*Old Design Issues* - Limited to 600 watts, excess power goes to the grid without compensation. - No energy storage system (ESS) to store excess solar power. *New Design Improvements* - Installed solar panels on the roof for better efficiency. - Added energy meters to monitor power flow. - Created a 48V battery pack using four 12V LiFePO4 batteries. - Used Victron MultiPlus II for energy storage and management. - Configured the system to use the battery pack as a 600W power source. *Performance Metrics* - Reduced grid power consumption to around 50 watts. - Battery pack charges with excess solar power. *Future Improvements* - Need more solar panels for better utilization of the battery pack. - Approval from local grid provider is required. *Positive Points (Sorted by Importance)* 1. *Modularity:* The system is easily extendable and customizable. 2. *Energy Storage:* The new design includes a battery pack to store excess solar power. 3. *Monitoring:* Added energy meters for real-time monitoring of power flow. 4. *Safety Measures:* Included circuit breakers and surge protection devices. 5. *Software Configuration:* Allows fine-tuning of power usage and storage. *Negative Points (Sorted by Importance)* 1. *Cost-Effectiveness:* The system is not yet cost-effective due to underutilization of the battery pack. 2. *Complexity:* The system requires a good understanding of electrical systems and may not be suitable for complete beginners. 3. *Approval Required:* The system needs approval from the local grid provider. 4. *Installation Challenges:* Difficulty in installing solar panels on the roof.

The easiest way to actually get your solar panels on the roof, is to simply slide them on your ladder (with shorter side resting on your biceps as you climb up) and another person already up on the roof will grab the opossite side, you won't damage them that way and it is pretty safe. Personally, I've gotten thousands of PV modules on the roofs that way.

Everybody wants to have a house like Scott with all the latest tech installed.

Here in the Netherlands we have a thing called "saldering", where anything that you push back to the grid will be deducted from your monthly bill, but that's going to be abolished in the next few years, so I was looking into a system like this as well, and you did exactly what I was planning to do, so thanks for saving me some time figuring everything out!

All those breakers and shunts and zigby adapters and yadda yadda is really going to add up. cost wise. I did 20kw of solar for around $12k US, $15k if you count mistakes made along the way, and some unfortunate equipment failures. I have two small "microgrid" systems like in the video, and about 10kw worth of micro and string inverters that backfeeds the grid. I did it all myself and then had it inspected. I am lucky in several ways, I had land available to mount most panels on the ground. I also have one grid connection that goes to four households, so I have an absolutely huge base load compared to my usage. I send about 8-10% power back to the grid, the rest gets used up or stored in batteries. If I were in a high cost of electricity, it would pay for itself much faster, but 2 years in and it'll be paid off in ~3 more years. One drawback is it was kind of a hobby, I started with the microinverters... I added a 5kw string inverter, then two hybrid inverters and batteries. But now everything just works, and it isn't much of a hobby. Adding on to what I currently have will have drastically reduced ROI, as whatever I add will largely go back to the grid and they only pay 1/3 of what they charge me. I need to improve the temperatures that my hybrid inverters see.... everything is outdoors but dry. They experienced temperatures this summer that this area has never seen before. Not sure how to best go about this.

I'm jealous of your electrical panel. Here in the US ours are so last century.

Very nice installation! A 45° tile roof is very tough for panel installation. (Former rooftop installer)

Cool. Would be interesting to have an overview about the costs.

I really like your videos. I a electrician in the US and I love seeing how you guys do your electrical systems for your house and solar system

I'm so envious of how modular your distribution box is. Here in North America, industrial electrical systems tend to use more of the DIN rail mounted stuff, whereas at home we typically have a large, steel panel with rigid buses and a fixed number of slots for circuit breakers to plug into the buses. After adding new circuits, I'm running out of space, which means I can either install a larger panel with more slots, or add a second panel fed off of the first one. I don't know if our electrical code allows us to install DIN rail breakers, but it's a more practical setup in my opinion.

