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Another nice video from Mike Holt. Auxilary grounding rods are not required but there is a rule that states there are no requirements on an auxiliary ground e;ectrodes. At one point in the video, he talks about CAT 5 wires and 10 penny nails for the auxiliary grounding electrode. :ROFLMAO...

Folks, I am curious what batteries people are using with the 18Kpv? Obviously, a lot of folks (Most people?) are using EG4 batteries, but the inverter supports a wide selection of battery protocols, so I wonder what other people are doing. (Beyond my curiosity, It might also be helpful...

NOTE: After learning more about the PowerPro battery and its capabilities, I have updated this and the follow-on posts for clarity and correctness. There has been a bit of discussion on paralleling the EG4 PowerPro battery. This and the following posts show many of the most common...

There has been a lot of discussion about ‘Zero Export’ on the 18Kpv and I would like to summarize what is going on. General Points: The term ‘Zero Export’ is used throughout the industry to talk about preventing power from being exported to the grid. The reality is that Zero Export is a bit...

I have been investigating Rapid Shutdown on the 18Kpv and would like to offer some clarity on the capabilities and situation. 1) The 18Kpv can do rapid shutdown out of the box using the integrated Rapid Shutdown Initiator. When triggered, the inverter will shut down the AC output and the...

Hmmmm

A new phase in my solar journey Anyone who has followed me on the forum knows I have a passion for moving DIY solar forward and for helping people learn. I have had my frustrated rants (for which I apologize) but my intent has always been to be helpful and move the DIY solar space forward in a...

True story: My son's dog shit on the carpet while my son was out of his house..... and then the Rumba decided it was time to go to work. Think about it. :poop: + ?

Here is an interesting chart on Cycle Life: Look at the charge and discharge rate. 1C for both and they still lasted over 4000 cycles before they hit 80%. In a typical solar installation, the charge and discharge rate won't be anywhere near that high. I can easily imagine a cycle...

I found this: https://www.coremax-tech.com/product/16s-lithium-lifepo4-100a-48v-51-2v-solar-energy-storage-paceic-pace-bms/ The price looks great but the shipping is stupidly high. It would be interesting to find a vendor that has a competitive delivered price.

I saw a cute trick for manipulating Ohm's law on one of Mike Holt's video. It can also be used with Watt's law. To remember the circles easier, drop the math operators from the circles and view it spatially:

This video has a very interesting discussion about moving the vehicle industry to 48V systems (The 48 discussion started at about 19:00) If the transition happens, it will be a big boon for us DIYers because more 48V devices and components will become available.

I was working on a design and came across an 'interesting' :( change around PV arc fault protection in the 2023 NEC. In the 2020 code, you could have PV circuits going to your house without arc fault protection if the circuits were in metallic raceways (Conduits), In the 2023 code they seem...

I am considering using two DIN rale Mount 63A breakers as disconnects for two pairs of PV lines going to two separate controllers. I would mount them on a DIN rail inside this box. The metal box would be grounded. Does anyone see any NEC issues with this? In particular is there any issue...

@Will Prowse just did a video warning folks about 120V showing up on the PV lines. There have been several threads where people reported seeing voltage on the PV out. I always thought it was failed units, but Will reports it is normal on a lot of units. I can kinda understand if the 120V...

This video gives some interesting history on the history that left the US with 120V. It is in line with what I had heard before, but it gives more detail than I had heard before.

Does anyone have insight into changes coming in the ABYC (American Boat and Yacht Council) wiring standard? I was recently told by a Victron Ambasidor that the ABYC is going to change their spec to allow MRBF fuses on single LiFePO4 batteries but still require Class T for multiple batteries...

I know I am a nerd when getting a copy of the 2023 NEC is exciting

Does anyone have experience with the Victron Easy Solar 3000/230 GX with the built-in SmartSolar 250/70 and GX board? I am designing a system for deployment in north Africa that will require extensive remote monitoring, Remote control and Remote configuration. Consequently, I am looking at...

As many of you know, The value-priced inverter manufacturers provide horrible documentation so I have been on a mission to understand the grounding and bonding of the popular value-priced inverters. Edit: Corrected Ground to Neutral. As part of this, the question of 'common Neutral' has come up...

I was looking for the specs of the 7-Pin connector used for trailers and I ran accross this page. https://amsolar.com/blog/high-current-alternator-charging-and-the-7-pin-connection High Current Alternator Charging and the 7-Pin Connection Because of slim wire gauges and long...

Folks, There have been many discusions about run-away cells and I have fielded a few questions about them so I though a resource about the subject might be a good idea. I wrote something up for a resource but would like a review before posting it. The following are the 7 pages of the...

I just saw an announcement from SolArk that the SolArk 15K it made it on the California-approved list: https://www.sol-ark.com/sol-ark-15k-hybrid-inverter-on-cec-list/ Note: I am in no way affiliated with SolArk

Folks, I recently did an upgrade on a 2015 Winnebego where I had to learn a lot about their 'Battery Interconnect Manager' and 'Boost button' I thought I would share what I learned here in case any of you run into this. (From what I can tell, Winnebego had the same setup for several...

One of the selling features of the Victron Orion TR Smart is that it watches the voltages on the starter battery side and will turn on when it sees a voltage indicating the alternator is running. The selling point is that you don't have to have a separate control telling the Orion to turn...

Why do we use a PV disconnect that breaks both the positive and negative of a PV circuit? The flippant answer is that the NEC requires it...... but that does not really explain why. What the NEC actually requires is the disconnect breaks all conductors that are not solidly grounded. Since...

Where is @Will Prowse ? I have not seen a new video in nearly a month!!! I am not in withdrawal yet but......

It is generally accepted that if you have shading on some of the solar panels, it is better to put them in parallel so the shaded panels don't impact the unshaded panels. However, with modern panels that have two or 3 bypass diodes and MPPT controllers, is parallel really better? I am not sure...

I don't need an oscilloscope very often, but when I do need one it there is nothing else that can do the job. Consequently, I am considering acquiring one. * The need is often to compare two signals, so a two-channel scope would be a must for me. * The need is almost always for...

I am helping someone with an upgrade to a remote system. Part of the upgrade will be replacing the 24V Giandle inverter that is currently in place. Since the system is in a remote spot we are trying to plan everything in advance, but we do not know the size of the existing Ring Lugs on the...

I am seeing posts of people wanting to build 48V systems with 5 or 6KW inverters and server rack batteries. This is a nice, clean way to build a system, but be aware of the current limits on a lot of the server rack batteries. I just saw this for the Pylontec batteries: A 5000W inverter...

Both the MPP and Growatt line of inverters have a few aspects that make me wonder if it is possible to make an NEC-compliant implementation. 1) Are they UL listed? It looks to me that many (most?, all?) of the Growatt and MPP inverters to not have the proper UL ratings to meet the code. This...

@Will Prowse just posted a video on server racks: Lets talk about it.