DIY Solar my home FULL INSTALL VIDEO. 

Thanks mate 😁 yea they all seem to be in America or Australia but we do get sun too ☀️ even though it’s not as much as we’d like 😂 cheers 👍

Awesome man 😁 yea your right there’s only a few DIY solar builders here and can’t believe that more people don’t do it, it’s the best thing to get into by far, yea the epever are a good budget inverter and JK are a good BMS too, it’s really addictive this solar stuff isn’t it. I get a lot of MX5 at hillclimbs and sprints I goto and they do really well mate, nice little engines to boost too 🚗💨 yea same here I DIY everything too and if I don’t know how then I’ll learn 😆 👍 cheers

Thanks mate 😃 I’ve just ordered another 3 battery boxes and batteries to upgrade my garage setup too, this solar stuff is pretty addictive 😂 👍cheers

@@CarJunkeez Nice

Thanks mate 😃 appreciated cheers 👍👍

Cheers mate 😁 yea I think that’s more of an intension than the actual power I’m getting 😂 day like robbery mate. Cheers bro 😎👍

@@CarJunkeez Happy for you. But if I were you, I would consider moving the black wire (from the bottom battery to the inverter) and put it on the upper battery to have a balance in charging your batteries

@@MichealG thanks 🙏 yes that’s a good call that mate, I’ll do that now cheers 👍

It’s only when you start generating your own power that you realise the grid is pretty good value for those watts on a cold dark day!

@@edc1569but with 30kw of battery he’s pretty well covered

Ha ha, thanks mate, I just need to know how things work so end up learning a lot along the way mate 😃👍👍 cheers

Thanks mate 😁it’s working better than ever too now since the recent upgrade 👍 cheers

Thanks Matt 😁👍👍 yea I’m good thanks bro, hopes your well man 👍👍

Thanks mate 😃 yea like to do a bit of everything here if I can 👍 cheers

Thanks mate 😃👍 to be honest if you can fit the panels and other stuff I think you’d be ok with the inverter too as my setup is a little more complicated due to the contactor I installed so yours would be just a simple hook up 👍 more sparkys in the U.K. will do stuff like this now as Octopus no longer need sparkys to have the extra credentials 👍 cheers

Thanks 🙏

Thanks mate 😃👍 I’ve not had anyone say anything about being to close, but I wouldn’t really be bothered anyway because I just do what I want here as our local council are a bunch of plonkers 😂 cheers

Hi, yea I already thought of that but the time being set wrong would really affect my OCD 😂 cheers 👍

Thanks mate 👍 I ended up top balancing all the cells in parallel with my bench power supply to 3.65v like I did on my garage build. Yea the contactor is rated at 63a but not sure I believe that 😂 it’s been ok so far with heavy loads and I also have the same setup in my garage. Yea good idea with the kitchen island but it’s a little to high but I could loose one of the draws I suppose, I did reinforce the unit and it’s definitely not going anywhere and batteries are not going anywhere to 👍 cheers

@@CarJunkeez When I first started out using off grid inverters, I used a transfer switch and it blow 2 Inverters up! Good to know you balance those modules, but it is cheaper and quicker just leaving them in parallel.

@@showme360 thanks for the heads up, I’ve set my settings so that if it’s overloaded it won’t reboot the inverter and that way it will stay on grid until I manually reboot 👍 I am going to eventually come totally off grid and will be running 2 of these growatt inverters in parallel so won’t ever overload and won’t need the contactor 👍 cheers

@@CarJunkeez Good man hate to see all your hard work go pop! Thats good am also going to replace my 5.5kw inverter with 2 Growatt 5kw unit to make 10kw in all, that way I will be able to charge my car up quicker!

