Simple solution - prune down all those trees blocking the sunlight - duh!!! ( He says with tongue firmly in cheek ). Thanks for the interesting video. It really takes a LOT of investment to get off grid depending only on solar. Huge solar array, Huge battery capacity. Just insane. EDIT: Mannnn, I would have chopped the tree branches down long ago to get the sun shining on the panels. Small investment compared to an insane amount of panels.....but then that's just me.

@chrisfx4212

Жыл бұрын

I even cut my avocado tree that was shading afternoon sun. It's a no brainer. Plant some smaller trees if you a green person

@No3Snow

Жыл бұрын

I agree, Any tree with the thinner moving branches should be targeted, I feel like enough production is available when you remove those trees

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

As I said before, it would cost me $20k+ to remove them. How much solar can I install for that insted?

@kevinrtres

Жыл бұрын

@@OffGridGarageAustralia Thanks for the heads-up. I didn't realize it would cost that much - not sure what you mean by "remove" though. I understand that totally uprooting trees is expensive, I'm just thinking that trimming might by a lot less, but then I don't live in AUS so have no idea what people charge for such work. Where I live it's a no brainer. Keep up with the good stuff. Thanks.

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

@@kevinrtres Yeah, trees are 40m high, so trimming would be very dangerous and costly. Removing these branches would not be easy either. Cutting a tree is one thing but removing it another. It would be a job for someone climbing up that tree and start from the top taking it carefully down. It's all not that easy...

Living at 56 degree latitude I envy your production during your so-called winter 😉

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

Enjoy your summer! You probably laugh about our cold Winter days...

Yes Andy, we are intersted to have more info on HA...

Good to see Mrs Garage getting a bit of air time today!

My mom is frying thick sliced ham sprinkled with brown sugar, with potatoes, and over easy eggs. I ❤ it l. ☕

Those graphs were very informative. Thanks for sharing your data.

I love that you have so much fun sharing , thank you Andy

I like this long videos, awesome … thx Andi

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

Far too much to share, but glad you've enjoyed it.

Thank you Andy

Great video again. Thanks for the content. I am very envious of your sheds and solar.

Best investment in your solar production will be a chain saw. Taking out just a couple of trees can make a huge difference. We are fully off grid with only 5kw of panels. However my panels are at 45 to the vertical and face true solar north. In mid winter I see great production from 9.30 to 2.30.

Some reason why not to trim or take down the shadowing trees and bushes? Would make a huge difference.

@lua-nya

Жыл бұрын

It feels like it would be more money efficient at this point.

@KenSentMe-

Жыл бұрын

@@lua-nya Definately. And that would be only right way to do. Sometimes ppl just love their trees and plants too much, until they realize how much they affect to the production.

@BobHannent

Жыл бұрын

He's been over it before, they're really, really tall and it would strip the land to cut them. Some trees you cannot just top without ruining them. He's going to be fine.

@kevinrtres

Жыл бұрын

@@BobHannent Trees are wonderful things - they tend to grow back some new way and fill in the cut-back places. I really think he should cut the branches down - get someone experienced and with the right tools to do it. But then again, that's just me - I'm about to install panels myself and there are trees on the eastern side that I'm definitely going to trim down. They'll be more bushy but they'll get back to some new way again. Saw that with my neighbours shrubs right next door to the trees I want to cut back..

@BobHannent

Жыл бұрын

@@kevinrtres some tree types don't like having their crown removed or just look weird when it's done.

Thanks Andy! Very interesting!

My Fronius tells me I have saved equivalent of 833 trees - so to me that would seem like I can cut some down to get even more solar particularly in winter!

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

Glad, we have other solutions... That's part of the experiment as you may remember from previous videos...

Congrats, Rome Italy. 👍👏

Congrats

7:30 dude is crying for clouds and shade in heavy wind. 😊

Andy, it’s shining here, FULL SUMMER! 😊

I'm Not Happy with my solar Installation when IT's cloudy, as Always - thank you for the deep Diving👍

Hi Andy I have been waiting for this test. You do amazing videos👌👌👌

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

Thanks a lot, Michael!

Valuable "Informations" Andy, and much appreciated, thanks! Also, Looks like an ideal day for a wind-turbine.

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

Thanks, Jack. This wind turbine project keeps coming back again and again....

@jackoneil3933

Жыл бұрын

@@OffGridGarageAustralia Well perhaps some day. A friend in the ST. Thomas in the Caribbean struggled to comfortably go off grid with his large solar system until he installed a 1.5kw wind turbine, and then he had a problem with excess power.

Thanks Andy

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

Thanks, Wayne!

Nice video thanks, think I would be looking for the chainsaw if it was my setup.

