15 Years with OFF GRID Solar... 

Thanks for taking the time to make this very informative video John, I' m in the process of leaving Sydney and going bush, I plan to do wood heating, cooking and hot water, hoping for a property with a permanent creek. either way I have learned a lot from your video. Cheers.

Fully off grid here as well. Im on the mid north coast in NSW. I have a 13kw system with lithium batteries. I have instantaneous hot water and gas stove and oven. Our biggest drawing item is our electric jug, followed by our pressure pump. We have a low wattage Hisense fridge/freezer which is a bonus. Lowest draw fridge at the time of purchase. We also have a wood heater. Absolutely love being off grid. Had to use the generator once here in the last 2yrs. There is only the 2 of us. The main reason we went off grid was cost. To get the power from one side of the road to the other side of the road, just into our boundary fence, was going to cost $40,000. Then we had to get the power run underground to the house site at extra cost. Our complete system only cost $26,000. We love it. Its a great investment overall.

Top video mate. Waiting on our installation now. Thanks

thanks for the overview, great content. much appreciated

Thankyou John. Very informative video. You are an inspiration.

Hi John. Great video, great explanation of your solar system.. Your obviously an intelligent and educated person who has self studied the solar world.. 15 years (now 16) off grid is quite exception. As you have seen the solar technologies have progressed significantly particularly in the past 5-8 years. Not that I'm advocating you change your solar setup but I'll make comment about fairly current technologies.. Anyone who is studying solar will quickly learn Victron are the Rolls Royce so solar regulators, charge controllers, inverters etc.. Unfortunately I couldn't afford a Rolls Royce so I bought a Hyundai. I'm using a Growatt SPF 5000 ES.. So far we have had 3 years of reliable MPPT solar regulation, 48volt battery charging and 230v 50Hz output to the house.. The reason I mention this is these units encompass all 3 components many people buy and install as individual components, and all this for about $1500.00. It's incredible value.. When I installed the 1st Growatt SPF 5000 ES I made the statement to my lovely wife that this is Chinese built device, if we get better than the 3 year warranty period lets be happy.. It's NO Victron.. but hey! the Victron equivalent would be 4x the price.. I'm currently in the process of installing another 5KW of solar panels and another Growatt SPF 5000 ES. If you want to know why! I need to run a welder.. 5000 watts should be sufficient to run a welder but it's not. A 2nd Growatt SPF 5000 ES connected in parallel will give us 10 000 watts single phase capability.. Of course this is all backed by a large gel cell 48volt battery system. Mentioning batteries.. If you have space I believe the technology going forward for stationary installations will be Zinc Bromide batteries.. and even better they are made in Fairfield (a suburb of Sydney).. If I need to install batteries NOW it would be LIPO but that will change over the next 12 months for stationary installations.. Zinc Bromide is the battery Technology to watch.. OH lets mention hot water.. actually lets talk used solar panels first.. In Australia we have a ready supply of used solar panels and they are incredibly cheap.. Why? because our government started subsidizing domestic on grid solar installations about 15 years ago. You can pickup 250 watt used panels for $50 each. The same situation is now occurring with heatpump hot water systems. Most states have been subsidizing heatpump hot water systems for 5 plus years so your now seeing them on the used market quite cheap.. These can be an excellent option for off grid hot water systems.. they will use about 60% less energy than a conventional electric hotwater system.. put a simple timer behind them so they only turn on during the day and you are using your excess solar. Thanks for your RU-vid video's John and family. You guys are very raw, very real and excellent.. Thank you.. Hey google Dr Christine Jones, your soil will appreciate it.

Thanks for the video John, it was interesting learning about your set up. It's pretty amazing that you've been at it for 15 years. Off grid technology has changed so much in that time. I live up near Launceston on a bush block and have gone totally off grid, have done all the work myself including building the battery, it's really surprised me how easy and straight forward it all was. It really is satisfying being more independent with energy and I've had fun learning about how electricity works. We still rely on gas for out hot water and stove top, but am beginning to look towards alternative ways to do these things. Thanks again for the video :)

Great stuff, Mate...Cheers...

Great explanation, thank you

Thanks for the taking the time to make a simple/ to the point presentation. I've been given 2 x solar systems for my property and am in the process of researching as to what i need in the way of solar controller/circuit protection and battery arrays etc. Can you suggest any texts for designing/installation of off grid setups? Regards, Carl

we turn our fridge and freezer off every night , transfer 4lt of ice in to fridge each evening. don't keep meat in fridge. buy a cooked chicken each week gets transferred in to freezer ''which is off'' each night, perfectly good for 5 days.cook tea 4.30 in afternoon.

Thanks John for the info in such a way I can understand it. I am looking at a solar system to run some of my items etc. for starters (namely my garage). I already have instant gas HWS and a wood fire but I really do need to do the maths to sort out what I need in the solar array.

Hi, great video with good and valid observations 👍 We are off grid not far from you and are upgrading our system as well- just wondering where you purchased your Hyundai panels? Cheers, Nathan

Thanks John for the video you've made it sound much less confusing for this newbie to solar. Can I ask do you buy all the components online ?

You have been watch Andy from the off grid garage I believe.

I’m curious if you’re still on a 24 V system? I am coming from a 24 V system but I’ve decided to move to 48 for better efficiency. Also I would recommend that you replace those ancient solar panels and double up with twice as many new ones. My guess is your charge controllers can handle it, especially if you are running to 48 V. Coming from the Pacific Northwest close to Seattle. I’m running 7.7 kW of PV, three very large charge 250/85 controllers and a 48 V/5000 Victron inverter.

Thanks for your videos. Ive been looking at your gardening ones. Im in melborne and have trouble with cockatoos and rabbits have you any suggestions. I notice you dont have nets

Need some system upgrading

I wonder if you could use excess solar during high periods to pump water for a small hydro power battery that could be used at nights?

Great video. I have always been curious of your setup. Is there a way that your panels could auto tilt through out the day to be at the correct angle? I’m in the USA and we have programs for home solar discounts from the government. Do they have anything like that in Tasmania? Most are grid attached systems. We don’t qualify due to trees and shade…..

I love your channel but being independent is a stretch. Your leaving all the big power draws to gas. My house probably in a similar climate maybe a little colder but we have no gas so heat pump cooking and water with electricity. Family of 4 and we run at about 40kwh per day. Thats not including the hot tub. Also a chest freezer uses a very small amount of power. Way less then a fridge. Like may .7 kwh a day. I have smart plugs on my chest Freezer and standard fridge. The fridge burns like 1.7 kwh a day.

Great video. My question is do you have an electrical background at all? Or is this something you have learnt yourself along the way? Did you install the whole system yourself?

Hi John can I ask what kind of inverter you have ?

cool i have solar