@@showme360 thanks mate, yea good thinking with the electric car charging. I’m actually thinking of converting a mk2 escort to electric in the future, mainly to take advantage of the excess solar just like yourself 👍 cheers

Ha ha I think everyone should have a dabble with solar ☀️👍👍

Thanks 🙏 I’m not saying “Weld Shop” I’m saying “Well Chuffed” haha. Those straps are 10mm thick and secured to the main roof trusses with a load of 4 inch screws and we’ve had some serious gales and storms here since I fitted the panels and they’re fine 👍👍 cheers

I think the later firmware ramp up current on initial power up and definitely do on use, I use a lot of tools and welders and can tell it’s ramping 👍

Hi, thanks 🙏 basically it’s just the mains from your house that normally goes into your consumer unit (fuse box) put this to the mains input on the inverter, then the mains output from the inverter goes into your consumer input in replacement of the one your took out 👍 cheers

Yea I know the batteries can be in different orientation, but I like my little island now and I’ve already filled the draws 😂 cheers 👍

Hi, if I get a chance in the future I may do one, it’s quite a simple circuit though. Thanks 👍

Cheers mate, I didn’t pay import duties on the batteries as they was in a U.K. warehouse and I got the boxes through Alibaba.com and didn’t pay duties so must of been included in the postage, I did have to wait nearly 3 months for the boxes though 😂 and they didn’t send the Bluetooth versions that I ordered but they did eventually send out the Bluetooth screens so all good in the end. 👍 cheers

Hi mate, thanks 🙏 👍 my Growatt inverters don’t and can’t feed back to the grid and yes they have shunt inside to monitor usage. If you want a decent inverter with ct clamp then look at the Sunsunk, I’m thinking of upgrading mine to Sunsynk in the future as they are a lot better built and more functions 👍 cheers

All good bro 😎 hope u did too, happy new year pal 😁😁👍

Hi, thanks mate 😃 yes if the GROWATT exceeds 5kw then the grid adds to it, but I no longer have it wired with a grid supply to the GROWATT as it was using 150watt per inverter a day when not even exceeding the 5kw, so now I have a contactor that switches over automatically to the grid if there is no solar and the batteries are low, it also switches over if there is no power output from the inverter and is automatic and fast. The Sunsynk is a very good inverter and if I ever upgrade I will be getting one myself as you can control dump loads precisely and have some good features, yes the CT clamp is very accurate (make sure you fit it the correct direction) and yes you can set to not feed back to the grid and is safe in power cuts. If you use Octipus in the U.K. you no longer need a G98 👍👍

Thanks mate 😁👍 if your putting them on a flat roof I’d make some frames to have them at an angle towards the sun, but you’d have to make them really secure as the wind would have more of an effect on them as they’d act like sails pal 👍 cheers

Thanks mate 😃 I don’t feed anything back to the grid as I don’t want to and my inverters are designed that way, you can actually feed back to Octopus in the U.K. now and not have to get a special licensed company to fit your equipment 👍

Thanks mate 😁 I just disconnected the grid input that goes in my consumer unit under the sink and wired that to the contactor that’s in that metal box under my inverter and out from that to the inverter in, then the output from the inverter goes through the contactor on a different pole and out of that to the input of the consumer unit under the sink 👍 cheers

That's exactly the info I needed. Thanks again 👍

Who’s Lee 😂 I connect the battery to the inverter via canbus and in settings select battery type Li and use protocol 52, then the 2 batteries connect to each other via RS485. The settings in the BMS are already good to go but you can tweak them to your preferences. On another setup I built I had to cut 3 wires in the canbus lead but I used a standard Ethernet cable that was fully wired so that explains why. I’ve not had any communication problems with both setups and even with the standard settings in the BMS it works well. To communicate with a PC you need a USB to RS485 adapter then use the 2 wires to pins 7 and 8 I think on the RS485 on the battery, if using 2 batteries you have to change jumpers on the batteries temporarily to get comms with the PC. Thanks 👍

There can be a few problems with some BMS to Growatt communications so be careful. With a Growatt CANBUS to BMS connection (I used protocol 51) my battery was pushed harder than before and some drift gradually pushed the battery SoC measure far off reality: the BMS thought the battery was at 55% state of charge when it was actually below 1% but the BMS individual cell monitoring still worked and caused a battery shutdown for safety. I needed to do a battery/BMS reset and multiple restarts and recharges before the BMS protection was removed during the initial inverter connection ( I did wait 30 seconds for the resistor surge to pass). I since removed the communication cable and went back to USE2 battery monitoring with no communication to the BMS directly ! I do not recommend Shenzhen Taico Technology Co., Ltd for batteries but if you need a cable to talk to their BMS, I do recommend this cable to go from a Microsoft Windows computer www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005088015060.html Please note that AliExpress are a bunch of thieves who will steal from you happily every day but you can use paypal or your credit card company to protect you if you block payment within one month of the usual AliExpress failure to deliver. For instance, I ordered a Xiaomi Note 10 Pro from Hong Kong Goldway via AliExpress ordering and delivery with buyer protection. order number 8140340833741290 but they sent the phone to the infamous Dutch AliExpress sorting office and it never even came to England (I have all the transit logs)

