Most reacted posts

Amazon says it comes with 500 Amp TBD-SmartShunt with instructions, two red cables with fuses, a black cable with fuse, and two M5 mounting screws.

I used a propane RV refrigerator until one night it sprung an ammonia leak. I set a record for waking up and getting out of the house! I bought a little dorm refrigerator, added a couple inches of Styrofoam insulation all around and covered it with shower board. I swapped out the compressor with...

If the air/fuel mixture is messed up on a diesel heater it will indeed produce a lot more CO and clog up with soot but that CO is exhausted outside and doesn't enter the living space unless you really screw up the installation. I've been using "5kw" Chinese diesel heaters for 4 or 5 years...

If I had an extra $50 I'd buy one to disassemble but a fuse will work fine and be safe in my system.

I have a small pop top camper with an all steel top. I used to heat it with a small unvented propane heater similar to a Buddy heater but smaller. Condensation was a big broblem, bad enough that water would drip from the top. I tried several things on the inside to minimize the dripping but the...

Here in Oregon when I had the grid disconnected the power company just came out and removed the meter. They put a clear plastic cover on the meter box but did not remove the pole in my yard because it carries power to my neighbor's house.

I drilled out the rivits and opened it up. It's basically a bimetallic plate and contact points like an old car. The contacts are not pitted and there is no sign of overheating. My best guess is the little plastic lever inside that opens the contact points was twisted out of place and partially...

Yes the failure would not have prevented the circuit breaker from opening in an over current situation, it just prevented it from closing the circuit once I manually opened it.

Did you figure out how exhaust from the diesel heater was getting into your living area? Surprised you don't have a backup generator. Be prepared is the old boy scout motto.

From Amazon: Currently unavailable We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock.

I used to work on Generac generators over 20 years ago. Back then they were crap, don't know about the newer ones. One customer brought one into the shop that would only idle because of a broken governor link. In hated telling him that that 5" long bent piece of wire cost $28! + labor. We also...

Good spot for a solar project, between Fort Rock and Christmas Valley. I assume the existing 5mw project shown is at the old backscatter radar site near the Lost Forest and sand dunes? When the government built the radar site they also built the power lines to power it. When backscatter radar...

I suspect the Victron and TBD shunts are made in the same Chinese factory.

I was hoping to program the controller to turn on the load once the LiFePo4 battery reached full charge but the programming won't allow it. It will turn on based on time of day, when PV voltage drops to a set level, or manually. Yes it is designed to turn on lighting. The old PWM 80 amp...

The manual says the load is rated for 40 amps and I figure about 10 amps to charge the RV battery. I'll attach a 300 watt inverter and plug in a 8 amp smart charger to see if it works.

The power pole in my yard hasn't been changed in the 40 years I've lived here but the utility company guy did check it out a few years ago. I imagine longevity depends on environmental factors and here the soil is volcanic ash without much organic mater.

My 1000 watt sine wave Renogy inverter did not have the "eco mode" but did fail after 14 months of use. Internal fuses were not blown but one MOSFET popped which stopped all AC output even though the red error light did not come on. I have doubts about the quality of Renogy inverters.

I have a pop up camper, an unusual design. It has a pair of PVs that are hinged at the front and a couple foldable struts at the back that prop it up to about a 35° angle. I park the truck facing south to get maximum insolation when in the desert but during the summer when parked in the forest...

Haven't tried posting a picture yet on this forum so this is my Trimetric meter in operation this morning.

I have had one of those in my camper for several years, anyway it looks the same. Not MPPT of course but it has worked just fine with 100 watts of PV and a single 110 AH lead acid RV battery. Cost me under $15.

The first inverter I ever bought was a Tripplite square wave, not an MSW. It was a small aluminum box with some of the old TO3 case power transistors sticking out. Wouldn't even run a 13" TV unless I disconnected the degaussing coil. Everything plugged into it hummed loudly. MSW inverters were a...

Interesting. Mine is a couple months old and says "rated load current 40 amps" and "rated load power 1040 W". Wonder if they changed some internal components?

Yes you are thinking about it in the right way.

I think the local power company has smart meters here but I had my meter removed and replaced with a clear plastic cover in 1985 when I went off grid. As far as I know no one from the power company has looked at it since.

Would there be any problem connecting the load terminals of the controller to a lead acid RV battery in order to keep it charged when the main LiFePo4 battery reaches full charge? Alternatively could a small inverter be attached to the load output, a battery charger plugged into the inverter to...

I suggest that when you find that special spot in the woods to build your off grid cabin you consider future shading from tree growth. My perfect spot in the woods of Central Oregon used to have good solar insolation 35 years ago when I built it but now the 130+ year old ponderosa pine trees...

Changing over to lifepo4 from 30+ years of living with lead acid and would appreciate some feedback on which settings are best or if it matters. System is about 50 amps of 12v panels in parallel, 300 AH Weize lifepo4 battery, Tracer 4215BN charge controller, MT50 screen. Battery manual on left...

There used to be special battery caps called Hydrocaps that would recombine the gasses coming from lead acid cells back into water so batteries could go for extended periods without being watered. Don't know if they're still being used.