Great video Andy, it is so good to see how close you are to getting fully off grid. The short season (May,June and July) will always be a bit of a struggle. The one option you are fortunate to have is the Tesla can be looked at as an optional/portable load that if needed, can be charged somewhere else during those months if you start to run low on power for the house. If only you could set up a Tesla charging station for some of the neighbours in November to February to sell off your excess power. 😉

Awesome channel thanks

Hi Andy, watch all your videos, great to hear u r just about off grid, even in shady conditions. You mentioned your hot water heat pump efficiency - a video on that would be great. Im sure many are thinking about saving money with hot water as well 👍 thanks again 😎

Hi Andy. Great video. I'm getting the urge to purchase a few more panels here in Salt Lake City area but I have not convinced the wife that I need MORE POWER! I have 260 watt panels for 8.6 kw. I was going to offer my condolences on your Winter! We are just coming up on the summer months here and when I am in our winter months, I too have trees blocking production. Still using the tesla model 3 battery for 65kw of power. I use approximately 26kw per day. I would trim the trees except they are not my trees. Darn.

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

Thanks Lou. You cannot have enough solar power. Never... I'm pretty sure, you would not trim these trees unless you have a 40m pruning saw 😊

Over here in Cape Town, South Africa I have 400w solar panels, a 24v 50ah Lip4 battery with 3000w inverter (6000w peak) and smart Victron 20a charge controller. This is because we have "Load Shedding" over here. I run both fridges, freezer and 2 computers on sunny days, only 1 fridge on shady days. I intend to get bigger battery as funds come in.

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

We have load shedding here for a long time. All non essential loads can be turned off by the energy provider. These are mostly large loads like electric hot water, pool pumps and air conditioner. Also EV charging. But we have at least the choice and plug these appliances in to the 'normal' supply and keep them running but for a higher price. If more people would have solar and storage it would certainly help everywhere. So you're on the right track with getting more storage.

I know you do not want to top a couple trees but if you did remove the tops from 3 trees you would double your solar input maybe triple.

Trim those trees and you'll be on solar heaven

@ToddDesiato

Жыл бұрын

They're not his.

@kevinrtres

Жыл бұрын

HA!, just saw your comment right after saying the same thing!

@hgvdweg

Жыл бұрын

Next solar investment: an axe!

@kevinrtres

Жыл бұрын

@@hgvdweg 🤣👍

@TheRonskiman

Жыл бұрын

Andy is adamant that's not going to happen. He could double the array size on the house, and apart from the cost the problem would be solved.

Homeassistant gives a very good insight in what is using power. The tosti iron is a huge amp eater and so is an old boiler I have in the kitchen. I can easily adjust my power consumption by eating less tosti (kids) and replace the old unisolated kitchen boiler.... But I didn't. Nice video. Again you put a lot of work in it. Thx!

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

Thanks a lot, Wiley. I have replaced a few loads (pool pump, lights) and will upgrade with more solar to get it all off-grid.

@camielkotte

Жыл бұрын

@@OffGridGarageAustralia I often wonder if we should get more panels or try replacing old habits and old equipment first. It's all about taking an interest in how things work and stop paying utility companies and damaging environment. Lifepo4 is without cobalt and has the prospect of good recycling procedures(I was told). Human kind can make a significant change here. You are a pioneer and really made me believe I could get my wood cabin off-grid. I works! Thx man! Thx a bucket of amps. And I need to get you some beers again. BTW the Peter inverter(great display) produces 115 volt on both + and -??? To create 230volts... I learned something new when grounding the system.

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

@@camielkotte Thanks a lot Wiley, I appreciate your support and feedback. I didn't know this about the Peter. Is there a middle contact, a neutral point internally?

i'm off grid too since a long time. and i have the same problem with tree shadow. but the trees are more important for me than some more solar-electrons! by the way. 2003 i was with team heliodet member of world solar challenge. and at the end in adelaide i mentioned: thanks to our "shadow-car" we arrived (as latest team just 1/2h in advance of closing ;-))

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

That's exactly what i think too. You cannot sacrifice trees just to setup solar! Interesting challenge this is. I wish they would do an E-Cannonball down here in AU as they do in Germany.

first battery and solar look and then breakfast...😂

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

Yes💪 That's, how it should be done! 😄

🦦 so you build a tree ☺️ cmon 😂 so that off grid energy system was the plan (dream) a long time 😉 thx for seing it running

Thanks for another informative and reflective video, with a great big picture oversight. Would love to see more on youre HA integration with the garage system too!

Congratulations on going fully off grid. Just wanted say some good things about Trina solar panels. Trina is a Chinese company with worldwide presence. The panels generate a crazy amount of amps. I just added 6k watts of Trina (out of a total of 15k watts on my house). Amazing power generation by these newest panels. I have been fully off grid for five years now.

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

I'll get 4x 510W Trina panels for the micro inverter. That is the plan...

trees are flexible. tie ropes and slowly pull them so they grow sideways, win - win.