Note that some electric companies in Europe strictly prohibit customers feeding any power into the grid without a permit from them. You can get fined and have your power disconnected for unauthorized backfeeding. So be careful and read your local laws and the contract!

0:49 just wanted to say that in such systems you MUST have a way to make sure you are not sending power back to the grid, (unless requested) NOT because you don't get money, because if there is a downed line, it could be assumed dead if its not.

A lot of places in the US require that the electric company credit you for generated electricity. Also I think there is more electric magic that requires certification before it can be used.

Nice to see some real safety gear for the roof.

Just wanna let you know you are big inspiration to young technicians such as me

Good video, just from a safety side, you should probably have DC isolators coming from the batteries, something like the blue sea bs6006 is pretty good, also an AC disconnect nearby to the inverter would also be good, a simple MCB can facilitate this if you want to go simple

also a friendly warning to read the manual and to make sure your batteries support series connections, some BMS systems will immediately fry itself if you make a mistake

If you install the right assistant,you can run the PV inverter on the output and use it off grid too. There is documentation for "AC coupling" an inverter on the victron site

I love that this channel has content for everybody.

My previous job was installing PV systems nearly 20 years ago. As I can see your roof is the "areated type" so, probably you have some roof tiles that have a little "bulk" with a net to have airflow under the tiles. We used them as cable passages so you don't have to modify tiles. And we always have blocked the tiles underneath the panels with some PE foam to prevent them from moving (once the panels are installed is quite difficult to reposition the tiles). Hope this helps.

Nobody has to approve anything, if you go off-grid.

In the UK at least (of course your mileage will vary) you mustn't put mains voltage in the same conduit as low (data) voltage. I was also slightly concerned about your comment of just plugging solar into your mains, it's critically important to have an automatic isolator, so that if the mains fails, you are not supplying the grid with power and potentially endangering someone working on power lines they think are powered down.

Great to see your new adventures in the Solar world :) It would be interesting to have more details on the Victron ESS configuration with micro-inverters. I did not go this way, I built a 'Custom ESS' using a Hoymiles micro-inverter connected to a battery, a battery charger, and a Raspberry for the brain of the system.

Awesome work! Really cool that your power utility allows all this!

Next up Scott is gonna push a mini nuclear bomb to its limit

Very impressive setup! However, I noticed you don't appear to be using a battery management system (BMS) for the four LiFePO4 batteries. Are you not worried they might become unbalanced over time, leading to one or more of them getting overcharged / overdischarged? Edit: I see they are self managed, since each contains 3 or 4 such batteries wired in series, so that should protect them, however they can still get unbalanced, which means the battery will just disconnect in such scenarios :/

Would be good to have a follow-up video with a deep dive into the configuration you have used to do the power management, including the mod bus setup.

Impressive electrical panel that wouldn't feel out of place in a small factory 😀 The project is not a balcony project anymore... The beauty of staying under 800W is that no permission from the grid operator is required and its simplicity. Victron products are high quality and well designed, but not cheap. You should make a follow up video to find out what is payback time with 10kWp PV system and bigger ESS :)

Hi, thanks for this overview of your upcoming solar system! No complaint meant, but I can't resist to ask: "What limit did this push...?" From the title, I would have expected something about how to get a maximum of energy while still abiding to the legal limits. Btw, it's announced that the limit will be raised to 800W output from the inverter next year. When building a system now, one could already have this target in mind. And since the solar modules seem to be some of your less costly devices, some overpaneling would be expected. Tilting modules could use more of the daylight than fixed ones, of course that would be quite complex, mechanically, and if this is too much hassle, one might consider to let them face into different directions to have a more even energy production during the day. Which, of course, only makes sense, as a way of maximizing immediate usage of the engergy, to reduce battery costs... I also had the impression, that you have bifacial modules. So mounting them in a way that allows significant light to hit the backsides would be another option. Maybe even reflectors... Of course you will be aware of all of this (and other things) much more than I am. Looking forward to the coming upgrades and follow-ups...