Thanks 🙏 the contactor is there just to automatically physically switch to the grid if the inverter fails or turns off etc. you don’t need the contactor, I’ve just added it 👍 cheers

Thanks 😃 I did do exactly that shortly after installing 👍 cheers

You need to cut 3 wires in the cable, (Orange, Orange striped, Green striped) then use Li protocol 52, also make sure you set the jumper switches correctly on the battery’s BMS 👍

@@CarJunkeez thanks for your help that was the answer pulling my hair out on this one on top the next problem 😆

@@ripcurl010 no problem, glad you sorted it, just let me know if you need any other help 👍 cheers

Thanks Adrian 😃 I appreciate that, yes you’re totally correct, so totally disconnected from the grid unless the inverters power output goes down then it will de-energise the contactor then grid will flow through the contactor to the buildings consumer unit 👍 cheers Shane

@CarJunkeez Cheers. That's what I thought. Do you bother trying to smooth the transition from inverter to grid and back or do you just accept that stuff like oven clocks might need to be reset. And can you set the min voltage on the inverter so that it shuts down hard at say 220v? Sorry for all the questions 😅

@@adriangodley no as the contactor switch is so fast it doesn’t even effect clocks and computers and tv’s on the switch over, also I don’t really expect it to go over to the grid very often 🤞well I hope not as I’m aiming to be totally off grid hopefully. I also did the contactor setup as I found that the inverters still use a little energy from the grid (100watt a day) just so they can add grid power if you exceed the maximum wattage of the inverter 👍 cheers

​@CarJunkeez Cheers. That's excellent news. I'll be setting up some contactors the same as you. I'm not bothering with mcs certs so I need to show that my installation is isolated from the grid.

@@adriangodley no problem mate 👍 yea your fine as your isolated from the grid 👍 it’s when you want too feed back to grid all certs and things can get tricky 😂

It’s a lead from Seplos, but yes you can use a straight wired Ethernet lead for RS485 to RS485 👍 cheers

Thanks, I’ve always been into electronics so already know mostly about solar installs, the rest I get from watching RU-vid videos 👍 cheers

Hi mate, some Growatt have no earth pass through when off grid, some you can install a screw inside on the PCB to bond or remove to un-bond, but to be honest I recommend using a separate earth rod that goes to either the output of your inverter or on your consumer unit that the inverter feeds, the reason is I recon the earths being bonded together can lead to the dreaded fault code 08 bus voltage high 👍 also I no longer have grid input to my inverters, I use a contactor to switch over instead. Cheers

They are directly from Seplos, same place I got the cases with BMS 👍 cheers

Hi, no it’s not a silly question as I still wonder the same. I’ve never actually overloaded it yet but my thinking was it would only be capable of outputting what the mosfets can take unless it combines the AC input and matches the phase and adds what it needs and more if it hits its limits. 👍

5kw is the limit, it can coupe with 15kw for a second or two i.e. electric motor starting up! Otherwise it will drop out. However our friend here as installed an auto transfer switch in the sub consumer box, that's where I think he might have a problem! Because once the load has gone from the Inverter, the Inverter will switch back on, and that high load will come back with a power surge from the grid.

