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I got a pretty keen grand-daughter ! She and I built a few E-bikes together, and when she visits, she always wants to see any changes/ up-dates to the off-grid-solar since last visit. She is only 11 years old, but pretty interested. I built her a workbench in the shop to suit her height, with...

We moved out of a City to our Rural homestead location 23 years ago now. One by one, we knocked off: Fresh water source, & Septic Home heating (wood from our own property) wood processor, and wood furnace system. Veggie Garden, Green house, Eggs, Poultry/Turkeys, Hogs, and we set up annual trade...

Not getting started a few years earlier!

and solar runs the lights in the re-loading room...

When I was very young, I lived a few years with my paternal grandparents while my mother was gravely ill. My grandparents were both born in 1890, and lived in a small town, with a huge garden and small green house for plant starters, that had a real 'root cellar' in the basement with jars of...

As I built out my initial small DIY solar system I needed to learn more than YT video's could ever offer, leading to reading posts on the forum and later joining the forum as a member when I felt I had something constructive to offer. Joining the forum has been a wildly successful learning...

The best solar related item I bought in 2023 was the Victron Smart shunt 500A. However, the best solar related item (not bought) was helping a friend of mine 'get into solar' to support his small business. (Priceless).

Every place seems to have it's own plus and minus issues: if you live in a place with lots of sunny days, it seems you also have lots of A/C loads (TX AZ NM) if you live in a place with milder weather, it seems you also have cloudy days. (PNW/ NE) if you live in a place with cold weather, it...

Ah Ha! she is so busted. Some of you gents may remember Jackie Stewart - "it is a great great day for motor car racing" in that thick Scottish accent of his. So imagine Jackie narrating my Solar Assistant and Iotawatt this morning: It is a great great day for solar power generation, we see...

Up-date - the Sodium batteries are here! They arrived at about 60% SOC. I put the 24v 100Ah pack on my 24v mobile system to charge it up. I set the max charge voltage to 30v (pack lists 31.2 as max voltage) Connected to the MPP 2724 it runs "stuff" exactly the same - as far as I can tell so far...

The best support I know of is right here on the forum, and not limited to solar!

I have three DIY 16S, two DIY 8S, and four 14S-5P DIY EBike packs. I got into the DIY batteries long before solar, building EBikes for my grand-kids from scrap 5 & 12 speed bikes I got for free. Was a hobby, something the GK looked forward to working on while they visited, gave us something to...

Then it is for me - for sure my system isn't big enough - everytime it is, I keep adding to it. I am constantly looking to see what else the Solar Power Plant can run, and hope to still be doing that for years to come. Solar is a radom event, that is - it is not a sure thing - raining out...

The solar enthusiast's trap: I just need to add one more (battery/Inverter/PV array) and yup I will be all set...add some new loads, and repeat. I believe I started with an idea to have some batteries and inverter to run shop lights during (frequent) power outages...since standing in the dark...

Now don't piss off Alaska, or it will divide itself in half, and make Texas the third largest US State.

I guess I am a kook too, one that built my own batteries - so I know how to build more/reconfigure into 12 or 24v and have the BMS, wire, tools and know-how to do it. I wish I had built my own inverters - electronics does not come easily to me really, more of a hands on if I can see it I can...

-ever notice the cell prices drop about a month after @timselectric buys a truck load of cells...and the market sags in response!

I am poking fun at the idea we may actually need to hide our solar in the first place, it is so rediculous, and yet here we are discussing rules/laws/regulations that could in fact lead to 'the man' scouring the countryside with satelites to identify rouge solar operations and shut them down. I...

If I lived near a big mountain, with two lakes, one up high, and one down in a valley, that would provide a nice way to store some energy. But I don't. So I use trees to collect solar energy, and then I cut them down, cut boards from the large lower sections, cut fire wood from the tops and...

this is enough cells to build 25 4s packs, 280Ah each. They built 4s packs, but then put them into series groups of 3 - why would anyone do this? If you need 12s, just build 12s and the BMS can keep the cells properly balanced. Three series packs of 4s will be very hard to keep balanced...

The DIY Solar Forum is the best online group I have ever had the pleasure to interact with. Generally good natured, jovial and careful with facts, compared to most online forums. There are many great members with vast experience and knowledge and I for one hope we can all do our part to "BNBR"...

The only time I ever had to deal with 'unpermitted' work on a house, it was the neighour that ratted me out - expanded a backyard deck a bit wider without permits, inspector showed up a few days later. One of the reasons I left the City life for Rural.

"Three - Strings of Solar, Two - EG4's, And a Pair-of-SOK's in a pear-tree"

I accept the permitting process for safety, but I reject it when it is solely being used to generate revenue.

Caught the bug now! WARNING!: DIY SOLAR is a highly contagious, addiction with NO KNOWN CURE, recommended treatments: constant solar monitoring and tinkering, annual expansion to the DIY solar system, and daily attendance with the DIY Solar Forum support group.

Rapid Unplanned Disassembly! (RUD), maybe we add "Event" RUDE! - Normal (N) Current (I) Cell-level (C) Energy (E) = NICE "Don't let your battery become RUDE - install a BMS to keep it NICE"

Positives: Very easy to set up - even for some non-tech-No-Savy like myself, :ROFLMAO: Easy to add more components to it at any time,(y) Allows me to see at a glance not only current conditions but also recent history - easily see what happened days/weeks/months ago, or zoom in on the last...

Not attacking the OP, just want to point out some things to be warry of, For, Guests, others learning - review the pics- 1. we see all-thread rods running along side the cells without any physical isolation - the exterior of the cells is just a thin layer of shrink wrap and the cases are...

So a Tiny-House? I asked a building official once where in the Building Code I could look up the occupancy requirements for: bridge embutments, hwy overpasses, large cardboard boxes, park benches, tarps, and thick bushes in the park; since people seem to live in all the above locations, - he...

I just wanted to run some shop lights, when the utility was down...Honest!