Moin Andy, replace the trees with trees that have no leaves in winter or build a wind turbine. Best regards from Cuxhaven where it is one month before Summer😀

Hello Andy, cloudy weather would be great for solar production in your case, better pray for a full cloudy weather, my 11.8kw PV 3 strings are facing south 30-25% today its dusty and cloudy with much dust on the panels i think the total generation is more than 30KWH today peak 5.5kw but its load based I did not enable on grid on my hybrid inverters I need the grid for the night.

Yep the clouds defuse the light and makes the light even . I noticed my solar makes better kwh on a cloudy day . Bright sun my panels hate a hot summer . Had my system for 10years now in the same north facing shed with no shading . I dont get anymore than 25kwh on a realy good day . 4,650w of panels on an sma 5kw inverter . I send back to the grid and get money .

Andy good to see you using HomeAssistant it's an addiction, you will lose many hours with it but it’s worth. You have plenty panels but with that shade you should consider put optimizers in one of the roofs, to be 100% off grid the rule is to have a small generator has backup. I only have 8.72 Kw and my production is similar and we had a very dark January, last 2 months I didn’t use grid, without the exception of 25W for the inverter don’t feed grid.

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

HA is fine and I didn't spend too much time setting all this up, no coding, no yaml files, it is all fairly straight forward. The optimisers will not help in this sort of environment. They only work if panels are facing different directions. Apart from that, they optimise the $$$ of the manufacturer, nothing else.

@alanblyde8502

Жыл бұрын

@@OffGridGarageAustralia looks like you might need to trim the southern side of the trees to optimise solar production in the winter mate, maybe setup up a ground mount north facing array

@CantFindInYoutube

Жыл бұрын

You are correct it's not a permanent shade optimizer will be worst. You have everything to do it, integrate your victron in Hassio, with a few shelly you can cut or turn on loads depending on your battery charge. I only have the Batmon for the victron smart shunt and it works for this but a connection to your GX will be much better.

Be great to see a video on Home Assistant.

The DC current rating on the micro inverter inputs indicate the maximum current it can use. It will not get destroyed if you over panel it. The panels might need a fuse for reverse current protection (but normally not needed for two panels in parallel). If you don't trust your inverter put a fuse in there, too. Free space on the roof and spare panels available - that's not good :)

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

I monitored these panels a bit now and they output close to 8A each in full sun now, so 2 in parallel will exceed the maximum current rating of the inverter (12.5A). The MPP will then shift, so the controller will take this current to get to this power point at the moment. Victron can handle 35% over panelling but this one... it's a bit of a gamble...

I really enjoyed this more reflective video Andy. Great to hear your thinking on the Big Picture. And yes please do give us a tour of Home Assistant including if possible how to plumb in and control the Victron system. regards from Holy Island Max++

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

Thanks a lot for your ongoing support, Max. I really appreciate it.

I would like to know how many of your Home devices are strictly DC? Like how many LED lights vs Fluorescent vs old filament ones? How many TV's are running on direct DC? An so forth! Separate your Home; Garage and Pool consumption to give us a better view of what is going on! By the way excellent video.

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

None of my devices work on DC, except some small devices inside the garage which are using the 12V DC converter in the battery shelf (the Wifi access point, the 18650 battery charger, all my cameras charging from this as well). More videos coming which will explain it in more details.

Thank you for this interesting and very well presented information. Andy, are you ready for the Nordhessen vote? .... I vote for more info about Homeassistant usage for energy monitoring purposes.

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

Thank you very much. HA stuf is coming soon.

Thanks

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

Thanks, Sean. I appreciate your support.

Would love some videos on HA, Andy. Have a good one!

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

All right!

Andy, I would love to understand Home Assistant. My complex system is driving me crazy trying to really understand it. I have to look at parts of it and try to integrate it all in my head in realtime. I'm casting about trying to find a way to capture all the data.

Great video Andy 👍 Thank you for sharing your setup! If you could just get the sun to stop moving around so much it would make your life so much easier! But not as much fun.😂

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

Yeah, where is the fun with all this 😉

"How did he die?". "He fell off the garage roof inspecting his panels. It's the way he would have wanted to go." 😆

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

With a S.P.A.T. in his hand...

@pedromoonunit430

Жыл бұрын

@@OffGridGarageAustralia 🤣

I think you should start look at alternative Inverters and monitoring systems that work with the Selpos batteries. Why because there are a lot of people out there who I think would be interested and it might help increase our viewing figures Andy. I have purcahsed 2 SPF 5000 SE and have 3 Seplos MAson battery packs 206Ah and aim to use the Solar Assitant monitoring software. Great video very interesting seeing your winter figures, we here in the UK are in the start of our summer, and the other day we peaked at over 22kWh usage into the car and house, we have been almost grid free for the last 4 days. Our temperatures have been hovering at around 20c.

