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There are heatshrinks available for use with waterproofing compound inside (in fact they are rated for use completely underwater, and in explosive gas environments like coal mines lol) Not a fan of 'liquid tape' as it has dubious ratings, depending on the thickness of it

Depends- in some areas they can be found growing in the wild, and can be harvested when fully grown (usually a mature sign post tree shows it is fully grown by growing a large foliage display at its top, this is usually red or yellow, but some species it can be white...) They tend to mostly be...

Quite common in Australia for us to use standard wall switches in offgrid use- All switches can handle AC or DC use- BUT- there are limitations in their use... When switching DC- you have to stay well under their AC voltage rating but can handle up to their maximum current level (this is...

The US already pretty much has the highest solar prices in the world by a considerable margin, all this will do is slow its uptake further (and increase greenhouse gases- not a good thing for the future generations) All because the US has trained its population over generations that they 'need'...

Put some grommets or glands on those cables where they are exiting the case... ;-)

Don't laugh- I have been doing solar offgrid installs since the 1980's, and this one made my jaw drop... A guy had been doing research on the net, and actually had a quite good quality install, covering all the 'good things'- angle was right for the latitude, good quality equipment with fusesor...

Hi from sunny Queensland Australia... Offgrid again (first time back in the 1980's- things sure have changed since then lol) Currently running a 'temporary' setup with two arrays of three series 250W ex gridties totaling 1.5kw (picked up 18kw worth of panels (72) for under two grand lol) but...

You REALLY need to vet your sources more carefully- I didn't even need to watch it to know immediately that was a video by a utuber named Sepentza- a notorious antiChina (and rabid anti EV) utuber with a long history of 'distorting the truth' aka lying... (he is a far rightwing supporter, born...

You are determined that you are right (despite being wrong)- overpanelling doesn't make each panel do 'magic' and make more power- but in an array where the charge controller is the limiting factor- overpaneling allows the charge controller to make its full output WHEN CONDITIONS ARE POOR -- and...

Biggest advantage of these is that they are multivoltage (so work regardless of battery voltage from 12v up to 85v) plus they look just like 'normal' mains voltage bulbs and can be used in any normal lighting fixture (ES or BC) so to all appearances your offgrid house looks completely 'normal'...

Only thing I see I don't like is still no grommets or glands where the cables pass through the front panel- DC cables can move when heavy loads are applied suddenly, and long term you could end up shorting the cables on the panel as the insulation abrades...

Especially in mobile usage (where battery capacity is limited, either by space or weight) 'overpaneling' can have substantial benefits- a small battery bank have have low maximum charge rates, where having the full output of the array would have substantial effect on the service life of the...

12v high capacity and 24v high capacity alternators are both extremely common, and quite cheap with 12v from cars, 24v from trucks making it worthwhile manufacturing them 48v- VERY rare and mega $$$ practically nobody uses 48v mobile- so why set up a manufacturing plant for them??? And running...

That was during the setup- but still no BMS, no... (I do a check once a month to check they're tracking, (I have the equipment to do a manual balancing if required- been installing offgrid since the 1980's and got my grid tie installers licence back in 2004) but to date- they are still tracking...

That does seem a little dumb doesn't it... It wasn't the US consumers that brought in the tariffs, it wasn't the Chinese manufacturers that brought in the tariffs, it wasn't 'little green from Mars' or the Galactic Federation.... Guess who it was????

Many Aussie offgrid homes use electric stoves and ovens(although daytime cooking is preferred over nightime- easier on the batteries lol) But then we tend to have fairly large solar arrays (10kw 'used' to be the most common size for rural properties, now 20kw and even more are becoming the...

Dual heavy duty truck starter motor cables in parallel for everything from the inverter to the 20kwh battery bank- this is one of my spare fuses (half a century old now lol) left over from my days as an apprentice elec fitter in the railways... Quite handy really- the fuse has dual holes (one...

I use a voltmeter in the van as a 'rough fuel gauge' for the battery banks state of charge (LYP lithiums)- my 'night load' is usually pretty much the same every night, and from experience I know know the what the voltage is in relationship to the SOC at that load level... It isn't accurate to...

Depends entirely on the PV voltage- if it is an old fashioned system with low voltage PV arrays, then obviously the cables from the PV array to the inverter need to be thicker than the mains cables and the inverter is best sited near the array (as the current is higher for the same wattage)...

One thing- with electronics- always expect a shorter service life if you make a habit of running them 'balls to the wall'- it is better to have a slightly larger inverter that can run the loads without 'maxing out', it will last far longer than one that is giving its all on a regular basis...

Depends- an east west array like my previous house had (shown above), the midday peak really isn't a 'thing'- indeed the eastern panels peaked about 10pm, and the western array about 2pm- both were well off their peak by midday- but combined still had a respectable total (about the same as...

Same here- the US is 'power mad' when it comes to many things- 'utes' with 4 times the horsepower of my 8 tonne tilt-tray truck (and fuel consumption to match), HUGE electrical demand (some US fridges use more than my entire 3 bedroom house with three people living in it- including a 'gadget...

Ouch- the entire US solar industry sounds like a scam lol Back in 2016, I paid $4000 Au for a 6kw system, fully installed, that basically zero'd our electric bill... These days we get a 6.6kw system with a 5kw gridtie inverter- fully installed it costs about $3500Au, with the federal and state...

Practically a must where I am, LFP cells struggle in Australian heat and tend to suffer charging issues in the heat... that extra 45C headroom that LYP have in hot weather makes a huge difference...

Not a fan of microinverters in Australia- with summer temps in the north hitting 40C plus for weeks on end (100F plus)- putting electronics just beneath panels that can hit 80C plus- well- yeah- not a good idea (I have worked on arrays that have had units fail in under a year, some with the...

For a high amperage load, either use a appropriately rated switch for that particular load, or an appropriately rated relay/contactor switched by a lower rated switch so it doesn't have to handle the load...

Despite many thinking of Australia as being vast empty deserts, we do get snow in Australia... Only a few hours drive from Sydney (Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge (two internationally well known landmarks), we have a thriving winter skiing industry down in the Snowy mountains (guess...

It is quite common for boats permanently in the water to not have their batteries cut off entirely as you want some things powered up (like bilge pumps and the like)- indeed a 'friend of a friend' lost his own boat that way (sunk but later retrieved, but repairs cost tens of thousands) as his...

East/west is relatively common here in Australia, as are various other combinations... (NE/NW, N and W, N/E/W are all found...) In fact where I used to live, we had an east/west split gridtie- and a neighbour had an identical system but all facing north... (installed by the same company two days...

Parallel only (and they don't have to be the same brand or capacity either) Currently running 2x 60A MPPT in parallel currently, eventually there will be a total of 6 in parallel (4x 60A external, and two 60A internals in the inverter) all MPPT... One system I worked on had 2 wind generators...