No One Buys Solar Panels and Goes Off Grid Part 2 #offgrid #offgridlife #vanlife #solarpanel

Original Video/Part 1

[duncyy]

going offgrid is wayy more complicated then just buyng PV and calling it a day. If you want to offgrid a typical residential home, start with lowering energy consumption. Can you go offgrid with just a 5kw inverter? Yes, but most of these people life in "non AC needed" areas and cook (and heat water) with gas.

[PatrickKQHBD]

I think that he's saying he's installing solar panels on houses that were never designed for solar. With a tiny yard, and no good roof angles for panels, it would be extremely difficult to take that particular kind of house (mass-produced builder-grade junk) off grid and be normally comfortable.

[rileyread]

Oh ok, I think I get what you're saying;

It's not "you can't live off grid"

It's "you can't just convert a house to off-grid solar, if you wanna go off-grid you need you need to make a lot more modifications"

[mikekerr]

I've heard that some guys hang them up in their wall inside their building or house

[docneron]

Didn't even notice you did a response video. Shame on me. 

One thing baffles me every time US-Americans talk about energy usage: Do you not have any sort of power-savings systems in your electrical systems?
For example, don't your ACs (particularly the bigger ones) use soft-start circuits and capacitors to limit starting current? In Germany every appliance with a large motor (washing machine, tumble dryer, AC compressor) is built like that.
It's weird enough that you have 110V or 240 2-phase when you still have normal appliances that draw >10kW - you need so much copper for the cables this way.

Anyway, the message of your first video was mainly around the subject that solar (or rather inverters, it's actually irrelevant where the power ultimately comes from) cannot supply the energy needs of a general home. Now you switch to the (actually correct) narrative that average homes without a big property don't provide sufficient surface area for the amount of solar panels needed. That's not really consistent but maybe that's what you had in mind.

So out of curiosity, what's the average kWh/year consumption in the US? In Germany, for a single family home, it's about 5-6000kWh. If you guys guzzle 3 times that much, I slowly understand where you are coming from.

[gettingpolitical]

I'm off grid right now lol watching TV, on my phone and my fridge, AC etc running smooth lol.

4500 watts at 240v is 18.75 amps
Wattage divided by volts equals amps.

3-5 sun hours per day (sun hours are optimal hours of collecting solar energy). The closer to the equator the more sun hours you will get in comparison to the locations farther from it.

The average home between 1, 500 sqft-2, 000 sqft uses a 3ton ac units while homes smaller carry 1.5 ton to 2ton ac units.

While the average home world wide doesn't use AC and uses a passive air system for cooling.

Most off grid homes are under 1000 sqft. Even with those homes or those bigger use a back up generator (usually gas powered) and are capable of fully charging their systems 3-4 times on 1 tank of gas.

I have a 2000kw blue star system diesel generator designed for industrial use to power up in scenarios where for whatever reason my solar system can't charge my batteries.

Most off grid home owners use passive air systems for cooling and not AC, those who do use AC usually use a window AC in one room. They also use wood burning systems for heat.

These systems of heating and cooling eliminate the strains of power usage.

I'm a lil confused as to why your trying to compute calculations (not only when your math is incorrect but trying to articulate the use of person (A) home appliances (the average) to person (B) home appliances without knowing what if in fact their power usage consumes and whether or not they use the appliances your trying to average it to.

Your trying to argue the average to the unknown (which only applies to the legal standard for reasonable suspicion).

[olgamendoza]

What would u recommend (panels and batterie) for the most bang for your buck would truly love your advice because as much as I read and research it’s just not something I have been able to wrap my head around

[jakeliujakeliu]

Going off grid you don’t power regular AC, you use window AC. You only power what you have.

[patsaunders]

No bro, you said you can't function a normal home for 50-60k.. wait correction.. you said you couldn't run a stove with 50-60k! Idk where you are but your prices are unrealistic or you are working for someone who believes is taking advantage of customers.

[j.t.]

You can get two inverter's and a large battery bank.

[MichaelSchmitz-re]

If you take A/C out of the equation AND start thinking D/C you will beat the Electric company.

[yash]

0:36 3T AC unit on average? what? we have 1 to 1.5T ACs

[rustinstardust]

The "off-grid community" you referenced mainly lives in rural areas and approaches things differently. A better title for this would have been: No One *Living In the City* Buys Solar Panels and Goes Off Grid.

[jacobsmith]

Off grid power system installer here.... Ive done off grid 300amp (commercial) services. Its doable, just expensive and not typical. A couple of resi jobs were vacation homes, or mansions that singers had never been to, so theyd insist on silly shit, like 4kw lighting loads, or electric heat.

But yeah, some of my installs/ jobsites run 100% solar, because they have dc fridges, and wood stoves. One that comes to mind, the generator hadnt ran in over a year, and needed some specialized maintainence because of that.

[rykerhasyounow]

It was your communication that failed. You can although still retrofit stacked inverters and you can absolutely run your AC off it. Existing wiring isn't designed for off grid. Maybe you should have led with that. 🤷

[paulofell]

I know a man who worked for nasa. His home in southern NM is off of solar. He makes so much power he sells it back to the power company. He runs his fridge he lives in luxury, he runs a full shop where he is constantly building some type of vehicle, plane or mechanical thing. His family of 5 had fridge, tvs, computers and all the luxuries. Just because you don't know how to do something doesn't mean it's not do able. I live in a city in the mountains of Arizona and two of my neighbors run their large house off of solar.

[Upliftyourbrothers]

Sol ark 15k has 200 amp internal pass through. One would work on many homes. Two would work on almost all homes. Stack of SOK 48v batteries and going off grid isn’t too hard.

[tmoanpumba]

This is why solar is shit.. Best off grid I seen was a guy who has a lake about 300 feet uphill from his house, the turbine he has runs a whole ranch and 5 guest cabins..

[PatrickKQHBD]

🎵 little boxes on the hillside.
Little boxes made of tiki-tacky.
Little boxes on the hillside.
Little boxes - all the same. 🎵
Malvina Reynolds would 100% agree with you.

[birdpump]

Pretty sure you don't need air conditioning at night, or you run it during the day to cool off the house, which will last until night.