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

Thanks a lot Ken. Seems like we have now similar weather, you just have more solar production than I have, so enjoy! I'm still testing different batteries and solutions as you know to get a better understanding what technology is out there and how to use it. The Seplos BMS is good but not optimal and it seems there is not much willingness to change the software in the future. Selling numbers must still be high enough... We will get there eventual and hopefully find a system wich works great and foremost satisfies my 😂

@showme360

Жыл бұрын

@@OffGridGarageAustralia I understand, I was just hoping to see if you wanted to expand your horizons, to include other popular Inverters like the Growatt. Maybe I should start doing my own videos. 🤔

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

@@showme360 I cannot just replace my inverters with another one to test it. I have plans for the near future to setup a proper test environment where I can do that safely without compromising my 'production' system. Just not enough hours in one day 😉

@showme360

Жыл бұрын

@@OffGridGarageAustralia Yes I know you work long hours! Your commitment to battery storage tech is exemplary.

Small question / suggestion Andy, i know you love getting us viewers up close to what you are looking at... But can you pull your camera / gopro / phone (whatever you record on) back a bit. The equipment has minimum focal distances. If you really want to bring us in, can you do it in editing and crop the screen in? Theres a big difference between a trade off of some pixelation by zooming in post edit compared to hyper close out of focus shots (close ups of your apps, victron systen displays etc). Your screen recordings are done perfectly! Its just the enthusiasm with the hand held shots can be hard to see clearly. Many thanks for all your content, discovery and sharing with us for so long. Plus, the weather means your fridge doesnt have to work so hard on keeping those West Australian Spats cold :)

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for your comment and feedback. I'll take care of it.

Have you considered thinning the trees (replant short trees) to increase solar production.

@CantFindInYoutube

Жыл бұрын

Eucalyptus grow very fast, they survive fires, thinning is not an practical option, will regrow in a couple of years, cut probably is not allowed and will destroy his beautiful place.

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

No.

@Luke-san

Жыл бұрын

Dig a hole and plant them deeper, so no cutting. More towards the UK ;-)

I run with the firm conviction that any home storage / energy system has to be able to operate without intervention in all conditions. Which means, generally, having load-support (also means battery support) available by other means. A generator or a charger vampiring off another system (like the home's grid-tie). Otherwise one goes through life constantly having to bird-dog the storage system. That means having a generator, or having energy transfer capability from the grid (aka a battery charger), or whatever... all automated. For the grid support the simplest automation is to just set the battery charger's voltage to a support level, e.g. 51.8V or something like that, so it only operates when the battery is low. And make sure the charger has enough suds for always-enabled loads like a fridge, pool pump, etc. It does not necessarily have to support all voluntary loads such as charging the car or using power tools. A more complex automation to ensure that you are only using locally-produced power from the home system is to connect up a sensor to the grid egress (clip-on current transformer / sensor), integrate the sensor into Home Assistant, and then integrate a contactor into Home Assistant with some automation to turn on the contactor (enabling the charger on the AC side, or some other on/off mechanism) whenever the house is exporting more than X kW. If you do go that route be sure to have hysteresis. Lets say the battery charger can do 12A (650W or so). You can set the charger to a middle-of-the-road battery support voltage, say around 54.5V, then have the automation turn it on when the export is > 2000W and turn it off when the export is It would be fairly easy to find a sweet spot simply by running the charger in power-supply mode, due to the discharge curve and the charge curve being so widely separated in LiFePO4 battery systems. -- For my Pergola system I have a little Victron 12A 24V charger that I have set to a low-battery load-support voltage, around 25.9V, and I love how it works in conjunction with the battery. It doesn't just go from 0 to 12A instantly... the ramp is quite slow since any off-loading of the battery props up the battery voltage, so the battery still contributes current. Precisely what I want... I want to use as little of the grid as possible. With a middling battery charging voltage... in your case somewhere around 54.5V (3.4V/cell), the charger would only contribute when the house is exporting, the battery is low, and the garage's solar is insufficient to prop up the battery. Setting the charger's voltage to somewhere between 3.3V and 3.4V (52.8V to 54.4V) would have the behavior that you desire. -Matt

Great. I know u don't want to do wind turbine review but would be great to learn it bcz there is so may turbine but not enough good information.

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

I would need someone who can blow it fas enough so I can measure anything at all 😊 There is no wind down here in the valley, believe me. Especially not during the night. I looked in to this for quite some time...

@pulith5220

Жыл бұрын

@@OffGridGarageAustralia lol.

it may be worth having someone come and trim back all the trees, i think it will make way more difference than adding more panels. i have lots of trees like you, earlier this year i had to have a couple of large trees removed that were diseased while they did that i had them trim up the other trees and it made a significant difference to my solar production. whats your annual consumption mine is around 10MWh annually and im producing about 2MWh with my 3kw solar (5 panels east and 5 west). im about to add another 7kw of panels to get my production up. have you ever played with enphase micro inverters? they may do a little better on the shaded arrays, also the interface with per panel production is really nice. Also yes a deep dive into home assistant would be fun.