Li protocol 52 👍

Thanks Steve 😁 if you know what voltage your panels are I can work out the best method of connecting them to the Growatt mate, you may get away with 2 strings of 10 panels then parallel the 2 strings to the inverter. Let me know, Cheers 👍

Hi Shane

Hi Shane Thanks for replying Rated power 250 watts 0/+5w Rated voltage 29.8 Rated current 8.39 amps

@@wrapper484 Hi Steve, you can definitely do 10 in series and another 10 in series then both paralleled and into the GROWATT SPF5000ES as that would be around 16.8 amps and around 300v and 5kw so will be no problem mate 👍

@@CarJunkeez 👍👍

Hi, I got them direct from Seplos through Alibaba.com 👍 cheers

Thanks mate 😁 I’m not so bothered about any council approval as they’ve give us nothing but trouble in the past here on our land so I don’t bother anymore 😂 yea DIY is the way to go isn’t it mate 👍👍 cheers

www.directchannel.uk.com 👍

No I’m not the solar garage guy in the Oz mate, although I do really like his videos mate, just wish we had the same weather here too 😂 thanks mate appreciated 👍👍

Hi Lee, it’s 5kw but it doesn’t and can’t feed back to the grid so I won’t be registering, is there any other benefits in registering as I’ve never heard of it until you mentioned it. Thanks 👍

​@@CarJunkeezIt's only a requirement if grid export is possible from your system, so in your case you should be fine. The theory is it allows the DNO to monitor and manage street level power capacity, preventing too much going through their hardware (they can decline an application, or charge for an infrastructure upgrade, for this reason). At the same time all G98/G99 certified equipment must automatically prevent export within 500ms of Grid failure so we don't electrocute their engineers. In reality, it simply offers a bureaucratic barrier in a privatised industry, that would be otherwise less lucrative for energy suppliers… I did find your automatic failover switch interesting though?

@@ForgottenTeacake yea got you, I understand the safety need for cut off speed too as could electrocute workers when there’s a power cut etc. I definitely won’t be feeding back to the grid though as they give you peanuts for it and yet charge us a fortune for it 😂 Yea the contactor was a thing I did on my garage when I had trouble with the inverter and was a way of it being automated when I was away, really simple setup but works flawlessly. Cheers 😃👍

@@CarJunkeez Well I've now watched your garage vid and I'm loving the high voltage flexible panels. Really nice solution to shaded locations where people want to use commercially available grid tied inverters without the cost of solar optimisers or micro invetrers 👍

@@ForgottenTeacake thanks Lee 😃 yea they’re really good in low light and shadowing doesn’t effect them to much. The cost of fitting optimisers can be expensive if you have a lot of panels too. I’m getting pretty addicted to this solar stuff, next project I’m moving on to hydro power from my stream. 👍 cheers

I’ve since made a angle iron frame I welded together that flush fits around the unit supporting the top, she’s not going anywhere now 👍

No none at all, had some seriously strong winds here too 👍

@@CarJunkeez nice, thanks for sharing and replying 👍

Hi, thanks for your input, but this system is working really well for my needs, I’ve since added another battery and now we are approaching the shorter days here in the U.K. the batteries are needed and I’ve been totally off grid since I installed it last December. I agree that the kitchen isn’t the best place for the batteries and inverter but it works for me as I like to keep and eye on things and monitor how much free energy I’m getting 😃 I don’t have an electric vehicle or bike but I am thinking of converting an old classic car to electric in the near future 👍 cheers

HI Jeremy Leaving aside comments about additional physical protection and location. I don't understand your comment about batteries. If you're not selling to the grid then the only sensible option is storage , ie batteries. Adding more solar panels and having a smaller battery makes no sense as you'll generate more than you need, and can store, during the day and run out at night.

The UK Summer sunshine is quite good for solar especially on the South Coast of England and living off-grid like Adrian is a great idea and economically efficient then.@@adriangodley The problem is that the Winter has a combination of: short days, clouds and low-angle of solar incidence. So the problem is that a small battery (5 KWhr) is already enough for most Summer 24-hour periods (no EV) but Winter will always have long dark periods past any economically sensible battery size. The UK gets cheap wind power in Winter thanks to Scotland and the North sea - electricity grid prices often go negative ! So, my suggestion, in the UK, use something else (not solar) for power in the Winter and charge an EV in Summer. I really enjoyed the video - it is a great enthusiast sharing great ideas and I learned from and I support the GroWatt hybrid/off-grid inverter idea - it is wonderful for avoiding many hassles and costs - great idea. I just question the battery size and location.

