When Off Grid Solar Get's Frustrating.

[00:00:00]Well, good morning, and welcome to the off-grid homestead, where I'm getting a little bit frustrated with this solar. Now, I said frustrated, I didn't say I don't like it, but I I thought I'd bring this one to you.

[00:00:17]And I'm going to label the video something like the downsides of solar.

[00:00:22]And and just bring to the table of the actual reality that we sometimes get with living 100% off-grid. Putting aside all those channels that want to bring you all the glory of off-grid power and power stations and so on. You know you know what I'm talking about. So, let let me explain.

[00:00:46]So, today is another I think we're going to get some sun. Of course, the the puppy dog The puppy dog wants me to throw the ball. All right, there you go.

[00:00:55]If you have a look at the the sky, that that's what we've got.

[00:00:59]So, we've We don't have very much sun today.

[00:01:04]So, I'm going to have to run the generator again because I've got to get this hot water service I've got to do something about, and we're going to look at that one.

[00:01:14]And when I Let's have a look at my batteries.

[00:01:18]Where we're at with the with the 48-V system. I'll spin you around. We'll have a look.

[00:01:23]So, the 48-V system uh there, we've got 5 kW worth of Sorry, 15 kW worth of batteries. Under there, and it's got 1 kW of solar on the roof.

[00:01:33]Um there are small videos on this system uh if you're wanting to know about it for those new to the channel. So, we'll have a look here. We are sitting at uh 50 50 Uh is this focusing? There we go. We're sitting at 53 nearly 54% state of charge.

[00:01:52]We've had about 2 weeks of just no sun.

[00:01:56]Maybe coming out of the sun pops out occasionally, but I've run the generator nearly nearly every day every day to every second day just to be able to get these batteries and keep them topped up. I'm on my second jerrycan worth of fuel and it starts getting expensive when we've got to run the generator all the time.

[00:02:18]And I've come out this morning, had a look at the state of charge of my batteries. We're down to 50% again, which means I need to run the generator again. And I'm sort of thinking this is starting to get annoying.

[00:02:33]So, what I'm what I'm doing video on it.

[00:02:37]Right, what is sucking the power out of my system? I'll show you.

[00:02:42]Now, I have covered this in previous videos, so this is a little recap for those uh that like watching the channel and for those that haven't seen the video.

[00:02:51]So, my hot water service for the bathroom uh in shower is this electric hot water service 50 50 L with a 2.4 element uh electric element on it which heats it up. Now, the power that powers that comes from the 48-V system in the workshop.

[00:03:11]And this is what's sucking a lot of my power out.

[00:03:15]I've covered it like I said on in videos before, but I think what I'm going to do I'm going to bite the bullet and this is definitely going to go. I'm going to put gas hot water in because putting the gas hot water in is going to make it a lot easier on excuse me on my system on day like on days like today and weeks like this week and last week and I don't have to run the generator nearly as much just to get hot water so I can have a lovely nice hot cozy shower.

[00:03:45]Yeah, I know what you're going to say or what some people are going to say cuz I've heard heard it before.

[00:03:52]I just put more solar panels up, but when you've got clouds like this, and especially when you got really thick clouds, you just don't get enough solar, and you could have 10 kW solar panels up, but if you got no sun, you're not really going to produce a lot of power. And I've got enough solar panels on the roof of the cabin, on the roof of the workshop, plus portable panels around. I don't want any more panels on the ground and and on the roof.

[00:04:23]That's it. I'm at my point where I I I'm at the maximum amount of panels that I want on my property, or it's just going to start looking messy and like a solar farm, and I don't want that. So, I need to make the system that I've got now work. Now, yes, I am going to upgrade some panels down the track to better panels, cuz the panels I've got are about I want 18 years old. So, I do need to do an upgrade, but that is on the back burner. I've got other things I need to spend my money on at the moment.

[00:04:54]But, what we're going to do, let's have a look to see what we're getting out of our 24 V system.

[00:04:59]See, now the sun's coming out.

[00:05:02]We're going to actually poke in a little bit of power. So, this is this is actually what happens. So, the sun does come out, and when it does come out and and it's about 9:30 in the morning. So, we got 400 W watts for So, we got around about 900 W coming in, which is really, really nice out of 3.2 kW for for the 24 V system. But, when the sun goes away, well, that's a different story.