You should build electric sauna to get your consumption to proper level.

Ahh yeah the harsh realities of winter solar I went from running my IPS monitor, laptop, subwoofer and speakers, charging 3-4 usb battery banks, and 12 aaa nihm batteries on my 2x80w panel setup in August wheen I started last year, to barely being able to charge 1 battery bank in the dead of winter i just didnt even bother turning it on for a couple weeks. Which had my roughly calculating that id need 10x more panel to get the same production in winter as i was getting in later SUmmer... way too much, so i thought how could you store summer solar to use in winter, which doesnt exist yet, only solution is moar panel but theres other options like wind and hydro which ive been investigating, especially over there on Robert Murray Smith's channel, he seems to be experimenting and turning out wind turbine designs daily, all free to 3d print even, even a how to make generators to make them work, im really tempted to give it a go and see what kind of wind power turbine could generate 40-80w, maybe with advancement in magnetic gears and generators the losses could be cut down and you wouldnt need a huge turbine very high in the air to make wind power practicle. Anyway great info as usual and I get what you mean, youre technically offgrid with the exporting but not really in spirit, thats where judging by all that wind you might want to consider some wind power, but moar panel will work...

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

Thanks Mike.

Da du unterschiedliche Schatten auf einzelnen Panels hast, wenn du das ganze System auf Mikroinverters umbauen würdest, würdest du viel mehr Strom bekommen. Da jedes Panel bekommt eigene mppt.

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

How do you connect micro inverters to an off-grid system though without installing a huge number of inverters which can deal with this AC power?

Der vertrocknete Baum in der Mitte, erlöse den mal :-)

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

That is an Ironbark tree. They look like this. It is home to at least one Bearded Dragon. It would be fatal for the Dragon if we kill the tree.

Maybe you could make a solar carport or stable for your horses in an open paddock? No shading! More bang per panel!

@CollinBaillie

Жыл бұрын

But... He has the house roof to add panels to. Why spend so much more money to build a whole new building?

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

All paddocks are shaded and full of trees, so that's not an option. Once we have setup the panels and Micro inverter on the house roof, it will be sweet!

Andy, here in the Netherlands I 'top' my trees. What it means it's; we cut off the top so it grows more sideways. Obviously these trees are off a different branche. Wouldn't your trees stay alive when you 'top' them off? A palmtree would die I suppose, but the others?

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

Yes, they would stay alive. The top is 40m high, so that's not an option...

On some cloudy days i surpricingly get more power from the opposite roof. Both roofs have no shade. I think sometimes the clouds do act like a mirror, reflecting the sunlight stronger than let it through.

@CantFindInYoutube

Жыл бұрын

When rain and stop I notice and increase in production, I suppose the water drops in the panels act like a lens. In photography on a cloudy day you have to take 1 or 2 F stops to not overexposure probably this happen with panels and they produce more, I'm referring those cloudy but bright days not the grey ones.

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

Yes, clouds are doing great things if they are not to thick.

@Juergen_Miessmer

Жыл бұрын

@@CantFindInKZread Rain also cools down down the panels.

Home assistant video please

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

OK!

Love the fact that you are making some funds by staying home and playing with Solar and batteries. So cool. Maybe start up a solar bitcoin mining farm next?

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

I have an Asic here but just not enough power to run it in Winter. Maybe I'll buy another one next Spring when I have excess power again.

I saw a USA video of an automatic sun tracking solar panel system. The panels moved on a single post and made about twice their fixed location solar output because the panels faced the sun from sun up to sun down.

@zoe..d

Жыл бұрын

The economics over the long term always works out far cheaper to add a couple of panels to offset the tracking by the time you factor in extra components that drive the panels (motors etc) plus lots more points of failure. Couple of panels that don't move works out better. If the tracking made economic sense, it would be far more widespread worldwide.

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

Trackers are not great considering they need a huge concrete foundation to withstands storms. Moving parts also means more maintenance.

Heya, well that's the situation in summer you have enough but in winter time you need 3 or 4 times more Wp then what you use an 1 day

.... fairly windy again... Maybe worth a thought to consider a (HA) windturbine ?

I wonder if a piece of lightly sanded perspex in front of a solar panel would act as a dissipator to mimic a cloudy day?

