OFF GRID SOLAR 24 Volt 1 Year Review + UPGRADES w/ LiTime Lithium Battery

This week I review our 24 volt solar system in the tiny house after 1 year of use. I also make some major upgrades to the off grid power setup by doubling our battery capacity and doubling our solar panel input!

LiTime Batteries:
Use Code "ELEMENT" at Checkout for Discount

Growatt 3000 Watt 24 Volt Inverter:

Watts 24/7 Store:

Other Solar Components Used in This Build:

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[MyBacktrail]

I had plenty of insults ready for this guy about his lack of solar knowledge, and then as I was watching him rewire the panels I realized my panels which have been "temporarily" set up for years still are not grounded, and his are. So yeah. Subscribed because why not.

[muyaad]

Thank you for the video and I even thank the people who commented here, I learned a lot for two sides

[Osborn-mjqc]

Thank you for your share. I recently installed this precise model and brand of battery into my RV, and it has been nothing short of amazing. The timing is perfect; I think I'll go ahead and order a second one and an inverter to run high-load applications. Thank you! By the way, their official website is usually cheaper than other platforms

[garys]

You should add a mini split, they are very efficient, I run 2 on my Bluetti with ease

[benkanobe]

(At around 10:00 it looks like you already figured this out so you can disregard my below input other than used prices)

You guys have done a great job and thank you for the update. My two cents is this (regarding cloudy days): Quality sed solar panels are easily between 20 - 40 Cents (0.40 US Dollar), why not triple your solar array to help make up for cloudy days? You can play with series vs parallel, vs series-parallel to get the volts and amps to what your Growatt can handle and will like. You have the room, why not add the panels?

[natesdiysolar]

Be sure that both batteries are at similar state of charge.. perfererably 100% before connecting in parallel. Let them sit for a day not connected to any load or inverter so they can equalize

[StudentPilotEverLearning]

You should change the routing of your battery leads. The positive and negative cables should not cross each other at all. If the cables overheat they could short out and start a fire.

[shafeelchang]

Wow, your introduction was fantastic! Thanks to your video, I'm even more convinced that LiTime batteries are great. But I'm curious about your thoughts on their new 12v100ah mini. Will you be releasing more videos about it?

[alohatvn]

Great video 📹. Will you wrap the solar wires so they are not chewed up by animals?

[kickgas]

Growatt high frequency, transformerless inverters are great for powering resistive loads and small electronics but it won't last very long powering inductive loads like power tools, refrigerators, motors, AC units, compressors or microwave ovens. High frequency inverters like these were never designed for powering high surge loads. You may get lucky and this inverter might start a few of these inductive loads when the inverter is new, but as the inverter ages, 1 1/2 to 2 years down the road, high frequency inverters will fail sooner, rather than later with continuous use with inductive loads. I've repaired inverters for a living for the past 23 years and one thing that I've learned is that the surge current that's generated by these inductive loads will damage the MOSFETs (metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors) in this inverter and will basically brick the inverter because the hourly shop rates for troubleshooting, testing and replacing all those MOSFETs typically will exceed the value of the inverter. It would be more cost effective to simply replace a failed high frequency inverter. A much better choice is one of Growatt's low frequency transformer-based inverters. You'll be much happier 10 years down the road when your Growatt low frequency inverter is still running like a top..

[justmantexas]

May try looking at a diesel heater for keeping things warm. Minimal 12 volt draw, and fuel consumption is miniscule for the amount of heat generated. You'd have to get a step-down converter, of course, but you've already made accommodations for that in your build.

[DavidDoty-mj]

Your batteries dont have low temp charge protection. If the did, they would reset automatically. The reason you had to " wake them up" with an external source was because the internal BMS had shut down due to low state of charge. Once this happens they will not function until the voltage is brought up to the required level. Many charge controllers will not charge into a "dead" battery which is why you needed a different charging source other than the solar thru your inverter.

[karbenselimmejia]

Hi! Great video
Can you tell me what gauge you use from.batt to controller?
And also gauge to join the batteries together?

[junkerzn]

I'm not sure what parameters you set for the battery but they should be:

Charge Target: 28.4V
Absorption Target: 28.4V (if separate from charge target)
Absorption Time: 1 to 2 hours
Float Voltage: 27.0V
Inverter low voltage cutoff should be set to 24V. No lower than 24V.

The reasons for the above values are:

* Charge a 24V LiFePO4 battery to 3.55V/cell (28.4V), which is well above the voltage needed to fully charge it, above the BMS balance start voltage (typically 3.50V/cell), and below the BMS cut-off voltage of 3.65V. There is very little wiggle room here because you don't want charging to be cut-off by the BMS repeatedly as that will put strain on the BMS's MOSFETs, and you also don't want the BMS to be constantly hitting a cell voltage limit and shutting down charging either because that puts unnecessary stress on the cells.

* Absorption target same as charge target. Absorption time 1-2 hours. This is primarily to give the battery time to balance its cells. The current tail for your setup is probably less than 30 minutes, but the BMS built into the batteries needs time to balance the cells.

* Float voltage: 27.0V. This is roughly 3.375V/cell, which is basically the "load support" level for the battery. If the battery is fully charged, it will naturally drop down to roughly this voltage and remain at 100% SOC. So when the battery is fully charged and solar is still available, setting the float here allows the solar to run the house or augment the battery while solar is available without stressing or draining the battery.

* Inverter (Growatt) should be set to turn off the AC at battery voltages below 24V (roughly 3V/cell). This will be roughly 5% SOC or lower and also ensures that the battery has enough energy left in it to keep the BMS alive, and also hopefully keep the Growatt alive in standby mode until solar comes up the next day. Avoiding an actual shutdown allows the system to recover itself automatically when solar comes up the next day.

Someone else pointed out that the two batteries should be roughly the same SOC when connecting them in parallel. Well, they should at least be roughly the same voltage, such that you don't get a lot of amps between batteries when you parallel them. The SOC for the two batteries will synchronize automatically over one or two full charges.

The Growatt can't tell how many batteries you have without comms, and these batteries don't have comms.

-Matt

[JustinCaseSolarPower]

The install looks good. put the batteries in a smaller insulated box with a lid. and leave a LED light running in that box. It will keep them above freezing. They also say Do not mount inverters to wood. Have a look at my insulation i have been working on. I mounted mine onto 10cm fiber cement sheet. that is the only changers i see that would improve your small system.

[QuikRay]

You should increase the input voltage to 48 volts. Doing that may necessitate the front end electronics of the inverter be changed as well. Doing so will reduce the front end current by half and may give you better inverter efficiency...Just a thought.

[rvboondocker]

Thanks for ANOTHER great video! Is that battery UL approved? Thanks

[jenniferdowney]

I've been consistently using Litime's batteries and find them to be great value for money. They seem to have a new 12v 100ah mini out - have you tried it yet? What do you think of its performance?

[immrnoidall]

That controller / inverter must be really tough to not burn up after being over input for so long.

[robert]

wow you disconnected the battery. before disconnecting the solar panels .. that's cool I didn't know you can do that with growatt