[00:05:25]Oh, and I forgot to mention some exciting news. So, I have ordered a Victron MultiPlus II inverter charger, the 24 V 3 kVA inverter charger. So, at the moment, the 24 V system's been running off this 1,800 W Latronics inverter.

[00:05:44]Good, faithful old inverter. I've had this for around 18 years. Works a treat, but it's only 1,800 W and it doesn't have a battery charger in it as well. So, we're going to be getting the Victron.

[00:05:59]Hopefully, that should arrive late next week and I'll get that in and then I'll do a video in on it for you. So, we're going to be having the Victron inverter charger back in here and getting this system tweaked a little bit more efficient. So, a little bit of exciting I need a coffee. Little bit exciting news to add into the video.

[00:06:23]Uh so, another thing that's a frustration for me on my the downsides of having solar is this power station here. Trying to charge it up with solar on an overcast day is painful. So, I've got a 170 W solar panel on the roof of the cabin. I'm going to plug that in and this is what we get.

[00:06:51]It just won't turn on. It's a real pain in the backside to charge this from solar when we've got a a cloudy day. It just won't do it. So, I can't charge it from solar on a cloudy day, which is not a good feature. So, that's got to be charged with AC.

[00:07:11]But, we've got to have AC power to charge it with. Right, so the sun's dropped away a little bit. So, we're down to uh what are we down to? 360 W per string. So, we're running around about 700 W, which is which is not too bad.

[00:07:28]So, you can see the 24-V system is handling it actually quite nicely.

[00:07:34]But, the 24-V system is not hooked up to the electric hot water service. So, for the cabin without using the electric hot water service, the cabin power on the 24 V system is just nice.

[00:07:49]Sweet spot for the solar. This 3.2 kW, sorry.

[00:07:53]Yeah, 3.2 kW worth of solar on the roof of the cabin.

[00:07:57]And that is just nice. I don't have to worry too much about the solar for the cabin.

[00:08:04]But it's that hot water service that just eats all the power out of my 48 V system just trying to keep hot water so I can have a lovely nice hot shower. So, I am definitely going to be getting rid of that electric hot water and going over to gas because it's going to be cheaper in the long run and not having to buy petrol for the generator.

[00:08:31]Yeah, I have to buy LP gas, but the amount of LP gas I'll go through for the amount of fuel in the generator that I'm going through.

[00:08:39]Yeah, [sighs and gasps] well, I could maybe keep the electric for summer and gas for winter. That's an option as well. Technically illegal, but then everything in Australia is illegal nowadays. Yes, you can't have two uh hot water systems of different types feeding into the one that as far as I believe anyway. So, while we're at it, while we're at it with that little bit of information, some of my mates 24 uh my mates 300 W 12 V battery that I am trying to get sorted. I've had that on the charger now on this charger that has 400 W of solar on the roof. It has been on all week and it's almost charged. So, it's taken the entire week just to charge up a 300 Ah lithium battery.

[00:09:30]lithium 12 V battery. So, the weather's been sucked. The weather's been sucked.

[00:09:39]I didn't say it well.

[00:09:40]The weather sucks for solar over the last couple of weeks. Yeah, I know I'm rambling on here. I just wanted to bring it to you because I'm kind of kind of getting a bit sick of running this generator.

[00:09:51]But, I know you want a generator start video.

[00:09:54]So, let's do it.

[00:10:01]Let's start that one up.

[00:10:03]Let's see if it kicks over.

[00:10:05]Come on, baby.

[00:10:08]There we go. We are charging batteries now. Generator bogged down. There we go.

[00:10:14]Right, there you have it. I just wanted to throw this quick little video on because I'm getting frustrated with having to run this generator every day to heat my hot water service up. So, we're definitely going to be getting rid of that electric hot water service or doing something with LP gas for hot water. Let me know in the comments below for all you off-grid that are living off-grid, fully off-grid, not just partially off-grid.

[00:10:41]What type of hot water system are you using? Do you use LP gas when you're living fully off-grid? Let me know in the comments below.