@CollinBaillie

Жыл бұрын

It would, but without the desired increased generation. The reason for this is that you would be diffusing whatever light makes it to the panel. Whereas on a cloudy day, the light across the entire sky is diffused. Another way to think of it is to think of the light source. On clear days the sun is the light source directly. Super bright. However it's a "point" of light compared to the entire field which is the sky. The rest of the sky adds nothing to the panel (roughly speaking). On a cloudy day however, the light is caught and diffused by those clouds, effectively making the entire sky the source of light. Of course any one point in that sky when compared to direct sunlight is almost nothing, but the entire sky, well it all adds up. If you could estimate the size of the sun in the sky and then compare the light level of the cloud cover for the same space, it would be much much lower. Diffusion does reduce light, if you have the same sized light source, but the entire sky becomes the light source, and that is a much much much bigger area than what the sun appears to take up in that same broad sky. And if you think of it, the surface area of a single panel, compared to the entire sky is microscopic. And as diffusion actually results in a loss of light, diffusing what reaches a panel at the surface would basically mean losing part of what little light actually reaches the panel. The entire sky on a cloudy day is still not as good as direct sunlight, but it beats the pants off of shaded sunlight. Diffusing what gets to the panel at the panel will just reduce what has arrived at the panel. Now if you use some sort of lens which can redirect light which normally wouldn't make it to the panel, or perhaps re-align light which would reach the panel at less than optimal angle and make them all reach the panel, at an optimized angle, then you would see an increase. And there are videos showing just this already. Using a lens on each panel would make sense where it was impossible to add more panels and you already had the most efficient panels installed (ie cannot expand solar panel install) Such a lensing addition would probably costs more than just adding more panels (when comparing the increase achieved by the lens versus the additional generation provided by an additional panel) So if you have the space, add more panels.

Today, here in Lower Bavaria we harvested about 70 kwh from 13,85 kWp Panels... 🖖

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

Nice! Enjoy as long as it goes...

Andy I know your love for the trees but "Pruning" a few limbs could be healthy for them..... 😁 just a few branches removed could be huge!

@clarencewiles963

Жыл бұрын

Not his trees

@JayDee25895

Жыл бұрын

@@clarencewiles963 Yes the trees but just a trim

Hi Andy, Your micro inverter panel discrepancy is a bit curious; try swapping over the inputs and see if the watts differences still agree. If it still looks like the same panel is low, I reckon you might have a bad blocking diode giving you only two thirds power.

The days are getting shorter that is the test I want to see

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

Another 3 weeks to go.

Other people have already mentioned it but maybe missed one of the benefits. Thin the trees will improve solar but all allow new growth around the base of the trees. Allowing lots of new growth and improving solar output

I think you have to keep in mind, that if you convert twice, one time DC to AC with the Fronius and second time AC to DC with the Multiplus, there will be a loss. I have solar panels with a battery in the house and since last year I use an additional Multiplus to store extra energy, I would have been put in the grid in a second battery in the garage to charge our EV. I see a loss there about 15 to 30% compared to the house battery where the energy is only DC DC converted

Hello Andy As usual a great video. Do you heat your hot water with electricity from solar/ grid? If so why not place solar collectors on the roof and install a small recirculation pump. I have built one using a larger storage tank with element and collectors and pump and only used electricity to boost the water temp when the home had 4 additional people from off peak on the very odd occasions. Sunshine Coast hinterland. Keep the good work up.

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

A solar hot water system would cost me A$6k including installation. I use around 1.5kWh per day on hot water (year average), that would be over 27 years amortisation. I can install 4 more solar panels just to cover this load and keep my existing hot water tank (which I have done already)

jogi • 2 days ago 30:00 no - you dont need any more pannels, but more battery capacity, for to compensate the fluktuation. Anyhow, again you are argueing with your stupidity, not to load your car allways, in case you have otherwise to feed the overproduction into the grid. Prior to feed anything into the grid, you have to charge your car => in Germany named "Überschussladen" !!! I had to remove above comment from jogi (Juergen). Not sure why he attack me here. It's not the first time he did that and he also sent me some sort of confronting emails in the past. I've seen him doing this on other channels as well. So please as a reminder, let's all have a fair discussion. I respect everyone's opinion but not any sort of abuse or insult and such comments will be deleted!

I think you should hook up your old system in addition to what you have now.

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

It's has been sold already...

I would be trimming some trees.

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

I bet you would not.

Have u looked at makeing your home more energy efficient. A changed to a variable speed pool pump and save 10kw a day on that alone

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

Yes, I did look into this. We use 1.4kWh per day for the whole house. Not sure If I can be much more efficient. The pool pump has been replace years ago and I showed the result here as well.

😎

I'm building a new house in Budapest, and we don't have any hot water tank or tubes installed. All hot water is created only when we open the tap and cold water is heated to 50 degrees Celsius in seconds using 3600 W heater built into the tap. In this way we only use 3600 W for few seconds and bit longer for shower. Clever system, I believe.

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

The problem with this instand heaters are, the power must come from somewhere. So the power generation need to be ready at any time for you to have hot water. That costs hugely in terms of the power grid, the power plant which provides this power for you and therefore the environment. The plant needs to run 24/7 with the capability to deliver this power to your house, even if you don't use it. It's actually the least efficient method to heat up water unfortunately.

