Plugged A Solar Panel Into My Home For 7 Days | Here's What Happened

Had my 2kw solar/9kw battery system producing easily 80% of my needs 4 years now, the first year it produced 95% which was a bit of a struggle in winter but is still amazing for such a small system. Installed it myself so payback is already achieved. Since I did it, its even easier to do yourself with all in one boxes and is a no brainer for anywhere with decent sun.

Better off making a battery bank and use it for your water heater and refrigeration

@Everyday Solar To answer your question about the electrolytic capacitors: they should NOT run hot or even warm. That would be a sign that they are incorrectly rated for the application. Electrolytic capacitors tend to have a short life in cheap inverters and charge controllers but failure is usually obvious because the top of the capacitor will fracture and vent smoke OR the rubber plug in the bottom of the capacitor will be pushed out. Yours look OK. More likely that a fuse has melted or a semiconductor has blown. It's hard to tell from the video but it does appear that the semiconductor immediately above the toroidal coil (top right on the lower PCB) has exploded.

Love the structure for holding the panels

The most important tip is the installation of a Anti - Islanding circuit and a Manuel cut off to not energize the the lines while they are being repaired,for safty .

Another informative video, thank you for taking the time to do this experiment. I have 4 GTI installed and on my 1300 watt setup I am getting right around 1 Kw per day and using over 20, so my ROI is over 9 years but offsets and fun are PRICELESS!

this is an easy addon to an RV system without any wiring needed.

I did grid-tie for years, now I just bought more poly solar panels, and went fully off grid!

Emporia monitoring system is great, I've been using it since 2020 good accurate gadget

Put a set of aluminum fins on the back of the controller box. Use the computer paste for cpu. Put a sealed bag around that display.

You can open any water sensitive electronics like the power display and spray the board and connections with 4 coats of krylon acrylic clear spray to make them resistant. Not saying skip the box but it will help.

I have an old Y&H/ecoworthy inverter (I think they're part of the same company). What I found is that you cant run them a full wattage/full amperage. You need to halve that or it fails. They're coy with the specs on what tolerances their components have. I suspect the top wattages are the company being a little loose with the truth. Some of the ones I looked at inside had some quality control issues where connections had been reversed on the mp4 connectors. I'd strongly suggest checking your polarity on the unit (even the panels).

Well if you are going to open it up and do the things, if you have a 12V source, install a chassis fan for cooling, you can also get heatsinks that you can stick onto the back side of the unit. They use a layer of sticky that is also a thermal conducting layer. Probably could do the same thing inside the unit, with some of those small heatsinks that you can attach to PI processors. Do that while pushing air through the unit, I'll bet you stop getting the overheating errors.

Contraptions like these--especially ones that need to integrate with other systems--really make me appreciate standards and certifications.

I'd always prefer to have a solar backup to mains so I'd prefer batteries. Here in the UK feed-in payments have gone down, they were 100% at first but now it's about 5%. Most times I want backup power, it's already dark so a charged battery is more use than a dark solar panel.

If you want to add solar power without a grid connection, you need batteries, which are enormously expensive. But you could use a heat battery: Heat a tank full of water or sand directly with your solar electricity, and draw that heat to warm your house or water as needed when the sun is not shining.

I use compressed air to run generators instead of DIRECTLY sourcing solar for power, but what I do to get around all the rules is, I have "emergency" outlets in my house - not grid tied, so no problems with Code or power company rules. Also, I use cheap ($35) solar panels to run small compressors whenever there's sunshine, so my 2,000 gallons of compressed air is free.

The inverter type you are using is know for having over heating problems. I suggest the indoor type that is fan cooled or the larger more expensive type that is made to handle an entire system of panels.

Get a few Enphase microinverters! (If you must go 120v an autotransformer is all you need)

As an experiment, can you turn your breakers off so the home is not drawing power and show a video of your meter while it is backfeeding. Let’s see if it goes backwards, forwards or stay stationary. I hear lots of opinions, but I have never seen this experiment. thank you.