Your Distribution panel is the biggest one I’ve ever seen for a normal home that’s crazy

Excellent! I'm about to launch into this in my apartment in Barcelona. I do have to say that in the US, it's against electrical code to run data cables in the same conduit/tray as high power DC or AC. You might want to get a smaller cable tray to run the data cables only.

Your attic and utility room seem like the cleanest ones Ive ever seen. :)

Sunsink hybrid inverter combines all you have their in one unit. It has a ct clamp you put around the mains that measures and assures you not feeding back to the grid. It has a mppt input, but also a aux input to wire the micro inverter into it. That combined with one or two 50 volt batteries is very popular here in south Africa where we have daily grid interruptions.

The hardest part of this tutorial is owning a house.

Hello, I worked in the ventilation installation, with aluminum ducts, all our supports were either insulated from the ducts or made of aluminum to prevent electrolysis from eating away the aluminum. (according to my boss at the time)

I guarantee that if I did a DIY install like this on my place the comments section would be filled with so many "That's illegal!" and other regulatory compliance comments that you wouldn't be able to see anything else.

In Ukraine we have "green tariff", it's what you call "Feed-in tariff", the electric grid company actually pays you for the electricity you give back to the grid from your renewable sources like solar panel.

I built a 900W setup for $500 with used panels, lead batteries and a UPS for the inverter. It's not nearly as elegant but it produces 2.5-4kwh a day independent of the grid

Your attic and electrical panel are so neat and tidy 👍

This video helped clear up somethings and give some deep insight about House solar power generator, always happy with how detailed your videos are!! Would be awesome to have such a detailed tutorial for usage of bench power supplies as I am going to buy one and would like how to use it like a pro!! Thank you for the good quality and keep up the great work!!

If you don't mind the suggestion to offset the small panels for the batteries you could wire a separate charger for the batteries that charges them on your valley electrical rate (normally around 11pm-12am to 4am-5am) so you start the day with mostly topped of batteries into your solar day, where you use the power you need and keep the batteries topped off, so you can use them at peak rate (normally 5pm-6pm to 10-11pm). This is still not optimal power wise as you will end with 100% charged batteries many days, which you could tune. but it will minimize electrical bill as it reduces the most expensive tier consumption to almost 0 (and at a time the panels are almost useless)

What keeps power from entering the grid from your panels in case of a grid outage? That is a major problem we have to deal with here with solar on homes.

You did an excellent job, Scott. Hope you manage to expand it soon, you may not need grid power. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you i just needed to watch this especially that part of a shunt resistor from the battery pack

Wow! amazing how much do you think it takes for the current setup to be financially cost effective or at least cover its own costs? and how much do you estimate the total cost of such a system?

Nice setup! Good for you! Surprised though you didn't choose to make the solar panel follow the sun since that would be way more efficient than to mount them on the roof... I know you've made a video about it few years ago. And I think is better to put panels horizontally on the ground than on a 45º incllined roof.

I'm also hoping to start a solar project this year, thanks for the info

I have a similar Victron ESS system installed. The setting you have to limit is the feed-in power to 600w (it's on the ESS menú). No need to limit the inverter power. This way during blackouts, your multiplus will do it's rating... You only need to limit the inverter to the max current your battery bank can provide.

There is a big concern with the old design, the "leaking" energy that goes into the grid can be dangerous for the technicians working on the grid because they can disconnect the power input but they don't know that you are sending electricity and so they could be electrocuted so be careful guys

Scott please don't put the batteries on the floor. For now atleast put them on a piece of wood. And later put them into a fireproof box.

Nice work! I have taught about buying some batteries for building something like a power station. One nice feature would indeed be to have the possibility to use solar panels to charge them, so this gave some inspiration

In the Netherlands we have smart meters, those contain a so-called P1 port which spits out the energy consumption every second. Unfortunately our meter has that port hidden behind a panel with a seal on it (business installation), opening up that port means a tech from the metering company has to show up. Since we also do not yet have a battery storage we keep it this way. During day time the whole company runs on 100% solar power, delivering some energy back into the grid for just 7 cents per kWh. As soon as we get a battery system and/or EV charging solutions, we have to look into getting our P1 metering readout to work. Adding an extra metering solution will be a bit tricky with a 400V, 100A installation.