@TheFikotech

Жыл бұрын

@@OffGridGarageAustralia The thing is though that this is for kitchen etc. so when I open the water, I use it for only 1-3 minutes and then turn it off. My opinion is that it will use less energy than heating a water boiler and keeping the water hot.

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

@@TheFikotech But how does the power plant know when you will open the tap? So it needs to run on full power all the time just to provide the energy when you request it. It's like leaving your car running just in case you want to drive it at some point. I would not go with such a system if I were you. It also will be very hard to switch to solar and batteries at some stage.

@TheFikotech

Жыл бұрын

@@OffGridGarageAustralia Well, I think you have proved that solar cells are not "just" solar cells and in the feature we might be able to get better batteries AND better solar cell technologies. In my case, I develop MCU systems that are "smart" on the energy consumption. As I also have electric floor heating, the heating of the floor will automatically be switched off when I open hot water, and turned on again (if needed) when I close the water. The floor heating is also about 3600W + plus another 1500W, but they are never on at the same time, as the software controls this function in the same was as it does with the hot water tap.

Angle your system for winter use, my system is almost identical of yours , and my rof is only 22deg, works perfect here up north at summer, but not in winter. i need to add som panels almost at 90deg for winter, than i think im fine... also, i got almost no shadow only one month around christmas.. And i think the resond your system works better in cloudy conditions is the MPPTs "lag" vs stable dim light disperertial vs "on off" sunlight Ps at Victron W im the last in the alfabet in Norway

@trygvetveit4747

Жыл бұрын

If you dont need all this power during summer you should divert some of your potential from max delivery back to the grid in expense of better yse in winter months, i shure will, but my problem is winter storms, rain and gales for weeks , but still some hours of daylight..

@trygvetveit4747

Жыл бұрын

59 deg N

Hi Andy, are you able to create a video on how to connect to Home Assitant for inverter that's not able to push data to HA. Both on DC and AC side.

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

I can only make a video about the Fronius and how to setup in HA. I'll do it soon, hope that helps...

@ReksYong

Жыл бұрын

@@OffGridGarageAustralia Thanks Andy. I'm saw some using ESP32 to create a DC and AC wattmeter that pushes data to HA but just not much information online.

@CantFindInYoutube

Жыл бұрын

@@ReksYong What is your inverter brand? Are you sure there is no integration for it?

@ReksYong

Жыл бұрын

@@CantFindInKZread MUST inverter, nope. Checked it on HA, no integration.

At 11 minutes in maybe try the panels in a line, one in front of the other rather than side by side?

I absolutely recommend to get some Shelly PRO 3EM devices and monitor the actual consumption of the individual devices (if they are 3-phase) or Shelly PRO 1PM for single device. The data can be fed directly to HA and you can then display them on the dashboard.

@ab7644

Жыл бұрын

Shelly is nonsense, it only connects via wifi :) Replaced by one of Carlo Gavazzi energy meters with RS485.

@CantFindInYoutube

Жыл бұрын

No correct, the pro line also accepts ethernet and many also bluetooth. He lives in an isolated place his intranet can be wifi and stay relatively secure. I have 80 smart devices and my recommendation is run away from Tuya, Xiaomi, etc

@ab7644

Жыл бұрын

@@CantFindInKZread ok nice, but I've already bought a carlo gavazzi meter and I need RS485. For me its more convenient and simpler interface.

@CantFindInYoutube

Жыл бұрын

@@ab7644 If you bought it I'm sure it's the best solution for you I have PRO 3EM but mostly use Shelly to operate and measure power of some devices like a Pro 4PM for my 2 AVAC units and some Plus 1PM and 2PM this way if I have batteries full I 'waste ' energy if not Hassio only turn on what is important.

@ab7644

Жыл бұрын

What I don't like about the Shelly 3EM is that if I turn off the WIFI overnight, for example, it won't sync the data collected during that time to the cloud when I turn the WIFI back on.

after solar you should look for wind energy generation :D

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

Hahaha, yeah, I did a few times. But I also watched a lot of video and it is just not worth it unless you have constant wind like near the coast or on a hill. The output of these 2000W wind turbines is less than one solar panel does...🤷‍♂️

Hey Andy, don't you still have the old grid-tie Inverter from one of your first used pannel buy? Maybe you can use it too, so you don't need to overpannel this small Inverter so hard. Or maybe you find a used Inverter from someone upgrading His solar too.

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

Yes, I still have these smaller 1.5 and 3kW AC inverters which I could use...

31:45 Honestly - 1 person more in the winter helps heating with 50 - 100W, which is usually more than the consumption for hot water. In a good insulated house in Germany, 1 person more needs not more energie.

Nice Andy - I've had the HA energy dashboard running for two years now combining my grid and off-grid systems. It's a handy reference. While we are net negative grid consumption overall, the problem is it's not consistent. Seasons of great surplus and seasons of significant deficit mean going fully off-grid is challenging (and not really worth it given the amount and cost of additional PV and storage required). Interesting you allowed to use T33 for the EV charging. How much power can the Victron manage when AC coupling the Fronius? Will it do both that and the micro inverter(s)?