​@JeremyParsons You have a point that Solar might not be enough during the winter to remain fully of grid. A small wind turbine would be a relatively cost effective addition. Not sure how or if the inverter could take a wind turbine feed. It might also be possible to add some timer contactors and use something like Octopuses night time tarrif of 7p to top up the batteries

It is obviously impossible for any small local wind power to compete with negative grid electricity prices in Winter @@adriangodley It is great fun making small wind turbines from plastic gutters and pipe but it is more of a hobby than a source of energy. The energy needed for some lights and a laptop computer is tiny in comparison with water heaters and especially electric cars and trucks which can charge at rates up to 0.5 MW for cars and 1 MW for Tesla semi-trucks ! Britain has high electricity prices until 1 am at retail so charging with solar in Summer and off-peak grid electricity in Winter is a great sensible combination and for some people, large home batteries make that possible but most might be better charging an EV with its huge batteries or changing time of use and a smaller home battery. Tesla home batteries and grid batteries do also burst into flames and some other batteries explode !

Yes that’s correct 👍

Talking about if the connector including DIY kit that you can your own connect discharge cable and then plug into battery terminal??

@@hutchie9615 they are not included in the kit, but you can get them from Seplos at extra cost 👍

Hi, yes I’ve just had a smart meter fitted and will go on the Octopus Go tariff once my current fixed rate ends in a couple of months, then I’ll set my inverter to charge from grid if needed in those few low rate hours at night. To be honest my house setup will only need to do that for a few days in the winter as it’s working that well, but my garage setup isn’t quite as efficient so I’m upgrading that soon and also doing a small hydro generator from my stream. 👍 cheers

@@CarJunkeez looking at the inverter setting I can’t see a on and off time during the period of 0:30 to 04:30 , it look like there isn’t a way to set this window, I was thinking of using a smart switch , enable charging of grid and control the power to the inverter that way , we have an easy way to use that window then. I’m not going to put mine off grid charging if I can help , solar first, I’ve installed 2 x growatt 5000es , operating in parallel , build a 15kw lifeP04 as well , May build another . I see you used the Mason battery box kits. They look better but making them pretty doesn’t give and more use, since I’ve fitted in my workshop , a case like you first built is fine.

@@pcmultimedia1 if you go to setting 49 and input 0103 then it will charge from grid from 1:00AM until 3:59AM I know it’s missing an hour because you can’t set minutes but it’s not to bad 👍 I’ve got 2 x SPF3500ES for my garages that I’m going to parallel and use my existing panels on one and new panels on the other and going to build another 2 batteries, yea I agree you can build batteries in wood boxes and work exactly same 👍 cheers

@@CarJunkeez yes it’s not very flexible , I was thinking of using a contactor switch on the grid input and control it to the minute with Home Assistant automation , the grid to the inverter would be isolated then out of these times.

@@CarJunkeez also we would have to put silly amps into the battery with each inverter, because of the short window ,like 100amps each inverter .

There’s loads of installer codes out there mate, try EAEDR8 or Google for more, let me know how you get on 👍 cheers

Hi Sanjay, here’s the link for the contactor. www.ebay.co.uk/itm/284973268455?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=Ls7AsL9OSM2&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=TfbyrDzlTkm&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

Cheers pal

I was going to put it in my shed but temperatures go low in winter so not good for the batteries, I like to keep an eye on it too and makes me happy when I know I’m getting all my energy for free. To be honest it doesn’t actually get in my way in the kitchen 👍 cheers

Yea, I like to see my free energy 😂

@@CarJunkeez sad

Each to their own I suppose pal 👍

I like shed’s 😁 I’ve got a small out house on my house but I still wanted it in my kitchen, makes me feel good when I look at it when I walk in the kitchen and say to myself “all that free energy working well” 👍 since I installed it I’ve been totally off grid so it’s staying in the kitchen 😂

@@CarJunkeez fair play, just looks like its in the way and a time bomb waiting for that unit to fall to bits with all that weight on it haha

@@user-ox4eu3xi3s I’ve made a frame from 30mm angle 5mm thick and welded it together around the unit so it’s deffo not going anywhere. To be honest I can easily get to the kitchen either side of it so doesn’t get it my way to be honest. I know normal people wouldn’t like it but I’m far from normal 😆 👍

I know mate, they’re half the price I paid now 😂 I’ll check your video out mate, and no messing with china postage as Fogstar post from uk too 👍 cheers