Hey Scott, we run a complete Victron system off grid on our yacht. 3kW of solar and the Quattro inverter chargers as well as other things. Because you’re using Lithium. Each battery should be independently fused. Normally you’d fuse the run to a battery bus bar. We also use a battery protect from Victron to make sure they don’t over discharge. It’ll cut providing output if they get too low, (2.8 volts per cell) - so they don’t get damaged.

Just a little Note here in Canada and I think in the USA too if you dont have a Propper Hydro Meter, the power you put in does NOT reverse the Meter it will charge you for giving them free power ... it see the power flow and add it as power used.. the meter replacement cost $2700.00 from the Hydro company.

Brilliant work, dude! Really well done!!! 😃 I just installed solar panels at home this week! 10 550w panels and inverter. (Well, I didn't, the company I hired did it. 😬) No batteries, the energy goes to the grid, but the electricity company installed a 2 way measuring... thingy... I don't know the name in English. 😬 So, the little clock runs both ways and it generates credits that we can use up to 50 months after. You know? I think about putting another 5 panels and batteries... But it was a heck of expensive already, so I'm going to have to wait. 😂 Anyway, stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊

I've just finished a project to install a 48/5000/70 multiplus-ii in my garage along with 12KWh of storage (16x230AH LiFePO4 cells) - I don't have solar, but I can now buy energy when it's cheap and use it when it's expensive. I'm going to add another track of cells to my project and then add solar/wind on the DC side

Your "Super Powers are Formidable!" As only a "mere mortal", I find your passion, skill and knowledge astounding!

Brilliant. Videos like this are well worth viewing.

Dude, sponsored by Victron? That's so awesome! They have the nicest power systems.

Nice job! The only direct tie (to the grid) inverters I've seen will not produce power unless the grid is actively working, does the direct tie inverter you use work with and without the grid being live?

Very cool idea, I was not aware such battery solutions exists. If I understood it correctly you could have make the battery and it's inverter connect to the house's main via a normal AC plug, just like with the balcony power generator, since it's essentially doing the same, just with a different kind of power source. Too bad these self-installable balcony solar generators are not allowed in Hungary. (actually all additional solar request are on hold indefinitely, because the grid is in such a bad state that it can't accept more..)

This is a really good video which has made me think more about what provision I could do/get for my home. Thank you ☺

This is a great overview of the complexities involved in combining solar and grid power. Backfeeding is not only a waste of your your energy, but is illegal in many (most?) places without the proper equipment and the cost to buy and install such equipment can be more than the cost of a small solar setup. The system we see in this video is not inexpensive and it will take many years to recoup such an investment. Backfeeding is *dangerous* as it could power the grid during an outage or when technicians are otherwise working on the line. DO NOT backfeed into your own electric system without disconnecting your main breaker or installing an approved disconnect system. I have used an ad hoc system with a gasoline generator during multi-week power outages, *but* I always turn off the main breaker and feed a garage sub-panel through dedicated breakers with all 220V (U.S.) equipment breakers switched off. Electrician experience or advice is helpful and you must make sure that no one in your household will ever turn on the main breaker before uninstalling all power sources. I suggest starting with a solar system that's separated from grid power entirely to avoid these issues until you decide to, or can afford to, properly integrate the solar. Such a setup can consist of just a couple of solar panels and a portable power station, which is much less cost than the full setup shown in this video. Many people will be perfectly happy with a "workshop" system that runs lights and small equipment separately from the house wiring, but which can be used in emergencies to run a refrigerator or gas/oil furnace from extension cords. Yes, you sacrifice the daily solar contribution to your house power, but you can power your lab, workshop, or garage while learning what to expect from a larger, more expensive system. PV systems are easily expandable and advancing technologies make it smart to start small and expand over time as cost efficiencies continue to improve with solar panels, batteries, and equipment.