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

Thanks Alex. Of course over a years period, I would be producing far more energy than consuming, but I cannot store the summer energy for winter, can I? So looking at each single day gives a far better picture. The Victron MP can handle up to 5kW of AC-coupled power when not connected to the grid. There is a link in the video description to the Victron documentation, if you're interested. Yeah, the T33 can handle all sort of loads really, non-essential loads like pool pumps, hot water, EV charge and also air conditioner. Energex even suggested that back in 2015 when I got the PHEV.

@alexsimmons1803

Жыл бұрын

@@OffGridGarageAustralia Thanks Andy. T33 seems pretty flexible then. I see T33 tariffs are in the 18-20c/kWh range so not nearly as good as they used to be. I've been looking at our Winter production as well and seeing if I could charge an EV without incurring any grid imports. It's pretty tight, only enough for ~25 km of range on average, so I expect I am going to need another 2-3 kW of off-grid PV to eliminate the need to divert grid PV power to supplement the off-grid home battery charging (no pFIT here to worry about). I only have SW roof spare to use at the moment though. Great for Summer afternoons and on cloudy days but it's Winter when I need the energy. No "pool fence" systems here.

Like# 14!

@paulcurtis5496

Жыл бұрын

ya know, when I visit I can bring a Stihl and we can take care of all of that shade you have there ;-)... Make it more Sonoran Desert like - hahahahahaha

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

There is no medal for 14., Paul... Yeah, bring your chainsaw and good luck. I'll watch and calibrate a S.P.A.T.

@paulcurtis5496

Жыл бұрын

@@OffGridGarageAustralia I also have dynamite, I may need a stealthier way to get down under with that 🤣, but now the solar calibration units won’t fit

I hate to suggest a cutting of the trees. But I situated my solar system to try to avoid shading from trees. I know that requires negociating w/ the spouse and neighbors, but ......

2 K to 3KW, but it never goes higher than 53 to 54 Volts with small loads. Bloody freezing down here, Andy.

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

What is limiting your charging?

@chuxxsss

Жыл бұрын

@Off-Grid Garage I have no idea yet, maybe the Growatt inverters over charging.

Nice video as usual Andy. With these shady conditions, I'm wondering how much extra energy you would have been generating if you were using micro inverters all through or if all your panels have dc optimisers attached. The better production in cloudy conditions was unexpected but I'm now wondering what improvement you'd have with heterojunction (hjt) solar panels (the Panasonic types). They are known to be the best for cloudy and/or high temperature environments.

@pragmaticcosmic2826

Жыл бұрын

Here's a novel thought...what if he just connected the panels in series/parallel and direct connect to the battery! Obviously making sure the voc is slightly less than the max cutoff if it is possible with these panels. With no mppt or smarts, would be interesting to see the average yield difference!!

@kevinrtres

Жыл бұрын

Microinverters would not improve yield - shadow is shadow - if there's no power due to shading how's the microinverter going to help? A number of people have already shown this conclusively - check Andreas Spies and some other oke in Auss as well.

@adon8672

Жыл бұрын

@@kevinrtres I have seen those videos and they proof that micro inverters weren't worth the money and the marketing hype. It wasn't that the were completely useless. They can still be useful in extreme cases but even so, they gains might not be worth the extra costs associated with them. Some Huawei inverters can work with optimisers attached only to panels that need them within a string (e.g. those in deep shades) and I learnt they improve energy yields.

@kevinrtres

Жыл бұрын

@@adon8672 Interesting, thanks.

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

Micro Inverters will not work in Off-grid installations unless you have enough inverter power installed which can handle it (Victron 1.0 rule). And optimisers only optimise the $$$ of the manufacturer. They may bring some small benefit if panels in one string face different directions. But in shading, no advantage.

So Andy, when will you be doing a chain saw review? lol

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

Never, that's not an option and far too expensive. Will cost me $25k or more.

You need to get a solar hot water as well

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

I looked into it but it will cost me around A$6k including installation. That would mean an amortisation of over 27 years.

Will you do a step by step instruction on adding the victron system to Home assistant

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

I have done this already but HA allows only one energy Dashboard. And grid and off-grid are separate.

@AllElectricLiving

Жыл бұрын

@@OffGridGarageAustralia I must of missed this video

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

@@AllElectricLiving Oh, I meant, I have already integrated the Victron system. No video yet though. Coming soon...

Is 1 roofs = to 1 string? maybe you can gain some power with optimizers, so the unshaded panels are not be pulled down by the shaded ones.

@OffGridGarageAustralia

Жыл бұрын

Optimisers optimise the $$$ of the manufacturer. They are not magic devices which deliver more power. I have a lot of parallel strings due to the shading. So, for that exact reason....

Get a chain saw