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Not melted, but it looks to me like this wire had the insulation scraped off, perhaps getting pulled across a metal knockout? In fact, it looks like there is another wire with torn up insulation. [Edit: or perhaps it is the same wire with 2 damaged spots?] See red arrows here:

Standard electric water heaters can draw 7500W+. What about replacing your water heater with a heat-pump water heater? Some of these only draw 500W or less when running. Many newer models also let you set a schedule, so the water heater won't run during specific hours.

nevermind

How is heat dissipation going to work?

The MPPT algorithm will try different voltages to get the maximum amount of power. So seeing the panel voltage jump around a little bit is not unusual. However, that would normally happen while delivering a lot more amperage. I feel like maybe you have a bad connection to the solar panel, which...

it says your load output is on. Is anything connected to that?

In the USA (which may differ from standards in UK), generally: * the metal car chassis / frame is used as the earth ("ground") circuit for low amperage DC devices * for high amperage DC devices it's recommended to use a dedicated return circuit. For example, when including a DC to AC Inverter...

here is an example of using a lightweight, flexible, solar panel in a roof mount that can be easily removed if you are parking in shade: link

I have two 145AH AGM 12V telecom batteries I use for emergency backup only - these batteries sit at float for 364 days per year, as they are connected to a UPS. On charger at float stage, one is at 13.40V and the other is 13.63V, so an imbalance of 0.23V. How out of balance is this? What's...

Those HG group panels look nice. Are they for sale? Where can I buy them from the USA in small quantities? (1, 2, 3...)

Another cool feature why I like Victron so much: you can get the Victron app, and within the app it has demonstration modes for all of their devices, allowing you to play around with all of the data and settings. Even if you don’t own the device yet!

Victron inverters also have an adaptive low voltage disconnect which tries to intelligently change the disconnect voltage based on the current amperage load. Do you have that enabled? edit… I see you don’t have Bluetooth. I think you should get the Bluetooth!

I'm a fan of Battle Born batteries but for their prices. I just saw they have some good discounts (~25% off) for what they call "B" stock: B-Stock Sale (I have no relation to BB other than being a satisfied customer)

easy, just wire the loads to the battery with a fuse. I personally like MRBF for small systems like this. your victron IP65 will do that just fine. All LFPs with BMS are designed to cut the loads at a safe voltage, leaving the battery in a very-low-but-not-dead state. If you don't trust your...

Can you say more about your goals? You mention "reliability" and "safety" - I think having your battery stay fully charged at 100% SOC would be the most reliable and safe way to go, as mentioned by others. I have a Victron IP22 and it does a great job - once the battery is fully charged it...

It's not easy to determine the State of Charge (SOC) of a LFP battery based on voltage, especially when there are loads on it. You could probably do some experimentation - let the battery draw down a bit, then unhook all the loads, let the battery rest a while, then measure the resting voltage...

Victron: I would like to know if they plan to bring some of their EU 230V models to USA. For example, the EasySolar line such as https://www.victronenergy.com/upload/documents/Datasheet-EasySolar-1600VA-EN.pdf which is not available in a USA model.

I am confused - if this is a UPS, then the only time the battery would be in use would be when there is no 120VAC power. If there is no power, then the battery charger will be off. Are you not using this as a UPS but in some other mode, such as cycling the battery daily?

Good point, if I assume that 100% of the heat usage is heat loss, and it was using a little over 100kWH/month in the summer, then that's a steady-state loss of roughly 150W, which applies to either voltage. In theory: • 1000W @ 120VAC vs. • 4000W @ 240VAC = a 4 to 1 ratio In practice: •...

Interesting test result. After wiring it up, see https://diysolarforum.com/threads/critique-my-wiring-plan-hot-tub.66341/ I ran some tests. in theory, I was expecting the heater to heat exactly 4x faster on 240VAC vs 120, since power P = V**2/R and the heater Resistance is the same, and 240...

Thanks! Some Updates: GFCI panel is just over 5 feet from tub and visible from tub, and no metal objects within that distance. I believe this meets code. I used a vacuum cleaner to pull a 100 foot nylon rope through the conduit after straightening it. I pulled the wires and almost made it, but...

For a birthday a few years ago, I got a FLIR camera, and it's really useful. Here's a picture (during wintertime) of my tub. From the picture, it looks like my cover is still OK, but there's a lot of heat loss down low. In fact, when I look inside the tub, the insulation generally doesn't go...

Interesting - I've also read that heat loss is proporational to the temperature difference to the 4th power for radiation, but I think that's for an ideal black-body in a vaccum. Which dominates for a real-world hot tub?

My plan to wire up a hot tub for 240VAC. (USA). Hot tub is located about 80' from the main panel (house has normal USA 100A service). My tub only requires a 30A service on the label, and actualy would run about 20A, so I decided that 8 gauge was enough, giving a 2% or less voltage loss...

I have one of those "plug N play" hot tubs that can run on 120VAC - it heats at about 1KW. I realized after some energy auditing that this tub is using about 150 kWh/month (roughly 100 summer, 200 winter). As a test, I tried putting it in Eco mode, which drops the temperature from 104F to...

The three output version of the IP22 is somewhat limited. Basically you get to choose 1 charging program, and it gets applied across all 3 outputs, in a shared fashion. Reportedly, the batteries are isolated from each other (so, e.g. battery 1 can't feed into battery 2) but it's not like you...

The math works like this: Watts in = watts out, and Watts = Volts x Amps. 12v x 30 amps = 360w = 120v x 3 amps now, in reality, it’s a little bit more complicated than that because of a few things: First, 12 V is not really 12 V and your charger can go as high as 14.6 V. Next, the charger is...

I'm on SDGE NEM 1.0 plan, and as far as I understand it, I can increase my grid-tied solar system size by up to 1KW and still stay on NEM 1.0: Customers whose system capacity is 10 kW or smaller can increase the capacity by up to 1 kW. Customers whose system capacity is larger than 10 kW can...

$300 To $800?? Here is a 100W Sunpower flexible for $155 https://www.amazon.com/SunPower-Flexible-Monocrystalline-Solar-Panel/dp/B077H45H3F

The software updates are contained within the VictronConnect app. This means as long as your software on your phone is updated, you can update devices, even if there is no Internet.

One thing to consider: some models are auto breaker only (e.g. you can not manually throw the switch to open the circuit). Some have on/off switches that you can manually throw. Since you already have a 1 / 2 / Off battery switch, you probably don't need a manual breaker?

My class B tv uses these: https://www.grainger.com/product/CARLING-TECHNOLOGIES-Panel-Mount-Circuit-Breaker-4VA73

I have a Victron SmartSolar 100/20 and recently blew the 25A fuse by doing something stupid (pushing 12V through the load + output and shorting the battery+ connector to ground.) In any case, it suggests both the battery and the load output are protected by this fuse. You probably don't need...

for fusing the wire off the battery, MRBF fuses are hard to beat: https://www.bluesea.com/products/5191/MRBF_Terminal_Fuse_Block_-_30_to_300A They sit right on the battery terminal (so the entire wire is protected) and don't require any cutting, crimping or soldering. They don't go below 30...

Check out your negative battery cable, it looks like it is upside down and possibly sitting on top of a washer? Generally you want to have the battery cable directly connected to the battery, not with a washer in between. Otherwise, looks like a nice system. also, do you have a link for the...