I looked into doing something similar, although at a slightly smaller scale, and here in Australia you can have a maximum of 500W without having to get the system inspected by a certified inspector (and pay them for it, of course). And that's without the grid tie-in. It has to be completely stand-alone, and if you want to connect any system to the grid, irrespective of its size, it needs to be inspected and certified to meet all electrical and safety standards. Personally, I did the cakeulations and I could run my network gear off a 500W system with a modest battery. However my NAS would use too much energy, which cause the battery to run out overnight sometimes, so it would have to be run off mains (with an IUPS, of course). But the cost of the system probably isn't worth it because it only saved me a little money from my electricity bill. Although that was years ago, before energy prices started skyrocketing, so perhaps that equation has changed now.

Nice idea! I am also using a multiplus and smart shunt in my camper van. If some of you guys are into DIY, the Victron Venus OS, running on the cerbo is available to run on a Pi3/4. (By Victron) So I could save some € and still have nearly the same functionality compared to 60€ versus 250€. You also need some adapters to connnect the Victron Bus. works for me for 2 years now.

Nice setup. But if back feeding is a problem, why not go with MPPT's on the DC bus of the Victron set? Right now if something happens with the Victron set (or the breaker get tripped) you will still feed back to the grid. Alternative, connect the inverters to the output of the multiplus. Also this way solar will still work in case of a blackout.

I did the same at my mom's house in Portugal. I used mainly Renogy material (way cheaper than Victron but more limited) and 1.4kw of solar. 10 months of the year she's completely off-grid and there's a plugin hybrid car charged as well. Where i live (nw of France) it doesn't make financial sense as my main power consumption is during winter. I wanna give wind power a try but wind generators are still quite expensive.

Been to Europe really like the clay tile roofs. In Canada majority of roofs are asphalt tiles, lucky to get 15 years out of them, one big con game. When I built my house installed a steal roof 30 years ago, it will out last me. When I installed my solar panels it was easy to attach the the tall ribs, never a leak.

this is awesome! I wish I could have a system like this!

I have to correct one major point of this video though: Balkonkraftwerke are eligible for the EEG-Compensation. This is due to the fact, that the eeg was reworked for 2023 with the implementation of the "EnSig 3.0", which deleted a very important passage in the eeg, the one where you have to be able to limit the power of the AC Inverter to 70% of the Solar panels max Wattage. Per the old EEG, if your AC Inverter didnt support this feature, your Photovoltaic-System was sanctioned and you couldnt get any compensation for the Power you fed back into the grid - and none of the 600W-Inverters supported this feature. Now though, since every PV--System up to 25 kWp can just pump out 100% energy, there is no justifiable cause to sanction the Balkonkraftwerke anymore and your small system would be eligible for the full Einspeisevergütung.

👍 @7:22, admiring toroidal core current transformer. 🤓

Wouldn't it be better to put your ESS between the solar panels and the inverter? Right now, if I understand correctly, you convert the DC power generated by the solar panels to AC via the inverter. Then you convert any excess generated power back to DC to charge the ESS. And then, when the panels don't generate enough energy you convert energy stored in the ESS to AC again.

Happy to see all my customers' brands in this video

When I saw the grinder...thirst thing that popped into my head...use corldess tools with a soler setup, same voltages less waste energy. A fast charger that can charge 2 or more batteries at a time can be powered by a small dc to ac inverter. At a time on big site I kept 2 impact drills, 2 cordless drills and one impact drills batteries charged during the day by keeping the car on, and a small soler panels on the cars roof.

Props to you for getting on the roof. That is when I call someone.

Strongly recommend putting the micro inverters actually in the attic/roof space saves so much time when your micro inverter fails ,as you can unplug them inside the house without having to take the solar panels off first

Hi GreatScotts, awesome video btw, love the new lab. However, in this system when you're connecting multiple 12V LiFePO4 batteries in series, don't you think a battery management system (BMS) is needed?

