DIY Solar Install - How much POWER does it make!? 

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!

Hi Norman, Thanks again for watching and your comment, really good to know there are people enjoying the videos. AC vs DC coupled is really just describing how the solar panels are connected to a battery system. All solar panels produce DC electricity and all batteries consume / supply DC electricity, DC coupled is where the usually high DC voltage output from the panels is efficiently converted into a lower DC voltage suitable for charging batteries, that's what the MPPT does. To then use that in the house it need to be converted to AC by the Multiplus inverters. AC coupled is where a solar array is is directly connected to an inverter that generates AC electricity that can be used in your home, but if you want to store that energy in a battery it has to be converted by another inverter (Multiplus in my case) back into DC. This back and forth conversion between DC -> AC -> DC is not very efficient. So DC coupled is best for charging batteries and AC coupled is best for instant consumption or export. I think what I'm planning with a bit of both will give us the best of both worlds. In my case it also means solar in the house can be connected to the existing AC system and I don't need to run additional cables over to the garage inverters to carry DC.

Forgot to say, we're currently located down in the south east of England.

@@RodMcBain Perfect Rod - I think I did understand the difference once, but I am an old bastard now and forget a bunch of stuff. When I was younger I was clever.😉

I didn't end up properly explaining that in this vid, was going to make a second part about the extra batteries and inverter I installed and why (to save the VAT), in my case I bought everything though my electrician so he paid the VAT then doesn't charge me VAT and claims it back. But I.T.S and some other suppliers have a scheme where you can save a good chuck of the VAT when doing a true DIY install, they essentially end up sub contracting you to do your own installation, I think the last time I asked they charged a 5% fee to arrange the paperwork, so you save 15%.

@@RodMcBain thanks, that helps! I may think about doing that through ITS if I add more panels in the future.

Thank you. I'm not sure if your question about time was rhetorical or not, I work a full time job 9 - 6 and when I'm not working to pay the bills I'm working on the house, I guess it's what I do for fun 😀. This house also needed / needs a vast amount of work, when we moved in there was no heating (unless you count a coal fired aga) our solution to that was the heat pump and I guess the amount of electricity that consumes has forced me to prioritise things like the battery system and solar. I know my wife would much rather I was working on the extension and our new kitchen. I can imagine how frustrating it must be to have all that kit sitting there not producing anything, I'm already getting frustrated with the 9 x Perlight panels I have sitting idle in the shed.

Thanks for watching, they are configured in parallel, couple of reasons, the 70amp charge limit from each inverter is about how much is required to fully charge 4 US3000C batteries in the off peak window I get from my electricity supplier, so with 12 batteries I need 3 inverters, that's important in winter when I won't get anywhere near enough solar. Second reason is to have the ability to run off grid, I have no plans to go off grid but do run the whole house through the inverters and batteries, so if the grid goes down nothing stops working. We also have a 16kW heat pump, combined with an induction hob, washing machine etc you could easily get close to exceeding 12kW.

I know, it's ridiculous, I don't think there's been a completely sunny day since I installed the panels and when there has been sun it's mostly been in the morning when my panels are shaded 😢

@@RodMcBain because of the panels you have I think it’s 15amps or more? If so you would need Tigo Mk2 ones but if all are shaded then no point

Hi Matt, thanks for the comment, lots of useful info in there, this solar install is definitely just the start, as I mentioned in the video I have 9 more 420w panels to install and also plan to cover as much of my house roof as is practical. I think using 3 smaller MPPTs might have helped a little with this roof, but I expect the impact would have been minimal, the roof goes from fully shaded to not shaded at all in the space of an hour. I might try experimenting with this at some point to see what difference it makes.

Hi, With Pylontech batteries no shunt is required, the batteries have their own BMS that reports all the required data to the Cerbo GX. I am grid connected with a 100A single phase supply, I'm not aware of any sensible reason why you couldn't have more than 2 5kva inverters. Maybe the 50A transfer switch confuses some people. You do need to complete the G99 process to get permission from your DNO. Unfortunately I'm crazy busy and don't really have the bandwidth to help 1on1, I hope you understand.

@@RodMcBain Hi no problem, on the 1 2 1. FYI I have my G99 approved. I'm at the end of building my new garage with 16 x 430w panels installed (adding more on ground mounts later), doors and window getting fitted next week. Then I can start the install the 2 x Victron 5kva Multiplus's and 2 x 450v 100A MPPT's I also 2 x 14 kWh Seplos batteries. I jumped on the offer before xmas buy two mulitplus's and get one free from Victron that's why I was asking for the chat. You don't see very often 3 mulitplus's in parallel. Thanks again, Alan

I've been running Victron kit for a while now and can't complain, could be cheeper, but it is generally excellent. Taking my Eurener panels as an example, they have open circuit voltage of 43v per panel in series that would be 387v for the string, to run that you'd need a really beefy / expensive MPPT, something like the SmartSolar MPPT RS 450/100. It's much cheeper to run fewer panels per string and combine them in a PV combiner box, so with 3 stings of 3 panels I'm at a max voltage of 129v so can use a 150 or 250 MPPT. The voltage limit is something you must never exceed with Victron MPPTs, you'll end up with a very cool paper weight. Keep in mind I'm no expert on solar and just learning a lot of this myself.

Sorry for the delay getting back to you, just uploaded this rodmcbain.com/victron-system/ hope that's of some use.

I doubt anyone ever feels like they have enough solar panels 😀 I have those 9 420w panels that I'll mount next and also plan to mount as many as I can squeeze on the roof of the house, probably still won't be enough!

Maybe it is a waste of time in some situations, but for about £100 and not much effort it seems sensible. Just this morning where I sit at my desk I've been able to see a pigeon flying down into my garden, collect a twig and fly back up to my neighbours array, been at it all morning.

I rejected a house with solar that I really liked because it had nests underneath the panels. Bird protection is essential