one string
Attachments
Brucey
Solar Wizard
Held on by the cable?
robbob2112
Doing more research, mosty harmless
I plan a block house capable of containing a small tactical nuke going off.
Actually, I am planning a 6ft x 8ft building separate from the house to put all batteries and electrical in. Underground grid coming in on the side closest to the road. Then a pair of 3" conduits to the house. One for the main power panel in the house and the other for and other wires I want to pull from the house back to the block house. The wires coming to/from in the other conduit will be coax, cat5/6, smoke alarm wires, and probably fiber cables.
Originally I was thinking of using cinder blocks. But now I am thinking about using a double layer of firerock like you use in a garage over a wood frame.
The house and electrical room separated by 10ft or so.
And as I type this I am thinking 2 deep 2.5 wide garage and have a full bay enclosed the way I just described. Steel fire door either to the outside or into the garage.
sunshine_eggo
Happy Breffast!
That's what she said?
Nobodybusiness
Collecting the leftovers of the Great Sky Reactor.
That’s what I did except a little bigger. 240vac 100 amp.
Building with inverters/ batteries is 200’ away.
ArthurEld
Solar Wizard
I was rushing tightening busbars with an un insulated ratchet and I created a major short.
It scared the crap out of me and I dropped the wrench. The short didn't stop. Sparks were flying like someone was welding the top of my battery.
I reached in a grabbed the wrench and it stopped. The wrench and one cell were destroyed.
The fuse didn't blow. You can still have one hell of a fire creating short even if you have a class T fuse.
It scared the crap out of me and I dropped the wrench. The short didn't stop. Sparks were flying like someone was welding the top of my battery.
I reached in a grabbed the wrench and it stopped. The wrench and one cell were destroyed.
The fuse didn't blow. You can still have one hell of a fire creating short even if you have a class T fuse.
PotusGobbleBottom
Corn Pop was a bad dude.
I always wondered what this would look like. That sure is unfortunate.
Aridom82
Learning addict
I managed to short a jk bms in my first attempt. It was like lighting fireworks inside the house, the transistors exploding like firecrackers.
Adam De Lay
Solar Wizard
I was laying out my brand new lifepo4 cells for my 48v, DIY battery bank. Everything looked good, so I started laying the bus bars on top to get the physical connections all done.
With a shakey hand, I laid the first bus bar down. Whew, nothing happened. Though to myself, this should be easy. Went to lay the second bus bar down and sparks started flying everywhere. The only thing that stopped the sparks was my flailing hand happened to knock the bus bar off the terminals. I had a brain fart on where I was supposed to lay the bus bars. Your not supposed to have 2 bus bars connecting all the terminals between only 2 cells…
With a shakey hand, I laid the first bus bar down. Whew, nothing happened. Though to myself, this should be easy. Went to lay the second bus bar down and sparks started flying everywhere. The only thing that stopped the sparks was my flailing hand happened to knock the bus bar off the terminals. I had a brain fart on where I was supposed to lay the bus bars. Your not supposed to have 2 bus bars connecting all the terminals between only 2 cells…
Wiring last MP4 connector for my ground mount with 2 strings of 7S in parallel (450vdc) no cutoff yet. I had trimmed end of cable in my hand while holding other MP4 to connect to. To be sure of correct connector to crimp on wire I inserted it into MP4 to check correct fit!!!!!!!!!!!!! Big jolt and I threw everything. That hurt! Felt pretty stupid. I always turnoff AC when working don't know what I was thinking?
Dang it. That's it. Class Ts as bus bars.
hwy17
Anti-Solar Enthusiast
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