ESS is a nice trick. Given the size of the Multiplus 2, the logical upgrade is to put (at least) one large PV Array with a Victron MPPT Battery Controller directly charging the battery. Of course, the next ugprade is to put a slightly bigger battery 😁

You probably could find a Leiteraufzug rent service to get panels up there, though a bit expensive if there's only two panels, but definitely something to take into account when DYIng a solar panel

Kind of outside of the scope of the video, but those roof tiles look really nice!

there are some nice Automatic Transfer Switches for your 120AC for when your battery goes below certain voltage in the 10ms range instead of doing the Victron Route as well.

That's a pretty neat looking storage setup you have on your wall! I wonder, is it anything specific or just generic stuff you added your own touches to.

What software is the wiring diagram created with? Looks really clean

Looks like your Powers array is holding up alright. I reached out to Signature to get a quote on one, but looks like they no longer sell them. Thanks for the video!

2015 Victron was Only company to offer LFP battery system but were always sold out - I purchased Victron solar controllers and built my own battery - Victron makes quality gear

Man I am not a technician by any means but I still love watching all your videos for some reason 😄

Sir u can also Ground racking for mounting modules in your backyard , give a tilt of 20 to 22 degrees towards South around 180Azimuth for best generation

Great Video! Thanks for always giving us awesome content! What software did you use for the diagram 07:59 ?

I enjoy watching your work, Scott.

Beautiful drawings and penmanship! So easy to understand the way you drew it all out and labeled so clearly!

There used to be a term 'guerrilla solar' for unlicensed solar installs... To be honest if you are looking for ths simplest solution, take your 600w of solar+batteries and use this to power your fridge freezer. Add a relay so that it connects fridge back to mains power when battery is empty.... You won't be paid for power, but fridge/freezer is likely the largest electrical load (appart from heat/water heat) and will easily consume all that 600w panel can produce. Side benefit is that you are better protected for grid outage.

I built the same out of a $30 inverter, a $40 charger, two 30ah batteries $200 each and a $8 esp8266 4-relay board. Power measurements by $110 shelly EM3. All comms over WiFi. Seems to work. It is on/off, generating 130W or charging at up to 150W. No continuous adjustment. Now i want to use openweathermap to estimate next day sunshine hours and set the battery charge state accordingly. If no sun next day charge with every PV excess available. If sun tomorrow discharge batteiers over night.

Here in South Africa, it makes 100% sense to install solar panels, our electricity prices keep going up and there are frequent power outages.

Super Video! Richtig gut erklärt. Ungefähr sowas habe ich vor kurzem auch aufs Dach gebaut. Tolles Gefühl alles selbst gemacht zu haben. Habe übrigens mit den Dachpfannen den gleichen Fehler gemacht :-) Mir ist nur eins aufgefallen: Brauchen deine Batterien kein BMS? Ich würde sagen schon! So wie die verbaut waren ist es möglich dass die einzelnen Batterien auseinanderdriften und eine davon durch das Ladegerät dann überläd und bei LiFePo4 dies schnell zu einen Ausfall der Batterie führt. Das Fenster ist da ziemlich klein, auch aus eigener Erfahrung. Immer eine Freunde dir bei deinen Projekten zuzugucken. Ich habe viel für mich daraus lernen können und freue mich immer wenn eines neues online ist. Also weiter so!!!!! Grüße aus Köln

Over here, the meter counts backwards. You won't get money for it, but since you pay on a monthly base, you can use up the power at night (AC or heater), what you have not used and pushed into the net during the day time.

Ich finde es sehr amüsant zu sehen, dass du, trotz deiner ganzen Erfahrung, genauso wie ich soviel Abstand zum Schrank beim einschalten nimmst 😂

could add some wind funnels to cool the backside of the panels, helps power production, funnel should stick out above the roof and catch from any direction ?

Your garage is nicer than most US homes!

Awesome project. Well done

Maybe you could build a simple slide or two rails out of scrap wood to pull the panels up the roof? Vielleicht geht es auch mit einer langen Aluleiter, für die Du Dir eine art Schlitten baust, der nicht nach links und rechts abrutschen kann. Dann die Panels am Schlitten befestigen und an einem Seil nach oben ziehen!